[SOLVED] Cannot delete files as root, but can rename them, chown, chmod, edit, touch, etc.
by rwyarbrough from LinuxQuestions.org on (#6E6NZ)
I have a strange one here. first off, I've checked attributes on the files and directories and the only attribute that shows with lsattr is "e". Also executed "chattr -R -a -i" at the directory level just to be sure. I am root and the ownership of the file is root:root. I executed successfully "chmod -R 777" at the directory level also just to be sure. This is not every file but only a handful of files on two different hard drives.
when I execute "rm" or "rm -rf" it returns " rm: cannot remove 'filename'
I can rename, touch, chown, and edit.
if I copy the file to another hard drive (which is what I was doing to better organize space) the problem follows the file.
now here's the kicker. if I "vi" the file and empty it where is now has 0 bytes. I can then delete the file.
These are all multimedia files and they seem to be ok other than they won't let me delete them. They play ok, show thumbnails in Caja, etc.
Any ideas?
when I execute "rm" or "rm -rf" it returns " rm: cannot remove 'filename'
I can rename, touch, chown, and edit.
if I copy the file to another hard drive (which is what I was doing to better organize space) the problem follows the file.
now here's the kicker. if I "vi" the file and empty it where is now has 0 bytes. I can then delete the file.
These are all multimedia files and they seem to be ok other than they won't let me delete them. They play ok, show thumbnails in Caja, etc.
Any ideas?