[Sussex] SuSE 9.3 more curious behaviour.

[John D.]

Steve Dobson wrote:

>John
>
>On Wed, Jun 29, 2005 at 01:26:07AM +0100, John D. wrote:
>  
>
>>Steve Dobson wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>On Tue, Jun 28, 2005 at 08:22:39PM +0100, John D. wrote:
>>>      
>>>
>>>>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.
>>    
>>
>
>That sounds quite reasonable - there wasn't a README file or anything
>else giving futher instructions I assume.
>
>  
>
>>>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.
>>    
>>
>
>If they run okay as root but not as a user then this suggests a permissions
>problem somewhere.  It maybe a library, it may be a device.
>
>First run ldd on the apps as both yourself and as root.  This will list
>the libraries used by the application - This list should be the same for
>both.  I'm don't think there will be a problem here, but lets cover as
>many bases as we can.
>
>The way I would debug the problem is to run the application under 
>strace.  This is a system call and signal tracer.  It will show you
>what the application is doing.  "Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!"
>You will get tons and tons and tons of output.  So before running 
>strace first use the command "script /tmp/firefox.log".  This will
>start a new shell in which all command line input and output is logged.
>Then run the strace command, and then when you get your command prompt
>back after firefox (or whatever) bombs out hit Ctrl-D.  There is now
>a file in /tmp which has all that lovely output that you couldn't
>read.
>
>  $ script /tmp/firefox.log
>  Script started, file is /tmp/firefox.log
>  $ strace mozilla-firefox
>  execve("/usr/bin/mozilla-firefox", ["mozilla-firefox"], [/* 31 vars */]) = 0
>  uname({sys="Linux", node="sylvester", ...}) = 0
>  brk(0)                                  = 0x80e6000
>  old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7fe9000
>	.
>	.
>	.
>  $ <Ctrl-D hit> Script done, file is /tmp/firefox.log
>  $ less /tmp/firefox.log
>  Script started on Wed Jun 29 08:12:00 2005
>  steve at sylvester$ strace mozilla-firefox
>  execve("/usr/bin/mozilla-firefox", ["mozilla-firefox"], [/* 31 vars */]) = 0
>  uname({sys="Linux", node="sylvester", ...}) = 0
>  brk(0)                                  = 0x80e6000
>  old_mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0xb7fe9000
>
>Send me that file.  It takes an expert to read and understand it and
>I don't think your "nugget" expertise is up to it - there will be 
>errors in it and some of them are purfectly okay (like some missing
>libraries - that's okay as the program is looking for them and as long
>as it finds one then that's okay.
>
It doesn't matter now Steve, as I've managed to bollocks up the system 
completely, so I'm taking the nugget approach and doing a re-install.

I could probably have managed to repair it, but I'm too impatient for 
such excellent ideas!

regards

John D.