How to avoid permission denials in 32 Bionic?

[JASpup]

I normally run Pale Moon by .sfs in spot. Bionic will let me run as root, but as spot Pale Moon forces me to create a profile while not allowing access to folders for creation (including spot).

Tahr and Xenial do not have this problem with the same .sfs.

[williams2]

The PaleMoon configuration files for root are in '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

If you run PaleMoon as user spot,
the PaleMoon configuration files for spot are in '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'
the PaleMoon configuration files for spot are in '/home/spot/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

The point of running as spot, is to limit access to dirs and files.

You should not try to save to /root/Downloads/ or /root/Desktop/
You should not make use of /root/spot/
(because if the permissions are set properly, spot should should not be able
to access /root/)

You can copy the configuration dir in /root/ to /home/spot/
but the dirs and files need to be owned by spot
chown -Rc spot:spot /home/spot

And the permissions should be set to not allow group and world to write to the files
something like:
chmod -Rc 755 /home/spot (makes all files executable by spot)
or chmod -Rc 644 /home/spot (makes all file not executable)

[JASpup]

The PaleMoon configuration files for root are in '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

If you run PaleMoon as user spot,
the PaleMoon configuration files for spot are in '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

Typo? I always use /root/spot for spot configuration. Sometimes a root user command line switch specifies a different directory. Tor is another example (e.g., Tor as spot puts the configuration in the Tor subdirectory).

You should not make use of /root/spot/

Current Xenial Pale Moon config dir:
'/root/spot/.moonchild productions/pale moon'

Bionic by profile creation tries to put the config directory in /home/spot.
Heretofore I have not paid attention to /home as unnecessary.

You can copy the configuration dir in /root/ to /home/spot/
but the dirs and files need to be owned by spot
chown -Rc spot:spot /home/spot

And the permissions should be set to not allow group and world to write to the files
something like:
chmod -Rc 755 /home/spot (makes all files executable by spot)
or chmod -Rc 644 /home/spot (makes all file not executable)

I will try this later in Bionic and/or Hirsute, but I do not understand why they are different. This problem is only in later pups. I wrote this thread in Bionic. I have similar permission problems in Hirsute Hippo, I assumed brought by Debian structure.

mysterious os functional discrepancy

[JASpup]

The premise still holds that Bionic functions differently from Tahr and Xenial.

bionic-force-pm-profile.png (19.92 KiB) Viewed 240 times

Forcing a user profile as spot is contingent upon a pre-existing config.

In other words, if I do not place my static config in /root/spot/.moonchild productions/pale moon, Pale Moon runs with a new/default config. With the config in place and no adjustments, Pale Moon does not run at all.

I might be able to capture a new static spot config for future use, as Pale Moon Bionic just doesn't like my Tahr/Xenial config.

The same static config works in Bionic as root. It's only rejected by Bionic spot.

Tahr/Xenial spot - ok
Tahr/Xenial root - ok
Bionic root - ok
Bionic spot - reject

The second preliminary event is I created a Pale Moon .sfs from standalone to run in the spot directory (Xenial).

It ran as root.

The only way I could make it run as spot is to put run-as-spot in the launcher. I thought putting the application in /root/spot is sufficient for running as spot.

I should still test the Bionic permission changes.

[williams2]

The PaleMoon configuration files for root are in '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

I'm sorry, this is wrong:

the PaleMoon configuration files for spot are in '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

The PaleMoon config files for spot are in '/home/spot/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

Not sure why I pasted in the wrong dir, I think because I copy pasted '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'
intending to change /root/ to /home/spot/ and forget to fix it.

[JASpup]

The PaleMoon configuration files for root are in '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

I'm sorry, this is wrong:

the PaleMoon configuration files for spot are in '/root/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

The PaleMoon config files for spot are in '/home/spot/.moonchild productions/pale moon/'

No sweat.

Back in the Xenial Comfort Zone I'm in Pale Moon and there is no /home directory.

Perhaps this is newer pups adapting to Debian or Ubuntu and the source of the problem I am experiencing.