May be some some system groups change gid during system upgrade. In this case mlocate created before upgrade retains old gid and loses ability to read mlocate.db. I have access to several hosts and mlocate group have different gid there. Of course it does not explain what removes sgid.
Possible workaround is to reinstall mlocate package: sudo aptitude resintall mlocate -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/281471 Title: Unable to use 'locate' to locate files mlocate.db permission denied To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-eee/+bug/281471/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
