I have a Linux box that won't allow network connections out.  When I
first went to the console I noticed that the root file system was
completely out of space.  I cleared some room so it was only 97% full.
 That didn't help.  For some reason when I try to ping, telnet or go
over the wire I get an 'operation not permitted' error.  I'm at the
console and in root.  I ran the network command with status and it all
looked okay.  I don't know where to go from here.  Any help would be
appreciated.  Thank you.

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Request for Question Clarification by maniac-ga on 02 Mar 2004 05:32 PST

Hello Johngl,

Hmm. The "operation not permitted" error generally occurs when you do
not have the appropriate permissions for the operation. But you say
you are on the console and logged in as root - which should give you
full permissions. There ARE a few exceptions, for example SE Linux can
restrict even the root user - to rule that out, which Linux
distribution are you using and what kind of special configurations
should I be aware of?

A few things that could cause the problem...

[1] Key system files have incorrect ownership and are setuid. In this
case, you would be running the application (e.g., ping) as another
user and not with required privileges. I would do
  ls -lR
in a few key directories (e.g., /sbin, /bin, /usr/bin) as a quick check.

[2] If the disk was full when the system was last rebooted, it is
possible that one or more system service were not started properly. I
would review
  /var/log/messges
to see if there are some pointers there. Especially if the network
worked before on this system, compare the output the last time it
worked OK and now. If the message log does not go back far enough,
check messages.1 and previous files as well.

[3] To follow up #2,
  cd /etc/init.d/rc5.d/
  ls
this is a list of all the scripts used by the system to start (files
starting with S) and stop (files starting with K) services. Try each
one like
  ./S10network status
to see if the result indicates the service is up.  Do them in order
and start the ones that are "stopped".

[4] It might also be helpful to try
  telinit s
followed by
  telinit 3  (or telinit 5 if you use a graphical interface on the console)
to go to single user mode and then back to normal operations [this is
a little less disruptive than rebooting]. A reboot might also fix this
problem as well, but I assume you already tried that.

[5] What is the output for
  /sbin/ifconfig
This should show the network interfaces up and configured properly. If
not, that may indicate a system configuration problem (files in
/etc/sysconfig).

[6] Can you ping this system from another one? If so, that generally
means the network interface is running but some other problem is
outstanding.

Let me know if any of these suggestions help. I can understand the
frustration when things don't work well. There are a number of
possible causes and we should be able to work this out.

  --Maniac

clarify your system specs, system configuration, distro, packages
installed, hdd size, ect... are you installing fresh, or attempting to
get an existing install working? if the hard drive is under sized,
then an install will not be complete. also describe your network
configuration- such as is there a dial up modem, ethernet card on
network, dsl modem, ect...?

You might also want to check the firewall (iptables) configuration. If
your settings do not allow out-bound connections, you can get this
error message too.