Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

SilverTab · 2008-06-17 15:53:28

Hello there, I'm new to ArchLinux (installed it a while ago but never got to play much with it) but I decided to change that lately!...

So far I installed the base system and then went on installing Gnome... Seems like everything has been going just fine, the problem though, is that a lot of the programs I am installing (and trying to run) gives me a
"OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/root/.config'" error...

(Alacarte menu editor, Transmission torrent client, etc etc...)... I might've done something wrong with the user accounts or something? In addition, I'd say about half (maybe more) of my Applications Menu items don't work.... When I try to start a program from the command line, it starts just fine... if I try to start it from the application menu, nothing happens (and I made sure the "command" was exactly the same as I was typing in the console).... So, for example: starting BitTyrant with: "bittyrant" via the the console works well, but the same command in my Application menu does nothing...

Any help would be appreciated!

Misfit138 · 2008-06-17 16:38:10

I can't help in fixing what is wrong, but I think I can ascertain that you may have been doing some naughty things as root user and are now experiencing permissions issues.
Running X apps as root, messing around in non-root home directories, etc., can cause these issues.

SilverTab · 2008-06-17 16:42:32

I'm pretty sure I did something wrong too hehe...

I installed Gnome following the Beginner's guide Wiki.... I'm running Gnome as a normal user... and I'm installing apps via pacman (so, as root)...

Just installed Banshee music player, and again....
" Access to the path "/root/.config" is denied." when I try to start it...

SilverTab · 2008-06-17 16:49:32

From what I can see some apps (not all) are trying to create the .config file under the /root folder, instead of my home folder (/home/silvertab).... the weird thing is that, it is not all applications! only some of them...

I am not running the apps as root so I have no idea why they want to create the config file under root's home...

Misfit138 · 2008-06-17 16:52:59

What is the output of

ls -la /home/yournonrootuser

SilverTab · 2008-06-17 16:56:48

Here it is:

[silvertab@silvertab ~]$ ls -la /home/silvertab
total 156
drwx------ 29 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:45 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root      root  4096 2008-06-16 01:26 ..
-rw-------  1 silvertab users  332 2008-06-17 12:45 .ICEauthority
-rw-------  1 silvertab users  103 2008-06-17 12:45 .Xauthority
drwx------  3 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 03:41 .adobe
-rw-------  1 silvertab users 2961 2008-06-17 12:44 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 silvertab users   74 2008-06-17 11:33 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r--  1 silvertab users   48 2008-06-16 01:26 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x  9 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 11:45 .bittyrant
drwx------  7 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 11:41 .config
drwx------  3 root      root  4096 2008-06-16 23:03 .dbus
drwxr-xr-x  2 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 02:29 .fontconfig
drwx------  4 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:46 .gconf
drwx------  2 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:48 .gconfd
drwx------ 10 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:44 .gnome2
drwx------  2 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 02:29 .gnome2_private
drwxr-xr-x  2 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 02:29 .gstreamer-0.10
dr-x------  2 silvertab users    0 2008-06-17 12:46 .gvfs
drwxr-xr-x  2 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 02:30 .icons
drwxr-xr-x  3 root      root  4096 2008-06-17 11:42 .local
drwx------  3 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 03:41 .macromedia
drwx------  3 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 02:29 .metacity
drwx------  5 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:11 .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x  3 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:44 .nautilus
-rw-r--r--  1 silvertab users 1171 2008-06-16 02:33 .nvidia-settings-rc
drwx------  5 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:44 .purple
-rw-r--r--  1 silvertab users 5766 2008-06-17 12:44 .recently-used.xbel
-rw-------  1 silvertab users   54 2008-06-17 12:45 .serverauth.17330
drwxr-xr-x  3 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 11:03 .subversion
drwxr-xr-x  2 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 02:30 .themes
drwx------  4 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 02:36 .thumbnails
drwx------  3 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:11 .thunderbird
drwxr-xr-x  3 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-16 03:02 .vlc
drwxr-xr-x  2 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 12:46 .wapi
-rwxr-xr-x  1 silvertab users  284 2008-06-16 02:16 .xinitrc
drwxr-xr-x  2 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 00:02 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  4 silvertab users 4096 2008-06-17 11:22 builds

All the apps'config files that aren't working (i.e. Banshee etc..) are not there...

SilverTab · 2008-06-17 17:09:19

I think I found the problem...

When I first logged into Arch, I logged in as root... then I used "su silvertab" and then started gnome via startx...

I tried rebooting and logging in as a normal user, instead of logging in as root and using "su"....

Seems to have fixed a couple of problems at least...

Misfit138 · 2008-06-17 17:09:25

Well, I think I see a couple problems. Do you notice something weird in your home directory?
What's weird is that root owns 2 of the directories.
Try doing this as root:

chown -R yourusername /home/silvertab/.local

Also, I am not sure about .dbus, (I am not on a nix machine) but I think you can safely chown that as well.
See if it helps.

Misfit138 · 2008-06-17 17:13:12

SilverTab wrote:

I think I found the problem...
When I first logged into Arch, I logged in as root... then I used "su silvertab" and then started gnome via startx...
I tried rebooting and logging in as a normal user, instead of logging in as root and using "su"....
Seems to have fixed a couple of problems at least...

Yes, that would cause issues. The reason is that your user must actually login to grab permissions and env variables for things to work predictably.
It is good practice to logout root and login non-root, especially when you need X.

Stefan Husmann · 2008-06-17 17:22:07

"su silvertab" gives root's environment to silvertab. Use "su - silvertab" intsead.

SilverTab · 2008-06-17 17:23:46

Thanks to both of you... I'm slowly cleaning up the mess

chili · 2008-07-22 15:29:47

I couldn't erase my files on the Desktop, but after looked in this thread the problem was solved with:

chown -R yourusername /home/silvertab/.local

Thanks misfits138 for the help

technononsense · 2008-09-16 16:32:57

I'm having a similar problem when trying to open transmission.
I've installed it from the AUR and when i try to launch it i get the error:

Couldn't open "/home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock": Permission denied

It opens fine under root and i thought that changing ownership would do the job but

chown -R andrew /home/andrew/.local

still gives the same permission problem.

borix · 2008-09-16 18:34:35

You have to chown(resp. chmod) the file, that caused the error, because when you get permission denied error, you haven't got the rights to read/write/execute the file or you haven't got rights to create the file in folder(/home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/).
Alternatively(in this specific case), I'd say that you can just remove(maybe as root) the file(/home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock).
Example usage:

chown andrew /home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock
chown -R andrew /home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock
chmod a+r /home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock
chmod -R a+w /home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock

Switch -R means recursively.
For better understanding of this problematic, I advise you to read man pages for chown and chmod(man chmod;man chown).

technononsense · 2008-09-17 08:23:16

thanks borix, i'll try this when i'm back from work.

Misfit138 · 2008-09-17 12:13:38

Stefan Husmann wrote:

"su silvertab" gives root's environment to silvertab. Use "su - silvertab" intsead.

Yes. I agree.

technononsense · 2008-09-17 23:53:04

I still get an error but now its:

Couldn't open "/home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock": Is a directory

the "permission denied" has been replaced with "Is a directory" at the end now?!

afonic · 2008-09-18 09:52:41

I would suggest removing the user "andrew" (and his home dir) and then useradd him again.

It should clear the mess but you will lose any user-specific config, if any.

Misfit138 · 2008-09-18 12:15:44

afonic wrote:

I would suggest removing the user "andrew" (and his home dir) and then useradd him again.
It should clear the mess but you will lose any user-specific config, if any.

userdel without the -r switch should keep all configs, right?

afonic · 2008-09-18 16:28:27

Yes, it would keep the entire /home/andrew dir.

borix · 2008-09-18 17:41:54

technononsense wrote:

I still get an error but now its:
Couldn't open "/home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock": Is a directory
the "permission denied" has been replaced with "Is a directory" at the end now?!

Now, I think You should try just rm -r /home/andrew/.config/transmission/gtk/lock
It looks like to be just lock file(file that tells program, that there is another version of transmission running).

Arch Linux

#1 2008-06-17 15:53:28

Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#2 2008-06-17 16:38:10

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#3 2008-06-17 16:42:32

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#4 2008-06-17 16:49:32

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#5 2008-06-17 16:52:59

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#6 2008-06-17 16:56:48

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#7 2008-06-17 17:09:19

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#8 2008-06-17 17:09:25

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#9 2008-06-17 17:13:12

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#10 2008-06-17 17:22:07

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#11 2008-06-17 17:23:46

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#12 2008-07-22 15:29:47

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#13 2008-09-16 16:32:57

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#14 2008-09-16 18:34:35

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#15 2008-09-17 08:23:16

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#16 2008-09-17 12:13:38

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#17 2008-09-17 23:53:04

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#18 2008-09-18 09:52:41

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#19 2008-09-18 12:15:44

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#20 2008-09-18 16:28:27

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

#21 2008-09-18 17:41:54

Re: Lots of "Permission denied" errors...

Board footer