Half-broken system.... no idea why.

songandsilence · 2011-09-27 15:16:40

I'm not sure what happened, or what I did, but I can't seem to get any commands in /sbin, /etc/rc.d, or pretty much anything that needs to be run as root to work. I keep getting "command not found" Errors in the terminal, even if ls plainly tells me that the executable is there. Even which says it's not there.

I can't even -Syu right now

Inxsible · 2011-09-27 15:20:06

so are you ranting or you need help ?

What commands? Check your logs. See if you installed/uninstalled something. Check dmesg. Lots of things you can do before you come here to rant.

.:B:. · 2011-09-27 15:21:55

He has a path problem.

$ echo $PATH

will probably show no /sbin or /usr/sbin paths.

songandsilence · 2011-09-27 15:24:05

You're right about my path problem. And I wasn't trying to rant; apologies if it sounded like one.

How do I add those back into my path?

Mr.Elendig · 2011-09-27 15:27:34

Find out where you are setting your PATH wrong. grep -r can be handy for that.

songandsilence · 2011-09-27 15:31:11

[james@arch-vaio ~]$ echo $PATH
/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin

Is what I get... I don't know how to edit this, or what file it's in.

ViruSzZ · 2011-09-27 15:32:41

If you were messing with the PATH variable you need to correct its value as stated @Mr.Elendig.

On how to set your PATH you should try to search in here a little bit and I'm sure you will find more than 1 answer.

Just for reference:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 32#p427932

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 21#p988621

Globally, the PATH is set inside the /etc/profile .

EDIT: corrected some typos

Last edited by ViruSzZ (2011-09-27 15:33:46)

bernarcher · 2011-09-27 15:46:16

To make things a bit clearer, there should be a line like this in /etc/profile:

# Set our default path
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
export PATH

Check the files in /etc/profile.d as well if the PATH variable has been changed from a script sourced from there.
Also consult "man bash" about the order how the startup scripts are read then check each one in the chain.

Another thought - is the path ok for a newly created test user?

.:B:. · 2011-09-27 15:52:34

It's quite possible he didn't mess with his path settings at all, he wouldn't be the first for whom such things go wrong (I have had that problem myself a few times).

Logging in and out should usually fix it, if that doesn't, try a reboot (or sourcing /etc/profile manually), if it's still broken after that, you'll have to start digging.

skunktrader · 2011-09-27 23:57:25

Seems to be a lightdm problem
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=126212
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=125305

jasonwryan · 2011-09-28 00:05:35

skunktrader wrote:

Seems to be a lightdm problem
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=126212
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=125305

Indeed. It should come with a warning "this display manager will b0rk your $PATH..."

Mr.Elendig · 2011-09-28 14:20:37

I would suggest to upstream to fix that "feature"

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-27 15:16:40

Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#2 2011-09-27 15:20:06

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#3 2011-09-27 15:21:55

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#4 2011-09-27 15:24:05

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#5 2011-09-27 15:27:34

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#6 2011-09-27 15:31:11

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#7 2011-09-27 15:32:41

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#8 2011-09-27 15:46:16

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#9 2011-09-27 15:52:34

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#10 2011-09-27 23:57:25

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#11 2011-09-28 00:05:35

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

#12 2011-09-28 14:20:37

Re: Half-broken system.... no idea why.

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