Error setting capabilities, capability management disabled;

Question

root@monitor:/opt/observium# service syslog-ng restart
Stopping system logging: syslog-ng.
Starting system logging: syslog-ngsyslog-ng: Error setting capabilities, capability management disabled; error='Operation not permitted'

root@monitor:/opt/observium# uname -a
Linux monitor 2.6.32-042stab075.2 #1 SMP Tue Mar 5 15:21:53 MSK 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Is this an issue with the Kernel?

Solution

Yes, this is a known issue with some combinations of syslog-ng, glibc and kernel versions.

It is not very well documented, but there are references in the balabit site. This is just one example.

In Debian, set SYSLOGNG_OPTS="--no-caps" in /etc/default/syslog-ng to workaround this issue.