Using WinSCP as non-root user

[scottbronikowski]

I want to use WinSCP to transfer files between machines both on and off my local network.
I have an external port forwarded to port 22 on my HDA, and I am able to SSH in just fine.

However, when I try to use WinSCP, I can only connect using "root". When I try to connect as my regular username, WinSCP hangs after it says "Reading remote driectory..." I then get the error message that says the host is not communicating for 15 seconds, and nothing else happens. When I abort, I get the message saying "Error listing directory: /home/[username]"

I think I've narrowed down the problem to the fact that when I SSH in as my regular username, my system hangs when I give the "ls -a" command in my home directory. I am able to give that command successfully in other directories as my regular user, just not in my home directory.

This seems to be some sort of permissions issue, but I'm not sure what permissions to change.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[moredruid]

could you give us a ls -latr from your /home (so we can see all the userdirectories permissions)
feel free to star out your real usernames

[scottbronikowski]

When I try the ls -latr as my regular user, my putty session just locks up and I have to restart.

If I elevate to root, I can run the ls -latr in my /home directory. The output is shown below.
I just now noticed the Permission denied on .gvfs. I have no clue what that is, but it might be a source of the problem.

Anyways, here's my output:

[root@hda ******]# ls -latr
ls: cannot access .gvfs: Permission denied
total 272
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? .gvfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 ****** ****** 124 2009-12-11 06:51 .bashrc.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 ****** ****** 176 2009-12-11 06:51 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 ****** ****** 18 2009-12-11 06:51 .bash_logout
drwxrwxr-x 3 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 15:15 .evolution
drwxr-xr-x 5 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 15:16 .mozilla
drwx------ 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 15:54 .icedteaplugin
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2010-03-20 15:55 ..
drwx------ 4 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 17:14 .thumbnails
drwxr-xr-x 5 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 17:23 .config
drwx------ 3 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 .dbus
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 Videos
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 Templates
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 Public
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 Pictures
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 Music
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 Downloads
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 Documents
-rw------- 1 ****** ****** 256 2010-03-20 19:14 .pulse-cookie
drwx------ 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 .gnome2_private
drwxr-xr-x 3 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 .local
-rw------- 1 ****** ****** 16 2010-03-20 19:14 .esd_auth
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 .nautilus
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 Desktop
drwx------ 2 ****** users 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 .pulse
drwxrwxr-x 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 .gstreamer-0.10
drwxrwxr-x 3 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-20 19:14 .gnote
-rw------- 1 ****** ****** 89806 2010-03-20 19:37 .xsession-errors.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 ****** users 42 2010-03-20 19:38 .dmrc
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** users 4096 2010-03-21 09:36 .themes
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** users 4096 2010-03-21 09:36 .icons
drwxr-xr-x 7 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-21 09:37 .gnome2
drwxr-xr-x 3 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-21 09:37 .cache
-rw------- 1 ****** users 2755 2010-03-21 14:30 .recently-used.xbel
-rw------- 1 ****** users 1697 2010-03-21 14:50 .xsession-errors
drwxr-xr-x 2 ****** users 4096 2010-03-21 14:51 .vnc
-rw------- 1 ****** ****** 2186 2010-03-21 14:51 .ICEauthority
drwx------ 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-21 14:52 .gnupg
drwx------ 4 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-21 14:52 .gconf
-rw-r--r-- 1 ****** users 137 2010-03-21 14:52 .gtk-bookmarks
-rw-r--r-- 1 ****** users 574 2010-03-21 14:52 .imsettings.log
drwx------ 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-21 22:12 .gconfd
-rw-r--r-- 1 ****** users 3229 2010-03-23 08:46 .bashrc
-rw------- 1 ****** users 804 2010-03-23 09:23 .viminfo
drwx------ 2 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-23 09:34 .ssh
-rw------- 1 ****** ****** 1117 2010-03-23 10:13 .bash_history
-rw------- 1 ****** users 146 2010-03-23 11:10 .Xauthority
drwx------ 32 ****** ****** 4096 2010-03-23 11:10 .
[root@hda ******]#

[moredruid]

.gvfs has something to do with the fuse-daemon... not sure what exactly but a look around on google should give you good results

[scottbronikowski]

Yes, the more I read about gvfs the more I think it could be the source of the problem.

It is kind of bugging me that even as root, I still can't access this .gvfs directory under my home directory. I mean, what gives? I can't really have any more permissions than root, can I?

An interesting side note--when I WinSCP into my box as root and I look at my user home directory, the .gvfs folder does not show up. Will have to check it locally when I get home tonight.

How necessary is gvfs? Can I just uninstall it? Or, if it is necessary, is there an easy way to uninstall and then reinstall it?