access permission of firefox profile on linux OS

[esolve]

I downloaded a firefox linux package
uncompress it and put it under my home dir
when I 'cd' into firefox and run the following command with my user account "esolve"

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./firefox

it works fine
but when I switch to root account, and run

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sudo -u esolve ./firefox

I see the errors below, and firefox can't be opened, THEN I tried to modify the package owner: chown -R esolve:esolve firefox, the error persists and firefox still can't be opened

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Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory

if I just run it as root account, there will be errors but firefox can still be opened

I tried the same version of firefox package in another linux machine before and when I'm with root account
"sudo -u esolve ./firefox " works fine
what is wrong with this? it is strange

coz I need to use "sudo -u esolve ./firefox " in a script, otherwiser I will just switch to esolve and run ./firefox
so I hope to deal with this error

[patrickjdempsey]

Try editing your title to include "*NIX" to attract members more likely to know.

[esolve]

Try editing your title to include "*NIX" to attract members more likely to know.

NIX?
what does that mean?

[Frank Lion]

Try editing your title to include "*NIX" to attract members more likely to know.

NIX?
what does that mean?

It's an incorrect shorthand sometimes used around here. Just put 'Linux' in your thread title.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix

[esolve]

maybe the problem is sudo -u user_account command is different from running the command directly under the user_account?

[LIMPET235]

Moving to the Tech forum...

[esolve]

ah, I solved this problem, just add --profile profile_dir
to specify the profile location
it is strange that when using sudo -u esolve, it can't locate the profile directory

[Grumpus]

More than likely root is a separate user than your home account identity and you may have to log in as root, therefore Firefox has to be installed under the root account file tree. Usually it is and you only need to log in as "root" and use the root password to access the files. This is not really a good idea since logging in as root causes a promiscuous condition and you have admin privileges globally while on line and could be a security issue.Most of the Linux Debian OS variations have some form of "plumbing" , symlinks, which allow the main file structure to communicate with the "Home" or "User" file setup, some do not. If you had a distribution modified version of Firefox installed more than likely the new install would have picked up on the profile though some of the folder directed commands may go to different folder. You might have to do some simple folder adding, editing or moving around of individual files.

Frankly I would avoid logging in as root unless you are maintaining a network and have full knowledge of what you are about. Then again I'm not the brightest penny in this roll.

[milomak]

out of interest why are you running firefox via sudo and still using your esolve account?

as stated by Grumpus above it really isn't advisable to use firefox with root privileges.

[esolve]

esolve is not my root account
that is why I run sudo -u esolve

out of interest why are you running firefox via sudo and still using your esolve account?

as stated by Grumpus above it really isn't advisable to use firefox with root privileges.

[VanillaMozilla]

Maybe sudo just switches user for purposes of accessing the executable file, but the user domain does not extend to all actions taken by the program. Sounds like maybe a bug in sudo -- especially since you say it works in other Linices. One wonders if other programs show the same behavior.

Oh wait. You just established that sudo allows it to access the profile files, so I don't see how it could be a sudo bug. On the other hand you say [exactly the same?] Firefox works this way on other Linices. Conflicting evidence. I don't have a clue.

[Frenzie]

It's an incorrect shorthand sometimes used around here. Just put 'Linux' in your thread title.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix

To be fair the BSDs are much the same but not Linux, as are all the other Unix-like systems. Apparently *nix or Un*x is used because UNIX is a protected trademark.

As for the problem I have no idea; got any particularly obvious differences between the two Linux machines? (Linux distro, sudo version…)

[Frank Lion]

To be fair the BSDs are much the same but not Linux, as are all the other Unix-like systems. Apparently *nix or Un*x is used because UNIX is a protected trademark

Didn't even the Linux using OP not knowing that 'Nix' was supposed to point people to a Linux related thread, tell you something? The simplest, easiest to understand solutions are best, which is why Mac threads have Mac in the title and not Sboj.

[Frenzie]

esolve, I just thought of something else: have you tried using one of the specifically GUI-oriented tools such as gksudo or kdesudo?

Didn't even the Linux using OP not knowing that 'Nix' was supposed to point people to a Linux related thread, tell you something?

Yes, that it's probably not the most helpful — not whether it's correct or incorrect.

[VanillaMozilla]

Bingo! Frenzie's got it. sudo is not supposed to be used with a GUI program.