Problem running scripts as plain user

dmchess · 10-07-2019, 04:25 PM

I installed Debian Jessie on an older OrangePizero. It works, but inorder to run scripts, I have to be signed into root. I added the regular user to the sudo list (using visudo) and even tried adding this user to the adm and sudo group.

I am not that knowledgeable about plain Debian, I mostly use Ubuntu and Mint.

phil.d.g · 10-07-2019, 05:41 PM

* What script?
* How are you trying to invoke the script?
* What happens? Any error messages?

dmchess · 10-08-2019, 09:04 AM

I am just ssh in across a home netwwork and Actully there are three scripts:

1. A classic awk script:

myuser@OrangePizero:~$ cat bin/AllUser.sh
#!/bin/bash
awk -F":" '{printf("%s \t %-10s \t %s \t%d\n", "User Name:", $1, "User ID No.:", $3)}' /etc/passwd | sort --key=18

2. an fping network scanning script (I use this script on my network a lot):

myuser@OrangePizero:~$ cat bin/myfping.sh
#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/fping -s -g 192.168.0.0 192.168.0.255 -r 1 2> /dev/null | grep alive

3. And finally, a little calculator script I picked up somewhere:

myuser@OrangePizero:~$ cat bin/Calc.sh
#!/bin/sh
cat << EOF | bc -l
scale=4
$*
EOF
exit 0

If I try running them as a normal user nothing happens, or it says killed.

myuser@OrangePizero:~/bin$ ./Calc.sh '1+1'
Killed
myuser@OrangePizero:~/bin$ ./myfping.sh
@OrangePizero:~/bin$ ./AllUser.sh

I just checked again and myuser can run it as sudo, but not normal user.

The ls -la shows all three files are executable by all users.

drwxr-xr-x 2 myuser myuser 4096 Oct 7 16:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 myuser myuser 4096 Oct 7 16:00 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 myuser myuser 127 Oct 7 15:28 AllUser.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 myuser myuser 52 Oct 7 16:00 Calc.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 myuser myuser 91 Oct 7 15:41 myfping.sh

phil.d.g · 10-08-2019, 03:22 PM

Curious.

What happens if you run some of those commands directly, rather than in the scripts?

berndbausch · 10-08-2019, 05:02 PM

Is something wrong with /bin/sh and /bin/bash? Or with a shared library used by the shell or the commands? Is there anything inthe system log and/or the kernel message buffer?

If not, run the scripts as bash AllUsers.sh, and try the debug option bash -x AllUsers.sh.

dmchess · 10-08-2019, 05:48 PM

I tried that, the commands do not run from this user:

myuser@OrangePizero:~$ /usr/bin/awk -F":" '{printf("%s \t %-10s \t %s \t%d\n", "User Name:", $1, "User ID No.:", $3)}' /etc/passwd | sort --key=18

If I run it as:

myuser@OrangePizero:~$ bash -x AllUser.sh+ awk -F: '{printf("%s \t %-10s \t %s \t%d\n", "User Name:", $1, "User ID No.:", $3)}' /etc/passwd
+ sort --key=18

No output. I also tried apt-get'ing awk and bash, no change. I checked to see what shell is set and it was bash.
checked path and

/home/myuser/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/games:/usr/games

I did a whereis awk and it said /usr/bin

Terry

frankbell · 10-08-2019, 08:29 PM

The issue here might be the permissions attached to the scripts. My guess is that only root has "execute" privileges.

Try checking the permission on them:

Code:

ls -l /path/to/filename

Here's an example:

Code:

$ ls -l /usr/bin/podget
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 147171 Jun 19 19:50 /usr/bin/podget

See man ls for more.

phil.d.g · 10-08-2019, 08:36 PM

Can you do the following and copy paste everything from /tmp/log.txt

Code:

$ script /tmp/log.txt
$ /usr/bin/awk -F":" '{printf("%s \t %-10s \t %s \t%d\n", "User Name:", $1, "User ID No.:", $3)}' /etc/passwd | sort --key=18
$ echo $?
$ ls -l /etc/passwd
$ cat /etc/passwd

phil.d.g · 10-08-2019, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by frankbell

The issue here might be the permissions attached to the scripts. My guess is that only root has "execute" privileges.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmchess

The ls -la shows all three files are executable by all users.

drwxr-xr-x 2 myuser myuser 4096 Oct 7 16:00 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 myuser myuser 4096 Oct 7 16:00 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 myuser myuser 127 Oct 7 15:28 AllUser.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 myuser myuser 52 Oct 7 16:00 Calc.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 myuser myuser 91 Oct 7 15:41 myfping.sh

Also, if that was the case I would expect "Permission denied" errors.

kaz2100 · 10-09-2019, 08:28 PM

Hya,

Can be far off topic, but file system integrity (fsck) could be a culprit.

cheers

frankbell · 10-09-2019, 08:36 PM

Quote:

if that was the case I would expect "Permission denied" errors.

Just as an aside, when I try run as user a command that only root can run, I usually get a "file not found."

Note that this refers to commands, not to scripts.

dmchess · 10-09-2019, 08:57 PM

Under normal user, no file created. Under root, file created but empty.

phil.d.g · 10-10-2019, 04:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dmchess

Under normal user, no file created. Under root, file created but empty.

Did you prefix each command with sudo? Or run all the commands in one root shell session? If the former, I'd expect an empty file.

Something's way off. It's definately not behaving normally (you indicated you don't know Debian all that well).

How old is this installation?
Have you installed anything not from the offical repositories?
Have you followed any online tutorials?
If you create a brand new user, does that user have the same problem?

dmchess · 10-10-2019, 08:51 PM

Well I'll tell you what I did,

I copied the commands from the post and pasted them into the user account sign on, which I knew would fail. Then I did a

"fc -l" and saw what the begin and end command numbers were. Lets say they were 20 and 25. I then did a "fc -e vi 20 25" and
then used vi to delete off the first two characters from each command. I then did a :x and the commands executed.
I then repeated this procedure under root. I know a few tricks.

Terry

phil.d.g · 10-10-2019, 10:45 PM

At first I was reluctant to suggest hardware problem, because you said that everything works fine under root. However, it looks like everything is not fine with root. /tmp/log.txt should contain the commands you executed and their output.

What about the other 4 questions I asked?

Does the rest of the system work properly? How long since its last reboot?