Behaviour of Nautilus, in Gnome, Ubuntu Gnome, Fedora Gnome, Ubuntu Live CD Gnome. File permissions and copying.

["carlton lee" <carlleigh gmail com>]

Someone makes a complaint about how hard the GUI is to use in Linux. A
seasoned unreasonable Linux Guru might say well the CLI short cut is.
Konsole and then XXXXXX. That just not a good answer. One of the
biggest GUI problems is Nautilus, Konqueror, etc. Not having a
convenient way of preserving file permissions when folders and files
are copied and when they are copied recursively. This problem is true
for normal users and also for root.

There may be a security issue here. But if the solution is to drop
into a terminal and sudo su or su then the security issue has been
lost anyway. Is there another issue?

A simple solution would be to under the Copy... include Copy Preserve
Permissions... The GUI Nautilus then could do what the CLI cp command
can do.

I'll give you and example of when this is real bad.

How to I move my home directory into a new hard drive in Linux using
the GUI. Not easy. It should be. With Gnome in Ubuntu you really need
to Add/Remove Add GParted maybe it should be a normal part of the
install. Then you need to allow login as root. Not straight forward.
Then you need to go to CLI to set password to root. Two CLI commands.
(Trying to avoid the CLI remember.) Then the worst part is you have to
copy home and edit fstab. Nautilus falls completely flat. Best
solution is to install Gnome Commander or Midnight Commander.

I want to use the Live Ubuntu CD for the only thing I like it for.
Managing a computer. Again need to allow login to Gnome as root. Not
straight forward. No password problem a little better. Gparted. Hm!
How to get what should so obviously be part of the CD. Nautilus yuk.
Gnome Commander or Midnight Commander not on CD.

If Nautilus is going to be the default file manager on Fedora Gnome,
Ubuntu Gnome, Live CD Gnome then it should have the ability to do file
and folder recursive copies and maintain original permissions.

Thanks,

Carlton Lee

Can anyone give me a good work around with Nautilus. Is this something
that should be solved at the distribution level. Default file manager
on Gnome Ubuntu Gnome Commander?