fix: prevent root-owned database files when running with sudo

When start.sh runs via sudo, chown instance/ and data/ back to the
invoking user so the SQLite DB stays accessible without sudo. Also
adds a clear error message in get_connection() when the DB can't be
opened due to permissions.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

start.sh

@@ -78,6 +78,15 @@ done
 export INTERCEPT_HOST="$HOST"
 export INTERCEPT_PORT="$PORT"
 
+# ── Fix ownership of user data dirs when run via sudo ────────────────────────
+if [[ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 && -n "${SUDO_USER:-}" ]]; then
+    for dir in instance data; do
+        if [[ -d "$SCRIPT_DIR/$dir" ]]; then
+            chown -R "$SUDO_USER" "$SCRIPT_DIR/$dir"
+        fi
+    done
+fi
+
 # ── Dependency check (delegate to intercept.py) ─────────────────────────────
 if [[ "$CHECK_DEPS" -eq 1 ]]; then
     exec "$PYTHON" intercept.py --check-deps

utils/database.py

@@ -35,10 +35,18 @@ def get_connection() -> sqlite3.Connection:
     """Get a thread-local database connection."""
     if not hasattr(_local, 'connection') or _local.connection is None:
         db_path = get_db_path()
-        _local.connection = sqlite3.connect(str(db_path), check_same_thread=False)
+        try:
-        _local.connection.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
+            _local.connection = sqlite3.connect(str(db_path), check_same_thread=False)
-        # Enable foreign keys
+            _local.connection.row_factory = sqlite3.Row
-        _local.connection.execute('PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON')
+            # Enable foreign keys
+            _local.connection.execute('PRAGMA foreign_keys = ON')
+        except sqlite3.OperationalError as e:
+            logger.error(
+                f"Cannot open database at {db_path}: {e}. "
+                f"If the file is owned by root, fix with: "
+                f"sudo chown -R $(whoami) {DB_DIR}"
+            )
+            raise
     return _local.connection
 
 
@@ -550,12 +558,12 @@ def init_db() -> None:
             INSERT OR IGNORE INTO tracked_satellites (norad_id, name, tle_line1, tle_line2, enabled, builtin)
             VALUES ('25544', 'ISS (ZARYA)', NULL, NULL, 1, 1)
         ''')
-        conn.execute('''
+        conn.execute('''
-            INSERT OR IGNORE INTO tracked_satellites (norad_id, name, tle_line1, tle_line2, enabled, builtin)
+            INSERT OR IGNORE INTO tracked_satellites (norad_id, name, tle_line1, tle_line2, enabled, builtin)
-            VALUES ('40069', 'METEOR-M2', NULL, NULL, 1, 1)
+            VALUES ('40069', 'METEOR-M2', NULL, NULL, 1, 1)
-        ''')
+        ''')
-
+
-        logger.info("Database initialized successfully")
+        logger.info("Database initialized successfully")
 
 
 def close_db() -> None:
@@ -2285,10 +2293,10 @@ def update_tracked_satellite(norad_id: str, enabled: bool) -> bool:
         return cursor.rowcount > 0
 
 
-def remove_tracked_satellite(norad_id: str) -> tuple[bool, str]:
+def remove_tracked_satellite(norad_id: str) -> tuple[bool, str]:
-    """Delete a tracked satellite by NORAD ID. Refuses to delete builtins."""
+    """Delete a tracked satellite by NORAD ID. Refuses to delete builtins."""
-    with get_db() as conn:
+    with get_db() as conn:
-        row = conn.execute(
+        row = conn.execute(
             'SELECT builtin FROM tracked_satellites WHERE norad_id = ?',
             (str(norad_id),),
         ).fetchone()
@@ -2296,10 +2304,10 @@ def remove_tracked_satellite(norad_id: str) -> tuple[bool, str]:
             return False, 'Satellite not found'
         if row[0]:
             return False, 'Cannot remove builtin satellite'
-        conn.execute(
+        conn.execute(
-            'DELETE FROM tracked_satellites WHERE norad_id = ?',
+            'DELETE FROM tracked_satellites WHERE norad_id = ?',
-            (str(norad_id),),
+            (str(norad_id),),
-        )
+        )
-        return True, 'Removed'
+        return True, 'Removed'
-
+
-
+