Mageia forum

Hi everyone!
I have installed Mageia not that long ago and tonight I thought I would install Chromium ( or Chrome ) as a 2nd browser beside firefox. I clicked on the Applications Launcher Menu ( the start button) then I clicked on Install & Remove Software and a little window opened telling me that I have "Unsufficient rights" to do so. Then I clicked on Tools->Tools Setup->Mageia Control Center and the same little window opened telling me again that I have "Unsufficient rights".
I supposed I could login as "root" and try to fix this but can I just do it from a terminal?
I should add that I might very well have replaced the content of my Home from one from another distro by mistake instead of just replacing My Documents. Any help will be welcome.

I don't know if this will help;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ cd /
[rejean@localhost /]$ ls -l
total 396
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root      7 May 10 17:59 bin -> usr/bin/
drwxr-xr-x   4 1000 root   4096 Jul 31 22:14 boot/
-rw-------   1 1000 root 329265 Jul 19 04:02 dead.letter
drwxr-xr-x  21 root root   3920 Jul 31 22:14 dev/
drwxr-xr-x 113 1000 root  12288 Jul 31 20:51 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root   4096 May 11 23:07 home/
drwxr-xr-x   2 1000 root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 initrd/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root      7 May 10 17:59 lib -> usr/lib/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root      9 May 10 17:59 lib64 -> usr/lib64/
drwx------   2 1000 root  16384 May 10 17:58 lost+found/
drwxr-xr-x   3 1000 root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 media/
drwxr-xr-x   2 1000 root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 mnt/
drwxr-xr-x   2 1000 root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 opt/
dr-xr-xr-x 146 root root      0 Jul 31 19:14 proc/
drwxr-x---   8 1000 root   4096 Jul 19 04:17 root/
drwxr-xr-x  24 root root    660 Jul 31 22:15 run/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root      8 May 10 17:59 sbin -> usr/sbin/
drwxr-xr-x   2 1000 root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 srv/
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root      0 Jul 31 19:14 sys/
drwxrwxrwt  15 root root    360 Jul 31 22:33 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x  14 1000 root   4096 May 10 18:10 usr/
drwxr-xr-x  15 1000 root   4096 May 31 00:27 var/
[rejean@localhost /]$


the owner of files on the root folder should be root (not 1000),
so you should open a terminal, login as root with

su -

and then change the file owner for each file

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cd /
chown root *

to install chromium you can type (as root)

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urpmi chromium-browser

but I think you have some other permission problem on your machine,
could you show us the output of these 2 commands?

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cd /home
ls -l
cd /usr
ls -l


I sure didn't go very far;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$



for the rest;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ cd /home
[rejean@localhost home]$ ls -l
total 20
drwx------  2 root   root   16384 Dec 10  2012 lost+found/
drwxr-xr-x 37 rejean rejean  4096 Aug  1 09:57 rejean/
[rejean@localhost home]$ cd /usr
[rejean@localhost usr]$ ls -l
total 256
drwxr-xr-x   3 1000 root  69632 Jul 19 03:01 bin/
drwxr-xr-x   2 1000 root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   2 1000 root   4096 May 31 00:31 games/
drwxr-xr-x  40 1000 root   4096 May 10 18:33 include/
drwxr-xr-x  54 1000 root  20480 Jul 19 03:01 lib/
drwxr-xr-x 132 1000 root 110592 Jul 19 03:01 lib64/
drwxr-xr-x  13 1000 root   4096 Jun 28 21:00 libexec/
drwxr-xr-x  13 1000 root   4096 May 10 17:59 local/
drwxr-xr-x   2 1000 root  20480 Jul 19 02:57 sbin/
drwxr-xr-x 202 1000 root   4096 May 31 00:40 share/
drwxr-xr-x   6 1000 root   4096 Jul 19 02:59 src/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root     10 May 10 17:59 tmp -> ../var/tmp/
drwxr-xr-x   3 1000 root   4096 Apr 22 03:29 X11R6/
[rejean@localhost usr]$


I tried to logout and log back in as "root' and was told that root login wasn't allowed. So I might have to reinstall I guess.

you can save your system but it will require a bit of time;
as first step you need a way to use the root account.

if you can't remember the root password (or the system is not accepting it)
you can start the machine in rescue mode by adding this command to the start line of the kernel
(at startup, press ESC and edit the kernel command line adding these words)

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systemd.unit=rescue.target

at the end of the boot you will logged in a console (no graphic login available in this mode) as root,
so you can change the roor password with the command

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passwd

now you can reboot, open a terninal ans become root using the command

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su -

(note that there is also a minus sign in the command)

Hi Tom!
I have several distros installed on this machine so I have a /boot partition on sda1. Trying to click on Esc right after I clicked Enter while the entry for Mageia (on sdb14) was highlited didn't work ( neither pressing on Enter and on ESC after did). But their is an entry to start Mageia in Rescue Mode so I chose it then chose Failsafe and at the command line I typed;

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# passwd


then I was asked for a password I typed the same that I am sure I had chosen when I installed and repeated it. Then i rebooted in normal mode and after that;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$



I'll retry the same process and choose another password after I logout and in again as root and see what happens.
Thanks!

I redid the whole thing. Chose a new password. Then I got:

passwd: all authentication tokens updated

I reboot into Mageia in normal mode then;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$


same old same old. Before retrying I had logout and back as root and it wouldn't be accepted.

I am replying to you from Mageia so it is not that it is not working just that I don't have any root power.

rejean wrote:[rejean@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
su: Authentication failure

this is strange, but it could be related to the wrong rights you have in your machine.

you can fix the file owner from the rescue mode console,
using the command chown (the file owner should change from 1000 to root):

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cd \
chown root *            # change owner on the root folder not recursivly
chown -R root * /etc # change owner on the /etc folder recursivly
...


read man chown to see more options

pay attention that some file/folder could need to have a non root owner,
like your home (which is now correctly setted to your user)

rejean wrote:[rejean@localhost ~]$ cd /home
[rejean@localhost home]$ ls -l
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 37 rejean rejean 4096 Aug 1 09:57 rejean/

or apache/svn/mysql data, usually the are in /var folder,
so avoid to change the file owner recursively on the whole hard disk

you could also use a simple script like this one (from the rescue console):

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find \ -uid 1000 -exec echo chown root {} \;

(note the space between {} and \)

search recursively from \ for files with owner 1000 and then exec the command
"echo chown root filename" on each of such file

if you see that the output is correct, you can run the command without the "echo" command,
so that the command will work on the files

we are making some progress! I did your last command " find" etc. and after that;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ cd /
[rejean@localhost /]$ ls -l
total 396
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root      7 May 10 17:59 bin -> usr/bin/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root   4096 Aug  2 10:13 boot/
-rw-------   1 root root 329265 Jul 19 04:02 dead.letter
drwxr-xr-x  21 root root   3920 Aug  2 10:14 dev/
drwxr-xr-x 113 root root  12288 Aug  1 22:42 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root   4096 May 11 23:07 home/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 initrd/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root      7 May 10 17:59 lib -> usr/lib/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root      9 May 10 17:59 lib64 -> usr/lib64/
drwx------   2 root root  16384 May 10 17:58 lost+found/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 media/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 mnt/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 opt/
dr-xr-xr-x 156 root root      0 Aug  2 07:13 proc/
drwxr-x---   9 root root   4096 Aug  1 22:26 root/
drwxr-xr-x  24 root root    660 Aug  2 10:14 run/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root      8 May 10 17:59 sbin -> usr/sbin/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   4096 Apr  1 17:49 srv/
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root      0 Aug  2 07:13 sys/
drwxrwxrwt  14 root root    340 Aug  2 10:15 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x  14 root root   4096 May 10 18:10 usr/
drwxr-xr-x  15 root root   4096 May 31 00:27 var/
[rejean@localhost /]$



Unfortunately;

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[rejean@localhost /]$ su -
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost /]$


it failed on links
reading the man page I saw that the -h parameter is required to change a link owner,
so type (as root)

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cd /
chown -h root *

I have tried your command and didn't see anything happening but I got another prompt so I assumed something did happened. After rebooting normally I got the same thing;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$ cd /
[rejean@localhost /]$ ls -l
total 25380
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root        7 May 10 17:59 bin -> usr/bin/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root     4096 Aug  2 14:34 boot/
-rw-------   1 root root 25914535 Aug  2 12:10 dead.letter
drwxr-xr-x  21 root root     3920 Aug  2 14:34 dev/
drwxr-xr-x 113 root root    12288 Aug  2 14:33 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root     4096 May 11 23:07 home/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 initrd/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root        7 May 10 17:59 lib -> usr/lib/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root        9 May 10 17:59 lib64 -> usr/lib64/
drwx------   2 root root    16384 May 10 17:58 lost+found/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 media/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 mnt/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 opt/
dr-xr-xr-x 153 root root        0 Aug  2 11:33 proc/
drwxr-x---   9 root root     4096 Aug  1 22:26 root/
drwxr-xr-x  24 root root      660 Aug  2 14:34 run/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 1000 root        8 May 10 17:59 sbin -> usr/sbin/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 srv/
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root        0 Aug  2 11:33 sys/
drwxrwxrwt  13 root root      320 Aug  2 14:34 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x  14 root root     4096 May 10 18:10 usr/
drwxr-xr-x  15 root root     4096 May 31 00:27 var/
[rejean@localhost /]$




I have tested that command on my machine and it is working fine,
(i.e. it changed a link owner), so I can't understand why it fails on your.

you could try if it is better to avoid the *, i.e.

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cd /
chown -h root bin sbin lib lib64

BTW, what do you mean by

I got another prompt so I assumed something did happened

when you are root, the bash prompt is a #,
for users the bash prompt is a $.

in which way the prompt changed?

Sorry! What I meant was that after trying your command I got a bash prompt " # ", but very fast.
So I did your last command "chown -h root bin sbin lib lib64" then rebooted and right away I got a very small "Insufficient rights" window. As a matter of fact I had to close it 6 times to get rid of it.
And now I have;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ su
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$ cd /
[rejean@localhost /]$ ls -l
total 25380
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        7 May 10 17:59 bin -> usr/bin/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root     4096 Aug  3 16:49 boot/
-rw-------   1 root root 25914535 Aug  2 12:10 dead.letter
drwxr-xr-x  21 root root     3920 Aug  3 16:49 dev/
drwxr-xr-x 113 root root    12288 Aug  2 14:33 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root     4096 May 11 23:07 home/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 initrd/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        7 May 10 17:59 lib -> usr/lib/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        9 May 10 17:59 lib64 -> usr/lib64/
drwx------   2 root root    16384 May 10 17:58 lost+found/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 media/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 mnt/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 opt/
dr-xr-xr-x 153 root root        0 Aug  3 13:49 proc/
drwxr-x---   9 root root     4096 Aug  1 22:26 root/
drwxr-xr-x  24 root root      660 Aug  3 16:49 run/
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root        8 May 10 17:59 sbin -> usr/sbin/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root     4096 Apr  1 17:49 srv/
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root root        0 Aug  3 13:49 sys/
drwxrwxrwt  13 root root      320 Aug  3 16:49 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x  14 root root     4096 May 10 18:10 usr/
drwxr-xr-x  15 root root     4096 May 31 00:27 var/
[rejean@localhost /]$


At least we got rid of all the 1000. Now after login out and trying to login as "root' I get a message;

Root logins are not allowerd."

"Root login not allowed"

this message appears when you try to do a graphic login as user root,
and it is not allowed because via GUI it is easy to destroy the machine...

Are you sure you really need to do that?

please read also this thread
https://forums.mageia.org/en/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2722

BTW, have you checked if you can become root typing "su -" in a terminal?

The reason I try login in as root is to see if I can become root and I do it only after I try in a terminal;

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$


which I had shown in the previous reply.

It is fun to find out if I can get root's priviledge because now I cannot install new applications but also because right now I cannot even update my system. But if I "we" cannot get it working I'll just reinstall. I downloaded the latest .iso and I am ready when the time comes to reinstall.

"Authentication failure" means you didn't type the root password correctly.

Yes but I have changed the passwords twice and I can assure you that I have typed them properly. You could be right if I didn't realized it when I installed Mageia that the Caps were locked and that I have been trying to enter my password using small characters but changing the passwords twice I now this this is not the case.
Good suggestion however.

rejean wrote:Yes but I have changed the passwords twice and I can assure you that I have typed them properly.

Yes I missed that.
What happens if you go to a console with (Alt+Ctrl+F2) then login as root?

Then I get the following;

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PCLinuxOS release: 2013
kernel 3.4.11 -pclos...
localhost login: root
Password:  [here I entered what should be the most recent password]
Last login:  Sat. ...
[root@localhost~]#

You appear to be running a PCLinuxOS kernel on a Mageia install.
Perhaps it's time for a re-install wiping everything but /home if that's on it's own partition.

Sorry. While switching between Mageia and PCLinuxOS I tried the command in the wrong OS.
Here it goes doing Alt+Ctrl+F2;

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Mageia 3 (Official) for x86_64
kernel 3.8.13.4-desktop-1.mga on Dual-processor x86_64 /tty2
Password:
Last login; Sat. ...
[root@localhost ~]#

Now try loging in as rejean in that console then using su to switch user to root.

It did not work.
I was in Mageia did Alt+Ctrl+F2 then I got a login prompt. I typed in my name (rejean) then I entered my password and I got a [rejean@localhost]$

then I tried

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[rejean@localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
su: Authentication failure
[rejean@localhost ~]$

as usual. I think I'll reinstall tomorrow morning.