[ubuntu] Access to folders broken on upgrade

[jaklumen]

I got the $HOME/.dmrc file is being ignored error at the login screen when I upgraded to Intrepid.

I followed these instructions at this site here
(I replaced 'xx' with my username as indicated):

sudo chmod 644 /home/xx/.dmrc
sudo chown xx/home/xx/.dmrc
sudo chmod -R 700 /home/xx
sudo chown -R xx/home/xx

The first three commands worked without a hitch, but got the following error

chown: missing operand after `jaklumen/home/jaklumen'

on the fourth.

I cannot access Home folders from the "Places" menu on the taskbar, but only if I click on a mounted secondary drive on the Desktop. I'm fairly certain if I could properly execute chown on the fourth command, it would fix it, but I'm really not a coder and I don't really know how to do it.

Any help would sure be appreciated. When I was out in the Google jungle looking for solutions, so to speak, it seemed the .dmrc error was pretty common when upgrading. The Blogger post I linked to seemed to have the most complete solution, but I couldn't get it all to work.

[dave.com]

Line 2 looks more like the code for your "error on line 4" syntax:

sudo chown xx/home/xx/.dmrc

I may be wrong but chown usually goes like this

# chown xxx:yyy /home/xxx

where xxx is user name and yyy is group name thus you can make user is owned by user - eg.

#chown dave:dave /home/dave
#chown dave:dave /home/dave/.dmrc
#chmod 644 /home/dave/.dmrc

Is root owned by root:

# ls -la /bin/su

This should return "# -rws-xr-x 1 root (the '1' before root indicates the number of links to this file). To set default root permissions:

#chown root:root /bin/su
#chmod 4755 /bin/su

A checklist:

#ls -l /bin/su 
#ls -l /etc/group
#ls -l /etc/passwd

If you ever need to add read and execute permissions to root (if that has changed for any reason):

#chmod a+rx /
or
#chmod 755 /

All this info used to be posted in the Gentoo archives, so visit the Gentoo site and give a thank you to some forum Mod there if you find it usefull.

[jaklumen]

Originally Posted by dave.com Is root owned by root: # ls -la /bin/su This should return "# -rws-xr-x 1 root (the '1' before root indicates the number of links to this file).

Yes.

To set default root permissions: #chown root:root /bin/su #chmod 4755 /bin/su

I get the following error message: chown: changing ownership of `/bin/su': Operation not permitted

A checklist: #ls -l /bin/su #ls -l /etc/group #ls -l /etc/passwd

Returns
-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 31012 2008-06-09 11:10 /bin/su
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1390 2008-10-18 17:25 /etc/group
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1932 2008-10-18 17:25 /etc/passwd

in that respective order.

If you ever need to add read and execute permissions to root (if that has changed for any reason): #chmod a+rx / or #chmod 755 /

Get the following error message:
chmod: changing permissions of `/': Operation not permitted

[jaklumen]

Anyone? Still need a little more help.

[jaklumen]

C'mon... this really isn't exactly intuitive here.