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kapqa

Member

Registered: 2019-01-02

Posts: 784  

(HowTo) repair wrong permission-set?

Hello ,

i have tried to install virtualbox-7.2 lately and initially run into some issues;
since friendly AI was eager to help out, did let him go easily on this, or rather took him to seriously ~
well , in short, i messed up the system.

since the virtualbox-extensions would not install, and if yes, give error, asked for advice, that coame very forthcoming;

probably the entry

sudo chown -R root:wheel /usr

killed it, since then have lots of issues on this partition, like

Error: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ExecFaild: Failed to execute program.org.freedesktop.PackageKit: [b]Permission Denied[/b]

and lots of permission denied error;

also, the start-menu has shrunken, and there is no longer option to shutdown or restart , just "leave", eg. "lock" "log-out" and "switch-user".

Hopefully someone know of a good method to set the permission back straight, so can continue use the OS properly;

Thanks.

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,998  

Re: (HowTo) repair wrong permission-set?

Maybe

sudo chown -R root:root /usr

That should fix most if not all of it. AFAIK there's no wheel group in debian-based systems. For future reference, changing ownership on system files should be done carefully ans sparingly. Changing ownership of everything in /usr recursively is extremely bad advice. You relied on a friend who routinely lies, cheats and steals.

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,514  

Re: (HowTo) repair wrong permission-set?

You better should have asked for support here in the forum.

when the permissions issue is solved, open up a new thread with whats up about VBox 7.2.

Last edited by rolfie (Today 12:44:05)

rbit

Administrator

Registered: 2018-06-12

Posts: 159  

Re: (HowTo) repair wrong permission-set?

sudo chown -R root:root /usr

That'll probably fix a lot, but not everything.
On my daedalus system, under /usr:  (find ! -group root -ls | grep -v ./local/)

   407952     16 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     utmp        14416 Feb 26  2023 ./lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/utempter/utempter
   523692     52 -rwsr-xr--   1 root     messagebus    51272 Sep 24  2023 ./lib/dbus-1.0/dbus-daemon-launch-helper
   690224      4 drwxrwsr-t   2 root     lpadmin        4096 Dec 27  2015 ./share/ppd/custom
   393038      4 drwxrwsr-x  12 root     staff          4096 Oct 22  2023 ./local
   436499    636 -rws--x---   1 root     operator      649688 May 25  2022 ./bin/cdrdao
   411257     16 -rwxr-sr-x   3 root     mail           14608 Sep  3  2021 ./bin/mail-touchlock
   398561     32 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     shadow         31184 Dec 14  2025 ./bin/expiry
   411257     16 -rwxr-sr-x   3 root     mail           14608 Sep  3  2021 ./bin/mail-lock
   396906     24 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     mail           23040 Feb  4  2021 ./bin/dotlockfile
   401820    100 -rwsr-sr-x   1 root     mail          101664 Mar  1  2022 ./bin/procmail
   399266     44 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     crontab        43648 Mar  2  2023 ./bin/crontab
   400977     60 -rwsr-sr-x   1 daemon   daemon         59768 Oct 15  2022 ./bin/at
   397902     80 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     shadow         80376 Dec 14  2025 ./bin/chage
   402924    120 -rwxr-x---   1 root     operator      121840 Aug  6  2019 ./bin/growisofs
   410565    456 -rws--x---   1 root     operator      463776 Jun 24  2022 ./bin/wodim
   401442     20 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     mail           18768 Mar  1  2022 ./bin/lockfile
   400077    476 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     _ssh          485760 Apr  4  2026 ./bin/ssh-agent
   411257     16 -rwxr-sr-x   3 root     mail           14608 Sep  3  2021 ./bin/mail-unlock

Obviously, the list will vary depending on what's installed.  Stuff in /usr/src seems to be owned by $USER:$USER, and stuff in /usr/local is root:staff
And if you've got a usr-merged system (excalibur), there's probably going to be more...

[edit]
here's another list from an excalibur system, not a lot installed there

/usr$ find ! -group root -ls | grep -v ./local/
 66326757     44 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     shadow      43256 Jun 29  2025 ./sbin/unix_chkpwd
 66331837     24 -r-xr-sr-x   1 root     postdrop    22840 Aug 10 12:35 ./sbin/postqueue
 66331826     24 -r-xr-sr-x   1 root     postdrop    22888 Aug 10 12:35 ./sbin/postdrop
 66337980     60 -rwsr-sr-x   1 daemon   daemon      59768 May  4  2025 ./bin/at
 66324522     32 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     shadow      31256 Apr 19  2025 ./bin/expiry
 66332196    412 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     _ssh       420224 May  6 08:33 ./bin/ssh-agent
 66322953    112 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     shadow     113848 Apr 19  2025 ./bin/chage
 66322893     52 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     crontab     51936 Jun 13  2025 ./bin/crontab
 66322658     24 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     mail        23104 Dec 31  2024 ./bin/dotlockfile

Mercury

Member

Registered: 2024-11-14

Posts: 65  

Re: (HowTo) repair wrong permission-set?

Mine:

/usr> find ! -group root -ls
  1000852     16 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root     utmp        14416 Nov 12  2024 ./lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/utempter/utempter
   980836     52 -rwsr-xr--   1 root     messagebus    51272 Mar 10  2025 ./lib/dbus-1.0/dbus-daemon-launch-helper
     4612      4 drwxr-xr-x   4 mercury   mercury        4096 Aug 10 02:00 ./share/runit/sv.now/ntpsec
     4620      4 drwxr-xr-x   2 mercury   mercury        4096 Aug 10 02:00 ./share/runit/sv.now/ntpsec/.meta
......  a bunch of stuff in ./share/runit/ ..... not sure that's actually correct but it works so w/e.....
   935307    420 -rwsr-xr--   1 root      dip          428424 Feb 17  2025 ./sbin/pppd
   923748     44 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root      shadow        43256 Jun 29  2025 ./sbin/unix_chkpwd
   924273     32 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root      shadow        31256 Apr 19  2025 ./bin/expiry
   924270    112 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root      shadow       113848 Apr 19  2025 ./bin/chage
   926142     52 -rwxr-sr-x   1 root      crontab       51936 Jun 13  2025 ./bin/crontab

This is a pretty minimal 6.1 excalibur.

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,514  

Re: (HowTo) repair wrong permission-set?

It might well be easier to backup all relevant data and to re-install the system. I assume no Timeshift snapshots are available?

blackhole

Member

Registered: 2020-03-16

Posts: 260  

Re: (HowTo) repair wrong permission-set?

The bad news is you broke it  - the good news is you get to keep all the pieces...

Lesson learnt on "AI"?