Unable to chown a file in an Xwin terminal.
 

This problem has me really stumped. When I try to change ownership of a file in an Xwindows terminal I get operation not permitted. It only seems to be a problem in an Xwindows terminal only succh as Terminal and Konsole. If I switch to a virtual console outside of Xwindows, I can change the ownership just fine. Anyone have any ideas what could be wrong? Linux kernel 2.6.38.8 Slackware 13.37.

would be nice to give more details:
original rights of file and parent dir, logged in user (in Konsole and outside X) ...

I was trying to run a SlackBuild script when I ran into this problem. As for the user account, it doesn't matter. Chown isn't working with any of them including root while in an Xwindows terminal. The same goes for any directory in the file system which is ext3. But it does work just fine for any of these accounts while on a virtual console outside of Xwindows.

Root appears to be able to chown files now in an Xwindows terminal but the regular accounts are still a no go. The file owner ship is to my regular account and I want it changed to root as that is how the SlackBuilds script works.