Re: su command not working

[Bob Proulx]

Jonathan

> This is a fresh install of Linux Mandrake 8.1 on an i586 and the output in an
> XTerm window.
> :Fri 05:16:58:~> id
> uid=501(jon) gid=505(jon)
> groups=505(jon),22(cdrom),43(usb),80(cdwriter),81(audio),501(xgrp)
> :Fri 05:16:58:~> su root
> Password:
> :Fri 05:16:58:~> id
> uid=501(jon) gid=505(jon)
> groups=505(jon),22(cdrom),43(usb),80(cdwriter),81(audio),501(xgrp)

That is really odd.  Is something in your $ENV, .kshrc, .bashrc file
exiting silently?  That would leave you back at your original shell.
What does 'ps' say at this point?  It should show two shells.

> :Fri 05:16:58:~> echo #exit here will close the shell
> #exit here will close the shell
> :Fri 05:16:58:~> su -l root
> Password:
> :Fri 05:16:58:~# id
> uid=0(root) gid=0(root)
> groups=0(root),1(bin),2(daemon),3(sys),4(adm),6(disk),10(wheel)
> :Fri 05:16:58:~#

> Is this what you expected? Can you suggest somewhere to look for the problem.

This is not what I expected.  Here is what I expect.

address@hidden bob]$ type su
su is /bin/su
address@hidden bob]$ ll /bin/su
-rwsr-xr-x    1 root     root        14184 Jul 12  2000 /bin/su
   ^s           ^root
Must be suid-root!

address@hidden bob]$ ps
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
18981 pts/21   00:00:00 bash
  351 pts/21   00:00:00 ps

One ps process, one shell.

address@hidden bob]$ id
uid=500(bob) gid=500(bob) groups=500(bob)
address@hidden bob]$ su 
Password: 
address@hidden bob]# ps
  PID TTY          TIME CMD
  352 pts/21   00:00:00 su
  356 pts/21   00:00:00 bash
  360 pts/21   00:00:00 ps

One ps process, one shell, plus one 'su' process which is actually
your second su shell.  [Most other OS versions should show that as sh
or $SHELL instead.]

address@hidden bob]# id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) 
groups=0(root),1(bin),2(daemon),3(sys),4(adm),6(disk),10(wheel)

And I am root.

> When I repeat using bash, all is well.  su, su root and su -l root
> all change the id to root and -l creates the login shell

Uh, what were you using before then?  Are you changing the shell in
/etc/passwd?

Because of your note about changing shells I strongly suspect
something in an environment file ($ENV, .kshrc, .cshrc, .bashrc, etc.)
is exiting silently.

Bob