Unable to access the / (root system directory) via system:/media
 

Hi All

When I doubleclick the "20G Media" item (which represents my Slack installation partition) via "System > Storage Media" from the KDE desktop, I get a "permission denied" error. Now this is a bit odd considering that this happens from the root account. I was having similar problems with the external USB sticks but I that was solved after I read up on this. I commented out the USB device entry in /etc/fstab and added "root" to the plugdev group). However, I am still unable to access the Slack partition via the above route. Please note though that I can access it via Konqueror but it would be convenient to access all partitions and devices from "System > Storage Media" as well. Any solutions would be welcomed.

Regards

Hi Dizzi,

I have the same error which as yet is unresolved, maybe something in my thread can help you.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=567691

Cheers

Orbit

This is a multi-faceted problem.
First, it's generally frowned upon to run a desktop environment as root, so don't do that.
Second, if you insist upon running a desktop environment as root and you want root to have access to the same media:/ stuff as normal users, you will have to add root to the plugdev and cdrom groups in /etc/group. This is because the DBUS IPC system is a bit more strict about checking authorization to do things, and if a user is not in the appropriate groups (regardless of whether that user is root), he won't be allowed to do things that require being in those groups.
Third, after adding a user to those groups, you will have to logout and back in *and* restart the messagebus service.

Keep in mind that HAL and friends are not really intended for use by the root user; the whole idea behind them is to make mounting devices easier for normal users - root can use mount(8) and umount(8) without problems.

Cheers Orbit for the link.


Fair enough m8, I don't normally do but I had just set up the system and was testing the installation before adding any users and what not. I just felt that it was a bit odd that root had no access to the file system via this route.

Insightful indeed, many thanks for that useful bit of info.

Cheers