[SOLVED] Installer thinks I'm root

[richard.o]

What does the installer check to see if the current user is root or has root access? After accepting the license agreement, I am met with this error:

"You may not run this installer as root user"

I am using an active directory account on a Linux box (64-bit Ubuntu 8.04) which allows sudo access for a group that I am in.

[jmhe]

basically the installer checks to see whether uid == 0 (root)

[richard.o]

Originally Posted by jmhe

basically the installer checks to see whether uid == 0 (root)

Running 'id' shows that my uid is 11181. Could you be a bit more specific on where it checks the uid or perhaps if it checks any groups that I may be in?

[jmhe]

during the initial setup phrase, the installer calls "com.sun.security.auth.module.UnixSystem.getUid()" . sounds like it's returning an effective id.

who's the owner of the installer file itself? does it have setuid attr?

[richard.o]

Originally Posted by jmhe

during the initial setup phrase, the installer calls "com.sun.security.auth.module.UnixSystem.getUid()" . sounds like it's returning an effective id.

who's the owner of the installer file itself? does it have setuid attr?

richard@box:~/Desktop$ ls -lah zdesktop_0_91_build_1344_linux_i686.sh 
-rwxr-xr-x 1 richard domain users 51M 2008-11-25 13:46 zdesktop_0_91_build_1344_linux_i686.sh

[jmhe]

can you run this simple java code from command line and tell me what's the output is? that's exactly how installer gets uid:

import java.io.*;
public class uidtest {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    com.sun.security.auth.module.UnixSystem unix = new com.sun.security.auth.module.UnixSystem();
    System.out.println(Long.toString(unix.getUid()));
  }
}

you can paste the code into a text file called uidtest.java, then

$ javac uidtest.java
$ java uidtest

[richard.o]

The code correctly returns my uid, 11181.

[shealutton]

I have the same problem with Fedora 10. We use a central LDAP server to host all of our user accounts. When I install with my LDAP account, I always get the error: "You may not run this installer as root user or member of root group.". When I use a local account, I am able to install correctly.

Looking at the UID of the previous poster, (and knowing that it is an active directory account), we seem to have the same error. This will prevent my company from using this software completely.
Thanks,
Shea Lutton

[jmhe]

ah, no wonder we could not reproduce this problem - we have been using local accounts.

i've opened a bug on this issue. Bug 36643 – Can not install with active sync account on Unix

you may sign up a bugzilla account (bugzilla.zimbra.com) and get yourself cc'ed on this bug.

Originally Posted by shealutton

I have the same problem with Fedora 10. We use a central LDAP server to host all of our user accounts. When I install with my LDAP account, I always get the error: "You may not run this installer as root user or member of root group.". When I use a local account, I am able to install correctly.

Looking at the UID of the previous poster, (and knowing that it is an active directory account), we seem to have the same error. This will prevent my company from using this software completely.
Thanks,
Shea Lutton

[richard.o]

The problem lied in an incorrectly configured /etc/nsswitch.conf. I came across it due to several firefox plugins printing error messages similar to Zimbra.

Old config:

passwd: compat winbind
group: compat winbind
shadow: compat
...

New config:

passwd: compat files ldap winbind
group: compat files ldap winbind
shadow: compat files ldap
...