Mailing List Archive: Gentoo: User

KDE and permissions problems

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rdalek1967 at gmail

Mar 17, 2012, 3:19 AM

Post #1 of 7 (239 views)
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KDE and permissions problems

Howdy,

This is sort of weird. I upgraded my kernel to gentoo's 3.2.9. When I
rebooted, I noticed some odd issues with permissions. When I try to log
into Konsole or some other root access program, I get something like this:

The program 'su' could not be found.
Ensure your PATH is set correctly.

or

Permission denied.
Possibly incorrect password, please try again.
On some systems, you need to be in a special group (often: wheel) to use
this program.

This is also really odd permissions:

-rws--x--x 1 root root 36680 Mar 16 23:36 su
-rws--x--x 1 root root 52416 Mar 16 23:19 umount
-rws--x--x 1 root root 42592 Mar 16 23:36 passwd

There are a few others but you get the idea of my problem here.
Somehow, the permissions seem to be off a bit. I have re-emerged the
packages that own these files, no change. I have googled but only found
old issues with this.

I have not changed or even touched fstab in a good long while. I have
not added or changed permissions regarding my user either. It seems
some update has caused this but if re-emerging the package doesn't fix
it, then what? I am in the wheel group. I'm also in the tty group.

I rebooted to my previous kernel, thought maybe it was a config issue or
something, no change. This was working a few days ago.

Also, when I am in a console, I can log in as a user but can't su - to
root. I can log in as root directly tho tho. So switching from user to
root using su is out even in console.

I have a new unbooted install on a separate drive, it has the same odd
permissions on it.

Anyone else seeing this? Any ideas on how to fix it?

Thanks.

Dale

:-) :-)

--
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output? Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"

peterk2 at coolmail

Mar 17, 2012, 6:11 AM

Post #2 of 7 (232 views)
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Re: KDE and permissions problems [In reply to]

On 2012-03-17 11:19, Dale wrote:

> The program 'su' could not be found.
> Ensure your PATH is set correctly.

What does 'echo $PATH' give you? /bin should be in your path (that's
where 'su' is located, or should be)... My $PATH looks like this:
/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.5.3:/usr/games/bin

I don't know if this is the case but maybe, you're using some of the
new-fangled screw up'ed tools like, dracut, systemd etc. that wants to
move everything into /usr (on the same partition as /) and as such
changes your $PATH accordingly (without checking perhaps - which would
be consistent with the arrogance of the coders).

> -rws--x--x 1 root root 36680 Mar 16 23:36 su
> -rws--x--x 1 root root 52416 Mar 16 23:19 umount
> -rws--x--x 1 root root 42592 Mar 16 23:36 passwd

The 's' part is for the SetUID bit which gives the root-owned command in
question root privileges, in order to switch user... See:
http://blog.superuser.com/2011/04/22/linux-permissions-demystified/

(esp. the "Getting sticky!" chapter).

That's not all though...:

> it, then what? I am in the wheel group. I'm also in the tty group.

Check your /etc/pam.d/su file... it should contain (at least) this line:
auth required pam_wheel.so use_uid

That's what gives you permission to use 'su' as a member of the 'wheel'
group ('su' is controlled by 'pam').

Best regards

Peter K

rdalek1967 at gmail

Mar 17, 2012, 7:47 PM

Post #3 of 7 (229 views)
Permalink

Re: KDE and permissions problems [In reply to]

pk wrote:
> On 2012-03-17 11:19, Dale wrote:
>
>> The program 'su' could not be found.
>> Ensure your PATH is set correctly.
>
> What does 'echo $PATH' give you? /bin should be in your path (that's
> where 'su' is located, or should be)... My $PATH looks like this:
> /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/gcc-bin/4.5.3:/usr/games/bin

I went to a console, the only place I can log in, and I got nothing for
my paths. It is empty.

>
> I don't know if this is the case but maybe, you're using some of the
> new-fangled screw up'ed tools like, dracut, systemd etc. that wants to
> move everything into /usr (on the same partition as /) and as such
> changes your $PATH accordingly (without checking perhaps - which would
> be consistent with the arrogance of the coders).
>
>> -rws--x--x 1 root root 36680 Mar 16 23:36 su
>> -rws--x--x 1 root root 52416 Mar 16 23:19 umount
>> -rws--x--x 1 root root 42592 Mar 16 23:36 passwd
>
> The 's' part is for the SetUID bit which gives the root-owned command in
> question root privileges, in order to switch user... See:
> http://blog.superuser.com/2011/04/22/linux-permissions-demystified/

I am using the dracut thingy to boot with. I hope that thingy has not
screwed up my system. :-@

>
> (esp. the "Getting sticky!" chapter).
>
> That's not all though...:
>
>> it, then what? I am in the wheel group. I'm also in the tty group.
>
> Check your /etc/pam.d/su file... it should contain (at least) this line:
> auth required pam_wheel.so use_uid
>
> That's what gives you permission to use 'su' as a member of the 'wheel'
> group ('su' is controlled by 'pam').
>
> Best regards
>
> Peter K
>
>

I do have that line in there. There are a few others too so I guess it
is normal.

I'm going to check out that linky.

Dale

:-) :-)

--
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output? Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"

daddy at happypenguincomputers

Mar 17, 2012, 8:11 PM

Post #4 of 7 (232 views)
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Re: KDE and permissions problems [In reply to]

On March 17, 2012 at 9:11 AM pk <peterk2 [at] coolmail> wrote:

> That's what gives you permission to use 'su' as a member of the 'wheel'
> group ('su' is controlled by 'pam').
>
> Best regards
>
> Peter K
>

Am I eternally confused?

su - change user ID or become superuser

It's not _only_ to become root (maybe theoretically if you only have one
normal user). On a true multiuser system you can su (switch user) to any
user.

Since _every_ computer I own or have _ever_ built has -pam globally, pam is
not a requirement to use su ... is it?

mingdao [at] t42 ~ $ grep pam /etc/make.conf
truetype udev unicode unicode3 vaapi vim-syntax x264 -consolekit -pam"
mingdao [at] t42 ~ $ id
uid=1000(mingdao) gid=1000(mingdao)
groups=1000(mingdao),7(lp),10(wheel),16(cron),18(audio),19(cdrom),27(video),80(cdrw),85(usb),100(users),250(portage)
--
Happy Penguin Computers >`)
126 Fenco Drive ( \
Tupelo, MS 38801 ^^
662-269-2706; 662-491-8613
support at happypenguincomputers dot com
http://www.happypenguincomputers.com

rdalek1967 at gmail

Mar 18, 2012, 1:24 AM

Post #5 of 7 (232 views)
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Re: KDE and permissions problems [In reply to]

Here's a update on this mess. I resynced and did the updates. One of
the packages was shadow. There was some others that I don't think is
related. So, after that it worked. I had booted WITH NO init thingy.
So, after making sure it was working and I was sane again, I rebooted
WITH the init thingy. It failed every time. Think it was a fluke huh?
I rebooted WITHOUT the init thingy, works like a champ with no issues
at all. It does so every time.

As most know, I'm not a init thingy expert but could someone explain to
me why it works when I boot without the init thingy but fails with it?
I used dracut to build it.

Also, I boot the exact same kernel each time. I don't mean the same
version, I mean the EXACT SAME FILE. I just remove the init line from
grub so that it doesn't load the init thingy.

Why is this happening? Any ideas? Bug maybe?

Dale

:-) :-)

--
I am only responsible for what I said ... Not for what you understood or
how you interpreted my words!

Miss the compile output? Hint:
EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS="--quiet-build=n"

peterk2 at coolmail

Mar 18, 2012, 3:22 AM

Post #6 of 7 (233 views)
Permalink

Re: KDE and permissions problems [In reply to]

On 2012-03-18 04:11, Bruce Hill, Jr. wrote:

> Am I eternally confused?

I have no idea... besides, eternity is a long time... ;-)

> su - change user ID or become superuser
>
> It's not _only_ to become root (maybe theoretically if you only have one
> normal user). On a true multiuser system you can su (switch user) to any
> user.

Yes, correct. Sorry if this was implied; I only talked about Dales
specific problem...

> Since _every_ computer I own or have _ever_ built has -pam globally, pam is
> not a requirement to use su ... is it?

Nope. Again, I was only trying to help Dale... If su is owned by
'root.root' (user.group) I assumed that it's execution was controlled by
something else since it otherwise should be owned by 'root.wheel'
(unless you're part of the 'root' group, which I don't think is
recommended). If you're not running pam then I assume your 'su' is owned
by 'root.wheel'?

Best regards

Peter K

daddy at happypenguincomputers

Mar 18, 2012, 5:56 AM

Post #7 of 7 (229 views)
Permalink

Re: KDE and permissions problems [In reply to]

On March 18, 2012 at 6:22 AM pk <peterk2 [at] coolmail> wrote:

> On 2012-03-18 04:11, Bruce Hill, Jr. wrote:
>
> > Am I eternally confused?
>
> I have no idea... besides, eternity is a long time... ;-)
>
> > su - change user ID or become superuser
> >
> > It's not _only_ to become root (maybe theoretically if you only have
one
> > normal user). On a true multiuser system you can su (switch user) to
any
> > user.
>
> Yes, correct. Sorry if this was implied; I only talked about Dales
> specific problem...
>
> > Since _every_ computer I own or have _ever_ built has -pam globally,
pam is
> > not a requirement to use su ... is it?
>
> Nope. Again, I was only trying to help Dale... If su is owned by
> 'root.root' (user.group) I assumed that it's execution was controlled by
> something else since it otherwise should be owned by 'root.wheel'
> (unless you're part of the 'root' group, which I don't think is
> recommended). If you're not running pam then I assume your 'su' is owned
> by 'root.wheel'?
> Best regards
>
> Peter K
>

The ownership is not changed, with user(s) where it's necessary (never on
servers) in the wheel group.

mingdao [at] t42 ~ $ ls -l /bin/su
-rws--x--x 1 root root 53440 Oct 7 07:00 /bin/su
mingdao [at] t42 ~ $ ls -l /usr/bin/sudo
---s--x--x 2 root root 71144 Feb 22 06:34 /usr/bin/sudo

# less /etc/sudoers
<snip>
## Same thing without a password
%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
<snip>

mingdao [at] t42 ~ $ id uid=1000(mingdao) gid=1000(mingdao)
groups=1000(mingdao),7(lp),10(wheel),16(cron),18(audio),19(cdrom),27(video),80(cdrw),85(usb),100(users),250(portage)

The 'stuff' happens when you issue "visudo" and edit the above file. I've
never studied this on Gentoo, but also have:
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 180696 Feb 22 06:34 /usr/lib64/sudo/sudoers.so

Meh ... too much to learn for an old dog like me.
--
Happy Penguin Computers >`)
126 Fenco Drive ( \
Tupelo, MS 38801 ^^
662-269-2706; 662-491-8613
support at happypenguincomputers dot com
http://www.happypenguincomputers.com

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