# Root user .ignition directory and Designer start issues

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/root-user-ignition-directory-and-designer-start-issues/85150>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Tags:** ignition81, designer\
**Created:** [February 2, 2024, 11:20am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/root-user-ignition-directory-and-designer-start-issues/85150 "2024-02-02T11:20:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PatrickB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@PatrickB](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/PatrickB)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 11:20am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/root-user-ignition-directory-and-designer-start-issues/85150/1 "2024-02-02T11:20:57Z")

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I've had an issue where somehow I had root create the .ignition subdirectory in my ignition user directory. This happened after deleting the .ignition directory to clear up disk space (I read [https://support.inductiveautomation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047596071-How-to-Clear-Client-ignition-Cache-and-Java-Cache](https://support.inductiveautomation.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047596071-How-to-Clear-Client-ignition-Cache-and-Java-Cache) ... Ok I didn't get advised to do it 😁) and then updating my localhost installation to 8.1.36 (from 8.1.30).

Note I run a Hyper-V based Ubuntu MATE which runs both a localhost test instance of Ignition 8.1 (currently 8.1.36) and the Designer to connect to all 3 of my test (localhost), dev and prod Ignition servers.

The main issue appeared when trying to run Designer (either 1.1.30 or 1.1.36 ) when I received either:

1. _Launch Error Occurred, Downloading of launchclient.jar failed, Launching will not occur_
2. _Downloading of launchclient.jar failed, Launching will not occur_

It took a while but I finally figured out, luckily enough when I went to look at the directory, that for some reason the .ignition directory in my ignition user's directory (predictably enough, the user is called ignition) had been recreated by root:

```auto
drwxr-xr-x 2 ignition ignition 12288 Feb 2 20:41 Downloads/
drwx------ 3 root root 4096 Feb 2 20:16 .ignition/
drwxr-xr-x 3 ignition ignition 4096 Mar 24 2023 .java/

```

And of course it wouldn't let me view it (as the ignition user), which I found rather annoying.

I decided the quickest fix was a quick `sudo rm -rf .igniton` followed by a `mkdir .ignition` :

```auto
drwxr-xr-x 2 ignition ignition 12288 Feb 2 20:41 Downloads/
drwxrwxr-x 2 ignition ignition 4096 Feb 2 20:59 .ignition/
drwxr-xr-x 3 ignition ignition 4096 Mar 24 2023 .java/

```

After which the Designer start issue ceased to exist. I expect the root-owned,permission-limited .ignition directory could have created no end of other issues, but I didn't get that far 😁

I hope this helps someone.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paul-griffith](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/paul-griffith/32/37249_2.png) [@paul-griffith](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/paul-griffith)\
**Post date:** [February 2, 2024, 4:29pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/root-user-ignition-directory-and-designer-start-issues/85150/2 "2024-02-02T16:29:13Z")

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Surely [`chown -R`](https://linux.die.net/man/1/chown) would've been quicker 😉

But, good find, and kudos for posting for the next person who runs into it.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![PatrickB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/838e76/32.png) [@PatrickB](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/PatrickB)\
**Post date:** [February 6, 2024, 8:19am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/root-user-ignition-directory-and-designer-start-issues/85150/3 "2024-02-06T08:19:26Z")

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Well, yes I thought of chown afterwards. I'm from a user background rather than administrator and this alters your view of what you can do and how to do it. But frankly when it's late on a Friday night, you're worried Designer won't work, still at work long after you shouldn't be, tired, annoyed, frustrated, wondering what the f\*\*k you're still doing there and not quite thinking optimally anymore, when you hit a solution- any solution- you stick with it even if it's not the 'elegant solution.'

And I bet you've all been there sometime, somewhere, with some issue too! 😜

If you wish, please post the correctest, most elegantest solution. 🙂