[horde] Cannot add any permission

[Otto Stolz]

Hello,

I had written:
> I am testing Horde: 3.1.2 + Imp H3 (4.1.2) + Turba H3 (2.1.3).
>
> I have logged in as a Horde administrator, and invoked the Permissions
> menu. There is only one entry, viz. "All Permissions".
> If I click on the little key icon next to it, I get the error message:
> "Invalid parent permission.", and nothing happens.

Now I have tried to debug the horde/admin/prefs/addchild.php file.
After
> require_once HORDE_BASE . '/lib/Horde/Variables.php';
> $vars = &Variables::getDefaultVariables();
> $perm_id = $vars->get('perm_id');
> $permission = &$perms->getPermissionById($perm_id);
the $perm_id variable contains "-1",
and $permission is an object.

As I do not know, how these permissions work, I cannot assess
these findings.
- Is "-1" the correct perm-id for the root of the permissions tree?
- What sort of object is &$perms->getPermissionById($perm_id)
   supposed to yield?

horde/admin/prefs/addchild.php proceeds to assess that outcome:
it evaluates
> if (is_a($permission, 'PEAR_Error'))
-- and bang!

There is no pertinent entry in php-error.log, apache-error.log,
test-webmail-error.log, test-webmail-ssl-error.log, nor in
test-webmail-horde.log.

So what could I do next to mend my installation?

The goal is to render read-only my 'localldap' addressbook.
If I could do that via some assignment in turba/config/sources.php,
or elsewhere, I would be happy (without ever using the
Horde/Admin/Permissions menu).

Thanks for any hint,
   Otto Stolz