Chown operation not permitted for root
Solution 1:
The immutable attribute might be set on the file. Remove it with
chattr -i <file>
Solution 2:
Several solution exists, some among them:
- you have a filesystem does not lets you eg. uid:gid, eg: FAT
- the drive has been mounted read-only
- SELinux or other security enforcers apply
- filesystem is set to read-only mode (xfs_freeze, for example)
- file has the immutable flag set (man chattr)
Solution 3:
Funny. Did you check the system logs (/var/log/messages, /var/log/syslog, output of dmesg) for any clues?
Possible reasons:
- You are running some security-enhanced Linux, such as SELinux. These place restrictions even on what root can do.
- The file is on a file system that does not support file ownership, such as (V)FAT. Depending on mount options chmod/chown will give you errors.
Solution 4:
Try this:
[root@ root]# chattr -ais /bin/ls
after changing the ownership and group back to root.
Solution 5:
I had same problem.
$ chattr -V -i dir
chattr 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Flags of dir set as s----a---------
Which was not enough. So i added the 'sa'
$ chattr -V -ais dir
chattr 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
Flags of dir set as ---------------
$ chown root dir
$
Problem solved :)