Topic: System won't write to log files anymore...

[Malakai]

I had a problem when I changed the BIOS time setting to the right time. E-smith had a fit and things like the spam filter stopped working because it thought that the log files were last modified in the future. Not possible so obviously caused an error.

Any way, after the actual time caught up with the date stamp of the log files it stopped e-mailing me that error and started telling me that it couldn't write to the log files.

FYI: Under PUTTY an ls command in /var/log/ showed the offending files as RED.

/var/log/boot.log
/var/log/cron
/var/log/maillog
/var/log/messages
/var/log/secure
/var/log/spooler

I couldn't even edit them in PICO or MC.

So deleted them and recreated them.

I have stopped recieving cron daemon error e-mail but the log files don't get anything written to them. They are all empty after several days and a reboot.

What have I missed or done wrong?

[raem]

Malakai
Here are the permissions & ownership I have on those files. Some of them are links.

/var/log/boot.log
/var/log/cron
/var/log/maillog
/var/log/messages
/var/log/secure
/var/log/spooler


lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           23 Apr  1 01:12 boot.log -> boot.log.20050401011212
-rw-------    1 root     root        16203 Feb 28 23:00 boot.log.20050222011209
-rw-------    1 root     root         3282 Mar  7 16:28 boot.log.20050301011210
-rw-------    1 root     root         7310 Mar 14 23:00 boot.log.20050308011214
-rw-------    1 root     root        37326 Mar 20 20:33 boot.log.20050315011211
-rw-------    1 root     root         2074 Mar 27 23:00 boot.log.20050322011210
-rw-------    1 root     root         3578 Mar 31 21:16 boot.log.20050329011211
-rw-------    1 root     root        10805 Apr  2 13:09 boot.log.20050401011212

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           19 Apr  1 01:12 cron -> cron.20050401011212
-rw-------    1 root     root       298961 Mar  1 01:12 cron.20050222011209
-rw-------    1 root     root       296221 Mar  8 01:12 cron.20050301011210
-rw-------    1 root     root       296048 Mar 15 01:12 cron.20050308011214
-rw-------    1 root     root       297286 Mar 22 01:12 cron.20050315011211
-rw-------    1 root     root       300348 Mar 29 01:12 cron.20050322011210
-rw-------    1 root     root       127443 Apr  1 01:12 cron.20050329011211
-rw-------    1 root     root        74952 Apr  2 19:40 cron.20050401011212

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           22 Apr  1 01:12 maillog -> maillog.20050401011212
-rw-------    1 root     root      2360255 Mar  1 00:45 maillog.20050222011209
-rw-------    1 root     root      2032026 Mar  8 01:01 maillog.20050301011210
-rw-------    1 root     root      2144855 Mar 15 01:12 maillog.20050308011214
-rw-------    1 root     root      2053205 Mar 22 01:11 maillog.20050315011211
-rw-------    1 root     root      1475923 Mar 28 23:54 maillog.20050322011210
-rw-------    1 root     root       903565 Apr  1 01:09 maillog.20050329011211
-rw-------    1 root     root       265019 Apr  2 19:35 maillog.20050401011212

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           23 Apr  1 01:12 messages -> messages.20050401011212
-rw-------    1 root     root      1220221 Mar  1 01:12 messages.20050222011209
-rw-------    1 root     root       603423 Mar  8 01:12 messages.20050301011210
-rw-------    1 root     root       704678 Mar 15 01:12 messages.20050308011214
-rw-------    1 root     root      2101984 Mar 22 01:12 messages.20050315011211
-rw-------    1 root     root       867029 Mar 29 01:12 messages.20050322011210
-rw-------    1 root     root       528281 Apr  1 01:12 messages.20050329011211
-rw-------    1 root     root       223941 Apr  2 19:44 messages.20050401011212

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           21 Apr  1 01:12 secure -> secure.20050401011212
-rw-------    1 root     root         4886 Feb 28 19:59 secure.20050222011209
-rw-------    1 root     root         1469 Mar  7 16:24 secure.20050301011210
-rw-------    1 root     root          159 Mar 14 00:53 secure.20050308011214
-rw-------    1 root     root         2235 Mar 18 22:58 secure.20050315011211
-rw-------    1 root     root         2024 Mar 27 14:50 secure.20050322011210
-rw-------    1 root     root         3268 Mar 30 12:42 secure.20050329011211
-rw-------    1 root     root          873 Apr  2 13:09 secure.20050401011212


lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           22 Apr  1 01:12 spooler -> spooler.20050401011212
-rw-------    1 root     root            0 Mar  1 01:12 spooler.20050301011210
-rw-------    1 root     root            0 Mar  8 01:12 spooler.20050308011214
-rw-------    1 root     root            0 Mar 15 01:12 spooler.20050315011211
-rw-------    1 root     root            0 Mar 22 01:12 spooler.20050322011210
-rw-------    1 root     root            0 Mar 29 01:12 spooler.20050329011211
-rw-------    1 root     root            0 Apr  1 01:12 spooler.20050401011212