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I'm trying to build a LFS using version 7.1. I've followed all of the steps up to 5.3 and now I'm stuck because I can't change to $LFS/sources - I get the message:

bash: cd: /mnt/lfs/sources: Permission denied

I'm logged in, in a new terminal, as lfs. The directory permissions (as seen from /mnt/lfs by root) are:

drwx------ 6 leo  leo   4096 May 26 18:02 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root  4096 May 21 20:43 ..
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 May 21 20:24 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 2 leo  leo   4096 May 26 18:00 patches
drwxrwxrwt 2 lfs  root  4096 May 26 17:53 sources
drwxr-xr-x 2 lfs  root  4096 May 26 18:02 tools

The mount spec for the partition is:

/dev/sdb3 on /mnt/lfs type ext3 (rw)

I'm far from new to UNIX and LINUX and this is really annoying me. I know it's something blindingly obvious but I just can't see it.

I have restarted the machine, sourced the lfs profile (source ~/.bash_profile) but just can't seem to find the one thing I'm missing. The host system is Debian if that helps.

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  • What is the output of ls -ld /mnt/ and ls -ld /
    – Ulrich Dangel
    May 26, 2012 at 19:56
  • 'drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 May 21 20:43 /mnt/' and 'drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 4096 May 26 18:02 /'
    – Leo
    May 27, 2012 at 1:10
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    I don't know LFS but it seems it is using a dedicated user for building the software and /mnt/lfs has some pretty restrictive permissions. chmod 755 /mnt/lfs should probably solve your issue
    – Ulrich Dangel
    May 27, 2012 at 1:18

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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You /mnt/lfs directory is restricted to user leo (mode 0700), no-one else can enter it.

Change that to 755 (chmod go+rx /mnt/lfs) and things should work out.

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I tried those suggestions but to no avail. I recalled that I created the user lfs, then deleted it and recreated it after assigning owner permissions. So I completely deleted it (and associated files) again, reassigned ownership to root and went through the whole process again.

Still, I couldn't change into /mnt/lfs/sources or /mnt/lfs/tools. So I tried changing /mnt/lfs to 755 again and it all worked. Weird - I should be able to enter a child directory to which I have granted access even though I don't have access to the parent.

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  • 2
    "I should be able to enter a child directory to which I have granted access even though I don't have access to the parent." No, you shouldn't. You need x permissions from / to the final directory.
    – Mat
    May 27, 2012 at 10:31
  • Surely that would imply that any user could change to any higher up directory in the filesystem.
    – Leo
    May 28, 2012 at 13:44
  • See chdir in POSIX: "EACCESS Search permission is denied for any component of the pathname." - note that the check is done at the time of call. You could change permissions on a path component afterwards (which would very likely have strange effects on unsuspecting processes).
    – Mat
    May 28, 2012 at 13:52
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Run the following commands

root@host--$: chmod 777 -R /mnt/lfs
root@host--$: chmod 777 -R /mnt/lfs/sources
root@host--$: chmod 777 -R /mnt/lfs/tools

It will solve your issue.

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