[CentOS] more newbie questions -- init 5 works, init 3 doesn't for "normal" users

[Daniel J Walsh]

On 06/11/2015 05:27 PM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
> Kay Schenk wrote:
>> On 06/11/2015 08:28 AM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>>> Kay Schenk wrote:
>>>> On 06/10/2015 10:06 PM, Gordon Messmer wrote:
>>>>> On 06/10/2015 05:25 PM, Kay Schenk wrote:
>>>>>> I get /home/<username> not found when it's there and
>>>>>> setup with correct permissions -- well here I am using it
>>>>>> in run level 5 just fine!
>>> <SNIP>
>>>>> The file "startx.trace" will have a list of all of the
>>>>> commands run, and all of their output (including errors).
>>>>>
>>>>> /var/log/X* might be interesting as well.
>>>> OK, this last bit sounds promising although this works as expected for
>>>> root -- starts up gnome flawlessly. My previous setup imported settings
>>>> to use a display manager, etc. So, I need to check on this.
>>>>
>>>> Right now, one of my main concerns is that my old /home
>>>> partition/direction is supposedly associated WITH current users I setup
>>>> and yet...NOT! The system does not recognize this association even
>>>> though it asked me about setting it up when I created my first real
>>>> user
>>>> on installation. I had to go in and reset uids but that's no biggie and
>>>> this process has worked fine before.  I can't help but think this is
>>>> related to the startx issue.
>>> I missed parts of this thread: are any of them mounted NFS? From root,
>>> su
>>> - user, and then do ls -laF, and check the ownership and group,
>>> *including* of ./ (the current directory).
>>>
>>> I mention NFS because of issues we've been having here, but we're
>>> connected to AD, and I need to fix /etc/idmapd.conf to have our domain.
>> Thanks for everyone's help. It seems the not locating /home for users
>> was related to startx problem.
>>
>> The /home partition in question had been an old one, ext3, and requested
>> not to format. All that was well. Partition mounted, etc. Unfortunately,
>> I had inadvertently installed selinux (OK, I saw that but didn't'
>> understand the consequences) and this was what was causing my odd
>> non-root user login behavior (couldn't locate /home) AND the startx
>> problems from init 3 level. After talking to an RH admin colleague, all
>> fine now. On to more fun items as I get up to speed on CentOS! :)
>>
> Check to see if the setroubleshoot package is installed. If not, do it.
> It'll generate log entries with sealerts, which will help you figure out
> how to shut up selinux.... Run it in permissive mode, in the meantime.
>
>          mark "one of my permanent goals: shutting up selinux"
>
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
You probably want to execute

# semanage fcontext -a -e /home /PATHTOYOURHOME
# restorecon -R -v /PATHTOYOURHOME

This tells SELinux to label content under /PATHTOYOURHOME as if it was
under /home, and should fix most of your problems.