I have discovered a problem recently when using su to switch to a user other than root on a Gnome Terminal session. Let's say I login to the graphical desktop using a userid of "fred". When I launch a Gnome Terminal session, I'm automatically logged in as "fred". Now, let's suppose I switch to user "barney" by using
su barney After entering the password for user "barney", my userid changes to "barney" in that session. (whoami reports "barney".) I then change to barney's home directory with "cd", issued with no operands. Now, certain commands will cause error messages to the terminal. For example, if I issue vi stuff Then exit vi with :q, I am back to another shell prompt, but there is an error message on the screen which looks like this: Error: messages not turned on: /dev/pts/0: Operation not permitted (vi is actually nvi on my system.) This problem does not occur in a virtual terminal (vt1-vt6). It also does not occur if I switch to root, instead of a non-root user. A search of the internet seemed to suggest that the problem was the presence of "biff y" in a bash profile. However, I have looked, and I cannot find "biff y" specified in any bash-related file. (I am running jessie.) In fact, the biff package is not even installed. Ideas anyone? -- .''`. Stephen Powell : :' : `. `'` `- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/402356644.1946777.1372536041381.javamail.r...@md01.wow.synacor.com
