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Hello,
I know I shouldn't have, but I've interrupted the upgrade from Ubuntu 12.10 to 14.10 and now I can't go past the login screen... When I try to launch Ubuntu in recovery mode, it displays an error message and I can't even connect to the internet. I've looked for solutions but found none and don't really want to burn a better installation cd.
The real problem is that I can't access my session! I installed ubuntu on another partition and tried to copy all of my documents onto a usb drive but since I'm on another session, I am not the owner of my files!
The title says it all; please help! I really need my files back!

Quertie
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    The title does not say it all. _What_ error message? So what if you're not the owner of your files? That shouldn't stop you copying them. You can always use `sudo cp`. How exactly did you try to copy and how did it fail? – terdon Oct 02 '14 at 17:44
  • possible duplicate of [Recovering user files with a Live CD](http://askubuntu.com/q/78691/22949) or [How to access and copy files from an old/other Ubuntu system's partition?](http://askubuntu.com/q/240030/22949) – Eliah Kagan Oct 02 '14 at 19:47

2 Answers2

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You can open a terminal and run sudo nautilus.

You should gain access to your files.

To Do
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  • I can see them and read them (eg. music files) but I have no read/write permissions! – Quertie Oct 02 '14 at 18:12
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    @Quertie if you can see/read them, you have read permissions. To copy them, that's all you need as long as you have write permissions to the destination directory. – terdon Oct 02 '14 at 18:46
  • @ToDo `gksudo nautilus` (or `sudo -H nautilus` or `sudo -i nautilus`, if you don't have the `gksu` package installed that provides the `gksudo` command) is preferable to `sudo nautilus`, since running graphical applications with `sudo` [sometimes creates annoying application configuration problems](http://askubuntu.com/questions/270006/why-user-should-never-use-normal-sudo-to-start-graphical-application). – Eliah Kagan Oct 02 '14 at 19:36
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Try running:

sudo chown -R /path/to/my/folder $USER:$USER

This will change the owner of the directory to give you access again.

Kaz Wolfe
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feligiotti
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