Screen must be started with sudo on first use

[Chafnan]

When first using screen after every reboot I am getting the following message:

$ screen
Cannot make directory '/var/run/screen': Permission denied

When I start in with "sudo screen" the problem is fixed for all users until the computer is rebooted.

Anyone know how to fix this?

-----------------------------------------
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10

$ apt-cache policy screen
screen:
  Installed: 4.0.3-11
  Candidate: 4.0.3-11
  Version table:
 *** 4.0.3-11 0
        500 http://apt-cacher-intrepid intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

Before running screen with sudo (so after a fresh reboot, when the error occurs), can you please post the output of
   ls -l /var | grep run
and
   ls -l /usr/bin/screen

The first command should show the permissions of the folder /var/run as 755 (drwxr-xr-x) and owned by root:root
The last command should show screen to have permissions 755 with sgid (rwxr-sr-x) and owned by root:utmp

If the last command doesn't show something very similar to
   -rwxr-sr-x 1 root utmp 308228 2007-10-23 12:02 /usr/bin/screen
Then run
   sudo chown root:utmp /usr/bin/screen
   sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/screen
   sudo chmod g+s /usr/bin/screen

Since this bug didn't have a package associated with it, I am filing it under "screen", though I expect this is a configuration problem and not a bug. Thanks in advance for the information requested. Let me know if the problem is solved.

[Chafnan (chafnan)]

Here are the results right after startup:

$ ls -l /var | grep run
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 780 2008-12-31 11:29 run

$ ls -l /usr/bin/screen
-rwxr-sr-x 1 root utmp 364K 2008-06-13 12:24 /usr/bin/screen

Still produces error

$ screen
Cannot make directory '/var/run/screen': Permission denied

Any other ideas? Do I need to be a member of the utmp group or what is that
group and 's' setting?

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

Are you mounting /var or /var/run separately from the rest of your filesystem? The permissions look correct on the files and folders (the "s" is setgid). I would suggest trying to reinstall screen, and also upload to this bug report as separate attachments the file
   /etc/fstab
the output of the mount command in a text file:
   mount > mount.txt
the groups command:
   groups > groups.txt
and information about your kernel:
   uname -a > uname-a.txt

Thanks in advance.

[Chafnan (chafnan)]

It looks like I am mounting /var/run separately. I also tried to reinstall
screen, but it didn't change anything.

Here are the files that you requested.

Thanks for helping me with this.

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

It's possible that during reinstall some conf files didn't get removed, so let's try to purge screen then install it again (PLEASE don't purge from apt-get as ubuntu-desktop depends on screen).
   sudo dpkg --force-depends --purge screen
   sudo apt-get install screen

Does the problem still persist?

[Chafnan (chafnan)]

This last suggestion has fixed the issue. Thanks for the help!

[Connor Imes (ckimes)]

Thanks for following up, I'm glad it's working. I'll close this bug report now.

[Mike.lifeguard (mikelifeguard)]

This still occurs. I reinstalled screen, and now get the same error recurring about 2 weeks later. As reported, using sudo screen first lets other users use screen until reboot.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.