application shortcut owned by root?

gymnart · June 27, 2010, 8:09pm

I tried to create a shortcut to an app I wanted in the plasma dashboard. When I did so, I found that it was owned by root! When I looked at the permissions of the other app icons, they were owned by me, the user.
Why did plasma make my newly created app launcher owned by root?
I’m so used to the way KDE 3 worked. It was so much simpler. I could click anywhere on that desktop to add shortcuts and they were owned by me, not root. I don’t understand why they changed this.

How can I make a shortcut to my app that is owned by me?

hcvv · June 27, 2010, 9:09pm

Somewhere in the process you must have made yourself root, else I can not understand this.

gymnart · June 27, 2010, 9:20pm

When installing, I was given a choice to use the same password for root and user. I guess I picked the wrong one.

The whole situation is weird because I finally found the tool that adds an application to the kickoff menu and then I chose “add to desktop” and now it’s there with the correct (user) permissions.

When I add anything else in plasma (text, folder, URL) it has the correct permissions, (user) just not when I “add a link to an application”.

hcvv · June 27, 2010, 9:48pm

In any case you should change the root password asap to make it different from any normal users password (as far as you know them of course).

gymnart · June 28, 2010, 8:59pm

There’s a gui tool for that, right?
I hope that something won’t go wrong and then I’d be locked out of my computer.

hcvv · June 28, 2010, 9:42pm

There is a simple and secure way of doing this.

Open a terminal and type

su -

it ask for the root password (you will see nothing while typing this, end with the Return key).
You are now root and the prompt will have a # in it, like this:

henk@boven:~> su -
Wachtwoord:
boven:~ #

Now type

passwd

it will ask for the new password twice (to avoid typos).
Now you are finished, but to check, do NOT LOG OUT OF THE TERMINAL, but open some other root window, e.g. YaST. It will ask for the root password. Use the new password. When it works you can log out of the terminal with

exit

gymnart · June 28, 2010, 9:53pm

Thanks that worked. Password is changed. Now I hope that fixes my problem with adding a link to an application being owned by root.
So far, that behavior did not change. I wonder if that would take effect after rebooting or not?

hcvv · June 28, 2010, 10:29pm

Nice. Try it and when something goes wrong, try to write down as precise as possible what you did. It is always a bit difficult to report about doing things in a GUI (contrary to a CLI where you can simply copy/paste what happens).

gymnart · June 29, 2010, 5:29pm

Changing the root password did not help the plasma dashboard problem.
This is what I’ve been doing:
Right Click on plasma dashboard
Select Create New
Select Link to New Application
Look at the Permissions tab. It says that root owns it and it is in root’s group.
Everything else on the right click menu from the dashboard has the correct permissions (owned by me, the user, and in my users group)

Like I said, I have to use the tool that adds an application to the kickoff menu and then I chose “add to desktop” and that works with the correct (user) permissions.

So, something is wrong with the dashboard’s “Create New Link To Application” tool. Is there anyway to change that setting to have the proper permissions?

DenverD · June 29, 2010, 7:37pm

gymnart wrote:
> Changing the root password did not help the plasma dashboard problem.
> This is what I’ve been doing:
> Right Click on plasma dashboard
> Select Create New
> Select Link to New Application
> Look at the Permissions tab. It says that root owns it and it is in
> root’s group.
> Everything else on the right click menu from the dashboard has the
> correct permissions (owned by me, the user, and in my users group)
>
> Like I said, I have to use the tool that adds an application to the
> kickoff menu and then I chose “add to desktop” and that works with the
> correct (user) permissions.
>
> So, something is wrong with the dashboard’s “Create New Link To
> Application” tool. Is there anyway to change that setting to have the
> proper permissions?
>
>
your problem is very unusual…so unusual i think it might be one of a
kind…and, i wonder why…so some questions:

what version of what operating system are you running?

what version of what desktop environment are you running?

the “plasma dashboard” you speak of: is that part of the default
install of the desktop environment? or, is it an add on that you
installed? if so, what is the name of the program and where did you
get it?

i suspect you have accidentally pulled packages from conflicting
sources, to help trouble shoot that please do the following in a
terminal and copy/paste the results back to here:


zypper lr -d

after you have pasted the text in the reply window, please highlight
it and then click the # button over the edit window (which will format
it for easy reading)…

because it kinda sounds like you either broke it as noted just above,
or maybe on initial install with a faulty install media, i ask

Did you:

get your install image from http://software.opensuse.org/112/en ?
(if not, then where?)
check the md5sum of the downloaded iso?
do this http://tinyurl.com/yajm2aq before install attempt?

if you answered “no” (or “don’t know”) to any of those then see the
following cites before you start over:
http://en.opensuse.org/Download_Help
http://tinyurl.com/yhf65pv
http://tinyurl.com/ycly3eg

gymnart · June 29, 2010, 8:52pm

# | Alias                               | Name                        | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type   | URI                                                             | Service
--+-------------------------------------+-----------------------------+---------+---------+----------+--------+-----------------------------------------------------------------+--------
1 | 11.1                                | 11.1                        | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.nvidia.com/opensuse/11.1                        |
2 | Libdvdcss repository                | Libdvdcss repository        | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://opensuse-guide.org/repo/11.2/                            |
3 | Packman Repository                  | Packman Repository          | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://packman.inode.at/suse/11.2/                              |
4 | http-download.opensuse.org-7f346026 | Updates for openSUSE 11.2-0 | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | rpm-md | http://download.opensuse.org/update/11.2/                       |
5 | openSUSE 11.2-0                     | openSUSE 11.2-0             | Yes     | No      |   99     | yast2  | cd:///                                                          |
6 | repo-debug                          | openSUSE-11.2-Debug         | No      | Yes     |   99     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/debug/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/  |
7 | repo-non-oss                        | openSUSE-11.2-Non-Oss       | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/non-oss/    |
8 | repo-oss                            | openSUSE-11.2-Oss           | Yes     | Yes     |   99     | yast2  | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/        |
9 | repo-source                         | openSUSE-11.2-Source        | No      | Yes     |   99     | NONE   | http://download.opensuse.org/source/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/ |

4.3.5 (KDE 4.3.5) “release 0”
Linux 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop i686
openSUSE 11.2

my husband got it for me and he did check the md5sum
I’m pretty sure he got it from here software.opensuse.org: Download openSUSE 11.2
I don’t know if he did the check media before installation.

Yup, Plasma Dashboard is part of the default install of the desktop environment. Could be that YaST did the pulling of packages for conflict resolution.

hcvv · June 29, 2010, 9:00pm

The only recomandation we normaly have here is to disable the Libdvdcss repos after you have installed that one package.

And also better disable the cd one. Not needed once you are online.

And it looks a bit strange to have the envidia for 11.1 on a 11.2 system. But when it works :).

But this does not help much with your problem :’(

gymnart · June 29, 2010, 9:07pm

Thanks for trying.
Can you ask around (if you have any contacts that might know)?

DenverD · June 29, 2010, 10:01pm

since you don’t know if he did this http://tinyurl.com/yajm2aq
please boot from the install disk, run that test and let us know if
you have errors, please…

because what you have is VERY strange and indicates an initial, or
later corruption of you KDE system…

try this: in YaST add a new user and password, then log out as you and
back in as the new user (easy: just right click desktop, pick logout,
then instead of picking shutdown pick “End Current Session” (or
whatever near that) then you will get a log in screen, where you give
the new users id and pass)

then, as the new user see if you can duplicate the error…

if that install disks has no errors and the new user shows the same
problem you may be best served to upgrade to 11.2

if the install disk is faulty replace it with a perfect disk and then
run “Repair Installed System”…if the new user works ok post again
for more direction…

gropiuskalle · June 30, 2010, 12:13am

Read again…

A corrupted media most likely will not create such an isolated bug. “Repair Installed System”, jeez…

If it is a bug at all - personally I have never seen a normal user being able to create anything in the name of root, I suppose you just overlooked something during the whole process. Just remove that root-shortcut (as root) and create it again while making sure you are acting as a user. What’s the big deal?

Lord_Emsworth · June 30, 2010, 1:32am

I get that too if I create a link to an application.

That is, during creation the permissions tab asserts that the link is owned by root. But, how could it, if it does not even exist yet? So I suppose it might just be bogus.

Once the link has been created it shows correct permissions though.

gymnart · July 1, 2010, 4:55pm

DenverD:
I tried what you said to do with making a new user and logging in as that one. I then tried the “Create New> Link To Application” and that user had the exact same problem.

I ran the “Check Installation Media” test like you said, and it found no errors.

Lord_Emsworth:
I went ahead and created another link to an application for a test and just like you said, once it was done, the permissions were correct. What threw me off was that in the “General” tab, I usually fill in the application name and it wasn’t letting me do that, so I thought something was wrong. Once the “Application” tab was filled out and the link created, only then could I edit the text in the “General” tab. That is just strange to me. Thank you very much for your answer.

DenverD · July 1, 2010, 5:42pm

gymnart wrote:
> Once the “Application” tab was filled out and the
> link created, only then could I edit the text in the “General” tab.

very happy you got the right answer…i’d never noticed that time when
apparently the link is owned by root…