is there any software for hiding or locking the folders and files in Ubuntu ?
the hiding in the sense that the files become invisible and one need a password to access those files/folder even if one is logged on as root.

even if one is logged on as root.

When logged in as root, nothing is hidden. If you want to encrypt your file system. You can use Truecrypt

If you want to lock a file just change who can access by going into permissions with right click and change permissions for that folder or file.

Originally Posted by rokytnji

If you want to lock a file just change who can access by going into permissions with right click and change permissions for that folder or file.

Can't root override any folder/file permissions? Do you not have control of root? Thats worse than not having control of the administrative accounts in windows. It would seem that file encryption should work but can't root unlock password protected accounts?

toucan is a standalone encryption program. Encrypted files are useless until the app is used to decrypt it. The good news is that it is for WINE. The source code as well as a GNU Tarball are also available. Doesn't that install a program on some versions of Linux?

Root can access any file, document, etc..... in linux.

When logged in as root, nothing is hidden

Just like I stated in above statement.

Root is superuser. I suggested locking the file so regular users can't access file or change it. Security for root is determined by the User of said computer by the strength of his root accounts password which can only be changed by the owner of said computer and only he should know roots password. Linux has it set up so you (the owner) can set up whatever root password you wish to use,

Kind of a fishy question about somebody else having the password to a root account anyhows. Nobody can access any files I have locked out but me.

Kind of a fishy subject.

toucan is a standalone encryption program. Encrypted files are useless until the app is used to decrypt it. The good news is that it is for WINE. The source code as well as a GNU Tarball are also available. Doesn't that install a program on some versions of Linux?

to install a tarball you need to install first
linux-headers
make
gcc
build-essential

Then in terminal do
for files ending in .tar.gz, use:

tar -zxvf <filename>

You should now have a new directory, containing all of the source files. To confirm it exists, and to get its name, use the "ls" command .

ls

we now need to go into the new directory, so use the cd command:

cd <directory>

This is where things will differ. Some packages will have an INSTALL or README file which will contain installation instructions. use "ls" to see if the software has an install or readme file. If it does have one, you can use the "more" command to read it, like so:

more INSTALL

Generally, the final 3 stages are as follows:
- Configure the installation
- Compile the software
- Install the binaries

The pre-installation configuration is done by executing ./configure:

./configure

The next stage is to compile the software, this is done using "make". When you run "make" it will read the instructions in the Makefile and build the application binaries.

make

The final stage is to install these binaries, ie, copy them to a more permanent location. Typically only the "root" user can do this, so you will need to swich to the root user with the "su" command:

su

Once you are root, install the binaries using the "make" command, followed by "install", like so:

make install

That is how you install a source tarball in Linux. It's not for the novice, Thats why I suggested truecrypt. Its available in the repositories in Ubuntu.

I know enough about linux to barely know what you are talking about but not enough to explain it to others. I've used it but if got to admit that I don't like it but maybe the last class I had that involved it soured me on it.