[SOLVED] Cant execute commands that is in sbin/ with normal user.

tERn · 10-16-2009, 10:15 AM

Hi all

I will start with how I believed my problem started. I have directory where I am building my custom linux. So i chrooted into this directory, I cant run X applications in this directory so I tried using sux to run a program.
My command line looked like this : root@dirk:#
Where dirk is my username. When I ran this command, It didnt work and I got some error saying something about my ~/.Xauthority file. I think from there on my system has been having this problem that my normal user cant execute commands in /sbin. For example:

Code:

dirk@dirkPC:~$ reboot
Command 'reboot' is available in '/sbin/reboot'
The command could not be located because '/sbin' is not included in the PATH environment variable.
This is most likely caused by the lack of administrative priviledges associated with your user account.
bash: reboot: command not found

What have I tried:
I have checked that my /etc/environment file has the correct path.
I used chown to change ownership of ~/.Xauthority to root.
I have added dirk in visudo with same privileges as the root.
My file is /etc/passwd looks normal.
I have deleted and backed up .Xauthority. The system made a new one with me as owner with RW access.

When i restart my computer the ~/.Xauthority file ownserhip belongs again to dirk and not root. How do I save the .Xauthority settings?
What should the permission of the .Xauthority file be ? and group ?

Things I have noticed that is different. NFS fails to load when computer starts up, alsaplayer does not remember volume settings (because its also in /sbin i presume). And My X display takes longer to load.

Any help would be appreciated.
Greetings

tERn · 10-16-2009, 11:18 AM

Hi all.

I think I know the root of the problem. My path does not get set when the system starts up although the file in /etc/environment is correct. Somehow it is not being executed? I dont know. But when I do

Code:

export PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games"

. Then everything works. That is the same path that is in my /etc/environment file. So i made a file ~/.bash_profile and added the PATH export. I want to know if there is a better fix to my problem.
Greetings