Thank you Frank: I went to root via:
> su Password: Listed the bashrc and then tried to change the permissions as you suggested: > Äroot§vaultaire sluserÜ# ls -l .bashrc -rw-r--r-- 1 sluser sluser 1143 Nov 4 14:03 .bashrc Äroot§vaultaire sluserÜ# Äroot§vaultaire sluserÜ# Äroot§vaultaire sluserÜ# chmod -u+w .bashrc chmod: changing permissions of `.bashrc': Read-only file system Äroot§vaultaire sluserÜ# chmod 700 .bashrc chmod: changing permissions of `.bashrc': Read-only file system Äroot§vaultaire sluserÜ# And the funky character set is fixed, that not an issue! The main problem persists.... If I go back to my regular account and use: su -c 'vim .bashrc' I get the same error message. Thank you, I really appreciate your help Frank! On Tue, Jan 4, 2011 at 8:59 AM, Frank Lanitz <[email protected]>wrote: > Am 04.01.2011 15:53, schrieb Salvador Aguinaga: > > Hello, > > > > I a small foot-print SL installation that runs very well, but today I > > tried to make some changes at the > > root level and I'm locked out of these privileges. > > Did you really became root? Did you do a "su -" or how did you try to > become root? > > > > for example: If I change to root, and try to change .bashrc it tells > > me that I can't change the file. that the file is readonly. > > what does ls -l .basrc tell you? Does a "chmod u+w .bachrc" or chmod 700 > .bashrc ( I assume its the .bashrc from /root -- elsewise you will might > need to do another chmod) work? > > > if I try to add a new user, my system tells me that I can't do that? > > useradd -c "Harp user" harpadmin > > useradd: cannot create directory /home/harpadmin > > It appears from below, that the directory is already existing. From my > memory useradd dislike that -- but I might be wrong. > > > I'm also trying to fix a terminal issue: the font is funky: > > Äroot§vaultaire ßÜ# > > What does locales tell you? Did you recently change anything on system > or the way you login to (e.g. are you using putty or ssh from a > different system which might having a different charset set? this looks > a bit like UTF-8 vs. something else > > > > > Lastly, I tried changing the password for user: harpuser, but the > > system tells me that I have no such user, here is my /home/ folder: > > > > Äroot§vaultaire homeÜ# ls > > harpuser sluser > > Does the user have an entry inside /etc/passwd? > > Cheers, > Frank >
