Users not in root group can't open terminals

TiCpu

Any user which aren't in the "root" groups can not open any konsole, xterm or any kind of terminals, even when adding them in tty groups it doesn't change anything. My kernel is compiled with all the necessary options as I checked in many threads of users having this problem.
with gentoo-dev-sources-2.6.5-r1
CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS=y
CONFIG_LEGACY_PTYS=y
CONFIG_LEGACY_PTY_COUNT=256
and also devfs and automaticaly mount /dev (I tried without too)
it started to happen when I copied my installation from one HD to my DVD-RAM using cp -ax /mnt/hda6/* /mnt/cdrom and copied it back to a new HD. Everything else is still working but that so it could have started before and I didn't notice it.

Anyone have an idea or need more infos?

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20629

Sounds like a file/dir permissions problem. Are your permissions on /tmp drwxrwxrwt ? (ls -ld /tmp)
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TiCpu · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 12:54 am Post subject:

yup, and /var/tmp too is drwxrwxrwt (1777), using -a should normaly keep those, I realy don't know what I can do, I recompiled kernel many times with different options and tryed everything to make it work, the only possible way I found is to chmod 777 /dev/pty/* but then everyone can write to anybody's terminal, and that isn't realy secure.

snekiepete · Guru Joined: 07 May 2003 Posts: 306 Location: WISCONSIN

you could add the users to the tty group

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20629

papal_authority · Veteran Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1823 Location: Canada

I had exactly the same problem under FreeBSD when I copied my partitions to a new HD. Besides the /dev/pty/* permissions (which you've checked) and the permissions on /tmp (which you've also checked), I had to remove all the files and subdirectories in /tmp. There's a lot of X and window manger related files in there. Once I did that, everything worked. YMMV but HTH

TiCpu · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 1:47 am Post subject:

Looks bad for me, I do it often, and for /dev/pty permissions, what are yours, it could be that.

papal_authority · Veteran Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1823 Location: Canada

The /dev/pty/* should at least be 0660 (crw-rw----) or 0666 (crw-rw-rw-) if you're not too worried about pty security. The owner is root and the group is tty. At least that explains why being in the tty group didn't help as only root could read and write to the pty!

Edit: corrected permissions

TiCpu · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:06 am Post subject:

ok because each reboot it reset to crw-------, could it be a problem in a configuration file? like I always get back all devices I delete in /dev (for exemple I delete md10-md255 and they come back after a reboot)

papal_authority · Veteran Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1823 Location: Canada

I'm no expert on devfs (in fact I hate it) but you should just be able to do this as root:

TiCpu · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:26 am Post subject:

and I get that error with 0666 when opening a konsole as a user:

papal_authority · Veteran Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1823 Location: Canada

Oh boy you're running KDE as well? Did you exit out to the command line delete all the sub-directories and files in /tmp including the hidden .dotfiles?

TiCpu · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:36 am Post subject:

yeah yeah I do it often, same for /var/tmp
[edit] konsole works with an error but xterm doesn't open at all [/edit]

papal_authority · Veteran Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1823 Location: Canada

Does KDE start yet for a normal user? Maybe it's a KDE issue. Have you tried rebooting? I'm not trying to give you a Windows solution, I'm just trying to keep it simple

TiCpu · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:45 am Post subject:

lol, yeah, KDE starts for everyone and for rebooting, mmmm... when I was trying kernels it didn't help and permissions always reset to crw------- too, looks like ANother unsolvable problem, will I need another windows-like solution : reinstalling

?!

papal_authority · Veteran Joined: 31 Mar 2004 Posts: 1823 Location: Canada

You need a line like this in your /etc/devfsd.conf:

TiCpu · Posted: Sat Jun 12, 2004 3:04 am Post subject:

oh :-/ that is if I want it to be 0660 because even 0660, konsole works but there is a warning and everyone can write to anybody's terminal, and worst of all xterm doesn't work !! thats why I said it looks like an unsolvable problem

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20629

Have you checked the permissions on xterm? "-rwxr-sr-x"
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