unfortunately i think i need to speak up here. at the moment, i cannot gain root access in a new window. however, i do have root access via two aterm windows still open. it's just that i can't open any new terminals and su. it states that permission is denied... as if the passwd was bad. however, i can change the passwd via one of the still current su sessions and it tells me that the passwd is updated. however, upon attempting to su again....same results. permission denied. has anyone got any ideas here?


im running gentoo 2.6.11 r3 on a thinkpad t21. at the time i first noticed this problem i was emerging gdm just after i changed the permissions of /dev/hdc so that a user could use xine to access a dvd.

If you switch to one of the ttys with CTRL+ALT+F[1-6] can you lgin as root directly? You should check and make sure that the passwd and shadow files are laid out correctly and that your su executable has the correct permissions (4755 or 4750, just be sure the SETUID bit is set).

i actually rebooted. in doing so i have learned that i can in fact login as root. however, there is no further su capability for my user account. there was before and im not sure what's changed.

unfortunately, im am quite lost with everything else you mentioned. could you please elaborate? where would i find the su executable in order to check it?

ok the issue is resolved. apparently all i needed to do was add the user to the wheel group in /etc/group. everything seems to be normal now...with the added bonus of being able to mount and umount cdrom. thank you btmiller