The current function to activate core-dumps for vdr running setuid ist only working for kernel > 2.6.13 ( says the comment in vdr.c ). Actualy it is not working for 2.4.21 but it was easy an easy change, just replace prctl(PR_SET_DUMPABLE, 2, 0, 0, 0) with prctl(PR_SET_DUMPABLE, 1, 0, 0, 0) If you need the switch with "2" ( what does "2" mean for >2.6.13 ??) It could do something like: if (prctl(PR_SET_DUMPABLE, 2, 0, 0, 0) < 0) { if (prctl(PR_SET_DUMPABLE, 1, 0, 0, 0) < 0) { fprintf(stderr, "vdr: warning - cannot set dumpable: %s\n", strerror(errno)); // always non-fatal, and will not work with kernel < 2.6.13 } }