Arch Linux

marwooj

Member

Registered: 2009-08-21

Posts: 23

cannot cp as root

I cannot copy file while logged in as root
what is going on?

[root@hostp ~]# cp /etc/resolv.conf_bak /etc/resolv.conf
cp: cannot create regular file `/etc/resolv.conf': Permission denied
[root@hostp ~]# who
who     whoami  whois
[root@hostp ~]# whoami
root
[root@hostp ~]# ls -l /etc/resolv.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 50 2009-09-22 11:34 /etc/resolv.conf

tavianator

Member

From: Waterloo, ON, Canada

Registered: 2007-08-21

Posts: 858

Website

Re: cannot cp as root

A few possibilities, in decreasing order of likelihood:
- Some process has a lock on that file ("fuser /etc/resolv.conf" to check)
- Your hard drive is full and you're getting strange errors as a result ("df -h" to check)
- `cp' is setuid to someone other than root ("ls -l /bin/cp" to check)
- /etc/resolv.conf is write-protected ("lsattr /etc/resolv.conf" to check)

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: cannot cp as root

Check dmesg for possible hard disk errors.

quarkup

Member

From: Portugal

Registered: 2008-09-07

Posts: 497

Website

Re: cannot cp as root

post the output of

df -hTl

maybe your /etc/ is a partition mounted read-only, or your entire drive is actually in read-only mode.

also check

ls -l /etc/resolv.conf_bak /etc/resolv.conf

Last edited by quarkup (2009-12-03 18:43:07)

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If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

marwooj

Member

Registered: 2009-08-21

Posts: 23

Re: cannot cp as root

damn man you are fast

[root@hostp ~]# lsattr /etc/resolv.conf
----i---------- /etc/resolv.conf

How to role it back ? with chattr I guess

marwooj

Member

Registered: 2009-08-21

Posts: 23

Re: cannot cp as root

damn men

I like this forum

tavianator

Member

From: Waterloo, ON, Canada

Registered: 2007-08-21

Posts: 858

Website

Re: cannot cp as root

Weird, I wonder how that got set.  Anyway, "chattr -i /etc/resolv.conf" as root should do it.