Lost User

[Robin Laing]

Don Flinn wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-11-17 at 10:30 -0500, Don Flinn wrote:
> 
>>On Thu, 2005-11-17 at 09:55 +0100, Thomas Widhalm wrote:
>>
>>>Am Mittwoch, den 16.11.2005, 23:26 -0500 schrieb Don Flinn:
>>>
>>>>Hi
>>>>
>>>>The other week I was trying to remove OpenOffice to install OpenOffice
>>>>2.0 because of the repeated crashing of the Fedora version of
>>>>OpenOffice.  Somehow, I made my login inoperable.  When I tried to login
>>>>the screen went blank for some time then came back to the login screen.
>>>>Logging in as root I created another user.  Although I can reach the old
>>>>user directories through /home/oldusr it is a real pain especially with
>>>>my eudora mail (can't read my old mail).  I tried to recreate the
>>>>password for the old user by using passwd, but that didn't cure my
>>>>problem.  Anyone have a solution to get my old user login to work again.
>>>>
>>>
>>>Hi!
>>>
>>>I encountered a similar problem, with /home directories mounted via NFS
>>>on a SuSE box. When I tried to log in without having my own home, I
>>>crashed back to the login screen while using X.
>>>
>>>Does your home (and the files in it) still belong to you? And are the
>>>permissions set the appropriate way?
>>>
>>>Greetings,
>>>Thomas
>>>
>>>
>>>>Don
>>>>
>>>
>>>-- 
>>>Thomas Widhalm
>>>University of Salzburg, Austria
>>>IT- Services
>>>Systems Management
>>>Unix Systems
>>>pgp/gpg Key: 6265BAE6
>>>
>>
>>I think that is the problem.  looking at /var/messages after the failed
>>login attempt I see:
>>
>>Nov 17 09:54:00 flinn gdm[2561]: gdm_slave_session_start: /home/donfl is
>>not owned by uid 502.
>>Nov 17 09:54:00 flinn gdm[2561]: gdm_auth_user_add: /home/donfl is not
>>owned by uid 502.
>>
>>Looking at /etc/passwd:
>>donfl:x:502:503:Don Flinn:/home/donfl:/bin/bash
>>
>>Should that be 502:502 ?
>>I'm still a newbe at linux but am trying to learn.
>>
>>Don
>>
>>
>>
>>Don Flinn
>>President, Flint Security LLC
>>Tel: 781-856-7230
>>Fax: 781-631-7693
>>e-mail: flinn at alum.mit.edu
>>http://flintsecurity.com
> 
> 
> Problem Solved:  The home directory for the lost user was owned by root.
> I evidently made that mistake when trying to remove OpenOffice, although
> I don't remember doing it.  Changing ownership back to the lost user
> solved the problem.
> 
> Thanks all for your help.
> 
> Don 
> 

"Simplicity baffles the complex mind."

We basically look for a serious problem when it is staring you in the 
face.

I have come across it so, so many times.

Robin