Cant save changes to config.txt. Help needed.

Hi Hoe Keat Lim. Your problem maybe that file permissions in Windows and Linux file systems are very diffrent. You are trying to read and edit a Debian file system file on a windows file system and it is not aware of the permissions that "wheezy" has placed in the file.

A simple way round this for you would be either run a VM on your windows pc with a Debian system loaded as guest or edit the files on the Pi.

It maybe that you are having problems with the /boot/config.txt file on the SD wheezy card and cant do the edits on the pi? In which case I suggest the VM option or setup a windows PC to dual boot with Debian. Lots of choices but hope this answer helps a little.

Good Luck

Ray

edited by: Ray a little later Don't forget on the Pi you will need to use sudo nano /boot/config.txt to be able to save the changes you make. (if using nano as your editor - or change editor to suit.)

When you say "Eject the SD card", are you using the Windows command that ejects the card safely?  There's an icon at the bottom of the screen that appears when you plug in the SD card and you should ciick on it, select the option to stop using the SD card, and wait for Windows to say it's safe to remove the SD card.  Otherwise Windows (and Linux for that matter) may save updates in RAM and not write them to SD until it needs the RAM for something else or you explicitly tell the OS to eject the card.

Good answer John, I was probably jumping the gun in going for the more complex suggestions straight away.

Ray

i used the "safely remove hardware" option and waited until the message prompt me that it is ready to be removed.

Hoe Keat Lim wrote:

 

i used the "safely remove hardware" option and waited until the message prompt me that it is ready to be removed.

It sounds like you're doing the right thing.  Try getting a directory listing using the DOS "dir" command in a Command Window.  Windows sometimes does inscrutable things to file extensions, so it may have stored your "config.txt" as "config.txt.doc" or something equally silly.  The "dir" command gives you a better idea of what's really in a directory.

EDIT: do the "dir" command before and after you save config.txt using your editor to see if the editor is updating the SD card's directory.  It's conceivable that the editor doesn't like the permissions on config.txt, but isn't giving an error message.  Another thing to try is using "Save As" to save config.txt under a new name, and then rename it at the Command Window level.

also look a the timestamps on the file, it should show the last update time etc. if it is not changing it may indicate the file is actually being saved elsewhere even though you may have opened it from the SD card