Debian and Fedora

[Jacques B.]

On 10/23/07, Dave Stevens <geek at uniserve.com> wrote:
> On Sunday 21 October 2007 06:36:36 pm Roger Benham wrote:
> > As I cannot empty the trash in either Debian or Fedora
> > my main computer is rapidly jamming up. I need to be
> > able to empty both.

Sounds like it may be an issue of permissions.  Have them go to the
command line and list the files in the .trash folder to see who owns
them.  Actually have them do the same for the actual folder itself.
See what permissions are set for User, Groups, and Other, as well as
who's the user and the group for them.

If that is not the issue, then have them try and delete it at the
command line (be careful that they are in the .trash folder first.
verify with pwd command).  A safe guard you can use is to do a ls of
the files first to see what will be deleted when you execute a rm.  If
necessary have them su - to root and try it that way.

If all that fails, the next suggestion is to boot from a recovery CD,
mount the user's home partition as rw and then delete the files.  Of
course that doesn't correct the problem permanently, but it does buy
him some time and keeps the system working properly.

Jacques B.