How-to fix errors with the .dmrc file
After using Ubuntu over the last 30 days without any errors or problems I encountered an error “User’s $HOME/.dmrc” file is being ignored. This prevents the default session and language from being saved. File should be owned by user and have 644 permission. User $HOME directory must be owned by user and not writable by other users” after logging in today.
I tried googling for a fix, most sites asked me to change the file permissions to 644 as stated in the error message. I tried this fix and it did not work. After some more searching I came across this French site which had the solution.
To fix this error try the following
1. open a console window and at the prompt type the following to change the file permissions and hit enter
chmod 644 ~/.dmrc
2. type the following command to change the ownership of the file and hit enter
sudo chown your_login_name /home/your_login_name/.dmrc
3. The final step is to assign permissions on the home directory such that it is accessible only to you ( this step is very important)
sudo chmod 700 /home/your_login_name
This should fix the problem and you should never see the error message again.
What’s the difference between step 2 and step 3?
the two commands are exactly the same. Is it a typo?
shouldn’t step 3 be a chmod 644 or a chown on the user home directory rather than on the .dmrc file
Rami
June 6, 2007 at 6:35 pm
thank you!!!
btw, for the other guy:
step 2 changes ownership of the .dmrc file to you.
step 3 changes accessibility to only the owner of that home directory. if you didn’t perform step 2 before performing step 3, you might have limited accessibility to the /home/whatever directory to root.
dave
June 22, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Am glad this helped someone.
cipher27
June 22, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I’ve tried to do this two times and got Permission denied and then got Operation not permitted.
Your instructions are very clear and simple. What am I missing?
Thanks
Richard
July 1, 2007 at 9:19 am
Hi Richard,
Are you using sudo before the commands?
Harish
cipher27
July 2, 2007 at 10:23 pm
WOW. Thanks SO much. I was looking for this for a while.
Joe Smith
July 23, 2007 at 5:32 pm
Glad to be of help Joe
cipher27
July 23, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Thank you, cipher27! I was a Mandriva user absolutely desesperate due to this problem, but your solution works fine! (Sorry for my English, I’m an spañish speaker)
Silvia
September 15, 2007 at 10:33 am
Terima kasih atas petunjuknya.sungguh sangat membantu!
totok
September 15, 2007 at 10:50 pm
Thank-you very much. I don’t know what a .dmrc is, but it’s been bugging me for weeks!
jonpon
November 15, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Thank you! I got everything working now.
The .dmrc errors started to appear just after I bluntly chowned and chmoded my whole home folder.
kadakas
November 25, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Whaa it did not work for me after step2 it says:
chown: cannot access `/home/kxesporlas/.dmrc’: No such file or directory
Err.. a newb here… any help? >__<
kxesporlas
January 30, 2008 at 9:38 am
Thanks a lot. Could not find a workable solution at the Ubuntu forums. I had to create a new .dmrc file though.
Rayaz
May 23, 2008 at 3:17 pm
When i type step 1: chmod 644 ~/.dmrc it says no such file or directory
Xaviar
June 9, 2008 at 2:14 am
Excellent! Thanks for posting!
JGrace
October 20, 2008 at 10:10 pm