# dmesg permission change



## bobmc (Apr 17, 2021)

I installed 12.2 a few weeks ago and recently installed again from the same USB stick to clean up my noob tinkering. Now dmesg is not permissable from a non-root account. Message "sysctl kern.msgbuf" complains. I find it inconvenient to activate root just to check read-only system messages.

"sysctl -a" reveals a ton of parameters but not kern.msgbuf exactly.   Can something be put in the .conf file to make dmesg usable as default  like before the new 12.2?


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## _martin (Apr 17, 2021)

Did you try to set security.bsd.unprivileged_read_msgbuf ? First try without setting it, then set it with: `sysctl security.bsd.unprivileged_read_msgbuf=1`


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## bobmc (Apr 18, 2021)

Thanks Martin, your idea works but sysctl.conf holds the flag at zero. I will try editing the file and rebooting.


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## SirDice (Apr 19, 2021)

bobmc said:


> sysctl.conf holds the flag at zero


That file doesn't "dynamically" change when you set a sysctl(8).


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