many permissions problems! any help appreciated
 

hiya, ive been using slackware for quite some time (and it is probably the best OS i have ever used) but i have recently had some problems with default permissions of the standard linux directories.

a few months ago my permissions got a bit muddled up (tbh i forget why, i think something broke - or I broke something!!) leading to me setting pretty much everything to 755 (rwxr-xr-x) in an attempt to save the stability of my machine. unfortunately this has had a few negative effects as obviously (or, rather, evidently) not everything is designed to work with those permissions. i am experiencing the following problems now and if anyone has any ideas I would be very happy to get this solved:


-- i am unable to su from any user other than root (it gives me the message 'setgid: Operation not permitted')

-- it sets the default permissions for /dev and /tmp incorrectly, forcing me to use the command 'chmod -R 777 /dev' every time i turn on my machine if I wish to use /dev/nvidia for OpenGL, or play the sound in flash movies.

-- amarok does not work (only starts in root) and i am not sure what file it requires fuller permissions over.

-- kaffeine (Xine) fails to play DVDs with any stability unless I am logged in as root (it throws up an error)


Is there any file or group of files that control the default permissions when the machine boots? or any files/directories that have very specific permissions settings?

Thanks every1 - i'll make a better effort in the future 2 stop breaking my distro! :)

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leading to me setting pretty much everything to 755 (rwxr-xr-x) in an attempt to save the stability of my machine.
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what did you do ?
i really hope not " chmod -R 755 / " ( in this case you are ready for a fresh install.)
in general, never use " chmod " recusively outside your home-dir.

egag

yea thats pretty much right, i know it wasn't the best thing to do but it has actually left my machine pretty useable and i have very few problems (only really those few i detailed above). i wish i could remember why i had to do it (it was quite a while ago) but as i recall i really didnt have too much choice.