file permissions unreadable

pwrlftr220 · 10-23-2006, 08:43 PM

I was trying to update the packages on my system, and when apt tried to update the gdm package it returned with an error that says: 'unable to stat ./var/log/gdm' and 'permission denied'. I took a look at the /var/log directory and the permissions appear to be very screwed up, below is the output I get from 'ls -al'. I've never seen question marks in the output like this and it won't let me chmod any of the files as root. Anybody got any ideas?

Code:

drwxr-xr-x 11 root root    2096 2006-10-23 20:15 .
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root     360 2006-10-23 20:25 ..
-rwxr-----  1 root adm     3532 2006-10-23 20:15 acpid
-rwxr-----  1 root adm     1851 2006-10-12 19:12 acpid.1
-rwxr-----  1 root adm      182 2006-10-06 11:15 acpid.2.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? apport.log
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? apport.log.1
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? apport.log.2.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? aptitude
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    61074 2006-10-23 20:24 auth.log
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? auth.log.0
-rwxr-----  1 root adm      328 2006-10-06 11:20 auth.log.1.gz
-rwxr-----  1 root adm     3240 2006-10-23 20:15 boot
-rwxrw-r--  1 root utmp       0 2006-10-06 05:49 btmp
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? cups
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    15515 2006-10-23 20:18 daemon.log
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? daemon.log.0
-rwxr-----  1 root adm     1043 2006-10-06 11:17 daemon.log.1.gz
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    43039 2006-10-23 20:15 debug
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? debug.0
-rwxr-----  1 root adm     1312 2006-10-06 11:18 debug.1.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? dist-upgrade
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    26423 2006-10-23 20:15 dmesg
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    25586 2006-10-23 00:29 dmesg.0
-rwxr-----  1 root adm     7667 2006-10-23 00:29 dmesg.1.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? dmesg.2.gz
-rwxr-----  1 root adm  1176257 2006-10-23 20:19 dpkg.log
-rwxr--r--  1 root root   32032 2006-10-12 00:12 faillog
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? fontconfig.log
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     104 2006-10-06 05:50 fsck
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? gdm
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root     232 2006-10-06 06:04 installer
-rwxr-----  1 root adm   664243 2006-10-23 20:25 kern.log
-rwxr-----  1 root adm  1762901 2006-10-22 07:36 kern.log.0
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    74725 2006-10-22 07:36 kern.log.1.gz
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    77773 2006-10-19 07:35 kern.log.2.gz
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    14468 2006-10-06 11:23 kern.log.4.gz
-rwxrw-r--  1 root utmp  292292 2006-10-23 20:18 lastlog
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? lpr.log
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? mail.err
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? mail.info
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? mail.log
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? mail.warn
-rwxr-----  1 root adm   904120 2006-10-23 20:25 messages
-rwxr-----  1 root adm  1511393 2006-10-21 07:35 messages.0
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    81274 2006-10-19 07:35 messages.1.gz
-rwxr-----  1 root adm     9445 2006-10-06 11:24 messages.3.gz
drwxr-sr-x  2 news news     136 2006-10-06 11:05 news
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? pycentral.log
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? samba
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? scrollkeeper.log
-rwxr--r--  1 root root  124707 2006-10-06 15:51 scrollkeeper.log.1
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? syslog
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? syslog.0
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? syslog.1.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? syslog.2.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? syslog.3.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? syslog.4.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? syslog.5.gz
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? syslog.6.gz
-rwxr-----  1 root adm        0 2006-10-14 07:35 syslog.new
-rwxr--r--  1 root root  270957 2006-10-23 20:15 udev
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? unattended-upgrades
-rwxr-----  1 root adm    49763 2006-10-23 20:19 user.log
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? user.log.0
-rwxr-----  1 root adm        0 2006-10-20 07:40 user.log.new
?---------  ? ?    ?          ?                ? uucp.log
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root     608 2006-10-23 20:15 vmware
-rwxrw-r--  1 root utmp  127104 2006-10-23 20:21 wtmp
-rwxr--r--  1 root root    1841 2006-10-06 06:00 wvdialconf.log
-rwxr--r--  1 root root   30119 2006-10-23 20:15 Xorg.0.log
-rwxr--r--  1 root root   30339 2006-10-23 15:48 Xorg.0.log.old
-rwxr--r--  1 root root   23002 2006-10-19 21:17 Xorg.1.log

chakkerz · 10-25-2006, 05:38 AM

fsck the filesystem, you will need to remount the fs ro.

check man fsck and man mount for more info

matthewg42 · 10-25-2006, 05:48 AM

Yeah, looks like you have some filesystem corruption. Weirdly I had something like this with dapper about two months ago. There were no bad blocks on my disk, so it was purely a software issue. I wonder if it is an Ubuntu thing... It's scary.

remount read-only, backup, fsck, fix corruption, check if any files got nuked, look in lost+found.