Help Rh 8 Trouble
 

For none reason when i boot up my RH8 box i get a blue screen that saids:


server authorization directory (daemon/servauthdir) is set to /var/gdm but its not owned by user gdm or group gdm. please correct the ownership or gdm configuration /etc/x11/gdm/gdm.conf and restart gdm .


what does this mean ? please help :newbie:

Going only from your message, I checked mine and the directory permission is for /var/gdm is

drwxr-x--- 2 gdm gdm 4096 Feb 19 08:52 gdm

I would guess that it isn't like that on your system. Open a console and enter this (you must be root)
chown gdm /var/gdm
chgrp gdm /var/gdm

Note: You can check what yours is currently set to by
ls -lt /var/ |grep gdm

RO

P.S. What it is saying is that the gdm.conf is pointing to /var/gdm, but that /var/gdm is not the correct owner/group. It wants you to fix the owner/group or change the config to point to another gdm dir that has the correct owner or group.

Yes that work , but now im also getting the same errror with SSHD it doesnt want to start....why?

actually lots of services dont want to start
such as MYSQL, SSHD,

i dont understand why all this errors from one day to the other

ideas?>

Did you do a block chmod in /var?

when you enter sshd in a console, what happens. I can only guess as to what happened, but you will probably have to sort them out one by one.

RO

when i enter sshd on the console i get :


bad owner or mode for /var/empty/sshd :mad:

Here is how it looks on my machine.
[root@localhost var]# ls -lrt /var/ |grep empty
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 11 13:48 empty

[root@localhost empty]# ls -l
total 4
d--x--x--x 2 root root 4096 Aug 13 2002 sshd

I guess you need to restore these to the right user and possibly permission state. So did you accidentially do a chown -R or something like that in /var?

RO.

P.S. I have posted my complete /var directory.

drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:29 account
drwxr-xr-x 2 pcap pcap 4096 Dec 11 14:15 arpwatch
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:12 cache
drwxr-xr-x 5 netdump netdump 4096 Dec 11 14:27 crash
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:27 db
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 11 13:48 empty
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Dec 11 13:55 ftp
drwxr-x--- 2 gdm gdm 4096 Feb 19 08:52 gdm
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:23 kerberos
drwxr-xr-x 30 root root 4096 Jan 6 15:37 lib
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 6 1996 local
drwxrwxrwx 6 root lock 4096 Feb 19 10:51 lock
drwxrwxrwx 17 root root 4096 Feb 19 08:52 log
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Dec 11 13:45 mail -> spool/mail
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:25 mailman
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:25 mars_nwe
drwxr-xr-x 2 named named 4096 Dec 11 13:52 named
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 6 1996 nis
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 13 2000 opt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 6 1996 preserve
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 Feb 19 10:51 run
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:34 spool
drwxrwxrwt 3 root root 4096 Feb 7 16:22 tmp
drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Jun 23 2002 tux
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:27 www
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 11 14:09 yp

yes i did .... so how can i get it back

Unfortunately, you have to fix the owners/groups one at a time as they come up. root can do anything, which is a blessing and a curse. About all I can tell you is avoid recursive non prompting commands unless you are sure you want to do it and are in the correct directory.

From the dump that I gave, you can fix the /var owners/groups pretty quickly, and for any other problems, I will post the owners and groups there. I did a recursive ls -R on /var and there are 6314 files and directories. Most of which the user/permission change won't really matter, but the only choices are
fix one by one as programs don't work or
backup userfiles and re-install.

RO

i dont have users on this machine only myself . you are telling me that theres no way to fix this other than reinstall ? :(

No, just that, if for example, you had just installed 2 days ago, and hadn't done a whole lot of configuration, then a re-install is quickest. If a re-install would wipe out too much work and configuration, then just tackle one problem at a time. We already fixed the gdm problem. SSHD should be well in hand. Here are all the mysql information from my system. I and I am sure others will help in the restoration of the owners/groups/functions. As you can see from below, if you
chown mysql * in the /var/run/mysql dir
chgrp mysql * in the same dir, then move on
and make the other directory owner/group = root, my sql should be fixed.

There is no way to undo the chmod -R you did, and was simply giving alternatives to one at a time. :)

RO

[root@localhost root]# ls -Rlt /var |grep my
drwxr-xr-x 2 mysql mysql 4096 Sep 4 12:42 mysqld
/var/run/mysqld:
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Feb 16 16:54 mysqld.log
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Feb 9 13:37 mysqld.log.1
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Feb 2 11:48 mysqld.log.2
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Jan 26 22:28 mysqld.log.3
-rw-r----- 1 mysql mysql 0 Jan 19 12:00 mysqld.log.4
drwxr-xr-x 2 mysql mysql 4096 Sep 4 12:42 mysql
/var/lib/mysql:
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2709 Jul 15 2002 function.getmyuid.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2856 Jul 15 2002 function.getmyinode.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3055 Jul 15 2002 function.getmypid.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2729 Jul 15 2002 function.getmygid.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4160 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-unbuffered-query.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 20712 Jul 15 2002 ref.mysql.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3652 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-thread-id.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3503 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-stat.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3430 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-tablename.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3436 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-select-db.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4028 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-real-escape-string.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3655 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-result.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7715 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-query.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5292 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-pconnect.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3026 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-ping.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4207 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-num-rows.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2910 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-num-fields.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3497 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-list-processes.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4380 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-list-tables.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3957 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-list-fields.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3973 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-list-dbs.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4085 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-info.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4715 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-insert-id.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3684 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-get-server-info.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3792 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-get-host-info.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3725 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-get-proto-info.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3416 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-get-client-info.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4393 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-field-type.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3035 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-free-result.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2535 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-field-table.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3984 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-field-name.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2738 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-field-seek.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3042 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-field-flags.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2545 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-field-len.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3436 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-fetch-row.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4254 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-fetch-object.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5204 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-fetch-field.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3179 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-fetch-lengths.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4947 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-fetch-assoc.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7168 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-fetch-array.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4344 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-escape-string.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4257 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-error.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3247 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-drop-db.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4228 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-errno.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3431 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-db-query.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4640 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-data-seek.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3664 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-db-name.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3897 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-create-db.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5498 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-connect.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3329 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-character-set-name.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3979 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-close.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3185 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-change-user.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6090 Jul 15 2002 function.mysql-affected-rows.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2519 Jul 15 2002 function.hw-dummy.html
[root@localhost root]#