[stufine]

I accidentally gave full permissions to my /etc directory on my SCO OpenServer 5 server. Certain things stopped working. So I went back to change the permissions back to normal. I compared them to another server but certain commands still dont work.

When I do a su it says
su: Your own ID is unknown.

When I try to add a user I get an error because it cant make the home directory??

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to fix this???

Thanks in advance!!!

[codejockey]

Your permissions may not be correct on the /etc directory (mine is 755). Also, is it possible you reset not only the permissions for the /etc directory, but also for the files it contains? What are your current permissions for /etc, /etc/shadow and for /etc/passwd? Note: as a normal (non-root) user, if you try ls -l in your home directory, do you see that your files are owned by you or do you see that they are owned by some userid number? If you don't see yourself as the owner of your files, suspect incorrect permissions on /etc/passwd.

Also, if you can't su to root, you will not likely be able to create new directories in /home (or wherever you use for the base of your user home directories).

Hope this helps.

[stufine]

Sorry for taking so long to get back. I will look for answers to your questions and post them in a few!!!

[stufine]

Sorry for so long to reply (friggin customers )

I did a chmod -R 777 /etc. so yes I changed permissions on everything.

After reading your reply I did
chmod -R 755 /etc

I can now create a user(could not before). Still errors on creating home directory.


I still can't su to root from any user???

Did I answer your questions???

[codejockey]

Lots of good info in your reply (thanks!). A few thoughts ...

• whenever you use the -R option with cp, chmod, etc. you are performing a recursive action ... i.e., on everything below and including the target you specify. So, for example, a chmod -R 755 /etc will change everything (files, directories, whatever) to mode 755 below and including the /etc directory (assuming you executed the command as root). Sometimes this is what you want. Other times, not. In your situation, probably not.
  
• years ago (and I blush to remember!) SCO Xenix had the "fixperm" command. Since I no longer have my SCO Open Server installation, I don't know if this utility is still included ... but if it is, it will reset your permissions (on the arguments you specify) to the defaults (could be useful in your case). Just a thought, perhaps a last resort.
  
• when you attempt to su to root from a normal user, are you getting the same error message (userid unknown)? Related question: what happened when you tried ls -l on the files in your home directory (as a normal user)?
  
• what are the permissions on the /home directory (or the root directory for your normal users home directories?). This is really not likely to be the issue, since if you can't su to root, you likely won't be able to create directories in /home (or wherever the root of your home directories is located).

Any info appreciated.

[stufine]

When I try to su I get the userid unknown error.

the /usr directories have 777 permissions.

I am trying the fixperm as we speak. It is still used on Openserver 5.0.6 Thanks!!

[stufine]

this is what fixperm came back with
fixperm: missing data field, /etc/passwd line 1

Any other thoughts??

[codejockey]

This sounds like your password file has an invalid entry. The passwd man page (try man 5 passwd) describes the format of the file. You might check to see if the first entry is somehow corrupted (although it shouldn't affect the file as a whole, but you never know). As a reference, a typical entry looks something like:

ghost:x:502:100:Anonymous account,,,:/home/ghost:/bin/bash

Note that fields are colon-separated and may contain multiple entries separated by a comma (the account field, for example).

Hope this helps.