Thanks, Ray: I'll fill in some of the details that I left out.
* 'su' on the console works normally. See session below. I am not familiar with 'su -'. :-| It is a telnet session from a windows workstation: ------------------------------------------------- server login: gelmce Password: Linux 2.4.19. Last login: Mon Dec 29 14:02:26 -0500 2003 on pts/0 from web. No mail. Pause for storage relocation. [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ su root Password: setgid: Operation not permitted [EMAIL PROTECTED]:~$ whoami gelmce ------------------------------------------------- I've not noticed that "Pause for storage relocation." message before. I wonder what it means. > 3. Are any relevant filesystems misset to be read-only? (If your system > even has an hde drive, it is unusual in some respect.) Yes. I have a Maxtor (Promise) ATA-U100 add on IDE card. It controls /dev/hde,f,g,h. /dev/hda1 is mounted as '/' /dev/hda3 is mounted as '/usr' These are the only 'system' mounts, so /home/gelmce is on /dev/hda1. > (e.g., is > either relevant home directory an nfs share)? No. All (both) shares are separate file systems and are mounted from rc.local. This is all I can answer so far. I'll try your suggestions and return. Many thanks, Chuck > Ray Olszewski wrote: > > At 07:51 AM 12/29/2003 -0500, chuck gelm net wrote: > >Howdy: > > > > I broke something on my file server and now I can no longer > >'su' (root) remotely. When I try I get this error: > > > >setgid: Operation not permitted > > > > Often I logged on remotely and issued > > > >su > >cd /hde3 > >chmod -R 775 * > >chgrp -R users > > > >So that I could 'rw' the files in that directory > >from any of my Windows workstations. > >OBTW, ("/hde3" is /dev/hde3). > > > > What might I have done and how do I fix it? > > > > The system is an old amd-k6-266 running > >Slackware-8.0 kernel 2.4.19 configured as a file server > >using nfs and samba. > > "What might I have done" is always a tough question to answer. I'm assuming > a couple of details that you left out, namely that (a) the message you > quote occurs right after you enter the root password, with nothing in > between, and (b) the su then fails, leaving you at whatever userid you were > at before entering the "su" command. Also that the exact command you enter > is "su" (not, for example, "su -") and that it is entered at a > normal-looking command prompt. > > I'd check these things: > > 1. In /etc/passwd, is root still group 0? > 2. In /etc/group, is group 0 present and named "root"? > 3. Are any relevant filesystems misset to be read-only? (If your system > even has an hde drive, it is unusual in some respect.) > 4. Did anything odd get changed in /etc/login.defs? > 5. Did anything odd get added to root's profile (/root/.profile, I think)? > 6. Did you do any update to the system recently that might have introduced > a library mismatch with su? (I'm not sure which library has the setgid() > call, but glibc is likely.) > > Finally, have you tried a console login and su? If not, you should, to > detemine if the problem is connected with the remote aspect of the process. > If it is, you need to provide more detail about it ... telnet, ssh, rsh, or > what, for example? Might there be restrictions on what the system will > permit that login method to do? You mention that the system runs nfs and > samba ... do they play any obvious role in what you are doing (e.g., is > either relevant home directory an nfs share)? - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs