Apache Friends Support Forum

When I install xampp on a tinycore linux system the user/group name for the mysql directory, lan.tmp and config.inc.php files are all assigned to the root user. They should be assigned to nobody/nogroup since the mysqlserver is running under the nobody user. What needs to change in the install script to get the install right. This is for xampp 1.6.8a.

Change recursively all folders and files you need via the following command:

# sudo chown -R nobody:nogroup /opt/lampp/whateveryouneed

Thanks for the response. Yes I know what the fix is as far as changing file ownership goes. What I am asking is why is the install script failing to get the ownership right in the first place.

I had no problems with Xampp and any Linux distributions (SuSE, Ubuntu, Knoppix etc.), I think there is a problem with tinycore, not with Xampp. Usually the mysql files do not have ownsership nobody:nogroup on any distribution.

Yes I would agree there is something about tinycore linux that is perhaps confusing the install script. That's what I'm trying to track down. See the ps output list below. Notice there are two mysqlserver services running, mysqld-safe under root and mysqld under nobody. So does anybody have any ideas as to why the install script does this. What's tripping it up?

PID USER COMMAND
1 root init
2 root [kthreadd]
3 root [migration/0]
4 root [ksoftirqd/0]
5 root [events/0]
6 root [khelper]
7 root [kblockd/0]
8 root [kacpid]
9 root [kacpi_notify]
10 root [ata/0]
11 root [ata_aux]
12 root [ksuspend_usbd]
13 root [khubd]
14 root [kseriod]
15 root [pdflush]
16 root [pdflush]
17 root [kswapd0]
18 root [aio/0]
19 root [nfsiod]
20 root [kpsmoused]
21 root [rpciod/0]
120 root /sbin/udevd --daemon
465 root [pccardd]
598 root [pccardd]
664 root [scsi_eh_0]
665 root [usb-storage]
684 root [scsi_eh_1]
685 root [usb-storage]
1504 root /sbin/udhcpc -b -i eth0 -h box -p /var/run/udhcpc.eth0.pid
1657 tc -sh
1683 tc jwm
1703 root Xvesa -br -mouse /dev/psaux,5 -screen 1024x768x32 -shadow -nolisten tcp -I
1715 tc wbar -bpress
1716 tc sh -c /usr/bin/aterm
1717 tc /usr/bin/aterm
1718 tc sh
1720 root sh
1757 root /opt/lampp/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL -DPHP5
1782 root /bin/sh /opt/lampp/bin/mysqld_safe --datadir=/opt/lampp/var/mysql --pid-file=/opt/lampp/var/mysql/box.pid
1820 nobody /opt/lampp/sbin/mysqld --basedir=/opt/lampp --datadir=/opt/lampp/var/mysql --user=nobody --pid-file=/opt/lampp/var/mysql/box.pid --skip-external-locking --port=3306 --socket=/opt/lampp/var/mysql/mysql.sock
1825 nobody /opt/lampp/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL -DPHP5
1831 nobody /opt/lampp/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL -DPHP5
1832 nobody /opt/lampp/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL -DPHP5
1833 nobody /opt/lampp/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL -DPHP5
1834 nobody /opt/lampp/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL -DPHP5
1835 nobody /opt/lampp/bin/httpd -k start -DSSL -DPHP5
1837 root ps

mysqld_safe is always running as root, that's necessary to acquire the port on the network interface. The main server is running under whatever user you want. In case of XAMPP it is user nobody.

Could you please post the exact path of the files you are talking about! There are a lot of MySQL files and most of them are owned by root:root, and that's normal. It is only necessary for a small amount of the xampp files to be owned by another user:group.

glitzi

OK here they are:

/opt/lampp/var/mysql (assigned to root needs to be nobody)
/opt/lamp/phpmyadmin/confi.inc.php (same as above)
/opt/lampp/htdocs/xampp/lang.tmp (same as above)

bigpcman wrote:/opt/lampp/var/mysql (assigned to root needs to be nobody)

Yes, that's correct. The mysql folder belongs to nobody:root, the subfolders and files are either owned by nobody:root or nobody:nogroup. If your permissions are wrong, then it could be a problem with the tar program. Ownership is saved in the tarball, so maybe there was an error during untar.

bigpcman wrote:/opt/lamp/phpmyadmin/confi.inc.php (same as above)

No, not really. Should be owned by root. The config file from an original PMA Installation is also owned by root.

bigpcman wrote:/opt/lampp/htdocs/xampp/lang.tmp (same as above)

[/quote]
Yes, that should be also owned by nodboy, otherwise the language selection in XAMPP will not work.

glitzi

I wonder if this is a busybox ash shell tar problem.

bigpcman wrote:I wonder if this is a busybox ash shell tar problem.

Could be. A google search for "busybox tar" displayed a lot of results with tar problems in busybox. If you have enough space on your system, then you could install the original tar and try to install XAMPP again.

glitzi

OK, now I'm really confused. I switched to bash as the shell script and installed xampp again, actually several times to see what I would end up with. Installing from the /home/tc directory xampp-linux-1.6.8a.tar.gz either as user tc or root ends up with the previously mentioned post files all being assigned user 65534 instead of nobody. There is no user 65534 on the system. Any ideas? I'm using "tar -xzvf /home/tc/xampp-linux-1.6.8a.tar.gz -C /opt"

If you get numbers as usernames, then the user doesn't exist on the machine. Verify that user nobody and group nogroup exist on your Machine!

glitzi

here's the contents of the passwd and group files:

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/bin/sh
nobody:x:99:99:nobody:/bin/false
tc:x:1001:50:Linux User,,,:/home/tc:/bin/sh

root:x:0:
lp:x:7:lp
nogroup:x:99:
staff:x:50:

OK, strange. Could you make a test and change the uid of nobody to 65534? That's the normal uid of this user (theoretically you can use everyone). I don't know how tar works, but maybe it is working with uid's instead of usernames.

glitzi

Wow that worked. I changed the passwd and group file contents uid numbers to 65534 and now the xampp install does indeed end up with the user nobody assigned correctly. Can you explain what this means. Oh by the way I discovered that installing the bash shell did not actually change the tar command file so I have been running the busybox shell tar command all along no matter what shell I selected.