Sudo defaults to mode o-rwx

Binary package hint: sudo

I've been trying to find the reason for this bug since karmic-alpha6 with no success... Maybe it's not a bug, but a new (weird) "feature".

What happens is that whenever I use sudo (to install/update/modify something), it changes the default modes to o-rwx. For example, after running the following:

sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

All the file permissions in the /usr/share/mime directory change from 644 to 640. If after that, I open nautilus and press the refresh button, all the files are listed with mime-type:text/plain, since nautilus cannot access the mime database.

Similarly, after adding the medibuntu repository, the update-manager issued an error stating that it couldn't access the /etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list (which was saved with mode 640). Also, after performing sudo apt-get update or adding a ppa repository (through the new method), the update-manager complains that it cannot access the "/var/lib/synaptic/preferences" file (the synaptic directory mode was 750).

Something similar happens after installing the Intel compiler suite (in the /opt/intel directory) and trying to use it.

In all the previous versions of Ubuntu I never had this problem, and the installation process has always been the same ---and it's always a fresh install (since my /home is in a separate partition).

I tried this first on an ext4 file-system, with an ext4 /home partition; now I'm on an ext3 file-system, with an ext3 /home, and the problem remains the same.

Maybe some of the packages I installed is causing the problem, although I consider it unlikely. The packages installed by me, so far, are:

*opera
*ntp
*gufw
*dict, dictd, some other dict-* packages
*gedit-plugins
*clamtk
*amsn
*ubuntu-restricted extras
*non-free-codecs
*sun-java6-jdk
*libstdc++5 (required by the Intel compilers)
*gcc multilibs (required by the Intel compilers)
*anjuta
*audacious
*xine-ui, with plugins
*VirtualBox
*alien
*file-roller's suggested packages
*nautilus add-ons (-actions, -gksu, etc.)
*pulseaudio add-ons (device chooser, volume control, etc.)

Only opera and libstdc++5 are local.

---

...:~$ lsb_release -rd && uname -srv && apt-cache policy sudo
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10
Linux 2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 14:05:01 UTC 2009
sudo:
  Installed: 1.7.0-1ubuntu2
  Candidate: 1.7.0-1ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 1.7.0-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://ubuntu.cs.utah.edu karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue Nov 3 01:16:55 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: sudo 1.7.0-1ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: sudo
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2688): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2688): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2763): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2725): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed