PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/boot/grub/grub.cfg'

[LeanderJDev]

I'm running ubuntu 24.04 and am trying to install matter. But after installation when I just ran ./matter.py as is, I got a permission error

[I] [ Matter GRUB THEME ] [I] Argument -i required. Which icons go to which grub entries? [I] Your grub entries are: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/leanderj/.matter/./matter.py", line 874, in <module> do_preinstall_hint() File "/home/leanderj/.matter/./matter.py", line 518, in do_preinstall_hint do_list_grub_cfg_entries() File "/home/leanderj/.matter/./matter.py", line 567, in do_list_grub_cfg_entries with open(GRUB_CFG_PATH, "r", newline="") as f: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/boot/grub/grub.cfg'

running it with sudo it is able to detect all the grub entries correctly. But when I try to set icons with sudo, the permission don't get passed to inkscape (at least that's what I think is happening)

`
[I] Begin Matter install
[I] Build theme from user preferences
[I] Convert icons
Inkscape 1.3.1 (9b9bdc1480, 2023-11-25, custom)

mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/run/user/0’: Permission denied
Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified

** (inkscape:115235): WARNING **: 18:54:02.700: Can't open file: /root/temp.svg (doesn't exist)

** (inkscape:115235): WARNING **: 18:54:02.700: Can't open file: /root/temp.svg (doesn't exist)
ink_file_open: '/root/temp.svg' cannot be opened!
InkscapeApplication::document_open: Failed to open: /root/temp.svg
ConcreteInkscapeApplication::on_open: failed to create document!
ConcreteInkscapeApplication::on_open: failed to create document!
ConcreteInkscapeApplication::on_open: failed to create document!
ConcreteInkscapeApplication::on_open: failed to create document!
ConcreteInkscapeApplication::on_open: failed to create document!
ConcreteInkscapeApplication::on_open: failed to create document!
[I] Build font

[I] Prepare installation directory
[I] Clean install directory
[I] Copy built theme to installation directory
[I] Patch /etc/default/grub with Matter Theme Overrides
[E] Invalid icon name: ubuntu
[E] Icons present are: []
`

All the instructions also don't have to use sudo, where am I going wrong?

[mateosss]

That's unexpected, you should be asked for sudo permissions while running the script.
Meanwhile, you can just run it as sudo and it should be the same.

[LeanderJDev]

So I poked around a bit. There's the function check_root_or_prompt() to check for root access. But in do_preinstall_hint() it never gets called, this would explain why that get's a permission error.

But when I give the icons to the script it goes to do_install() which calls check_root_or_prompt() but only after prepare_source_dir() which needs access to grub.cfg for checking if the icon count matches the grub entry count.

Maybe this is also a problem with the permissions on my grub.cfg, but I would have thought that root access is needed to access grub.cfg?

[LeanderJDev]

So the error happens in inkscape_convert_svg2png
There inkscape tries to save temp.svg at /root/temp.svg and fails because the file doesn't exist.

[LeanderJDev]

I was actually able to solve the issue by just installing inkscape as a Debian package and not as a Snap package(and then running it with sudo). But the issue of do_preinstall_hint still persists (when running without sudo)