Can't create folder

**empro** · 05-03-2005, 08:08 PM

help ! i just downloaded mplayer and installed it fine..... but when i tried to create a dir for the codecs, they told me that i do not have permission to write

**Markus** · 05-03-2005, 08:57 PM

How did you install mplayer?
What codecs? Does "apt-get install w32codecs" help?
Are you root when creating the dir?
Where are you creating it?
Oh, and this is a hd install, right?

**empro** · 05-03-2005, 09:19 PM

yes it is a hdd install..... i installed mplayer by downloading the file, then unziped it and ./configure, make, make install.... for the codecs, they asked me to extract the files to " Put the files contained in this archive in a directory where MPlayer will find them. The default directory is /usr/local/lib/codecs/ " so i opened right clicked the file, then tried to extract the file to that location..... then it says no such folder or something and ask me if i wanted to create.... but i cant create it...... i dont know if i am in root when i am creating it or not

**Joe Soap** · 05-03-2005, 09:25 PM

i dont know if i am in root when i am creating it or not

Type

Code:

whoami

in the command line and enter. The response will be root if you're logged in as root or your username if you're not logged in as root, eg:

Code:

saltheart@andelain:~$ whoami
saltheart

**empro** · 05-03-2005, 10:46 PM

yeah it shows ' root '......

**fingers99** · 05-03-2005, 11:04 PM

If you'll pardon me for saying so, building mplayer from source is a really daft idea.

Just add

#multimedia
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main

to your sources.list (just like that, copy n'paste it)

(as root)

vim /etc/apt/sources.list

save it, run (as root)

apt-get update

then:

apt-get install mplayer (it'll ask for your system -- or which version of mplayer you want)

then

apt-get install w32codecs

and that's it.

**empro** · 05-04-2005, 01:14 AM

hmm..... after i paste it in sources.list, i cant save the file...... it shows

" The document could not be saved, as it was not possible to write to file:/etc/apt/sources.list.
Check that you have write access to this file or that enough disk space is available. "

**fingers99** · 05-04-2005, 06:43 PM

If this is a HD install, either you're not editing /etc/apt/sources.list as root or you've not got enough disk space.

But from that error message, I'm unsure of the editor you're using: doesn't sound like vim or gvim......

**Markus** · 05-04-2005, 06:45 PM

Like fingers99 said, you have to be root to edit sources.list and use apt-get.

The file should be writable for owner (root):
markus@mrk-fujibox:~$ ll /etc/apt/sources.list
-rw-r----- 1 root root 4688 May 2 12:33 /etc/apt/sources.list

And why not also check hd space with: df -h