Could not drop root uid

Sam Trenholme strenholme.usenet at gmail.com
Tue May 18 12:17:31 EDT 2010


> Fatal error: Could not drop root uid

This error will occur on line 4521 of MaraDNS.c when the setuid()
system call fails, probably due to high load.

I suggest, when this happens, waiting about five minutes before
restarting MaraDNS.  I also suggest setting maxprocs to a lower value
than its default of 64; such as adding this line to your mararc:

maxprocs = 32

I hate passing the buck, but you may wish to report this bug either on
the appropriate Linux kernel mailing list or as a Debian bug; setuid()
*should* always work.

- Sam (One of these days, I may add code to let people see the system
reported error when setuid() fails)

Note: I do not answer MaraDNS (including Deadwood) support requests
sent by private email without being compensated for my time. A MaraDNS
support request is any and all discussion you may wish to have about
MaraDNS in private email; if you want to email me to talk about
MaraDNS then, yes, that is a support request. I will discuss rates if
you want this kind of support. Thank you for your understanding.

MaraDNS security vulnerability reports, however, will be dealt with
without charge and kept confidential. If you don't know what Bugtraq
is, then, no, your email is not a security report. It is not a
security report unless you've done due diligence to determine how the
security bug you think you found can reasonably be exploited.


More information about the list mailing list