problems accessing /home with new install

the2k · 07-15-2007, 07:13 AM

Hi there,

I have just got a new computer and installed fedora 7 onto it, I have put the hard disk that contains /home into it and mounted as /home. My user name etc is still the same as it was in arch linux that previously accessed /home on this drive.

however when I try to log in I'm unable to getting error messages

Code:

User's $HOME/.dmrc file is being ignored. This prevents the default session and language from being saved. 
File should be owned by user and have 644 permissions. Users $HOME directory must be owned by user and not 
writable by other users.

thanks for any help that can be offered.

Mike

IBall · 07-15-2007, 07:23 AM

It looks like your home directory is actually owned by a user with a different UID than you. Some distros start UIDs from 1000, others from 500. While you may have the same username on both, you don't necessarily have the same UID.

Login as root, and chown and chrgp your home directory to your user. Use the -R switch to both commands to make the change recursive through your home directory.

I hope this helps
--Ian

the2k · 07-15-2007, 07:54 AM

hi there,

i have run the following commands with no success, i'm know that i'm doing something wrong

Code:

chmod -R 500 /home/mike

chgrp -R 500 /home/mike

my user id in Fedora is 500

pixellany · 07-15-2007, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the2k

hi there,

i have run the following commands with no success, i'm know that i'm doing something wrong

Code:

chmod -R 500 /home/mike

chgrp -R 500 /home/mike

my user id in Fedora is 500

If I understood the thread correctly, you wanted to change the owner and/or group. That is done with "chown". ("chmod" changes the access privileges)

Examples:
chown -R username:groupname /path/morepath (changes user and group)

chown -R username /path/morepath (changes user)

chown -R :groupname /path/morepath (changes group only)

For more details:

man chown
man chgrp
etc

the2k · 07-15-2007, 10:21 AM

Thanks for your help, but i'm still having problems

I tried

Quote:

chown -R mike:users /home/mike

but when i try to log on using my normal user account i'm getting the following error

Code:

localuser : mike being added to access control list
/home/mike. bashrc : line 26 :/home/mike .dbus-env : permission denied
mktemp: cannot create temp file /home/mikeKDE.start .p3294 : permission denied
/usr/bin/startkde : line 41 : $test file_home : ambiguous redirect
you don't have permission for /home/mike

tredegar · 07-15-2007, 12:53 PM

Sorry to have to say this, but your permissions are completely screwed!
That chmod -R 500 /home/mike that you did in post#3 made none of your files writeable by yourself: A bad start.
Really, I think you would find it easier to start again:

Create a new user for yourself eg mick. Make sure the user mick has a UID /GID > 1000, to avoid this sort of problem in the future.
Then, as root, copy all your personal files (not .configuration files that are installed for gnome / kde / your mail program etc) from /home/mike to a new directory (eg Oldfiles) on your new (mick's) desktop. Then (as root) fix up the ownerships and permissions for all the files in Oldfiles. When you are happy mick can access them, wait another couple of days (you always forget something!), then remove the user mike, because that is a real mess!

A lesson in the power of chmod -R and chown -R - we've all had to learn it (well, I did!)

camelrider · 07-16-2007, 08:32 AM

If I understand your original post you did the installation and then added the drive with your /home partition. If this is the case, your installation created a /home/mike partition on the drive where you installed the OS. You could check your /etc/fstab to see if the correct device is being mounted as /home.

I'd recommend for your next install to have the /home drive present in the machine. You can just tell the installer not to format the /home drive and be sure that it is specified as /home (or /home/mike) at installation. Then it'll show up in /etc/fstab and be mounted on boot.

the2k · 07-19-2007, 09:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tredegar

Sorry to have to say this, but your permissions are completely screwed!
That chmod -R 500 /home/mike that you did in post#3 made none of your files writeable by yourself: A bad start.
Really, I think you would find it easier to start again:

Create a new user for yourself eg mick. Make sure the user mick has a UID /GID > 1000, to avoid this sort of problem in the future.
Then, as root, copy all your personal files (not .configuration files that are installed for gnome / kde / your mail program etc) from /home/mike to a new directory (eg Oldfiles) on your new (mick's) desktop. Then (as root) fix up the ownerships and permissions for all the files in Oldfiles. When you are happy mick can access them, wait another couple of days (you always forget something!), then remove the user mike, because that is a real mess!

A lesson in the power of chmod -R and chown -R - we've all had to learn it (well, I did!)

Bugger,

there are somethings that you shouldn't rush and i guess that pissing about with permissions is one of those things, if i had stepped back and thought about what i was going to do i probably wouldn't be in this mess. however work got in the way and i was under pressure to get it fixed before going away.

I guess i'm going to have to fix all this on the weekend.

thanks for your help though.

Mike