Cannot open Home Directory

Hello all,

I can’t open my home directory with nautilus (or any other program for that matter). I can open folders above and below, such as /home/ and /home/me/Desktop, but whenever I try to open /home/me/, nautilus puts up the loading icon and never manages to open the folder.

I do not know if this is related, but after some experimentation, I noticed I could still access any file within the home directory, except for .gvfs . If I try to open it, or use another program to check or change its read/write permissions, they freeze.

Does anybody know what is going on and how to fix this problem?

What happens when you open a terminal in your home directory?

cd /home/me

AFAIK ‘.gvfs’ is the Gnome Virtual File System.

And, when in the terminal, copy and paste output of:

ls -ld /home/me

Can you open a terminal as root & do cd /home and then ls -l
You should get something like this

dylan:/ # cd /home
dylan:/home # ls -l
total xx
drwx------  2 root  root  16384 Oct 22 00:49 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 74 sadiq users  4096 Nov 15 20:43 sadiq
drwxr-xr-x  1 root  users  4096 Nov  8 10:45 video
drwxr-xr-x  1 root  users  4096 Nov 10 10:43 video250

Look at the permissions & user/group entries. My home directory is /home/sadiq

Yes, I can cd to the folder in the terminal just fine.

As to the ls -l thing, here is the output:


me@linux-bwmb:~> su
Password: 
linux-bwmb:/home/me # ls -l
ls: cannot access .gvfs: Permission denied
total 516
drwx------  3 me users   4096 2009-09-20 20:18 .adobe
drwxr-xr-x  9 me users   4096 2009-05-14 01:15 apache-tomcat-6.0.20
-rw-------  1 me users    118 2009-09-21 17:43 .asadminpass
-rw-------  1 me users    815 2009-09-21 17:43 .asadmintruststore
-rw-------  1 me users   4232 2009-11-15 14:56 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 me users   1177 2009-11-14 13:06 .bashrc
-rw-r--r--  1 me users   1263 2009-11-11 13:15 .bashrc~
drwx------  7 me users   4096 2009-11-15 14:53 .beagle
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:43 bin
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-11-14 14:09 .cache
drwxr-xr-x  9 me users   4096 2009-11-10 19:47 .config
drwx------  3 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:44 .dbus
drwxr-xr-x  3 me users   4096 2009-11-14 13:42 Desktop
drwxrwxrwx  4 me users   4096 2009-09-27 21:35 Digipen
drwxr-xr-x  6 me users   4096 2009-09-29 20:46 Documents
-rw-r--r--  1 me users   1637 2009-09-20 19:43 .emacs
-rw-------  1 me users     16 2009-09-20 19:44 .esd_auth
drwxr-xr-x  8 me users   4096 2009-10-12 20:29 .evolution
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-11-10 20:08 .fontconfig
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:43 .fonts
drwxrwxrwx  9 me users   4096 2009-09-20 22:01 Games
drwx------  2 me users   4096 2009-11-11 11:49 .gcjwebplugin
drwx------  4 me users   4096 2009-11-15 14:52 .gconf
drwx------  2 me users   4096 2009-11-15 15:28 .gconfd
drwx------  4 me users   4096 2009-10-21 23:23 .gegl-0.0
drwxr-xr-x 22 me users   4096 2009-11-05 22:43 .gimp-2.6
drwx------ 10 me users   4096 2009-11-15 12:23 .gnome2
drwx------  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:44 .gnome2_private
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-11-10 20:21 .gstreamer-0.10
d?????????  ? ?    ?          ?                ? .gvfs
drwxr-----  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:44 .hplip
-rw-------  1 me users  19376 2009-11-15 14:52 .ICEauthority
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:46 .icons
drwxrwxrwx  6 me users   4096 2009-09-20 22:02 Illuvanet
-rw-r--r--  1 me users    861 2009-09-20 19:43 .inputrc
drwx------  5 me users   4096 2009-11-03 18:17 .jagex_cache_32
-rw-------  1 me users     63 2009-11-01 11:19 jagex_runescape_preferences2.dat
drwxr-xr-x  4 me users   4096 2009-11-11 18:39 .java
drwxr-xr-x  3 me users   4096 2009-11-11 15:05 .javafx
-rw-r--r--  1 me users      0 2009-09-21 17:38 .javafx_eula_accepted
-rw-r--r--  1 me users     22 2009-11-11 15:11 .javafx_ping_sent
drwxr-xr-x 10 me users   4096 2009-11-11 18:14 jdk1.6.0_16
drwxrwxrwx  5 me users   4096 2009-09-20 22:03 JP
drwxrwxrwx  6 me users   4096 2009-11-09 00:08 Literature
drwx------  3 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:44 .local
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-09-22 15:58 .m2
drwx------  3 me users   4096 2009-09-20 20:18 .macromedia
drwxr-xr-x  5 me users   4096 2009-11-11 18:36 .mozilla
drwxrwxrwx  6 me users   4096 2009-09-20 22:03 Music
drwxr-xr-x  3 me users   4096 2009-11-14 14:11 .nautilus
drwxr-xr-x  7 me users   4096 2009-09-21 17:46 .nbi
drwxr-xr-x  3 me users   4096 2009-09-21 17:52 .netbeans
drwxr-xr-x 23 me users   4096 2009-09-21 17:41 netbeans-6.7.1
drwxr-xr-x  3 me users   4096 2009-09-22 17:18 .netbeans-derby
drwxr-xr-x  6 me users   4096 2009-11-10 21:18 NetBeansProjects
drwxr-xr-x  3 me users   4096 2009-09-21 17:44 .netbeans-registration
drwx------  3 me users   4096 2009-09-27 16:36 .netx
-rw-------  1 me users     54 2009-09-20 22:57 .netxrc
drwx------  3 me users   4096 2009-11-15 15:05 .ooo3
drwxrwxrwx 18 me users   4096 2009-09-20 22:04 Pictures
-rw-r--r--  1 me users   1028 2009-09-20 19:43 .profile
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:43 public_html
drwx------  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:44 .pulse
-rw-------  1 me users    256 2009-09-20 19:44 .pulse-cookie
-rw-rw-rw-  1 me users   1553 2009-11-15 12:12 PW.txt
-rw-rw-rw-  1 me users   1546 2009-11-15 12:11 PW.txt~
-rw-------  1 me users  10120 2009-11-15 15:05 .recently-used
-rw-------  1 me users 133925 2009-11-15 15:27 .recently-used.xbel
drwxr-xr-x  7 me users   4096 2009-09-21 17:44 sges-v3-prelude
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:44 .skel
drwxr-xr-x  4 me users   4096 2009-10-25 00:10 SkitCom
drwxrwxrwx  9 me users   4096 2009-09-20 22:05 Solar_Project
drwxr-xr-x 12 me users   4096 2009-09-21 17:46 SUNWappserver
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:46 .themes
drwx------  3 me users   4096 2009-11-15 14:53 .thumbnails
drwxr-xr-x  4 me users   4096 2009-09-20 19:44 .tomboy
-rw-r--r--  1 me users   4683 2009-11-15 14:53 .tomboy.log
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-09-25 22:44 .updatetool
drwxrwxrwx  2 me users   4096 2009-09-20 22:05 Videos
-rw-------  1 me users    586 2009-11-11 12:50 .viminfo
drwxr-xr-x  2 me users   4096 2009-11-14 17:31 .wapi
drwxr-xr-x  4 me users   4096 2009-11-14 13:37 .wine
-rw-r--r--  1 me users   1940 2009-09-20 19:43 .xim.template
-rwxr-xr-x  1 me users   1446 2009-09-20 19:43 .xinitrc.template
-rw-------  1 me users  10103 2009-11-15 14:55 .xsession-errors
-rw-------  1 me users  11358 2009-11-15 12:27 .xsession-errors.old
linux-bwmb:/home/me # 

Try Knurpht’s suggestion, you need the information for your home directory itself.

ls -ld /home/me


me@linux-bwmb:~> ls -ld /home/me
drwxr-xr-x 63 me users 4096 2009-11-15 16:09 /home/me
me@linux-bwmb:~> 

What version of Nautilus/Gnome do you have? See if changing from the icons to list view in the preferences makes any difference.

No, list view does not help.

This problem only developed yesterday and I can’t think of anything I might have done to cause this, so I have no idea what is going wrong.

As for versions:
Nautilus 2.24.1

I’m not exactly sure where to figure out what version of Gnome I have, but the software manager says I have libgnome-desktop 2.24.1-2.16

Maybe it is related to the .gvfs directory. Why don’t you (as su)

Unmount the gvfs virtual file system
umount /home/me/.gvfs

Remove the .gvfs directory
rmdir /home/me/.gvfs

See if you can browse to your home directory now. If you can, try updating gvfs and Nautilus from the Gnome stable repo. Log off and log back on to recreate .gvfs.

Index of /repositories/GNOME:/STABLE:/2.24/openSUSE_11.1

As with just about anything else I try to do with that file, the operation froze:(:


me@linux-bwmb:~> su
Password: 
linux-bwmb:/home/me # umount /home/me/.gvfs
can't lock lock file /etc/mtab~: timed out
linux-bwmb:/home/me # 

> Unmount the gvfs fuse daemon
> -umount /home/me/.gvfs-
>
> Remove the .gvfs directory
> -rmdir /home/me/.gvfs-

do you know for sure that those are safe operations to perform?
i ask, because i don’t know if they are safe because i have no feeling
for his “network neighborhood”…and, i haven’t seen you ask if he
has samba clients, or a networked printer…etc…

and, i have no idea how to regenerate .gvfs, do you?


palladium

[QUOTE=palladium;2068167]> Unmount the gvfs fuse daemon
> -umount /home/me/.gvfs-
>
> Remove the .gvfs directory
> -rmdir /home/me/.gvfs-

do you know for sure that those are safe operations to perform?
i ask, because i don’t know if they are safe because i have no feeling for his “network neighborhood”…and, i haven’t seen you ask if he has samba clients, or a networked printer…etc…

and, i have no idea how to regenerate .gvfs, do you?/QUOTE]

He’ll just need to log off and log back on to do that.

He’ll just need to log off and log back on to do that.

I couldn’t remove it, even using the root account directly. I’ve tried reinstalling vfs, but have noticed no effect from that. Short of reinstalling the operating system, is there anything else I can do?

I just created a new account on my computer, and it would seem that the issue, whatever it is is system wide. I could not access the home folders on my normal account, new account, or root account.

None of my programs can browse to the home folders and my IDE freezes the moment I try to browse any folder.

Ok, I had to uninstall GVFS and the large number of programs reliant on it, but I was able to delete the .gvfs dir and I can access the home dir again. Now I just need to figure out everything that was uninstalled.

iluvis wrote:
> Now I just need to figure out everything that was uninstalled.

or not! that is, it is working right now, correct?

so, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!


palladium

iluvis wrote:
> Now I just need to figure out everything that was uninstalled.

palladium wrote:

> or not! that is, it is working right now, correct?

> so, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

Reply: Well, the software installer would not let me choose the option that would leave the dependecies in place.

Anyways, I just had the problem again. I was trying to get to the trash folder and figured out that I couldn’t do so the normal way because of one of the gvfs extensions that had been uninstalled.

So I reinstalled two of the extensions, gvfs-backends and gvfs-fuse. I gained access to the trash, but one restart later revealed that I could not access the home folder once again.

I uninstalled gvfs-fuse once again, and when that didn’t help, gvfs-backends. I can access my home folder again. But that still leaves the question: One of them didn’t cause me problems in the past and still doesn’t for most others, but do know. Why?