Using "screen -S sessionName .script" in SSH: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:39, 27 November 2016

If you get Cannot open your terminal '/dev/pts/0' - please check. look here :-)

Often enough, one is logged in as root and decides to su – to an underprivileged user. Due to the tty for the root shell being owned by the user root, the su’d environment is unable to run screen:

root@whitegirl:~# su - joe joe@whitegirl:~$ screen Cannot open your terminal '/dev/pts/0' - please check. joe@whitegirl:~$

This is resolved by setting the owner of the terminal device to the target user before running su, so the user then has write privileges on the pseudo teletype device:

root@whitegirl:~# chown joe `tty` root@whitegirl:~# su - joe joe@whitegirl:~$ screen

And then revert it when done

[screen is terminating] joe@whitegirl:~$ logout root@whitegirl:~# chown root `tty` root@whitegirl:~#

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 If you get '''Cannot open your terminal '/dev/pts/0' - please check.''' [http://debianaddict.com/2013/03/08/gnu-screen-cannot-open-terminal-when-you-su-to-a-user/ look here] :-)
+<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
+Credit to http://debianaddict.com/
+<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
+Often enough, one is logged in as root and decides to su – to an underprivileged user. Due to the tty for the root shell being owned by the user root, the su’d environment is unable to run screen:
+root@whitegirl:~# su - joe
+joe@whitegirl:~$ screen
+Cannot open your terminal '/dev/pts/0' - please check.
+joe@whitegirl:~$
+This is resolved by setting the owner of the terminal device to the target user before running su, so the user then has write privileges on the pseudo teletype device:
+root@whitegirl:~# chown joe `tty`
+root@whitegirl:~# su - joe
+joe@whitegirl:~$ screen
+And then revert it when done
+[screen is terminating]
+joe@whitegirl:~$ logout
+root@whitegirl:~# chown root `tty`
+root@whitegirl:~#
+</div>
+</div>
 [[Category:Debian]]