[CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

sebastian-65 · 2022-08-13 19:01:37

My main user account (sebastian) ended up seriously crippled and I wanted to create a new user to look for differences between them, but:

- When logged in to tty as a new non-root user (e.g. guest), echo $USER outputs root, $HOME outputs root
- Cannot login in to GUI (xfce) either, since all user files system seeks in /root/ folder (where they dont exist), instead of the user folder, e.g.:
- /root/.bash_profile: Permission denied
- /root/.config/autostart failed, ignoring: Permission denied
- /root/.config/systemd/user.control, ignoring: Permission denied
- /root/.config/systemd/user, ignoring: Permission denied
- /root/.local/share/systemd/user, ignoring: Permission denied
- Invalid XDG_CONFIG_HOME directory /root/.config, program may behave incorrectly.
- It happens to freshly created users (such as guest), while my main user is able to log into GUI (echo $USER returns correctly the user)

Where can possibly be the problem?

- /etc/profile is default, -rw-r--r-- root root
- /etc/bash.bashrc is default, -rw-r--r-- root root
- id: uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
- id guest: uid=1002(guest) gid=1004(guest) groups=1004(guest)
- getent passwd guest: guest:x:1002:1004::/home/guest:/bin/bash
- echo $HOME: /root (account was created by useradd -m guest, folder /home/guest was created automatically)
- grep ^guest /etc/passwd: guest:x:1002:1004::/home/guest:/bin/bash
- ls -l /etc/passwd: -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2002 Aug 13 15:43 /etc/passwd
- paccheck --file-properties --quiet | grep permission: shadow: /usr/bin/newuidmap permission mismatch (expected 4755) - this Ive already corrected

Is the shadow the mechanism that assign users their $HOME and $USER variables? Can be reset/reinstalled somehow without reinstalling the whole system?

Last edited by sebastian-65 (2022-08-15 09:03:11)

Trilby · 2022-08-13 19:13:42

How, exactly, did you create the "guest" user? (edit: sorry this was covered well in the second list, I had missed it)

Last edited by Trilby (2022-08-13 22:58:53)

sebastian-65 · 2022-08-13 22:01:27

Ive been trying adduser -m guest or adduser -m -d /home/guest guest. In both cases home folder is generated and the correct home folder can be seen in /etc/passwd for a guest user.

Last edited by sebastian-65 (2022-08-13 22:01:49)

dimich · 2022-08-14 00:04:30

# cat /etc/default/useradd

?

Anything suspicious in /etc/skel/* ?

Can you login as "broken" user, then switch to root with `su` and run this:

#!/bin/bash

VAR=HOME

P=$$
while true; do
    printf "% 8i:%16s: %s\n" \
        ${P} \
        $(cat /proc/${P}/comm) \
        $(xargs -0 -L 1 -a /proc/${P}/environ | grep ^${VAR}=)

    [ "${P}" -eq 1 ] || [ -z "${P}" ] && break

    P=$(cut -d' ' -f 4 /proc/${P}/stat)
done

This may help to track if HOME variable was changed or set incorrectly by some parent process.

seth · 2022-08-14 06:56:51

    - id: uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
    - id guest: uid=1002(guest) gid=1004(guest) groups=1004(guest)

Seems the result of sudo, https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … 417_713522

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … -root-user

paccheck --file-properties --quiet | grep permission: shadow: /usr/bin/newuidmap permission mismatch (expedted 4755)

Didn't ring an alarm?

stat /usr/bin/newuidmap

https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … 424_713522

I have compared /etc/profile and the contents of /etc/profile.d with Arco linux on my backup machine, and they seem to be identical, standard.

Are you using Arco Linux?

sebastian-65 · 2022-08-14 07:56:04

@dimich I have switched to root with su - root, and run it with output:

22022: bash: HOME=/root
21502: bash: HOME=/root
21479: su: HOME=/root
21107: bash: HOME=/root
20843: login:
1: systemd:

@seth output of stat /usr/bin/newuidmap:

File: /usr/bin/newuidmap
Size: 37528 Blocks: 33 IO Block: 37888 regular file
Device: 0,25 Inode: 61095 Links: 1
Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2022-08-13 19:49:55.000000000 +0200
Modify: 2022-01-27 14:47:21.000000000 +0100
Change: 2022-08-13 19:49:55.526995637 +0200
Birth: 2022-08-13 19:49:55.503662385 +0200

And no, Im using Arch on my main laptop (which is now broken down), but I use Arco Linux on my backup laptop (which is also my girlfriend's OS, so for the sake of compatibility).

seth · 2022-08-14 08:14:15

Please use "code" tags, https://bbs.archlinux.org/help.php#bbcode
Permissions are fine, suid is gone because of https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-p … ow.install

When you log in as "guest" the "id" output is 1002?
What if you

chsh -s /bin/sh guest

dimich · 2022-08-14 08:23:37

sebastian-65 wrote:

   21479:              su: HOME=/root
   21107:            bash: HOME=/root
   20843:           login:

Looks like it is set incorrectly initially by login.
I'd also check changes in /etc/pam.d/* and /etc/environment.

Is the same error if you ssh from another host?

sebastian-65 · 2022-08-15 09:03:46

I resolved this only by reinstalling the system. Thank you guys for your help, anyway!

2ManyDogs · 2022-08-15 12:13:38

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Arch Linux

#1 2022-08-13 19:01:37

[CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#2 2022-08-13 19:13:42

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#3 2022-08-13 22:01:27

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#4 2022-08-14 00:04:30

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#5 2022-08-14 06:56:51

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#6 2022-08-14 07:56:04

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#7 2022-08-14 08:14:15

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#8 2022-08-14 08:23:37

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#9 2022-08-15 09:03:46

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

#10 2022-08-15 12:13:38

Re: [CLOSED] New users have wrong (root) $USER and $HOME variables

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