nautilus root problem

[obis666]

what part of GNOME is locking up? Does everything else still work if you kill Nautilus (nautilus -q, killall nautilus, etc)? If the problem is persisting across users then it's probably a bit more serious...

When I log into Gnome normally or with a failsafe Gnome, it just hangs, sometimes the desktop image and the panels show up, but none of the menu's work. Nothing works, I cannot bring up a terminal, nautilus, or any applications within gnome. All that I have is a an image and non-working panels. And yes the problem exists for all users. I create a new user and the user functions normally for one session (until logout) and then the same problem.

Using Nautilus as Root is UNSUPPORTED, UNTESTED, AND DANGEROUS.
DO NOT RUN NAUTILUS AS ROOT, EVEN FOR "SIMPLE, HARMLESS TASKS".
(blinking red text would have been better...)

I'm not really sure where this message originated, but I have never seen this before in my life. If I had ever seen something like this before, I assure you I would not have posted anything here (Its not as if I knew it was a risk and went ahead and did it anyway), I would have first: not have done it in the first place, and second: I would have known that the problem I am having is what goes along with using something unsupported. This is not the case here, I am one to use manuals and follow them. However, I have used >sudo nautilus countless times, in at least 25 distro's and never once had a problem like this before.

Also just to be clear, does your cautionary statement include using gksudo? (suggested earlier by logos34)

[Awalton]

I'm not really sure where this message originated, but I have never seen this before in my life.

You have now. Remember it, and remember it well. (Maybe I should fly it in my signature or something...) Nautilus was not designed to run as the root user, it does all kinds of I/O on all kinds of files at its own will, and isn't well tuned to not touch or modify files it shouldn't (normally it's jailed by permissions to know which files not to touch, but when you're running as root, you're giving Nautilus permission to run amok). Running Nautilus as root should be considered as harmful as running as root all of the time. And we know how glamorous Windows makes that look...

However, I have used >sudo nautilus countless times, in at least 25 distro's and never once had a problem like this before.

Metaphorically, "I've had unprotected sex dozens of times, this is my first time catching an STD!" It's no different.

Also just to be clear, does your cautionary statement include using gksudo? (suggested earlier by logos34)

It includes every possible way of escalating Nautilus' permissions, including gksudo. The correct way would be to integrate something like PolicyKit into Nautilus with very fine grained privileges for these kinds of tasks, with explicit permission and confirmation for each task, but no such additions have been made as of yet. But for now, be smart: Use the smallest possible hammer to fix problems, don't drag out the wrecking ball to tap in a few nails.

When I log into Gnome normally or with a failsafe Gnome, it just hangs, sometimes the desktop image and the panels show up, but none of the menu's work. Nothing works, I cannot bring up a terminal, nautilus, or any applications within gnome. All that I have is a an image and non-working panels. And yes the problem exists for all users. I create a new user and the user functions normally for one session (until logout) and then the same problem.

As per this problem, can you check the permissions and ownership on the files that you added to /usr/share/sounds? You'll probably want to verify permissions and ownership of other files as well... It's weird to me that it would function for one log-in and then break when you log out, though. When you log in for the first time, are their any gnome-related processes running as root? Can you try clearing out all of your session's temporary files and assure the permissions on all of the other files?

Also, to change permissions on the .gvfs mount point, kill any and all running instances of gvfs processes including the fuse daemon, then do so. GVFS processes are started on demand, so this should be fine. But it shouldn't matter though, I don't think gvfs-fuse not being able to mount would cause such a hang (maybe it's a bug?) And it shouldn't matter at all if you don't have gvfs-fuse installed...

Once you've done all of this and restarted and confirmed its still a problem, you should check to see what's actually hanging. Go out to a VT and grab a list of processes (ps aux at least) and come back to us. We'll need a lot more info to diagnose this one. It could be as simple as bad permissions on a temporary file that we can't write to and need to in order to start certain processes, to an install-destroying badly thumbnailed text configuration file that could take ages to discover (yes, Nautilus thumbnails text files too, but that's only a small part of the reason Nautilus should never be ran as root)...

[oneferna]

It's always about sex with you guys, isn't it? If you don't know how to fix the problem, just move along.

I know nautilus developers and have been using nautilus since about 2001. We've certainly run it was root. You should run it with gksudo though.

Please post the output of:
ps -aux

To copy and paste it easier you can:
ps -aux > output_ps
and then open it with your favorite text editor and copy and paste here.

[Awalton]

It's always about sex with you guys, isn't it? If you don't know how to fix the problem, just move along.

I don't have enough information to fix the problem, and requested it in my last post (which you seem to have reiterated). And giving a metaphor as to why abhorrent behavior should NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BE REINFORCED is deemed helpful in most universes. Sigh, c'est la vie. Maybe someday people will listen to advice instead of, well, breaking their systems.

I know nautilus developers and have been using nautilus since about 2001.

Funny that. I am a Nautilus developer, GIO and GVFS developer (feel free to look up the changelogs on those too). Let me say this again: Nautilus is not safe to be ran as root, period. Same goes for the vast majority of programs like it (spawning tons of processes, doing untold I/O on files that it normally doesn't have permission to even read, etc). If it breaks your system, you can keep all of the pieces. I know for a fact the code I've written inside of GVFS shouldn't be ran as root, and as Nautilus spawns gvfsd, and gvfsd spawns gvfs-network... well you get my point.

If this is indeed Nautilus' fault and not something else going on (bad permissions on a file is currently top of the list), the whole issue would have been avoided by using mv. It's a lesson to be learned.

[obis666]

Sorry its been a week or something, I have been busy and it takes forever to go through all the steps to make a working profile. Anyway... I had to create a 6th profile and here is what I got from the ps aux:



USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
root 1 0.0 0.0 2844 1688 ? Ss 01:42 0:01 /sbin/init
root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [kthreadd]
root 3 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [migration/0]
root 4 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:01 [ksoftirqd/0]
root 5 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [watchdog/0]
root 6 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [events/0]
root 7 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [khelper]
root 42 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [kblockd/0]
root 45 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [kacpid]
root 46 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [kacpi_notify]
root 120 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [kseriod]
root 154 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 01:42 0:00 [pdflush]
root 156 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:02 [kswapd0]
root 197 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [aio/0]
root 1462 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [ksuspend_usbd]
root 1465 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [khubd]
root 1498 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [ata/0]
root 1505 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [ata_aux]
root 2126 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [scsi_eh_0]
root 2128 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [scsi_eh_1]
root 2446 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [kjournald]
root 2649 0.0 0.0 2520 1040 ? S<s 01:42 0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon
root 2975 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [ipw2200/0]
root 2980 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [kpsmoused]
root 3857 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [pccardd]
root 4388 0.0 0.0 1716 512 tty4 Ss+ 01:42 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
root 4389 0.0 0.0 1716 512 tty5 Ss+ 01:42 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
root 4393 0.0 0.0 1716 508 tty2 Ss+ 01:42 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
root 4394 0.0 0.0 1716 512 tty3 Ss+ 01:42 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
root 4396 0.0 0.0 1716 508 tty6 Ss+ 01:42 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
root 4571 0.0 0.0 2456 1352 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/acpid -c /etc/acpi/events -s /var/run/acpid.socket
root 4616 0.3 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:09 [kondemand/0]
syslog 4679 0.0 0.0 1936 688 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /sbin/syslogd -u syslog
root 4731 0.0 0.0 1872 536 ? S 01:42 0:00 /bin/dd bs 1 if /proc/kmsg of /var/run/klogd/kmsg
klog 4734 0.0 0.1 3300 2128 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /sbin/klogd -P /var/run/klogd/kmsg
108 4756 0.1 0.0 2964 1460 ? Ss 01:42 0:02 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
root 4773 0.0 0.1 21212 2268 ? Ssl 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/NetworkManager --pid-file /var/run/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.pid
root 4787 0.0 0.0 3536 1316 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/NetworkManagerDispatcher --pid-file /var/run/NetworkManager/NetworkManagerDispatcher.pid
root 4800 0.0 0.1 4476 2196 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/bin/system-tools-backends
root 4829 0.0 0.0 5312 988 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
avahi 4850 0.0 0.0 2760 1412 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 avahi-daemon: running [old-profile-lappie.local]
avahi 4851 0.0 0.0 2760 464 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 avahi-daemon: chroot helper
root 4891 0.0 0.1 6040 2516 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd
root 4941 0.0 0.0 6524 1372 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/nmbd -D
root 4943 0.0 0.1 10112 2744 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
root 4981 0.0 0.0 2020 904 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/dhcdbd --system
root 5000 0.0 0.0 10112 1068 ? S 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/smbd -D
111 5001 0.0 0.2 6296 4372 ? Ss 01:42 0:02 /usr/sbin/hald
root 5004 0.0 0.1 7884 2368 ? Ssl 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/console-kit-daemon
root 5066 0.0 0.0 3352 1176 ? S 01:42 0:00 hald-runner
root 5079 0.0 0.0 3416 1156 ? S 01:42 0:00 hald-addon-input: Listening on /dev/input/event6 /dev/input/event7 /dev/input/event1 /dev/input/event3 /dev/input/event4 /dev/input/event5
root 5098 0.0 0.0 3428 1236 ? S 01:42 0:00 /usr/lib/hal/hald-addon-cpufreq
111 5099 0.0 0.0 2204 904 ? S 01:42 0:00 hald-addon-acpi: listening on acpid socket /var/run/acpid.socket
root 5113 0.0 0.0 3420 1156 ? S 01:42 0:00 hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/scd0 (every 2 sec)
root 5159 0.0 0.0 3172 1260 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/hcid -x -s
root 5165 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [btaddconn]
root 5166 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [btdelconn]
root 5175 0.0 0.0 3020 1116 ? S 01:42 0:00 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd-service-input
root 5179 0.0 0.0 3084 1308 ? S 01:42 0:00 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd-service-audio
root 5182 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:42 0:00 [krfcommd]
root 5242 0.0 0.0 14060 1656 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/gdm
dhcp 5256 0.0 0.0 2440 1188 ? S 01:42 0:00 /sbin/dhclient -1 -lf /var/lib/dhcp3/dhclient.eth0.leases -pf /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid -q -e dhc_dbus=31 -d eth0
daemon 5295 0.0 0.0 1984 424 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/atd
root 5311 0.0 0.0 2104 892 ? Ss 01:42 0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
root 5423 0.0 0.0 1716 508 tty1 Ss+ 01:42 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty1
old-profile 5754 0.0 0.2 5992 4160 ? SN 01:48 0:00 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2 4
old-profile 5832 0.0 0.0 2700 1064 ? Ss 01:48 0:00 dbus-daemon --fork --print-address 24 --print-pid 26 --session
old-profile 5841 0.0 0.1 5184 3596 ? SL 01:48 0:00 esd -nobeeps
old-profile 5861 0.0 0.9 39648 18652 ? S 01:48 0:00 gnome-panel --sm-client-id default1
old-profile 5869 0.0 0.1 31904 3180 ? Ssl 01:48 0:00 /usr/lib/bonobo-activation/bonobo-activation-server --ac-activate --ior-output-fd=16
old-profile 5890 0.0 0.1 5372 2080 ? S 01:48 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd
old-profile 5900 0.0 0.0 29048 1876 ? Ssl 01:48 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs//gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/old-profile/.gvfs
old-profile 5946 0.0 0.5 30616 10388 ? SNl 01:48 0:00 trackerd
old-profile 6006 0.0 0.1 22168 2672 ? S 01:48 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-trash --spawner :1.4 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/0
old-profile 6016 0.0 0.6 29472 12464 ? S 01:48 0:00 /usr/lib/gnome-applets/mixer_applet2 --oaf-activate-iid=OAFIID:GNOME_MixerApplet_Factory --oaf-ior-fd=23
root 6334 0.0 0.2 18464 4296 ? S 01:53 0:00 /usr/sbin/gdm
root 6337 1.5 1.1 38744 23004 tty7 Ss+ 01:53 0:32 /usr/bin/X :0 -br -audit 0 -auth /var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth -nolisten tcp vt7
new-profile 6382 0.0 0.2 7268 4332 ? S 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2 13
new-profile 6385 0.0 0.0 14340 2052 ? S 01:53 0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon -d --login
new-profile 6389 0.0 0.3 28860 7508 ? Ssl 01:53 0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-session
new-profile 6503 0.0 0.3 22916 6572 ? Ss 01:53 0:00 /usr/bin/seahorse-agent --execute /usr/bin/gnome-session
new-profile 6507 0.0 0.0 2700 1076 ? Ss 01:53 0:00 dbus-daemon --fork --print-address 24 --print-pid 26 --session
new-profile 6510 0.0 0.4 39852 10064 ? Sl 01:53 0:01 gnome-settings-daemon
new-profile 6531 0.0 0.1 5372 2084 ? S 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd
new-profile 6539 0.2 1.0 41336 22460 ? S 01:53 0:04 gnome-panel --sm-client-id default1
new-profile 6542 4.9 2.6 120588 55524 ? Sl 01:53 1:46 nautilus --no-default-window --sm-client-id default2
new-profile 6545 0.0 0.1 15216 2628 ? Ss 01:53 0:02 gnome-screensaver
new-profile 6553 0.0 0.1 31904 3176 ? Ssl 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/bonobo-activation/bonobo-activation-server --ac-activate --ior-output-fd=16
new-profile 6609 0.0 0.1 22164 2668 ? S 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-trash --spawner :1.3 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/0
new-profile 6610 0.0 0.2 14608 5728 ? S 01:53 0:00 bluetooth-applet --singleton
new-profile 6618 0.0 0.5 26916 10872 ? S 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/gnome-applets/trashapplet --oaf-activate-iid=OAFIID:GNOME_Panel_TrashApplet_Factory --oaf-ior-fd=19
new-profile 6625 0.0 0.2 15220 5516 ? S 01:53 0:00 tracker-applet
new-profile 6628 0.0 0.4 28644 9556 ? Sl 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/evolution/2.22/evolution-alarm-notify
new-profile 6632 0.0 0.5 31640 10416 ? SNl 01:53 0:00 trackerd
new-profile 6635 0.0 0.5 31100 12372 ? S 01:53 0:01 nm-applet --sm-disable
new-profile 6636 0.0 0.5 24268 12176 ? S 01:53 0:00 python /usr/share/system-config-printer/applet.py
new-profile 6638 0.0 0.4 23456 8636 ? Ss 01:53 0:00 gnome-power-manager
new-profile 6639 0.0 0.2 20668 4700 ? Ss 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/gnome-volume-manager/gnome-volume-manager --sm-disable
new-profile 6692 0.0 0.7 47824 15128 ? Sl 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/gnome-applets/mixer_applet2 --oaf-activate-iid=OAFIID:GNOME_MixerApplet_Factory --oaf-ior-fd=23
new-profile 6696 0.0 0.6 29236 13260 ? S 01:53 0:00 /usr/lib/fast-user-switch-applet/fast-user-switch-applet --oaf-activate-iid=OAFIID:GNOME_FastUserSwitchApplet_Factory --oaf-ior-fd=26
new-profile 6703 0.0 0.0 1772 480 ? Ss 01:53 0:00 /bin/sh -c /usr/bin/compiz-decorator
new-profile 6704 0.0 0.0 1772 508 ? S 01:53 0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/compiz-decorator
new-profile 6706 0.0 0.4 18328 9708 ? S 01:53 0:00 /usr/bin/gtk-window-decorator
new-profile 6738 0.2 0.5 20776 12236 ? S 01:54 0:05 metacity --replace
root 6751 0.0 0.5 13136 11200 ? S 01:54 0:00 /usr/bin/perl /usr/share//system-tools-backends-2.0/scripts/SystemToolsBackends.pl -m Platform
root 6949 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:56 0:00 [scsi_eh_2]
root 6951 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 01:56 0:01 [usb-storage]
new-profile 7109 0.1 0.9 69304 19660 ? Sl 01:58 0:02 gnome-terminal
new-profile 7111 0.0 0.0 2912 860 ? S 01:58 0:00 gnome-pty-helper
new-profile 7112 0.0 0.0 4604 1956 pts/0 Ss 01:58 0:00 bash
root 7129 0.0 0.0 4104 1720 pts/0 S+ 01:58 0:00 bash
root 8288 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 02:14 0:00 [pdflush]
new-profile 8314 4.4 4.3 214276 90756 ? Sl 02:14 0:38 /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b5/firefox
new-profile 8468 0.0 0.0 4624 2008 pts/1 Ss 02:17 0:00 bash
new-profile 8613 0.4 0.9 34184 18656 ? S 02:20 0:02 gedit file:///home/new-profile/output_ps
new-profile 8976 0.0 0.0 2644 1004 pts/1 R+ 02:29 0:00 ps aux


I really am just about ready to just re-install, but I dont want to have the same issues again so I'de like to figure out what I'm doing wrong so I dont run into the same problems. I really need to run linux I hate booting into windows (blah). Thanks in advance.

[obis666]

Anyone have any ideas before I end this session and install something else? I'de really prefer not to re-install, but I cant do anything with the system the way it is.

[fmonjaraz]

I keep getting this error message "Nautilus cannot handle computer: locations", I can't get into my external hardrive or zip disks. Any hints???

[obis666]

I also have had this problem with the latest Ubuntu. I have no idea why its happening but it is easily mounted from terminal. Other than that I dont know what to tell you.

[fmonjaraz]

how do you do that??

[obis666]

first identify the drive you want to mount with:
sudo fdisk -l

you should get back something like this:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 510 4096543+ 1b Hidden W95 FAT32
/dev/sda2 * 511 6303 46532272+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3 6304 16827 84534030 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 16828 19457 21125475 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 16828 17313 3903763+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 17314 19457 17221648+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xaf5fe0b5

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 60802 488386552+ b W95 FAT32

usually the external drive or zip disk is in a separate group, for me my external drive is /dev/sdb1 , I can tell because I know the drive is 500gb and it is FAT32

now go to you media directory with:
cd /media

then create the directory you want to mount the device under:
sudo mkdir external

you can name it anything but I usually name it whatever the drive is already labeled as

then mount the device with:
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/external

if your drive is ntfs just add:
sudo mount -t ntfs /dev/sdb1 /media/external

the t is for type (I think), if its something else like mac or fat32 you just have to identify the type of drive.

I know it seems like a lot if you have never done this before (No offense but I assume you haven't done this before) but after you've done it a few times its not to hard. Hope that helps.