Permission Denied in accessing driver in linux

Engines, Libraries and Tools Xith3D Forums
#1

I was trying to run a jogl-based xith application on a linux machine and got the following problem:

NV: could not open control device /dev/nvidiactl (Permission denied)
Error: Could not open /dev/nvidiactl because the permissions
are too resticitive.  Please see the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
section of /usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/README for steps
to correct.

Do I need to be root to access the driver? How can this be solved? I really

ps: I’m sorry for posting here since it’s really a jogl issue, but maybe some one had some experience with this issue. thanks

#2

Hit that one quite recently, following advice from nvidia-glx documentation solved it


Q: OpenGL applications exit with the following error message:

        Error: Could not open /dev/nvidiactl because the permissions
        are too restrictive.  Please see the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
        section of /usr/share/doc/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0/README for steps
        to correct.

A: It is likely that a security module for the PAM system may be
   changing the permissions on the NVIDIA device files.  In most cases
   this security system works, but it can get confused.  To correct this
   problem it is recommended that you disable this security feature.
   Different Linux distributions have different files to control this;
   please consult with your distributor for the correct method of
   disabling this security feature.  As an example, if your system has
   the file
        /etc/security/console.perms
   then you should edit the file and remove the line that starts with
   "<dri>" (we have also received reports that additional references to
   <dri> in console.perms must be removed, but this has not been verified
   by NVIDIA).  If instead your system has the file
        /etc/logindevperms
   then you should edit the file and remove the line that lists
   /dev/nvidiactl.  The above steps will prevent the PAM security system
   from modifying the permissions on the NVIDIA device files.  Next,
   you will need to reset the permissions on the device files back
   to their original permissions and owner.  You can do that with the
   following commands:
        chmod 0666 /dev/nvidia* chown root /dev/nvidia*
#3

quoting myself from my reply at jogl:

Thanks for the hints folks.

I asked around a few people here, and I was told that this was due to a bug in RedHat. It seems that there is a problem with users sharing same security policies (the first user that logged on the machine holds the access to the nvidia card, and any other user that tries access it, gets a “permission deined”). The solution is just to reset the machine, and be the first to log in

This is a public machine at a university, btw.

appreaciat the help anyway.