Fix Nginx User and Permissions Error | Generated by AI

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Question: Why is nginx failing to start after changing the user to ‘lzw’, and how do I fix the permission denied error on /var/log/nginx/error.log plus the warning about the “user” directive?

Answer:

Nginx fails to start because you changed the user to lzw (a normal non-root user), but the master process still needs root privileges to:

When you run nginx as a non-root user (lzw), it cannot open /var/log/nginx/error.log → Permission denied (13) → emergency exit.

The warning message
the "user" directive makes sense only if the master process runs with super-user privileges, ignored
confirms exactly this: nginx ignored your user lzw; line because it wasn’t started as root.

Recommended Fix – Keep nginx running as root (master) but drop to user lzw for workers

This is the standard and safe way nginx is designed to work.

  1. Remove or undo the user change you made earlier

    If you used systemctl edit nginx and added:

    [Service]
User=lzw
Group=lzw

    Delete that override:

    sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/nginx.service.d/override.conf
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

    Or if you edited /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and added user lzw lzw;, comment it out or remove it:

    # user lzw lzw;   ← comment or delete this line

  2. Restart nginx (should work again as www-data)

    sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx

  3. Fix the original directory permission problem (so /movies/ works without 403)

    Use the group method (clean & secure):

    sudo chgrp -R www-data /home/lzw/qDownloads
sudo chmod -R g+rx /home/lzw/qDownloads
sudo chmod g+x /home/lzw               # allow group to traverse your home

    Then reload:

    sudo systemctl reload nginx

    Test: http://192.168.1.36/movies/

Alternative – Run everything as user lzw (not recommended for port 80)

If you really want nginx to run completely as lzw (no root at all):

Example config changes in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:

user lzw lzw;
...
http {
    ...
    access_log /home/lzw/nginx/access.log;
    error_log  /home/lzw/nginx/error.log;
}

And in your server block:

server {
    listen 8080;
    ...
}

Then also create the log directory and give ownership:

mkdir -p /home/lzw/nginx
chown lzw:lzw /home/lzw/nginx

But again: this is only practical if you don’t need port 80/443. Most people keep the default root → drop-privileges model.

Quick summary – what to do right now (99% of cases)

# 1. Undo the bad systemd override
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/nginx.service.d/override.conf
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# 2. (optional) make sure no user line in nginx.conf
sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf   # remove or comment "user lzw ..."

# 3. Fix your download folder perms
sudo chgrp -R www-data /home/lzw/qDownloads
sudo chmod -R g+rx /home/lzw/qDownloads
sudo chmod g+x /home/lzw

# 4. Start nginx normally
sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl restart nginx
sudo systemctl status nginx

You should see Active: active (running) and no permission errors.

References:

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