"bash: /etc/profile: Permission denied" with a certain user

Tim Largy tim.largy@gmail.com
Mon Dec 11 01:26:00 GMT 2006


I am having trouble running Cygwin as user X (not the real user name)
on a machine running Windows XP Professional SP2. I have no problem
whatsoever running Cygwin under different user accounts, both
Administrators and "Restricted" users, however when logged in as user
X and clicking on the Cygwin icon on my desktop, bash starts and
prints "bash: /etc/profile: Permission denied" and the shell is
useless because the environment isn't set up. What could be different
about user X? User X happens to be a "Restricted user," but as I've
mentioned, other restricted users on this machine have no problem
running Cygwin.

At first I thought I might have a problem with file permissions, so I
ran cacls.exe (the Windows utility) on every file in C:\cygwin, and
searched through the results for any mention of user X--I didn't find
any, and concluded that there is no ACE in any ACL on any file system
object in C:\cygwin that pertains to user X. (Question for Windows
experts: does cacls.exe tell the whole truth?) Also, using the Windows
control panel, I made user X a member of the Administrators group, and
still couldn't run Cygwin. This seems to rule out any problem with
NTFS file permissions.

Next I checked file permissions from Cygwin's perspective. In bash (as
a user who could run Cygwin, obviously) I ran "find /cygdrive/c/cygwin
-user X" to see if any files had any affiliation with user X. Didn't
find any. Also, inspecting /etc/group I verified that user X has the
same group as the other Restricted users who can run Cygwin. I
concluded that there aren't any files with permissions (from Cygwin's
perspective) treating user X differently than the other Restricted
users.

Next I wondered if user X didn't have the same rights (in Windows'
land) as the other Restricted users. Using Control Panel -> User
Accounts -> Advanced tab and inspecting the users and groups, there's
nothing special about user X. (Question for Windows experts: are there
any user rights that I can't observe using this tool? All accounts in
question are local rather than domain accounts, but this machine is
part of a domain.)

Next I checked user X's environment variables via Control Panel ->
System -> Advanced tab -> Environment Variables, but I didn't find
anything interesting. User X has the same variables as the other
Restricted users.

I'm out of ideas. How can running Cygwin be different for user X? What
should I look at next? I'm attaching the output of cygcheck.

Tim
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Cygwin Package Information
Package              Version            Status
_update-info-dir     00432-1            OK
a2ps                 4.13-1             OK
alternatives         1.3.20a-2          OK
apache2              2.2.2-1            OK
ash                  20040127-3         OK
aspell               0.50.3-1           OK
aspell-en            0.51.0-1           OK
atk                  1.10.3-1           OK
atk-runtime          1.10.3-1           OK
automake             1.7.9-2            OK
automake1.9          1.9.6-1            OK
base-files           3.7-1              OK
base-passwd          2.2-1              OK
bash                 3.1-9              OK
bash-completion      20060301-1         OK
binutils             20060817-1         OK
boost                1.33.1-2           OK
boost-devel          1.33.1-2           OK
bzip2                1.0.3-1            OK
coreutils            5.97-1             OK
crypt                1.1-1              OK
ctags                5.6-1              OK
curl                 7.15.4-1           OK
cvs                  1.11.17-1          OK
cygrunsrv            1.17-1             OK
cygutils             1.3.0-1            OK
cygwin               1.5.21-2           OK
cygwin-doc           1.4-4              OK
cygwin-x-doc         1.0.4-1            OK
ddd                  3.3.9-1            OK
diffutils            2.8.7-1            OK
docbook-xml412       4.1.2-1            OK
docbook-xsl          1.69.1-1           OK
editrights           1.01-1             OK
emacs                21.2-13            OK
emacs-el             21.2-13            OK
emacs-X11            21.2-13            OK
exif                 0.6.9-2            OK
expat                1.95.8-1           OK
expect               20030128-1         OK
file                 4.16-1             OK
findutils            4.3.0-2            OK
fontconfig           2.2.2-1            OK
freeglut             2.2.0-1            OK
freetype2            2.1.9-1            OK
gawk                 3.1.5-4            OK
gcc-core             3.4.4-1            OK
gcc-g++              3.4.4-1            OK
gcc-g77              3.4.4-1            OK
gcc-mingw-core       20050522-1         OK
gcc-mingw-g++        20050522-1         OK
gcc-mingw-g77        20050522-1         OK
gdb                  20060706-2         OK
gdbm                 1.8.3-7            OK
gettext              0.14.5-1           OK
ghostscript          8.50-1             OK
ghostscript-base     8.50-1             OK
ghostscript-x11      8.50-1             OK
glib                 1.2.10-3           OK
glib2                2.10.3-1           OK
glib2-devel          2.10.3-1           OK
glib2-runtime        2.10.3-1           OK
gnupg                1.4.2.1-1          OK
grep                 2.5.1a-2           OK
groff                1.18.1-2           OK
gtk2-x11             2.6.10-1           OK
gtk2-x11-runtime     2.6.10-1           OK
guile                1.6.7-4            OK
gv                   3.6.1-2            OK
gvim                 7.0.035-1          OK
gzip                 1.3.5-2            OK
hexedit              1.2.10-1           OK
jasper               1.701.0-1          OK
jbigkit              1.5-3              OK
joe                  3.5-1              OK
jpeg                 6b-11              OK
lcms                 1.14-1             OK
less                 381-1              OK
lesstif              0.94.4-1           OK
lftp                 3.5.1-1            OK
libao2               0.8.6-1            OK
libapr0              0.9.7-1            OK
libapr1              1.2.7-1            OK
libaprutil0          0.9.7-1            OK
libaprutil1          1.2.7-1            OK
libaspell15          0.50.3-1           OK
libaudiofile0        0.2.6-2            OK
libbz2_1             1.0.3-1            OK
libcharset1          1.9.2-2            OK
libcurl3             7.15.4-1           OK
libdb4.1             4.1.25-1           OK
libdb4.2             4.2.52-1           OK
libdb4.3             4.3.28-1           OK
libesound0           0.2.36-1           OK
libexif              0.6.12-1           OK
libfcgi0             2.4.0-2            OK
libFLAC++5           1.1.2-1            OK
libFLAC7             1.1.2-1            OK
libfontconfig-devel  2.2.2-1            OK
libfontconfig1       2.2.2-1            OK
libfpx               1.2.0.12-1         OK
libfreetype2-devel   2.1.9-1            OK
libfreetype26        2.1.9-1            OK
libgc                6.4-1              OK
libgcrypt            1.2.1-1            OK
libgdbm              1.8.0-5            OK
libgdbm-devel        1.8.3-7            OK
libgdbm3             1.8.3-3            OK
libgdbm4             1.8.3-7            OK
libgettextpo0        0.14.5-1           OK
libgnutls11          1.0.25-2           OK
libgpg-error         1.1-1              OK
libGraphicsMagick0   1.0.6-1            OK
libguile12           1.6.7-4            OK
libguile16           1.7.2-3            OK
libiconv             1.9.2-2            OK
libiconv2            1.9.2-2            OK
libIDL               0.5.17-2           OK
libintl              0.10.38-3          OK
libintl1             0.10.40-1          OK
libintl2             0.12.1-3           OK
libintl3             0.14.5-1           OK
libjpeg62            6b-11              OK
libjpeg6b            6b-8               OK
libkpathsea3         2.0.2-15           OK
libkpathsea4         3.0.0-3            OK
libltdl3             1.5.22-1           OK
libMagick6           6.0.4-1            OK
libncurses5          5.2-1              OK
libncurses6          5.2-8              OK
libncurses7          5.3-4              OK
libncurses8          5.5-2              OK
libneon25            0.25.5-1           OK
libogg0              1.1.2-1            OK
libOggFLAC++2        1.1.2-1            OK
libOggFLAC3          1.1.2-1            OK
libopencdk8          0.5.7-1            OK
libpcre0             6.6-1              OK
libplot2             2.4.1-1            OK
libplotter2          2.4.1-1            OK
libpng12             1.2.8-2            OK
libpng12-devel       1.2.8-2            OK
libpopt0             1.6.4-4            OK
libpq4               8.0.7-1            OK
libreadline4         4.1-2              OK
libreadline5         4.3-5              OK
libreadline6         5.1-5              OK
libspeex1            1.1.10-1           OK
libtasn1             0.2.15-1           OK
libtiff-devel        3.7.3-1            OK
libtiff4             3.6.0-5            OK
libtiff5             3.7.3-1            OK
libungif             4.1.4-1            OK
libungif4            4.1.4-1            OK
libvorbis0           1.1.1-1            OK
libvorbisenc2        1.1.1-1            OK
libvorbisfile3       1.1.1-1            OK
libxdelta2           1.1.3-3            OK
libXft               2.1.6-1            OK
libXft-devel         2.1.6-1            OK
libXft1              1.0.0-1            OK
libXft2              2.1.6-1            OK
libxmi0              2.4.1-1            OK
libxml2              2.6.26-1           OK
links                0.99pre14-1        OK
login                1.9-7              OK
lynx                 2.8.5-4            OK
m4                   1.4.7-1            OK
man                  1.5p-1             OK
mingw-runtime        3.10-1             OK
minires              1.00-1             OK
mktemp               1.5-3              OK
naim                 0.11.8.2-1         OK
ncftp                3.1.7-1            OK
ncurses              5.5-2              OK
nedit                5.5-1              OK
netcat               1.10-2             OK
openjade             1.3.3-1            OK
OpenSP               1.5.1-1            OK
openssh              4.4p1-1            OK
openssl              0.9.8d-1           OK
openssl097           0.9.7l-1           OK
ORBit                0.5.17-2           OK
pango                1.8.1-1            OK
pango-runtime        1.8.1-1            OK
patch                2.5.8-8            OK
patchutils           0.2.31-1           OK
pcre                 6.6-1              OK
perl                 5.8.7-5            OK
perl_manpages        5.8.7-5            OK
ping                 1.0-1              OK
pkg-config           0.20-1             OK
pkgconfig            0.17.2-3           OK
popt                 1.6.4-4            OK
psutils              1.17-1             OK
python               2.4.3-1            OK
qt3                  3.3.4-2            OK
rsync                2.6.6-1            OK
run                  1.1.10-1           OK
sed                  4.1.5-2            OK
subversion           1.3.2-1            OK
t1lib                5.1.0-1            OK
tar                  1.15.91-1          OK
tcltk                20060202-1         OK
tcp_wrappers         7.6-1              OK
tcsh                 6.14.00-5          OK
termcap              20050421-1         OK
terminfo             5.5_20060323-1     OK
texinfo              4.8-3              OK
unzip                5.50-5             OK
uw-imap              2002e-3            OK
vim                  7.0.076-1          OK
w32api               3.7-1              OK
w3m                  0.5.1-1            OK
wget                 1.10.2-1           OK
which                1.7-1              OK
whois                4.7.17-1           OK
X-startup-scripts    1.0.11-1           OK
Xaw3d                1.5D-5             OK
xorg-x11-base        6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-bin         6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-bin-dlls    6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-bin-lndir   6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-devel       6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-etc         6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-fenc        6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-fnts        6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-libs-data   6.8.99.901-1       OK
xorg-x11-xwin        6.8.99.901-1       OK
xpdf                 3.01-2             OK
xterm                202-1              OK
zip                  2.3-6              OK
zlib                 1.2.3-1            OK
-------------- next part --------------
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