Can not run Programs that Require Root Access

[Ashley Pritchard]

OK I was at work today & was thinking about what I was doing before my
problem of not being able to run programs as root from my user acct & did a
little bit of research on the issue.
In this process I cam over the suggestion to edit /root/.bashrc & add:
export XAUTHORITY= /home/awp/.Xauthority so I did.
The result was: export '/home/awp/.Xauthority': not a valid identifier
The next suggestion I found was to use the command '-d' which just did not
work at all because it was not recognized at all.
Then the next suggestion was to use xhost to verify that it is set to permit
connections from machine. The result was:
access control enabled, only autherized clients can connect
INET: localhost.localdomane
SI: localuser:awp

Then the next suggestion I found was back to 'xhost +localhost' before
useing su to log in to root & then doing 'export DISPLAY=:0' aft loging in
as root. Well this did not work better that the last time I used the command
xhost +localhost.
Then I found another suggestion which is to use the command 'xauth merge
/home/awp/.Xauthority'
The result:
xauth merge /home/awp/.Xauthority
xauth: creating new authority file /home/awp/.Xauthority
xauth: (argv):1: merge: unable to open file /home/awp/.Xauthority

So none of the suggestions seem that I could find seemed to work for me &
the last suggestion was to uninstall & reinstall X. I did not want to do
this so I started thinking & recalling what exactly I did before this issue
occurred. Other than installing DVD & mp3 support I was messing with xnest
attempting to open GDM in a nested window so that I could graphically login
as root via my user account. So I uninstalled xorg-x11-server-xnest but that
did not resolve my issue.

Then I remembered that I had changed my intel integrated graphics driver
from the  'Intel - Experimental mode setting driver for Intel integrated
graphics chipsets' to  the 'i810 intel integrated graphics chipset including
i810, i815, 830m, 845G, 852GM, 865G, 915G, 915GM, 945GM'. So I switched the
graphics driver back the the 'experimental' driver. That did not work
either.

Then I had found a file /root/.bash_history which contains the history of
bash commands made in the terminal. A series of commands that I had entered
jarred my memory. I was attempting to get another desktop manager installed
call Enlightenment & int the process one of the dependencies was XFree86.
When I attempted to install XFree86  it required several directories to be
created: /usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir and /usr/X11R6/bin/xauth so I had created
those directories. And that is when thiss issue started occurring.

SO THE SOLUTION TO MY ISSUE: was to delete /X11R6/bin/xauth & /mkfontdir in
the /usr directory.
Now I am able to use su root to login as root from my user account once
again so that I can use programs that require root.

Thanks for all the attempts to help me.

On 6/27/07, Ashley Pritchard <linuxpen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> alternatively TR from Tucson Linux Group sugested:
>
> root is tring to open X on :0.0.  Are you sure that is where X is running?
> login in as root and look in /var/gdm and see the files X is using
> I have
>
> # ls -l
> total 8
> -rw-r-----  1 root root 45 Jun 26 15:23 :0.Xauth
> -rw-r--r--  1 root root 38 Jun 26 15:24 :0.Xservers
>
> If 0.0 is right for you , you'd have
> # ls -l
> total 8
> -rw-r-----  1 root root 45 Jun 26 15:23 : 0.0.Xauth
> -rw-r--r--  1 root root 38 Jun 26 15:24 :0.0.Xservers
>
> And here is the output:
>
> [root at localhost ~]# cd /var/log/gdm
> [root at localhost gdm]# ls -l
> total 36
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1049 2007-06-27 08:32 : 0.log
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1143 2007-06-27 08:31 :0.log.1
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1076 2007-06-27 08:21 :0.log.2
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1230 2007-06-27 08:10 :0.log.3
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1076 2007-06-27 07:52 :0.log.4
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1095 2007-06-23 22:07 : 20.log
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1095 2007-06-23 22:04 :20.log.1
>
>
>
> On 6/27/07, Ashley Pritchard < linuxpen at gmail.com > wrote:
> >
> > here is that info:
> >
> > [awp at localhost ~]$ ll /usr/sbin/userhelper
> > -rws--x--x 1 root root 34060 2007-06-15 01:56 /usr/sbin/userhelper
> >
> >
> > On 6/27/07, Andy Green <andy at warmcat.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Ed Greshko wrote:
> > >
> > > >> How do I get back access to root from my user account?
> > > >
> > > > I think it would help if you login as yourself and simply type
> > > "xhost" and
> > > > post the output.  Also the output of "env | grep DISP" may be
> > > useful.
> > >
> > > I have a distant memory of this kind of thing happening when something
> > > to do with the root login helper thing lost its suid root attribute.
> > >
> > > That password prompt thing is
> > >
> > > # ll /usr/sbin/userhelper
> > > -rws--x--x 1 root root 34224 2007-04-19 15:10 /usr/sbin/userhelper
> > >
> > > make sure it has the s for suid
> > >
> > > -Andy
> > >
> > > --
> > > fedora-list mailing list
> > > fedora-list at redhat.com
> > > To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Diolch yn fawr, Ashley
>
>
>
>
> --
> Diolch yn fawr, Ashley




-- 
Diolch yn fawr, Ashley
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