Knowledge Base .: File permissions set to "Root" after installing Knowledgebox on an Equiinet Cachepilot

This article applies to:

KnowledgeBox version: 1.5
Browser versions: all

File permissions set to "Root" after installing Knowledgebox on an Equiinet Cachepilot

This article deals with potential problems regarding incorrect file and directory permissions that can arise during the installation of Knowledgebox on an Equiinet cachepilot. There are two example situations that have been encountered during an installation on an NGfL Easynet Cachepilot and the recommended solution to each.

1. New resource files downloaded after running Core_data_update_noassets show incorrect permissions.

a. When executing Core_data_update_noassets the script normally requires that the md5sums file in /home/knowledgebox/resources is calculated twice, the second time after any missing resources have been downloaded successfully. In this instance the directory and file permissions of the new resources were set to "Root" and not "kb". Before testing the installation it is necessary to change these permissions to the correct setting.

b. This change can be done by extracting the last three commands from explode_resources.sh and creating a new script file as detailed below:

#!/bin/bash -x

cd /home/knowledgebox

find resources | xargs chown kb:kb

find resources -type d -exec chmod 775 {} ;

find resources -type f -exec chmod 664 {} ;

This new script file can then be run from /home/knowledgebox and the correct permissions will be set.

The resource directories affected (as at 25.2.05) are:

/home/knowledgebox/resources/movies/M0051 and M0052,

/home/knowledgebox/resources/software/S0051, S0052 and S0074,

/home/knowledgebox/resources/text/T0052.

2. File permissions for LASTCOREDATASUCCESS and md5sums are set to "Root" and not "kb".

a. After executing Core_data_update_noassets two files are created in /home/knowledgebox/resources - LASTCOREDATASUCCESS and md5sums.

The permissions should be "kb" for both but instead are set as "Root".

b. These permissions should be changed using chown kb:kb <filename> so that when a core data update (or data update in KB Next Generation) is completed, the date and time will bet set correctly in the Administrator interface. If the permissions remain set as "Root" this will lead to a FATAL error being recorded in the log file and the last success date set in the Administrator interface will not change.

3. File permissions for /tmp/md5sum are set to "Root" and not "kb".

a. In order to allow Core data (or data update in KBNG) to rebuild the md5sums file correctly, the file permissions for /tmp/md5sum need to be set to "kb". If they are set to "Root" the update will download missing resources, set a new success date and time in /home/knowledgebox/resources/LASTCOREDATASUCCESS but will not succeed in re-calculating md5sums in /home/knowledgebox/resources.

b. In KB Next Generation this will prevent the start page from displaying properly after login as well as preventing additional Modules (Digtexts, ScienceBox etc...) from being accessible.

c. As before these permissions should be changed using chown kb:kb <filename> . "Get latest content and data now" in School Setup options in the KB Administrator interface should then be run before testing KB from any of the school's computers.