pmpatrick Posted May 9, 2009 Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 ls -l /bin/su-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 38532 2009-03-05 22:32 /bin/su* My permissions on su are different: $ ls -l /bin/su -rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 31696 2008-03-07 14:16 /bin/su* The "sr" indicates that su perms are SUID. You can change the permissions on your /bin/su by logging in as root on a virtual console like you did before and running: # chmod 4755 /bin/su and then checking to make sure you have the same permissions as I do by running: # ls -l /bin/su It should change the permissions but su permissions and changes to them are usually done by security applications. The one mandriva uses is called msec which runs as a demon and it can reset any changed permissions that it doesn't like. The front end for msec is found in the mandriva control center>Security>Set up security level. I suspect that you may have setup msec at a very high security level; one which doesn't allow ordinary users to su to root and open other administrative applications. To check all this out, I would recommend you login to a gui root session by doing the following: 1. Reboot and when you get to the grub screen hit F3 and then "3" instead of "1" like you did last time; 2. That will take you to a command line login prompt. Login as root and run: # startx 3. That should start your defalt gui(kde or gnome). You will have full root privileges from within this environment so be careful. Check out your security setting in mcc and see if anything looks off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
payasam Posted May 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 9, 2009 Thank you, pmpatrick. I was about to come here to announce that my problems are over because I have re-installed 2009.1. As user remained the same and /home was not disturbed, I am in effect back to what I had made and not a thing is lost. The security level I choose is always "normal", so that cannot have been the cause of the difficulty with the root password. I lost patience because of other difficulties: printer did not function, USB stick was not recognised, audio was dead, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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