Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Wed, 23 May 2001 17:40:20 -0400 (EDT)
From:      <doug@safeport.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   /dev/io: Operation not permitted
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.21.0105231727170.6227-100000@pemaquid.safeport.com>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
I have a 4.3 system where root can not write to /dev/io. I assume I have screwed
something up but  I am told the permissions:

crw-------  1 root  wheel    2,  14 May  9 19:56 /dev/io

are okay and indeed matches my other systems. The man page io(4) would suggest
this is hard to do:

   DESCRIPTION
     The special file /dev/io is a controlled security hole that allows a pro-
     cess to gain I/O privileges (which are normally reserved for kernel-
     internal code).  Any process that holds a file descriptor on /dev/io open
     will get its IOPL bits in the flag register set, thus allowing it to per-
     form direct I/O operations.  This can be useful in order to write user-
     land programs that handle some hardware directly.

     The entire access control is handled by the file access permissions of
     /dev/io, so care should be taken in granting rights for this device.
     Note that even read/only access will grant the full I/O privileges.

However:

Last login: Tue May 22 18:21:34 2001 from pemaquid.boltsys
Copyright (c) 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
        The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
FreeBSD 4.3-RELEASE (GENERIC) #0: Sat Apr 21 10:54:49 GMT 2001

Welcome to FreeBSD!

mneme:~> su
Password:
mneme:/home/doug# echo "poo I say" > /dev/io
/dev/io: Operation not permitted.
__________________________________________

The reason I care is XFree86 -configure fail with the same error. This system
was installed from ftp.freebsd.org on 5/20


_____
Douglas Denault
doug@safeport.com
Voice: 301-469-8766
  Fax: 301-469-0601


To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.21.0105231727170.6227-100000>