Score:1

Ubuntu

root user has no permission to edit environment file

k90mirzaei

10/5/23, 2:32 PM

I recently got a new problem in my Ubuntu system. I have to change the contents of the /etc/environment file but it is not possible, even the root user has no permission to do that.

As you can see root has write permission here:

>> ls -lia /etc/environment 
262296 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 241 Oct  3 17:59 /etc/environment

It will not let me change the file.

>> sudo su
>> echo sample=1 >> /etc/environment
   operation not permitted: /etc/environment

There is no way to change the file even with an editor tool like vim and nano.

The outputs:

>> findmnt -T /etc/environment
TARGET SOURCE         FSTYPE OPTIONS
/      /dev/nvme0n1p5 ext4   rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro


>> lsattr /etc/environment
----i---------e------- /etc/environment

281

1 + 11

vim

permissions

PonJar

10/5/23, 3:01 PM

There isn’t normally a root user setup in Ubuntu like there is in many other distributions. Consequently I’m not sure what `sudo su` will achieve and I don’t have a quick way to check at the moment. The output you have provided doesn’t show us which user you are acting as when you issue the commands. I suspect you may not have become root when you think you have. Have you tried `sudo nano /etc/environment`

k90mirzaei

10/5/23, 3:15 PM

ya I do it, and `sudo su` switches current session user to the root user

steeldriver

10/5/23, 3:28 PM

`EPERM 1 Operation not permitted` is different from `EACCES 13 Permission denied` and usually indicates something like a read-only volume rather than a simple unix permission bit issue

k90mirzaei

10/5/23, 3:53 PM

So how I can change my env variable inside `/etc/environment`

k90mirzaei

10/5/23, 3:57 PM

from my window experience, it would happen when the file is used or opened somewhere is this the same @steeldriver

mattb

10/5/23, 5:09 PM

Does it work with `sudo su -`? (note the `-` at the end) or maybe by just doing `sudoedit /path/to/file`?

k90mirzaei

10/5/23, 5:17 PM

@mattb I add an image, as you see it not editable as all,

steeldriver

10/5/23, 5:35 PM

Please add the output of `findmnt -T /etc/environment`

Henning Kockerbeck

10/5/23, 5:36 PM

Also, please add the output of `lsattr /etc/environment`. The file _may_ have the "immutable" flag set.

k90mirzaei

10/5/23, 5:48 PM

@steeldriver Does it mean that mounting prohibits editing the file? if yes how to resolve it?

Henning Kockerbeck

10/5/23, 6:00 PM

@k90mirzaei No, you need to mount a file system to get to the files on that file system in the first place, for reading, writing or whatever ;) You may want to read up on the differences between the organization of file systems in Windows and in Unix-like operating systems like Linux.

Score:4

Ubuntu

Henning Kockerbeck

10/5/23, 5:58 PM

According to the output of lsattr, the file in question has the "immutable" attribute set (note the i in the list of attribute flags in the beginning of the output):

A file with the 'i' attribute cannot be modified: it cannot be deleted or renamed, no link can be created to this file and no data can be written to the file. Only the superuser or a process possessing the CAP_LINUX_IMMUTABLE capability can set or clear this attribute.

(from the man page of chattr).

The "immutable" attribute is one of a list of extended file attributes that are available on ext file systems (ext2, ext3, ext4).

You can set or unset those attributes with chattr like this

chattr +s /some/file # sets the 's' attribute
chattr -s /some/file # removes the 's' attribute

With some attributes, among them the i or "immutable" attribute, you need root privileges to set or remove them, so you'll do something like

sudo chattr +i /some/file
sudo chattr -i /some/file

From my experience, you don't run into those extended attributes very often. So I would recommend to look into why /etc/environment got the i attribute set in the first place. It doesn't have on my system ;)

+ 1

k90mirzaei

10/5/23, 6:04 PM

Wow, It works thank you so much

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: root user has no permission to edit environment file

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