-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Henderson [SMTP:pgh]
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 1997 5:12 PM
To: Fred Cassirer; Will Athanasiou
Subject: Must be root? For what? (fwd)
Fred, Will,
Forwarded message:
> From alpha-osf-managers-relay_at_sws1.ctd.ornl.gov Tue Sep 23 15:58:47
1997
> Sender: alpha-osf-managers-relay_at_sws1.ctd.ornl.gov
> Followup-To: poster
> Precedence: bulk
> Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 15:47:51 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Burch Seymour RTPS <bseymour_at_encore.com>
> Subject: Must be root? For what?
> To: alpha-osf-managers_at_ornl.gov (Alpha Managers List)
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>
> Unrelated to my precious question regarding login/xdm/cde I have a
new one.
> One of my coworkers is setting up an alpha system to take on the
road.
>
> We've done rlogins to it, but this is the first time we've tried to
run
> a cde session from that machine. When logging in, as *any* valid
user
> we get a pop up box that says (aprox) "System Error - Must be root
> to run this application." The question is. WHAT application? The
> message gives us not a clue, and I don't know enough about CDE to
> know where to look for something like a dot-profile thing. I can't
> believe it's a user file as it does the same thing with different
users,
> so I'm guessing its something thats system common, but I don't know
what.
[Fred Cassirer]
This message is produced by a number of the systems management
utilities
if they are launched from a non-root window *without* using the
/usr/sbin/dop
utility.
For this to happen you would need to have tied to execute one of
these from
an xterm (dterm, dxterm etc) window, such as:
$ export DISPLAY=:0.0
$ /usr/sbin/nfsconfig
The other way this can happen (maybe) is if someone were to remove
the setuid
permissions on /usr/sbin/dop. It would then just simply execute the
target
application without prompting for a root password and attempt to run
a SysMan
application as some user, which may result in this message.
dop is used by the SysMan CDE rules for executing a management
application
from any users desktop (after proving they know the root password).
If a CDE session were shut down with say "dxaccounts" running, when
it starts back up
it would try to restore this application and it will fail since CDE
won't know to request the
application to start using the dop command. This was a known bug in
V4.0, fixed in later
V4.0 releases. The way this may have happened is if you were to
have a sysman application
up and then saved the state in CDE.
You can fix this by looking in $HOME/.dt/sessions/home and current
directories and look at the
dt.session file, it lists the commands to be executed when a user
logs in to return to his home or
current session. Post V4.0 systems will include a "dop" command
prefix on any SysMan applications.
Hopefully one of these is the "root" of your problem.
-Fred Cassirer
>
> Anyone have a clue? Thanks!
>
> --
> This message from, Encore Computer Corporation MS/712
> Burch Seymour 6901 W Sunrise Boulevard
> Senior Consultant Fort Lauderdale, Fl 33313
> email: bseymour_at_encore.com Vox: (954)797-5627 Fax:
(954)797-5666
>
Received on Tue Sep 23 1997 - 23:26:52 NZST