[Solved] (just a bad install) Strange LXDE permissions behaviour

[timeth]

On my LXDE install I use the Opera browser which is working fine except for one strange thing. It works fine for an hour or so after I boot up, but after the computer has been turned on for a while, usually around 3 - 4 hours, it starts happening.

If I click on any of my bookmarks, this message pops up

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Could not save file.
/home/myname/.opera/bookmarks.adr
Try again?
Another thing which starts happening at the same time as this (which might be related) is, when I open a terminal, there's a command already entered in there before I do anything and it's there every time I open the terminal.

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chmod: changing permissions of `/home/tim/tmp': Read-only file system
Is my computer trying to change permissions automatically?

Here's my permissions when the problem is happening:

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drwxr-xr-x  4 tim  tim    4096 Oct 25 04:31 home/

drwxr-xr-x 29 tim  tim   4096 Dec 11 12:36 tim/

drwx-w---- 14 tim tim  4096 Dec 11 15:27 .opera/

I also can't save anything after this problem starts. Text documents etc... nothing will save but if I try writing and saving documents just after the computer has booted up, it's fine. It's only after a few hours that the problems begin.

[Neal ManBear]

Timeth,
This is a new one for me. Lets see what we can do.

Something to try:
Delete everything in your /tmp directory and rename your .opera folder to .opera_old. Reboot and see if the problem recurs.

[timeth]

Thanks for your reply Neal. I didn't have access to this computer for about a month but I'm back on it and have tried out your suggestions but unfortunately the same problems persist. After the computer has been on for a few hours, the same errors I explained above re-appear. I tried switching on and just leaving the computer without doing anything and it seems that after a certain amount of time (a few hours) the strange behaviour begins. I can reboot the computer which fixes the problem but again after a few hours, it returns.

Do you Neal, or anyone else have any suggestions that I might try?

Thanks for your help    

[Neal ManBear]

All I have are some questions.
Have you checked your hardware? Ran memory test?
You checked the media, didn't you?
Booting more than one system?
Have you tried reinstalling? (apps? system?)

[pags]

Have a konsole open and ready after starting the machine.  When it starts with the errors, switch to the konsole and run:

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df and

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mount
Post the results back here.

[timeth]

Thanks Neal and Pags 

The problem has just begun so here's the output of the commands you asked for Pags.

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$ df
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1             9.8G  1.8G  7.6G  19% /
/dev/hda6             1.2G   71M  1.1G   7% /home

Something strange here. Above, it says that my /home is only 1.2G but when I look at the partitions in PCC, it says 14G which is what it should be. Also, the swap partition is not listed above and neither is the other partition where I have the live cd mounted.

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$ mount
/dev/hda1 on / type ext2 (rw)
none on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620)
/dev/hda6 on /home type ext3 (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)


[pags]

That's odd...not sure what to think about that...

Could we get the results of

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fdisk
and

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dmesg
dmesg might be better served if you use

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dmesg > dmesg.tmp
and upload the dmesg.tmp file

[Rudge]

Another thing which starts happening at the same time as this (which might be related) is, when I open a terminal, there's a command already entered in there before I do anything and it's there every time I open the terminal.

Are you using "Konsole"

This could be a clue.

[timeth]

@Rudge        Hi Rudge,

Are you using "Konsole"

This could be a clue.

No, I'm using LXTerminal. Should I use Konsole?



@Pags      Here's the output from those commands.

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# fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3648 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfe53fe53

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *         281        1568    10345860   83  Linux
/dev/hda2            1569        3648    16707600    5  Extended
/dev/hda3               1         280     2249068+  83  Linux
/dev/hda5            1569        1809     1935801   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6            1810        3648    14771736   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order



Output from dmesg attached.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Neal ManBear]

Another thing which starts happening at the same time as this (which might be related) is, when I open a terminal, there's a command already entered in there before I do anything and it's there every time I open the terminal.

What is the command? It might help to know what it is.

[timeth]

This is the command that shows up immediately when I open a terminal:

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chmod: changing permissions of `/home/tim/tmp': Read-only file system


[Neal ManBear]

This is the command that shows up immediately when I open a terminal:

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chmod: changing permissions of `/home/tim/tmp': Read-only file system


Now that is odd! This is already entered whether you open a terminal at start up or any time later? Have you tried typing <Enter>?

[timeth]

Now that is odd! This is already entered whether you open a terminal at start up or any time later? Have you tried typing <Enter>?

No, if I open the terminal anytime within the first 1 or 2 hours, it's fine. But after about 3 hours, if I open a terminal, that message is entered at the top and if I try to save anything e.g. text document or anything, it won't save and gives error messages, something like "....cannot save. this is a read only file system".

Do you think this is sounding like a hardware problem? because I can just have the computer on for about 3 hours and do absolutely nothing on it, and when I open a terminal or try to save something, I get the errors. It seems like the amount of time that it's switched on is what's causing the problem. It is an older computer.

I haven't tried typing <Enter>. I'll try it tomorrow. I could just try reinstalling it I suppose.

Thanks for your help.   

[pags]

It is odd.
Older hardware...symptoms arise after being on for a time...
...could be hardware affected by heat.

Can you shut down, open the PC, clean it as best as possible (looking to remove accumulated dust, etc), and reseat cables, cards and memory?  Not sure of your comfort level with something like this, but it would help to minimize (but, not remove, unfortunately) hardware as a culprit.

After that, I would suggest making sure you're fully updated (possibly against another repository).

This is full-on troubleshooting, so you'll have to decide how much time you want to put into this (versus backing up all your data, checking the HW and re-installing and restoring).

Hopefully, if anyone else has any suggestions, they will voice them as well.

[timeth]

Hi Neal and pags,

Sorry to waste your time with this problem.    

I did a complete re-install and it's now running like a dream.    with none of the problems mentioned above.

Thanks for your help.