[Errors] Warning dialogue 'Configuration file not writable please contact admin'

[dbea3059]

i installed kubuntu 2 days ago and right now every time i try to launch an application i get a warning box saying. 'Configuration file (software name) is not writable please contact your system administrator.'

I havent done anything other than install a few new applications. ive updated everything that discover suggested.
my kubuntu version is 19.04
plasma version 5.15.4
Using a HP Elitebook notebook.

The same problem happened a few months ago which caused me to remove it from my system. i reinstalled kubuntu just recently.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Snowhog]

Have you been launching any GUI applications, most notably Dolphin, from the terminal using sudo?

[dbea3059]

i havent launched dolphin with the terminal. i dont think ive used the terminal yet.

[claydoh]

i havent launched dolphin with the terminal. i dont think ive used the terminal yet.

We can use the terminal to see what may have happened.
Open Komsole, and copy and paste this there:

ls -la ~/.config

This will have a long-ish list of most of your config files, their ownership, and permissions.
It will look similar to this short part of mine:

claydoh@claydoh-Pavilion590:~/.config$ ls -la ~/.config
total 708
drwxrwxr-x 45 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb 12 17:26  .
drwxr-xr-x 31 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb 11 19:07  ..
-rw-rw-r--  1 claydoh claydoh   230 Feb  4 17:02  appimagelauncher.cfg
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh  2621 Feb  4 16:52  arkrc
-rw-------  1 claydoh claydoh     0 Feb 10 13:44  auroraerc
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Dec  8 18:20  autostart
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Jan 29 07:27  autostart-scripts
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Nov 12 18:10  backintime
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   551 Nov  9 16:21  baloofileinformationrc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh  1054 Feb  4 17:39  baloofilerc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   119 Jan 30 17:19  bluedevilglobalrc
-rw-------  1 claydoh claydoh    23 Feb  1 09:40  bluedevilreceiverrc
drwxrwxr-x  3 claydoh claydoh  4096 Dec  8 18:22  BraveSoftware
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh     0 Nov 29 18:29  breezerc
drwxrwxr-x  3 claydoh claydoh  4096 Dec 17 21:47  cef_user_data
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Jan 24 15:32  Clementine
drwx------  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb 11 19:07  dconf
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh    57 Jan 18 17:10  device_automounter_kcmrc
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Jan 27 09:25  Dharkael
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   145 Feb 12 15:09  discoverrc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh  1926 Feb 12 16:38  dolphinrc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh    42 Nov  7 12:52  drkonqirc
drwxrwxr-x  4 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb 12 17:25  Duplicati
-rw-------  1 claydoh claydoh    44 Feb  3 16:24  elisarc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   133 Jan 26 17:17  emaildefaults
-rw-------  1 claydoh claydoh   454 Jan 26 17:17  emailidentities
drwxrwxr-x  3 claydoh claydoh  4096 Dec  3 09:38  falkon
-rw-------  1 claydoh claydoh   146 Jan 26 17:19  foldermailarchiverc
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb  7 13:02  fontconfig
drwxrwxr-x 25 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb 12 17:25  google-chrome
drwxrwxr-x 19 claydoh claydoh  4096 Nov  9 21:38  google-chrome-beta
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Dec  7 18:19  gpxsee
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   251 Nov 25 11:34  gpxseerc
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb 12 15:09  gtk-2.0
drwxrwxr-x  2 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb 11 19:07  gtk-3.0
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh  1374 Feb 11 19:07  gtkrc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh  1409 Feb 11 19:07  gtkrc-2.0
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   971 Jan 28 12:10  gwenviewrc
drwx------  7 claydoh claydoh  4096 Feb 10 14:27  inkscape
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh    78 Nov 20 15:16  kactivitymanagerd-pluginsrc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   350 Dec 10 08:56  kactivitymanagerdrc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh  2322 Feb  4 16:41  kactivitymanagerd-statsrc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   107 Dec 10 08:56  kactivitymanagerd-switcher
-rw-------  1 claydoh claydoh   339 Jan 28 17:08  katemetainfos
-rw-------  1 claydoh claydoh  2253 Jan 28 17:08  katerc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh    56 Nov  3 14:58  kateschemarc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   419 Nov  4 14:39  katevirc
-rwxrwxrwx  1 claydoh claydoh   813 Nov 25 15:14  kbackuprc

After pasting the output into your post, select all of it, and then click the '#' button on the forum's text editor to put code tags around it, which makes it a bit easier to read

We are looking for anything that lists root instead of your username, as well as permissions.

Another thing to look at is disk space. if it is 100% full, this sort of thing may be possible.
You can look at the output of this command to see if something is full:

df -h

[chimak111]

cd $HOME && find . ! -user $USER -ls will recursively find and list all files not owned by you.

[dbea3059]

Entering ls -la ~./config gives:
ls: cannot access '~./config': No such file or directory

I have 20GB free at the moment. But i will try and keep an eye on free space from now on.

When i try the cd $HOME && find . ! -user $USER -ls there is no response. i typed user and USER.

[claydoh]

dang typo (yet again )

use ~/.config I was a bit too early with the period.

[Don B. Cilly]

When i try the cd $HOME && find . ! -user $USER -ls there is no response. i typed user and USER.

It can take a few seconds. If you just get your prompt back after that, and no output, it means there are no files not owned by you.

[dbea3059]

dang typo (yet again )

use ~/.config I was a bit too early with the period.

db@db-HP-EliteBook-2170p:~$ ls -la ~/.config
total 292
drwxr-xr-x 12 db db  4096 Feb 13 15:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 db db  4096 Feb 13 07:04 ..
-rw-------  1 db db    66 Feb 11 22:12 akregatorrc
drwxrwxr-x  2 db db  4096 Feb 11 22:12 autostart-scripts
-rw-------  1 db db   709 Feb 11 22:12 baloofilerc
-rw-------  1 db db    71 Feb 12 08:09 bluedevilglobalrc
drwx------  2 db db  4096 Feb 13 15:33 dconf
-rw-------  1 db db    34 Feb 12 20:39 device_automounter_kcmrc
-rw-------  1 db db    44 Feb 12 12:00 discoverrc
-rw-------  1 db db   608 Feb 13 15:33 dolphinrc
-rw-------  1 db db    42 Feb 12 08:45 drkonqirc
drwxr-xr-x  3 db db  4096 Feb 12 09:41 GIMP
drwx------  2 db db  4096 Feb 12 22:04 gtk-2.0
drwxrwxr-x  2 db db  4096 Feb 13 07:04 gtk-3.0
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db  1616 Feb 13 07:04 gtkrc
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db  1576 Feb 13 07:04 gtkrc-2.0
-rw-------  1 db db   491 Feb 13 10:03 gwenviewrc
-rw-------  1 db db   119 Feb 11 22:12 kactivitymanagerdrc
-rw-------  1 db db   887 Feb 12 08:50 kactivitymanagerd-statsrc
-rw-------  1 db db   336 Feb 12 09:05 katemetainfos
-rw-------  1 db db  2150 Feb 12 09:05 katerc
-rw-------  1 db db    56 Feb 11 22:12 kateschemarc
-rw-------  1 db db   419 Feb 12 09:05 katevirc
-rw-------  1 db db  2410 Feb 11 22:12 kconf_updaterc
drwxrwxr-x  2 db db  4096 Feb 11 22:12 kdeconnect
-rw-------  1 db db    42 Feb 12 08:54 kded5rc
-rw-------  1 db db  4021 Feb 13 15:34 kded_device_automounterrc
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db  3118 Feb 12 07:50 kdeglobals
-rw-------  1 db db 13830 Feb 13 07:04 kglobalshortcutsrc
-rw-------  1 db db 32344 Feb 13 07:04 khotkeysrc
-rw-------  1 db db   149 Feb 11 22:12 kmail2rc
-rw-------  1 db db   267 Feb 12 22:07 kminesrc
-rw-------  1 db db    74 Feb 11 22:12 kmixrc
-rw-------  1 db db   166 Feb 12 18:29 konsolerc
-rw-r--r--  1 db db    40 Feb 11 22:05 korgacrc
-rw-------  1 db db   362 Feb 13 08:15 kpatrc
-rw-------  1 db db    36 Feb 11 22:27 krunnerrc
-rw-------  1 db db    54 Feb 11 22:12 kscreenlockerrc
-rw-------  1 db db   870 Feb 12 23:03 ksmserverrc
-rw-------  1 db db   105 Feb 11 22:12 ktimezonedrc
-rw-------  1 db db   280 Feb 13 07:04 kwinrc
-rw-------  1 db db    18 Feb 12 23:03 kwinrulesrc
drwxr-xr-x  2 db db  4096 Feb 11 22:12 libaccounts-glib
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db    27 Feb 11 22:12 plasma-localerc
-rw-------  1 db db    69 Feb 11 22:12 plasma-nm
-rw-------  1 db db  5917 Feb 13 10:03 plasma-org.kde.plasma.desktop-appletsrc
-rw-------  1 db db   404 Feb 12 10:21 plasmashellrc
-rw-------  1 db db    44 Feb 11 22:12 powerdevilrc
-rw-------  1 db db   698 Feb 12 07:48 powermanagementprofilesrc
drwx------  2 db db  4096 Feb 11 22:12 pulse
drwxrwxr-x  2 db db  4096 Feb 13 15:36 session
-rw-------  1 db db   183 Feb 12 22:02 spectaclerc
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db   525 Feb 12 10:22 startupconfig
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db  2528 Feb 12 10:22 startupconfigfiles
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db   251 Feb 13 07:04 startupconfigkeys
-rw-------  1 db db   217 Feb 12 08:54 systemsettingsrc
-rw-------  1 db db    21 Feb 13 08:43 trashrc
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db  1059 Feb 13 07:04 Trolltech.conf
-rw-------  1 db db   633 Feb 11 22:12 user-dirs.dirs
-rw-rw-r--  1 db db     5 Feb 11 22:12 user-dirs.locale
drwxrwxr-x  2 db db  4096 Feb 13 09:51 vlc
-rw-------  1 db db   103 Feb 11 22:12 webengineurlinterceptoradblockrc

[claydoh]

Looks ok to me, no permissions problem I can see, what is the result of df -h ?

[dbea3059]

The last time i logged into kubuntu the warning dialogues stopped showing but now kubuntu doesnt boot up for me. I will post an update when i get back in.