[Sussex] SuSE 9.3 more curious behaviour.

[John D.]

Steve Dobson wrote:

>On Tue, Jun 28, 2005 at 08:22:39PM +0100, John D. wrote:
>  
>
>>I think that I've solved some of the problems I've been experiencing, 
>>but not all.
>>
>>I installed firefox, thunderbird, opera, mozilla to name but a few. All 
>>these apps will start as root, but not as user.
>>    
>>
>
>How did you install them?  And what user were you when you installed them?
>  
>
The system asks for a root password for installing. The firefox and 
thunderbird came as tar.gz which is untarred and then you just run the 
installer. The mozilla was on the install discs and the Opera was 
downloaded as a "SuSEised" rpm. Both the mozilla and Opera seem to be 
installed properly as they have put listings in the menu, which, when 
clicked  do the usual i.e. start flashing with timer icon/cursor, but 
then just stop. The firefox and thunderbird, well I'd normally have made 
a link to application on the desk top which equates to clicking the 
executable files, but in this instance I get no indication whatsoever.

> 
>  
>
>>I seem to have them showing as my user as the "owner", and they show in 
>>the users group. I'm not sure what I should be seeing if I check the 
>>permissions, plus, previously I've experienced a problem with a 
>>different distro where it seemed that I had to have "exec" as an fstab 
>>option, is that correct??
>>    
>>
>
>The fact that files are showing as owned by your user account suggests
>that you ran the install as yourself.  Did you follow the instructions
>on how to install to the letter?  It maybe that the installer needs to
>be run as root, or that some files need to be moved or modified if not
>installed as root.  There are so many possibilities that I can't event
>begin to think what the problem is.
>
>You could try running one of these apps from the command line.  It is
>likely that it is reporting an error, if you are trying to run it from 
>the GUI then that error report may be getting lost.
>  
>

I'll try that, as it's the only thing I have thought of (being a "child 
of GUI"). Ok, tried that. Mozilla just drops me back to a prompt, Opera 
tells me that theres a segmentation fault and then drops me at a prompt 
- I can't try thunderbird or firefox as I don't know what the commands are.

But, if I'm su'd to root, the Opera and mozilla start fine.

> 
>  
>
>>Because my fstab looks like this
>>
>>/dev/hda3            /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        
>>1 1
>>/dev/hda1            /boot                ext3       acl,user_xattr        
>>1 2
>>/dev/hda4            /home                ext3       defaults              
>>1 2
>>/dev/hda2            swap                 swap       pri=42                
>>0 0
>>devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       
>>0 0
>>proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              
>>0 0
>>usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                
>>0 0
>>sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                
>>0 0
>>/dev/cdrecorder      /media/cdrecorder    subfs      
>>noauto,fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
>>/dev/dvd             /media/dvd           subfs      
>>noauto,fs=cdfss,ro,procuid,nosuid,nodev,exec,iocharset=utf8 0 0
>>/dev/fd0             /media/floppy        subfs      
>>noauto,fs=floppyfss,procuid,nodev,nosuid,sync 0 0
>>
>>and I've not seen an fstab that has stuff like "acl, user_xattr" and the 
>>like.
>>    
>>
>
>ACLs are Access Control Lists, "user_xattr" is part of ACLs too.  ACLs
>allow you to grant permissions to given accounts rather that just the 
>owner, group or other set.  In a home system such as yours where there
>is only one (or maybe two) users they are an added complication you just
>don't need.
>

The only time I've come acros ACL was when I'd screwed up one of the 
previous gentoo installs. Though it seems to be a SuSE default i.e. I 
didn't "select" it, it just installed along with all the other stuff! I 
certainly don't need it! but what I have to do about it is a different 
question.

regards

John D.

p.s. Well If Steve W confirms that he still needs a lift it'd be much 
easier for me, that you having to divert. I'll wait for word from him.