Re: [cobalt-developers] root access problem

["The Thieving Gypsy" <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Recently when trying to change me to root this error does appear, does
> somebody know to what it is or as I can correct it?
>
> [admin admin]$ su -
> Password:
> su: warning: cannot change directory to /root: Permission denied
> su: cannot set groups: Operation not permitted
>
> Ahead of time I thank you the help.
> Ed


Telnet into your machine as admin, and enter "ls -l /bin/su".  You *should*
get back this, if everything is okay:

 -rwsr-xr-x   1 root     root        14612 May 30  2000 /bin/su

If the "owner" bits aren't "rws", then the SetUID has been removed from it,
and it won't be able to let you su ever again unless its changed.  The
easiest way of changing it (especially if you don't have physical access to
the machine) is to knock up a quick .pkg and install it from the GUI.
Download the Cobalt instructions from
ftp.cobalt.com/pub/developer/TechNotes/DTN2-0-8.pdf  (if you're on a RaQ3 or
4)  It doesn't have to be pretty - you just need the absolute basics  -  a
packing_list file, a null-RPM so that the installation will get accepted by
the GUI, and the installation script called "upgrade_me".  The only stuff
that you need to put into the upgrade_me script is the command to reset the
SetUID bit on the su program. Through it into the GUI, and you should be
sorted.  It will tell you that it's failed, but it should have done the
trick.

Then you just need to worry about why it happened in the first place.

Cheers,
            Dave Rowlands

Verio UK