Weird Problems with User Home Directory , Asking for help

[Matthew Seaman]

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On 22/03/2010 23:47:44, Aaron Lewis wrote:
> Looks like i found the problem , i thought i've made a mistake.
> 
> I shouldn't use `pw user add aaron' right ?
> That won't create user home directory , when i found i've got no home
> directory.
> So at that time , i created it and change the owner to my user.

pw user add is fine for creating accounts.  It should create the home
directory for you if given the right arguments.  Even so, just creating
the home directory by hand after creating the account should not be a
problem.

> $ sudo tail -f /var/log/auth.log
> login: _secure_path: cannot stat /home/frozen/.login_conf: Permission
> denied   // Strange , pay attention to user permissions below

This means that the ownership/permissions of one of the directories in
the path up to /home/frozen is wrong. Implied is that it is possible for
non-root to substitute their own copy of /home/frozen/.login_conf
somehow.  What's the output from:

   ls -ld / /home

(Add /usr/home to that list if /home is a sym-link)

Is there anything unusual about how the filesystem is mounted?

>                                                                        
>                                                // I don't know why
> `stat' function fails ..
> 
> $ ls -ld /home/frozen
> drwxr-xr-x  3 frozen  frozen  512 Mar  5 22:36 /home/frozen/
> $ ls -lah /home/frozen/.login_conf
> -rw-r--r--  1 frozen  frozen  171 Dec  3 14:34 /home/frozen/.login_conf
> 
> BTW: ssh login with user frozen is fine.

Which is a little disconcerting, because ssh is pretty anal about file
permissions itself, but it isn't triggering the problem here.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

- -- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
                                                  Kent, CT11 9PW
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