Re: root's directory corrupted
On Mon, Dec 05, 2005 at 04:03:58PM -0800, k l u r t wrote:
> when i log into my desktop as root, i get the following message: No
> directory, logging in with HOME=/
>
> when i view the contents of / i see that root's directory is not
> present with the exception of a file "root":
> - -r-s-w--wt 57413 17916 2380551563 1970-01-01 04:41 root*
Peculiar. Broken datestamp suggests some corruption; truly bizarre
permissions sets alarm-bells ringing: have you been rooted? It appears
to be a very big file. What does ls -ls think (the size on the left,
compared to the size in column 7-8)?
> i can not chmod, chgrp, or chown this "root" file; i get the
> "Operation not permitted" message when trying to do so (i'm logged in
> as root).
The UID and GID fields appear to be invalid too, at least locally. Do
you use NIS or anything similar?
> does anyone know what the problem is? has anyone experienced this
> problem? what can i do to fix this?
You could create another dir, e.g. /root2 and change the /root entry in
/etc/passwd to /root2 (always be careful when editing this file);
although that isn't much of an improvement on the current situation: the
warning will go but the file will remain.
I've never seen anything like this but I think it looks fairly serious.
--
Jon Dowland
http://jon.dowland.name/
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