On Sat, 7 Nov 2009, Aditya Gadre wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am using SL 5.4 (2.6.18-164.6.1.el5, x86_64, no i386 at all) and have a
> problem with using minicom as a standard user. I would appreciate any help!
>
> I have a user named "usv" which is in two groups - usv and uucp. I installed
> minicom and when I first tried running it, minicom asked me to create a
> default file in /etc by running "minicom -s" as root. I did that and could
> run minicom without any problems as root. However, when I run "minicom -s"
> as user usv, and try to change serial port settings, I am not allowed to
> change the serial port setting. I get a message "You are not allowed to
> change this parameter". I am allowed to change only options E, F and G
> (baud, parity, number of bits and flow control). I tried searching on
> internet about this, but could not get any answer. I was wondering if I am
> missing any group/permissions etc and would really appreciate any help!

My minicom binary has ownership/permissions:
  -rwxr-xr-x 1 root uucp 174136 Apr  7  2007 /usr/bin/minicom

The serial lines are mostly root only, but one is accessible by uucp:
# ls -l /dev/ttyS*
crw-rw---- 1 root uucp 4, 64 Aug 25 06:50 /dev/ttyS0
crw------- 1 root root 4, 65 Aug 25 06:50 /dev/ttyS1
crw------- 1 root root 4, 66 Aug 25 06:50 /dev/ttyS2
crw------- 1 root root 4, 67 Aug 25 06:50 /dev/ttyS3

/etc/minicom.users also controls access to minicom configs.

-----
It looks as though you are supposed to use a different setting
file for each port. If you want a setting for ttyS0, first run
"minicom -s ttyS0" as root and then "minicom ttyS0" as usv

Which settings are you trying to change just for user usv ?
With a system config for each serial line (or connected device)
I would not expect users to need different settings for A-D.

-- 
Dr. Andrew C. Aitchison		Computer Officer, DPMMS, Cambridge
[log in to unmask]	http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~werdna