./configure - permission denied
 

Hello,

when i try to do "./configure" (i was going to install "lame") the system tells me i´m not permitted (even if i am root) i tried to change the bash to /bin/ash and /bin/sh and /usr/bin/rbash but nothing worked.
If i skip ./configure and try directly "make" and then "make install" it seems to work. At least i can call "lame" to work. So, is "./configure" really necessary or is there maybe another reason is it okay if i go straight ahead with "make"?

Thanks for any reply

Odan

The only thing I can think of that would cause that message if you're root was if "configure" was not executable. Do an "ls -l configure" on it and make sure is has "x"s. (And make sure it has an "x" that applies to root. If the owner and group are leg.lame, you'll need the "other" execute permission set, because root is not "leg" and it's not in the group "lame".

Your other question, about whether configure is necessary, is different for every package.

Usually, configure looks at things like what C compiler you have, what architecture your machine is, what other packages are installed, etc. If you have a system fairly close to the original developer, "make" with no pre-configuration might work for you. Generally, though, configure is something you must do. Definitely avoid starting the habit of running without it.

Hope this helps,

CHL

An alternative answer, some software does not need configure to start to install stuff, some use scripts and if you search the directory of your intended program you may find
"install.sh" or words to that effect

so you run that command by /.install.sh

I've had to type
sh ./configure
for some programs.

hth

I tried
 

Hi,

i gave everybody the ececutable "x" but it doesn't matter if i do it as root or as owner i always get the same failure and not only while i try installing "lame" same happened when i tried to ./configure sources for KDE3.1 i only could do it with rpm's well but often you do not have rpm for your distri.

I tried following

odan@linux:/allhome/lame/lame-3.93.1> ./configure
bash: ./configure: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Keine Berechtigung "(German Word for 'Permission denied')"

odan@linux:/allhome//lame/lame-3.93.1> sh ./configure
./configure: line 959: config.log: Permission denied

odan@linux:/allhome/lame/lame-3.93.1> ./install-sh
bash: ./install-sh: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Keine Berechtigung
odan@linux:/allhome/Helmut/lame/lame-3.93.1>

any other idea???

Thanks for your patience

Re: I tried
 

Yes, this piece:
gives a strong hint where the problem might be.

"Bad interpreter" means one of two things: the interpreter in question is not in /etc/shells, or it's not in the place where they're saying it is.

Do a "which sh". It's very likely it's somewhere other than /bin (/sbin being the most likely).

Another potential problem is that, even if /bin/sh does exist, if that filename (using the full path) is not in /etc/shells, it's not considered a legal interpreter, and the system will not execute it.

Do the following commands:

"which sh". That should tell you where "sh" is. If it's in /sbin/sh or /usr/bin/sh, change the first line of "configure" to match.

cat /etc/shells, and make sure whatever you have on the first line (after the "#!") is in that file. One of the lines in /etc/shells must be an exact match to that filename, or it won't be allowed.

If none of that fixes it, please post the output of (from the lame compile directory):

"ls -l config install.sh /bin/sh"

Good luck,

CHL

Did this thread die? I'm having the same problems, and I've checked all the things you said, and I still can't run any scripts without having to physically type /bin/bash ./configure.

Here's the output of ls -l configure /bin/bash:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Apr 4 11:52 /bin/sh -> bash
-rwx--x--x 1 ccellist users 147826 Apr 7 14:58 configure

I've checked /etc/shells, and /bin/sh is definitely there, as is /bin/bash, and the others.

Still getting the "bad interpreter: Permission denied" message.

Thanks.

Check your permissions of /bin/bash and /bin/sh. They have to have execute permissions.

HTH

Actually what happened was that for some reason my /home partition was set to noexec in fstab. So I changed the fstab entry to 'defaults' and, magically, scripts work now. Go figure. Had to go digging quite deep into this wonderful site to figure it out, but it did the trick. Now even my hotkeys work!

Thanks for the input.

thanks cellist for the great information!
In my case the volume wasn't mounted as noexec but as default,user where "user" implys "noexec". A short look into and reveals it...


Thanks again!

For newbies:

[in most cases you need root rights to do the following steps]
You have to check the file /etc/fstab:
Look out for the volume where the sources of the program to compile are. Remove the statement "noexec" (without quotes) or if you find "user" there replace it with "user,exec".
unmount the device, mount it again... enjoy the compiling with and ;)

Thanks pklaus!
,user was my problem in fstab also. I had moved my downloads directory to another partition with more space but....since that partition was mounted with user, I could not run ./configure

Actually I'm having the exact same problems, google sent me to this thread and although it's somewhat old, perhaps a revival would help me? I went into fstab and didn't find user, user exec or anything resembling it. I found:


#
# /etc/fstab
# Created by anaconda on Sat Oct 3 16:31:46 2009
#
# Accessible filesystems, by reference, are maintained under '/dev/disk'
# See man pages fstab(5), findfs(8), mount(8) and/or vol_id(8) for more info
#
UUID=148b7e88-eb2d-4e7d-a4ee-c12b833a3ae8 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/mapper/vg_myname-lv_root / ext4 defaults 1 1
/dev/mapper/vg_myname-lv_swap swap swap defaults 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
#devpts options modified by setup update to fix #515521 ugly way
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

fedoraaddict

the only relevant hard drive partitions in your fstab IMHO are:
/
/boot

/boot should only ever be root controlled...so defaults should be ok...but if you have trouble with it you can call it user

user = root user
users = everyone
(and these 2 terms are normally useful for removable media and not for / or /boot

However I notice you have moved to ext4 which I have no experience with.

2) what is your current error and what is the output of the configure file? (POST inside a code box if its big or cull it please)

3) as pklaus says....as local user run

If you use ./configure --help with a certain DIR you can install software that is executable to the local user but thats a bit selfish?

just run command as a root user by typing sudo before your command
>> sudo make

This 10-year-old thread keeps coming back to life. I suppose that today, Easter Sunday, is an appropriate day for that.