HELP: konsole: cannot chown /dev/pts/7

[Hughes]

When I run konsole from bash command line, the following message are displayed:

konsole: cannot chown /dev/pts/7.
Reason: Operation not permitted
konsole_grantpty: determined a strange device name `/dev/ptmx'.
konsole: chownpty failed for device /dev/pts/7::/dev/pts/7.
: This means the session can be eavesdroped.
: Make sure konsole_grantpty is installed in
: /usr/bin/ and setuid root.
konsole_grantpty: determined a strange device name `/dev/ptmx'.

I am using Mandrake 9.2. What's the problem?

 

[amjad]

As the error message tells "Make sure konsole_grantpty is installed in
: /usr/bin/ and setuid root ", check for this.

 

[Hughes]

Thank you.

But konsole was installed automatically with Mandrake 9.2. I didn't remove anything. How comes this error? What is konsole_grantpty?

 

[Hughes]

Now I have checked and assure konsole_grantpty is installed in /usr/bin and setuid root:

-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 5576 Sep 18 2003 /usr/bin/konsole_grantpty

So what's the problem? Anyone knows?

 

[amjad]

The permission for konsole_grantpty is some how set as -rwsr-xr-x. For root it has rws, the s is to set user or group ID on execution (s). This causes the problem, as it doesn't have write permission for other users. Permission should be like
-rwxr-xr-x or -rwxrwxrwx Change the permission for Konsole_grantpty by logging in as root and issue the command
#chmod 755 kosole_grantpty

Now, konsole should work in any user.

 

[Hughes]

Hi amjad,
I don't think so. The permission pattern "rwsr-xr-x" means that konsole_grantpty will have the effective uid of its owner (root), thus it should have root's permission despite whoever invokes it. However, I have tried your method and the error occurred as expected.
Thanks anyway.

 

[gliss]

What happens when you run Konsole from the KDE menu?

 

[Hughes]

What happens when you run Konsole from the KDE menu?

Nothing happens except a konsole window displays normally.
But if I set the environment variable "editor" to "konsole -e vi" and open a text view for edit in Cadence, the above mentioned error messages will be displayed in the konsole window which icfb is started. So I invoke konsole at command line to verify the problem.

 

[gliss]

Well, obviously there is a difference between running Konsole from the KDE menu and running it from some other environment.
I would check to see what the Konsole icon on the KDE menu actually does. It may be different than just 'konsole'. You may have to type that into your terminal in addiction to whatever options you want.

 

[Hughes]

I don't think the difference, if any, is so obvious.
When I invoke Konsole from a existing Konsole window (window-1), I get a new Konsole window (window-2) and some warning messages in window-1. If I run Konsole from KDE menu, I can't see such messages either because it doesn't report them or because there isn't a terminal to receive these messages and the messages is redirected to a log file or discarded (redirected to /dev/null).

 

[gliss]

Maybe the messages are sent to syslog or /dev/console. Open up and console window and see if it catches anything.
What do the warnings say?

 

[amjad]

konsole: cannot chown /dev/pts/7.
Reason: Operation not permitted
konsole_grantpty: determined a strange device name `/dev/ptmx'.
konsole: chownpty failed for device /dev/pts/7::/dev/pts/7.
: This means the session can be eavesdroped.
: Make sure konsole_grantpty is installed in
: /usr/bin/ and setuid root.
konsole_grantpty: determined a strange device name `/dev/ptmx'.

Hi Hughes,

How did you solve the above problem you had mentioned ?

Added after 1 minutes:

konsole: cannot chown /dev/pts/7.
Reason: Operation not permitted
konsole_grantpty: determined a strange device name `/dev/ptmx'.
konsole: chownpty failed for device /dev/pts/7::/dev/pts/7.
: This means the session can be eavesdroped.
: Make sure konsole_grantpty is installed in
: /usr/bin/ and setuid root.
konsole_grantpty: determined a strange device name `/dev/ptmx'.

Hi Hughes,

How did you solve the above problem you had mentioned ?

 

[gliss]

In your shell do this:

$ ls -l /usr/bin/konsole_grantpty

And paste the output here.

 

[Hughes]

How did you solve the above problem you had mentioned ?

I didn't solve the problem yet.

In your shell do this:

$ ls -l /usr/bin/konsole_grantpty

And paste the output here.

I have posted teh output above.

-rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 5576 Sep 18 2003 /usr/bin/konsole_grantpty

What do the warnings say?

By warning, I mean the messages I posted in the first post. Because Konsole can work normally but with such messages, I call these messages warnings.[/code]