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acid45
08-08-2008, 09:09 AM
Hey everyone, I got an odd error. I tried:
su root
mount /dev/hdc /mnt/dvd
cp /mnt/dvd/*.avi /home/user
chown -R user /home/user
I got cannot modify /home/user/.gvfs. This was on a fresh install of Slackware 12.1 with Gnome Slack Build installed. I googled and found that this was an issue for openSuse as well. It's a Gnome directory. The solution was to login as the user listed as owner and umount /home/user/.gvfs then rm -R /home/user/.gvfs.

The only thing that scares me is that it's possible to have a user own something and deny permission to root!!! I think that would be a MAJOR bug in the linux security system.

To replicate this try this:
download and install slackware 12.1 DVD iso and burn it to dvd. Do a fresh install then once you create your user and his/her home dir set them as owner and change the group to users. Next all you have to do is run:

lynx --source http://gnomeslackbuild.org/net-install | bash
this is the 32 bit installer, not sure if the same issue would appear in 64bit slackware.
then run, as root, chown -R user /home/user. That's when I get the permission denied message.

This system is on a network with a Windows Vista machine, they are not networked together at all except they both get IPs from the router. It's one of those speedster 5150 dsl modem/wireless router dealies.

What's also odd is that when I did a ls -l /home/user/.gvfs as root I got permission denied and as the user listed as owner, well it wasn't listed anywhere but anyway, it just listed d???????? ? ? ? ? ???? ? ? etc.

acid45
08-08-2008, 07:59 PM
Noone has anything to say about this? I'd have figured everyone would be amazed that root received permission denied messages while a limited user had access to umount and rm the directory.

HughA
08-08-2008, 09:39 PM
Hello acid45,

Is /home a separate file system? If so, try unmounting it, and check the directory permissions on the mount point directory; that is on /home. I have seen incorrect mount point directory ownership/permissions cause similar problems in the past.

Best Regards,
Hugh

acid45
08-09-2008, 09:49 AM
Nope, I did a fresh install of Slackware 12.1 from DVD and the entire filsystem is on /dev/hda1. Then I had installed Gnome Slack.Build via: "lynx --source http://gnomeslackbuild/net-install | bash". It was only the one directory which was a gnome directory related to libg, and libgio. When I ran ls -l I got something like:

d?????????? ? ? ? ?????

When I ran ls -l as root I got permission denied.

It seems to be a common problem, but if Gnome can manage it, my point is, can't someone else manage it with less-than-admirable intentions?

HughA
08-11-2008, 09:00 AM
acid45,

How about running "ls -l" with strace / ltrace and seeing if it sheds some light on this problem?

Regards,
Hugh

bwkaz
08-11-2008, 11:55 AM
Look in /proc/mounts to see what filesystem is mounted there. (If unmounting the FS works, then something must be mounted there.) If it isn't some normal filesystem (e.g. ext3/reiser/xfs/whatever that's normally on a disk), then the code in the kernel can certainly deny root the ability to delete stuff.

(Try deleting something out of /proc sometime. ;))

Also, if it's some strange abnormal filesystem, that might explain the strange permissions too.