Ubuntu

localhost gnome-session[4997]: (firefox:5981): dconf-CRITICAL **: unable to create file '/home/chris/.cache/dconf/user': Permission denied. dconf will not work properly.

Asked by chris pollock

Description: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
Release: 16.04

chris@localhost:~$ apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
  Installed: 48.0+build2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
  Candidate: 48.0+build2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 48.0+build2-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     45.0.2+build1-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages

chris@localhost:~$ apt-cache policy gdm
gdm:
  Installed: 3.18.3-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 3.18.3-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 3.18.3-0ubuntu2 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Permissions for /home/chris/.cache/dconf are

drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Aug 2 15:59 dconf

Is this supposed to be owned by me or root?

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actionparsnip
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chris pollock (cpollock) said : 		#1

More information on permissions

chris@localhost:~$ sudo ls -la /home/chris/.cache/dconf
[sudo] password for chris:
total 12
drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Aug 2 15:59 .
drwx------ 96 chris chris 4096 Aug 27 11:37 ..
-rw------- 1 root root 2 Aug 2 16:04 user

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#2

The config files in your home directory are supposed to be owned by yourself, not by root.

What is the output of the command

sudo find /home/chris ! -owner chris -ls

Revision history for this message
Best actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Run:

sudo chown -R chris:chris /home/chris

Reboot to test

Revision history for this message
chris pollock (cpollock) said : 		#4

Manfred, I C/P your line and got the below

chris@localhost:~$ sudo find /home/chris ! -owner chris -ls
find: unknown predicate `-owner'

Revision history for this message
chris pollock (cpollock) said : 		#5

Andrew, that seems to have taken care of a large part of the issues I've been having. I know for sure that I didn't have to go through all the gyrations to get Gnome to start as I stated in another question. This time the log-in screen came up, I made sure Gnome was checked for the WM logged in and it started right up. I haven't tried logging out and into another WM yet but I will later. Running tail -f on syslog and it looks a lot better.

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chris pollock (cpollock) said : 		#6

Thanks actionparsnip, that solved my question.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#7

Comment:
1. sorry for a typo error in my command, it should have been
sudo find /home/chris ! -user chris -ls

2. My command was designed to list the files with different ownership, but actionparsnip's command was the one to immediately correct it.

3. If you say that correcting config file ownership has also solved your problem with logging in, then this is important information that might help other people with similar problems.

Revision history for this message
chris pollock (cpollock) said : 		#8

No problem Manfred, I just ran your command and since there was no output I take it to mean that everything in /home/chris is owned by me. This has fixed the one issue. The next issue is related to question 366162 and 369469. Now that I can get Gnome to load normally 369469 isn't really valid either. I guess I'll have to start a new question. Since I can't get Enlightenment to start still I've got syslog entries I can put in the question.