# Vsftpd cannot chmod - error 550



## gman88 (Jun 26, 2010)

I am totally new to FreeBSD coming from a Linux background.  I've never had any issues with Vsftpd on any Linux distro (seen some rants around the net) and it was always incredibly easy to make and configure. I installed this via the port and added a user (I'm so new, maybe I did something wrong there...I dunno).  Anyway, I can log in fine.  I'm chrooted just fine.  Even though it's a default and I have never had to use it I got an "Unknown Command" error until I added "chown_enable=YES".  Now, however, while it no longer says it cannot understand the chmod command it simply says that it cannot perform the chmod command.  It's just says "550 Chmod command failed".

I am still a complete newb so maybe I've done something whacky.  From force of habit I even compiled most of my LAMP server from some old scripts and,with minor futzing, everything worked - but Vsftpd.  My vsftpd.conf looks like this:


```
anonymous_enable=YES
chmod_enable=YES
local_enable=YES
banner_file=/etc/banners/ftp.msg
write_enable=YES
dirmessage_enable=YES
connect_from_port_20=YES
chroot_list_enable=YES
chroot_list_file=/etc/vsftpd.chroot_list
listen=YES
background=YES
```

Anyway..  Does anyone have a guess as to what would be causing this..?    The account is just a dummy username called bob; the directory is chowned bob:bob.  I'm lost


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## hydra (Jun 26, 2010)

Isn't vsftpd running under the *ftp* account and thus it doesn't have write permissions to your FTP root directory ? Just a guess...


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## gman88 (Jun 26, 2010)

*I have no idea.....*

I don't know what it's "running under"; I simply installed it from ports and added vsftpd_enable=YES to /etc/rc.conf.  The configuration file is what you see posted.  I'm not very clear on what user it's running under.  If I  type [cmd=]ps -aux[/cmd] I see two references to vsftpd - they look something like this:



```
root 1609  /usr/local/libexec/vsftpd
bob  1621  /usr/local/libexec/vsftpd
```

Still confused - thanks for trying to help....  I used adduser to add the user "bob" and gave him a bash shell....


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## gman88 (Jun 26, 2010)

*This is SO Weird....*

I'm just fiddling around...at this point.  I uploaded a couple of files from a Windows desktop - a file ending in xlsx (some Word format) and a php file.  I can set the permissions on the php file, but not the xlsx file - and I still cannot chmod the directories that I created for an apache virtual host (htdocs, cgi-bin).   But, I can create NEW folders and chmod those.


This is crazy.


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