Re: [Evolution] Evo 1.4.6 to Evo 2.2, SuSE to Ubuntu

["Kelly J. Morris" <kjmlists comcast net>]

On Fri, 2005-06-17 at 22:34, guenther wrote: 
> > > > > > /etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup ...
> > > > > > (gnome-session:8396) libgnome vfs-WARNING **: Unable to create
> > > > > > ~/.gnome2
> > > > > > directory: Permission denied
> > > > > > could not create per-user gnome configuration directory
> > > > > > '/home/kelly/.gnome2/': Permission denied. 
> > >
> > > Well, as Michael already suggested, this looks like /home/kelly either
> > > does *not* belong to the user 'kelly' or the permissions of this dir are
> > > totally borked.
> >
> > I think that it's more likely the latter.
>
> A courageous 'ls -la /home' would tell you...
>
> For reference, here is a sane one:
>
> $ ls -ld /home/guenther
> drwxr-xr-x  93 guenther users 4608 Jun 18 04:20 /home/guenther/

OK, here is what I got:

$ sudo ls -ld /home
total 12
d----wS---   3  kelly   staff  4096 2005-02-24  09:00  .
drwxr-xr-x  22  root    root   4096 2005-06-13  23:11  ..
drwxrwx---  26  kelly   kelly  4096 2005-06-12  14:48  kelly

(FYI Ubuntu handles root differently than SuSE, RH, etc.: "Ubuntu uses
sudo to allow a normal user administrative privileges. Thus the
traditional UNIX 'root' account is disabled (i.e. it is not possible to
log in as root). All the graphical configuration utilities use sudo by
default. Thus when Synaptic or something similar asks you for a
password, it is asking for your password. 

The first user created is part of the admin group, which can use sudo.
Any users created after that is not by default. It is recommended that
all users of Ubuntu use sudo, as it provides clear benefits to
security."

Ubuntu Wikipage for RootSudo: https://wiki.ubuntu.com//RootSudo";)

> > > Maybe there is something way more seriously wrong than that, though,
> > > given that gnome-vfs actually tries to create this dir -- depending on
> > > the underlying gnome-vfs logic, which I don't know. ~/.gnome2 [1] should
> > > already be there, if the user 'kelly' used GNOME before. So either it
> > > (falsely) tries to create this dir, cause the permissions of /home/kelly
> > > or /home/kelly/.gnome2 are wrong, or it actually tries to create it,
> > > cause it is missing (and fails, due to missing permission on ~)...
> >
> > What I'm wondering is: did I slip up and, in a fatigued midnight
> > session, accidentally change the permissions on /home rather than
> > /home/kelly ? As I try to reconstruct what I did, it seems like the most
> > likely thing that I could have done that would #$%^&*-ed things up so
> > badly as to prevent me from even logging in. 
>
> The courageous command mentioned above would tell you about this, too.
> (It's the dir listed as a single dot in that example.)

OK, from the above "." it looks like that I have not done anything to it
since 2/24/2005 but it looks like root ".." was last changed 6/13/2005 -
which, I assume, is not a good sign. 

> Another sane reference:
>
> $ ls -ld /home
> drwxr-xr-x  14 root root 384 Jun  3 00:04 /home/
>
> You specifically need read/execute permissions to the world (other).

Guenther. I'm sorry but I don't know what rw permission "to the world
(other)" means. What I get is:

d----wS---   3  kelly   staff  4096 2005-02-24  09:00 /home

> > > If this dir is not present currently... Kelly, is there any content left
> > > at all in /home/kelly?
> >
> > I don't see any indication that any content has been lost at all.
>
> Then please have a look at your permissions and ownerships of those
> dirs, if you can have a look inside your $HOME... 

Everything that I have found in /home/kelly has permissions as follows:

Either

drwxrwx---

OR

-rw-rw----

> > > Just guessing, though. Sorry, if I'm totally off the track here, scaring
> > > you for no reason.
> >
> > <sigh> I think that I'm just going to have to delete and re-install
> > Ubuntu. I should be able to get back to the point where everything is
> > working, *except* migrating the Evolution files. Before I migrate again,
> > I'll have to figure out how to resolve the permissions issue, but at
> > least everything else will be working.
>
> Whatever, I can't really tell you more than I already did...

Guenther, I apologize for being so clueless when I'm obliged to use a
CLI - I know it makes it harder to help me.

Thanks.  Kelly

-- 

Kelly J. Morris <kjmlists comcast net>