alow regular user access without comprimizeing security of permissions

[SirDice]

I didn't see it anywhere so I thought I'd mention it.

Did you logoff and back on again _after_ you've changed the groups?
You'll need to logoff/logon to be able to get the new permissions.

[SonofGalen]

The thing about Linux is that you NEVER need to re-boot unless you're updating/re-installing the kernel, altering BIOS, or hard-ware upgrades.

Many times, if something like that happens and a re-boot fixes it, very often re-starting the appropriate service will fix it as well. When altering permissions or the config file, always re-start the process afterwards.

For instance, I've been playing around with my samba config file lately, and if I want to re-start the samba process, I type:

Normal User: (Failed Attempt)
user@Agamemnon:~> /etc/init.d/smb restart
Shutting down SAMBA smbd :killproc: Can not read /proc/2234/exe: Permission denied
failed
cups on
Waiting for cupsd to get ready done
Starting SAMBA smbd :checkproc: Can not read /proc/2234/exe: Permission denied
Warning: /var/run/samba/smbd.pid exists ! startproc: Can not read /proc/2234/exe: Permission denied
failed
user@Agamemnon:~> su
Password:
(Just logged into root, use same command, success.)
Agamemnon:/home/user # /etc/init.d/smb restart
Shutting down SAMBA smbd : done
cups on
Waiting for cupsd to get ready done
Starting SAMBA smbd : done
Agamemnon:/home/user #

Keep that in mind for the future, hope it helps! (Its saved me more than my share of re-boots.)

Edit: Didn't post this until AFTER SirDice's post, which should also work (ESPECIALLY in this case.)