chown: Read-only file system


 
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# 1  
Old 05-20-2012
chown: Read-only file system

Hi,
I am logged in as super use and want to set owner of a root folder to a specific user.
Code:
#chown -R user1:group1 /u01

This gives the message:
Code:
chown: /u01: Read-only file system
chown: lost+found: Read-only file system

Code:
#ls -l
drwxr-xr-x    3 root     system          256 Mar 21 16:42 u01

chmod 777 does not work either:
Code:
# chmod 777 /u01
chmod: /u01: Read-only file system

How can I rectify this?

Last edited by Franklin52; 05-21-2012 at 05:44 AM.. Reason: Please use code tags
# 2  
Old 05-20-2012
It's possible that the directory in which the filesystem is mounted has no read or execute permission. Try unmounting the filesystem and checking the permissions.

Otherwise, try remounting the filesystem:

Code:
mount -o rw,remount /u01

(customising that command for your system)
# 3  
Old 05-21-2012
Years and years ago I worked for a small ISP (Internet Service Provider) that offered Unix (SunOS) shell accounts. In order to prevent the installation of rootkits and such, we would read-only mount as many partitions as possible, including /usr and /sbin. Not only were they mounted read-only, but they were mounted from a separate disk drive that was set via a jumper to be read-only! (Actually, we carefully soldered wires to the pins and ran them to a switch, so that we could install software updates w/o disassembling the box.)

A couple of times over the decade or so that I worked there we had someone who (as best as I could tell) got a root shell, tried to install some kind of rootkit/backdoor, found that the executables they wanted to over-write were in a r/o partition, edited the fstab to mount the partition read-write, and rebooted in the hopes of (I assume) logging in again with the ability to over-write stuff. The r/o drive would make the box cyclicly reboot until we found it.

In various log files I'd see the error you list in your initial post. If you aren't the admin for the machine you need to consult with that person.
 
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