SUMMARY: filemgr mknod problem

From: Mike Freeman (mfreeman@mth.kcl.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Jan 10 1994 - 07:58:56 CST


I asked whether anyone had a solution to the problem of users trying
to start a file manager and getting
mknod: permission denied
error messages.

The general consensus is that this is caused by filemgr creating
a directory /tmp/.removable with permissions 700 and not subsequently
removing it. The most complete solution, which I reproduce here, came
from Andy Feldt:

> This is a bug in the filemanager wherein it does not remove a directory
>in /tmp called .removable (used for access to floppies and cdroms). The
>simplest fix is to shutdown file manager (if it is running) and do:
>
># Create /tmp/.removable for File Manager bug
> rm -rf /tmp/.removable
> mkdir /tmp/.removable
> chmod a+rwxt
>
>Then put the same in your local startup in /etc/init.d or, if you have none,
>put this in a file in /etc/init.d called localstuff:
>
>#!/bin/sh
>#ident "local additions"
>
>if [ ! -d /usr/bin ]
>then # /usr not mounted
> exit
>fi
>
># Start/stop local additions/fixes
>
>case "$1" in
>'start')
>
># Create /tmp/.removable for File Manager bug
> rm -rf /tmp/.removable
> mkdir /tmp/.removable
> chmod a+rwxt
> ;;
>
>'stop')
># Why not do something at shutdown - so...
> rm -rf /tmp/.removable
> ;;
>*)
> echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/localstuff { start | stop }"
> ;;
>esac
>
>Then link this to some unused S number in /etc/rc3.d. E.g.
>
> cd /etc/rc3.d
> ln /etc/init.d/localstuff S90localstuff
>
>This makes it so that at boot up, you always have a world writeable
>/tmp/.removable which anyone can use.

Another suggestion, forwarded from Sun support, was to add a command to
users .logout files to automatically remove this directory, e.g.

        if (-o /tmp/.removable) then
                rm -r /tmp/.removable
        endif

A little more work would be needed to get something that worked under
xdm, however. A modification to the system Xinitrc would presumably
do the trick.

It was also suggested to check the permissions on ~/.wastebasket, since
this directory has been seen to be owned by root in some cases.

Thanks to:
tmb@myxa.com (Tim Brown)
carl%hawk@netcom.com (Carl Gabrielson)
feldt@phyast.nhn.uoknor.edu (Andy Feldt)
fabrice@cisk.ATMOS.Ucla.EDU (Fabrice Cuq)
ron.dewey@aea.orgn.uk (Ron Dewey)
eric.deschamps@diva.fr (Eric Deschamps)
hebert@sunrock.East.Sun.COM (Jim Hebert).

Mike Freeman
mfreeman@mth.kcl.ac.uk



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