Permissions unchangeable after updateing new install

[weirdwolf]

Greetings to all

Ok, Over the last 3-4 days I have installed and reinstalled LXDE Mini 2012-6 (from Live USB) over a LXDE-Mini 12-06 That had it's permission change (along with the dialog box for the permissions) that will not accept any changes from me logged in as "user" or when in a root window or even logged in as root.

The first reinstall was done because I got tired of screwing around with it and figured it was the quickest way to "fixit". It worked perfectly as far as fixing the permissions, as I could set them as seen fit. all else worked as advertised as well. Did a full update and checked everything and it's permissions were back to being unchangeable again from user or root.

Did a reboot, still not able to fix permissions

Re-downloaded to a different drive a new LXDE-mini 12-06 (md5's ckecked out) installed to a second usb (both formatted to ext4 and checked for bad sectors), Again it worked just fine as far as permission setting went, Untill it was updated (full) at which point the permission went to S*** again.  

Ok (insert language not printable here).

Back to good install (my words) and downloaded LXDE 64 RC1, installed (edit:) to disk from USB worked just fine great even! Until it was updated then same s*** as before. Permissions would not keep in user or root.

Thoughts other than never updating again ?

[Old-Polack]

Greetings to all

Ok, Over the last 3-4 days I have installed and reinstalled LXDE Mini 2012-6 (from Live USB) over a LXDE-Mini 12-06 That had it's permission change (along with the dialog box for the permissions) that will not accept any changes from me logged in as "user" or when in a root window or even logged in as root.

The first reinstall was done because I got tired of screwing around with it and figured it was the quickest way to "fixit". It worked perfectly as far as fixing the permissions, as I could set them as seen fit. all else worked as advertised as well. Did a full update and checked everything and it was permissions were back to being unchangeable again from user or root.

Did a reboot, still not able to fix permissions

Re-downloaded to a different drive a new LXDE-mini 12-06 (md5's ckecked out) installed to a second usb (both formatted to ext4 and checked for bad sectors), Again it worked just fine as far as permission setting went, Untill it was updated (full) at which point the permission went to S*** again.  

Ok (insert language not printable here).

Back to good install (my words) and downloaded LXDE 64 RC1, installed to USB worked just fine great even! Until it was updated then same s*** as before. Permissions would not keep in user or root.

Thoughts other than never updating again ?

For all the words expended above, you've only told a story, and given no useful information from which we could work. 

[weirdwolf]

sorry but I'm at a loss for words
could you clue in in on what you need command wise , I not on that system now but could be later (2-3hrs)
As this only happens after updating I though it might be something screwy at the repositorys
 

[Old-Polack]

sorry but I'm at a loss for words
could you clue in in on what you need command wise , I not on that system now but could be later (2-3hrs)
As this only happens after updating I though it might be something screwy at the repositorys
 

I can't change permissions... 

Permissions of what, exactly? Located where, exactly? Files, or directories, or both? What applications are installed? Are the applications themselves affected, or just some generated files?

My system contains a few hundreds of thousands of files and directories, on 38 different partitions, currently. Others will have something different. Permissions vary all over the place. Is your problem with the base installation, of with the LXDE DE? Without some details, how can one know what to check to see if this is something reproducible, rather than some failing hardware on your specific machine? What, exactly, is causing you problems?

[weirdwolf]

Ah gotcha. sorry, been have a hard time concentrating lately. (Maybe I have a "Brain Cloud" lol)
(if running the reg 32bit ver. would help it would only take about 25min to do, I've gotten fairly adept at it.)
Running a new install as of yesterday of LDXE 64 RC1 with only a full update from Synaptic,
have installed nothing else.

Commit Log for Wed Jul 18 14:03:04 2012


Removed the following packages:
lib64gegl0.1_0

Upgraded the following packages:
bleachbit (0.9.2-1pclos2012) to 0.9.3-1pclos2012
curl (7.25.0-2pclos2012) to 7.26.0-1pclos2012
firefox (13.0-1pclos2012) to 14.0.1-1pclos2012
gimp (2.8.0-1pclos2012) to 2.8.0-2pclos2012
gpicview (0.2.2-1pclos2011) to 0.2.3-4pclos2012
grep (2.12-1pclos2012) to 2.13-1pclos2012
lib64curl4 (7.25.0-2pclos2012) to 7.26.0-1pclos2012
lib64gegl0.2_0 (0.2.0-1pclos2012) to 0.2.0-2pclos2012
lib64gimp2.0_0 (2.8.0-1pclos2012) to 2.8.0-2pclos2012
lib64lua5.1 (5.1.4-1pclos2011) to 5.1.4-2pclos2012
libfm (0.1.17-1pclos2011) to 0.1.17-4pclos2012
libfm-gtk (0.1.17-1pclos2011) to 0.1.17-4pclos2012
pcmanfm (0.9.10-1pclos2011) to 0.9.10-5pclos2012
syslinux (3.85-1pclos2011) to 4.05-1pclos2012

Installed the following packages:
lib64vala0 (0.16.0-2pclos2012)

Before the update I can change any directory or file permission or ability to "execute" to what ever I want. (I like user only for  "My Documents") by right clicking and setting permissions under properties, same as I have for the five odd year I've used PCLinuxOS.

After doing a update from Synaptic (posted above) only minutes after a new install, This time LXDE 64 RC1 (Have done LXDE Mini twice as well), I loose that ability, even in root,  the permissions change but as soon as I click "ok" they change back.
Current permissions for  /home/me
owner: me
group: me

Access Control
view content        anyone
change content    only owner
access control     anyone

Current permissions for /home/me//Documents
owner: me
group: me

Access Control
view content        only owner and group
change content    nobody
access control     anyone

With the directory's It no longer ask if I want to change the permissions  of all contents of the directory.

I have a separate USB harddrive That I have a new Install of LXDE 12-06 32bit that I have customized but not done a update on, Works perfectly.  It remains with full ability to change any directory or file as well, I've been using it instead of this (the IDE Seagate) because of that. (it's my new backup)

It just seems really weird that it only affects the permissions (or what controls the permissons ) after an update so I suspected it was something in the update causing it.
I have gotten the same results from both the 32 bit (2 installs) and 64 bit ver.(current install)

Have done a FSCK -f /dev/sda1 and on sda5, the two partitions of the Seagate from a live USB after making sure they were un-mounted

Can't remember the last time a update or a reboot didn't fix my problem, so I've seemed to have lost what ever trouble shooting ability's I had, if in fact I ever had any. 

[Old-Polack]

weirdwolf:

So this happens with either 32 bit, or 64 bit, but only on the one internal IDE hard drive? Is the installed system on the USB drive upgrading without issues, or have you not tried, because of what's happening on the internal drive?

Is there room on the external drive for additional installations?

[weirdwolf]

Hay there O-P

weirdwolf:

So this happens with either 32 bit, or 64 bit, but only on the one internal IDE hard drive?

Yup

Is the installed system on the USB drive upgrading without issues, or have you not tried, because of what's happening on the internal drive?

Haven't tried. Figured it works fine as is for now considering.

Is there room on the external drive for additional installations?

Should  be, IIRC I've got a 60 gig partition empty.

Will try a update on the Live USB (not the USB harddrive) to see what happens there tomorrow as well.
Thanks  

[weirdwolf]

My story update
Updated usb hdd, same problems as with IDE drive, so it's probably not a drive issue.

At some point after a full update, all directory's and files within became unresponsive to any permission changes by me (that stuck) in user or root and assumed what ever permissions "it" (what ever "it" is) considered appropriate .

Using a new Install on usb hdd. no update and all is good.
Have installed 10-12 various items from Synaptic,  Smplayer, VLC, XMMS, PySolFC and some others without updating, not nary a problem. I'm leaving well enough alone.

Still have LXDE64 RC1 on the other drive, will probably re-install it and leave it alone till the final release come out, will then see what happens from there.

Old-Polack , I appreciate your help and thoughts on this. I understand some people might like a challenge, But if I wanted to be aggravated every time I turned on my computer I'd install try to install Gentoo and really go nuts.   

[Bald Brick]

Is MSEC possibly enabled in PCC? ("Security" -> "Configure system security, permissions and audit".) When "Enforce" is ticked on the "Permissions" tab your own changes will be overridden.

[djohnston]

Updated usb hdd, same problems as with IDE drive, so it's probably not a drive issue.

At some point after a full update, all directory's and files within became unresponsive to any permission changes by me (that stuck) in user or root and assumed what ever permissions "it" (what ever "it" is) considered appropriate .

He's right. I can confirm. The problem occurs when pcmanfm is updated from 0.9.10-2pclos2011 to 0.9.10-5pclos2012. And weirdwolf is the first one to catch the error. He should have the tester's badge.    I believe weirdwolf is trying to change permissions using the pcmanfm file manager. The older version works. The newer one doesn't. It will allow you to select changes to be made, but the changes don't "stick". Here's a screenshot of the desktop folder before updating.



Everything is normal with the older pcmanfm version. But, once it is updated, changing file and directory permissions doesn't work unless you use the CLI. The pcmanfm update is also changing the way permissions are displayed.

[trevatxtal]

Hello I think you will find it is the same in kde4 and using any file manager.
I have had this problem since last updating 2 weeks ago.
I can change permissions from a Konsole
I.e. chown -Rf trevor:trevor /home/download
but not from any file manager including MC. as root or any user.
I have not reported it sooner as it has taken me days to sort out kde4 after it screwed up all my settings but that is another story.
Trev

[Bald Brick]

Here I can freely change permissions in both Konqueror and Dolphin on both a 64 bit and a 32 bit system and both as root and as an ordinary user -- if the ordinary user owns the files. I've only tested it on KDE 4.8.3.

With a mixture of files owned by root and by the user in the same folder no permissions will be changed if I tick "Apply changes to all subfolders and their contents" as an ordinary user, not even the permissions of the files owned by that user.

[weirdwolf]

He's right. I can confirm. The problem occurs when pcmanfm is updated from 0.9.10-2pclos2011 to 0.9.10-5pclos2012.

Thanks djohnston!  Good job! Was hoping it was something like that.
Use the CLI ? Well there you go , Don't know why that didn't dawn on me, I used to chown stuff (would still have to look up how to set permissions though ) Have gotten used to doing everything by mouse (not that that's a bad thing ). The CLI, if you dont use it you lose it , skill wise I guess.
Not too keen on the new GUI for file properties. "View content" and "Access content" sound pretty much the same to me.

[weirdwolf]

Is MSEC possibly enabled in PCC? ("Security" -> "Configure system security, permissions and audit".) When "Enforce" is ticked on the "Permissions" tab your own changes will be overridden.

MSEC (secure setting) and Mandi are some of the first things I turn on.

[jimwilk]

I know that this will probably see me ostracized for ever by OP. However, I really needed to be able to alter the permissions of some Libre Office files so that I could make changes. And, time is important as I need to have the amended files ready for printing by Monday morning and it is currently 1653 Saturday afternoon.

So, I decided to use Dolphin from the repositories instead of PCmanFM. Having installed Dolphin, I then logged out as a user and then back in again as Root  . On opening up Dolphin in my temporary user state, Root went to the directory where the files were located, clicked on Properties > Permissions and changed "Others" to be able to "View and Modify Content". Root then checked the "Apply changes to all subfolders and their contents" and clicked OK.

Hastily, with OP seeming to peer in through the window, Root  logged out,  and I logged in  as myself. Oh Joy Unbounded - I can now open those Libre Office files without the kiss of death message "Read Only" appearing.

Until someone within the realms of LXDE can see the sense of altering PCmanFM back to its normal state, I think that what I have done might serve as a work around.

Jim