[Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

PS31791 · 2008-10-27 00:28:24

I just installed Arch yesterday, everything is fine and working, except for one major issue. Most of the things I have installed don't work right unless I run them under root. And when I run them as root, first of all it is very unsecure (running xchat as root isn't the best idea), and they don't work right with things I run as a normal user.

For example, none of my Firefox plugins work when I run Firefox as a normal user. But as root, they all work.
Another example: Amarok won't play audio cd's as a normal user. But as root, everything plays fine.
ANOTHER example: As a normal user, none of my xchat scripts and addons work (such as an Amarok Now Playing script and a system info script); but as root, they all work flawlessly.

Does anyone know what the problem might be?

Some info that might help:
I have /home and / mounted on different partitions. /home includes the directory for my normal user (/home/user/) while / contains my root directory (/root) which is only accessible with root priveleges. And /root contains many directories for config files of many of my apps. But /home/user contains these directories as well (?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Last edited by PS31791 (2008-10-28 19:54:35)

Allan · 2008-10-27 00:34:31

PS31791 wrote:

For example, none of my Firefox plugins work when I run Firefox as a normal user. But as root, they all work.

I have seen this on the forums before. From memory you need to (as root) "chmod 755 /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins"

PS31791 wrote:

Another example: Amarok won't play audio cd's as a normal user. But as root, everything plays fine.

Add yourself to the optical group.

Xyne · 2008-10-27 00:35:08

How did you install everything? Were you running firefox as root when you installed your plugins? Have you added your user to the optical and storage groups so that you can access cds/dvds/flash drives, etc? Have you set permissions on your scripts to make them executable for your user? Did you work through the entire Beginner's Guide?

The fact that they everything works as root is a good indication that you've not properly configured permissions or that you've been configuring most things as root.

PS31791 · 2008-10-27 00:39:44

Allan wrote:

PS31791 wrote:
For example, none of my Firefox plugins work when I run Firefox as a normal user. But as root, they all work.
I have seen this on the forums before. From memory you need to (as root) "chmod 755 /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins"
PS31791 wrote:
Another example: Amarok won't play audio cd's as a normal user. But as root, everything plays fine.
Add yourself to the optical group.

OK, Firefox works fine now! As for the addition of my user to the optical group, I've done that already...

Xyne wrote:

How did you install everything? Were you running firefox as root when you installed your plugins? Have you added your user to the optical and storage groups so that you can access cds/dvds/flash drives, etc? Have you set permissions on your scripts to make them executable for your user? Did you work through the entire Beginner's Guide?

The fact that they everything works as root is a good indication that you've not properly configured permissions or that you've been configuring most things as root.

When I installed my plugins, I'm pretty sure I was running Firefox as a normal user. I've added my normal user to optical, but what are the "storage groups"? As for the scripts, the permissions are set correctly. And yes, I've followed both the regular setup guide and the Beginner's guide.

Thanks for the quick responses guys.

Edit: I just installed OpenOffice. The menu's don't work at all as a normal user. Clicking on a menu item makes OpenOffice freeze up, making my have to killall it. But as root, everything works fine.

Last edited by PS31791 (2008-10-27 00:53:46)

Xyne · 2008-10-27 00:56:26

Beginner's Guide wrote:

Useful groups for your non-root user include:
* audio - for tasks involving sound card and related software
* floppy - for access to a floppy if applicable
* lp - for managing printing tasks
* optical - for managing tasks pertaining to the optical drive(s)
* storage - for managing storage devices
* video - for video tasks and 3d acceleration
* wheel - for using sudo/su

"Storage devices" should be external hard drives, flash drives, etc.

Sorry, beyond that, I don't think I'll be of any use to you. Someone else will be able to help you out with the rest of it though.

Welcome to Arch!

skymt · 2008-10-27 00:58:43

All the standard groups are listed on the wiki. The usual storage groups are 'floppy' (if you have a floppy drive), 'optical', and 'storage' (USB drives, MP3 players and other removable drives). 'disk' is also available if you want to give your user full read/write access to hard drive devices, but that's roughly equivalent to full root, so you probably don't.

R00KIE · 2008-10-27 10:48:38

Everything should work out of the box .... sudo pacman -S whatever_you_want then run it as user and you are good to go (and after adding the user to the proper groups of course, audio, storage, optical ... etc as in the wiki)
I just found myself banging my head into the screen when I changed my default shell from bash to tcsh, you haven't done that or something similar have you? If you did change your default shell back to bash, delete/rename the configuration folders of the programs inside your home and start them again (configurations will be recreated and everything should work).

PS31791 · 2008-10-27 19:51:48

R00KIE wrote:

Everything should work out of the box .... sudo pacman -S whatever_you_want then run it as user and you are good to go (and after adding the user to the proper groups of course, audio, storage, optical ... etc as in the wiki)
I just found myself banging my head into the screen when I changed my default shell from bash to tcsh, you haven't done that or something similar have you? If you did change your default shell back to bash, delete/rename the configuration folders of the programs inside your home and start them again (configurations will be recreated and everything should work).

I don't think I've changed my default shell from bash to tcsh, because I don't even know how to do that, nor do I kno what that means D:

R00KIE · 2008-10-27 22:02:22

It was just a though .... flash was broken for me because of that (don't know what else was broken because once I stumbled with that problem I decided to carry on only once it was fixed).
Someone else mentioned something like your openoffice problem, just delete/rename anything that says openoffice in your home folder and start it again.
Look for ~/.openoffice.org and anything inside ~/.config that seems to belong to openoffice and delete/rename it.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-10-27 00:28:24

[Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

#2 2008-10-27 00:34:31

Re: [Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

#3 2008-10-27 00:35:08

Re: [Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

#4 2008-10-27 00:39:44

Re: [Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

#5 2008-10-27 00:56:26

Re: [Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

#6 2008-10-27 00:58:43

Re: [Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

#7 2008-10-27 10:48:38

Re: [Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

#8 2008-10-27 19:51:48

Re: [Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

#9 2008-10-27 22:02:22

Re: [Solved] applications don't work right unless ran as root?

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