Leopard Permissions Nightmare - Please Help!

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Level 1

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Leopard Permissions Nightmare - Please Help!

I was having some permissions problems on my Mac Pro, so I clicked on the hard drive, got info, changed the permissions to my main user account, and hit "apply to all." Apparently, despite how easy it was to do, applying permissions to all on the main hard drive is a very bad thing to do!

After I did this, the computer would no longer start up. I'd get to the gray apple screen and spinning dashes. After a few minutes, the computer would go dark, chime, and restart. It continues this endlessly until manually shut down

Repairing disk permissions after starting up from the installation disk did not work.

What I was able to do was install Leopard on one of the extra hard drives in the machine (there are four). Once I was up and running off the new hard drive, I could see the original volume and get access to it no problem. I ran disk utility and repair permissions from the new hard drive, and it seems to be working, only it says it's going to take five hours!

Am I on the right track, or is there something else I should do? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

PowerBook G5, Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Posted on Jun 12, 2008 2:58 PM

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Answer 1

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jun 12, 2008 3:10 PM in response to Bill Ryan2

Bill Ryan2 wrote:
I was having some permissions problems on my Mac Pro, so I clicked on the hard drive, got info, changed the permissions to my main user account, and hit "apply to all." Apparently, despite how easy it was to do, applying permissions to all on the main hard drive is a very bad thing to do!

quite right. This is probably not what you want to hear but I would recommend an archive and install. This will take less than 5 hours and should fix your problems. I'm not at all sure that repair permissions will do that. I've seen several posts by people who've done the same and I think they all had to reinstall.

and be careful with using 'apply to enclosed items button". in particular NEVER EVER use it on system created folder and on the start up drive itself.

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Answer 2

Bill Ryan2 Author

Level 1

50 points

Jun 12, 2008 10:57 PM in response to V.K.

Oh, no! I hope that's not the case. If I do archive and install, do I have to create a new home directory, or can I retain user and settings? And if I create a new user, can I just move over all the information from the old home directory, or does it copy (thereby requiring lots of empty hard drive space)? Thanks!

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Answer 3

RodneyW

Level 4

3,041 points

Jun 13, 2008 1:53 AM in response to Bill Ryan2

V.K. is right. A&I is easily the best solution for you. If anyone could come up with a command line to fix the problem... it would be V.K.

The problem is that there are such a large number of directories and ownership definitions that have been affected.

You can preserve users in an A & I, but it is actually best to create a new user IMO (because all of the permissions for your existing users will be messed up). Yes - you will need a decent amount of hard disk space free (at least 9GB for the OS + 15% of the hard drive capacity). Thus, for a 100 GB drive you should have at least 24GB free.

Once you have done the install, you can delete the old system (freeing up another 9GB). If you are tight on space, you might be best placed to migrate the user data manually (then you can progressively delete as you migrate the data).

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Answer 4

Bill Ryan2 Author

Level 1

50 points

Jun 13, 2008 6:25 AM in response to RodneyW

Okay, well thanks for the counsel...I appreciate that I was able to get some input from both of you. I'm wondering if it would just be easier to use one of the extra internal hard drives as my new start-up disk and home directory, and just use my old home directory as a data drive. I only seem to have screwed up the system files...I can still access the old home directory without any problem (as long as I'm started up from another disk.) Can anyone see any downside to this approach? Thanks again.

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Answer 5

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jun 13, 2008 7:22 AM in response to Bill Ryan2

You can do that of course but it would mean that you'll have to copy all your home directory data to the new drive and reinstall all applications. I would also wipe the old drive after you are done with this. archive and install on the first drive is still an option too.

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Answer 6

Bill Ryan2 Author

Level 1

50 points

Jun 13, 2008 8:37 AM in response to V.K.

Actually, I was thinking about leaving all the home directory data on the original start-up disk, and just accessing it when I need it. (There's about 500 GB of data, so I'd rather not copy it all over to the new start-up disk.) Both disks are internal disks on the Mac Pro, so I'd basically just be changing my start-up disk and using my old start-up disk as just a storage disk. Do you see any downside to that approach?

The only possible reason I might consider doing the archive and install on the original start-up disk would be if I could preserve any of my authorized application installations. For instance, after the archive and install, would it remember that this computer is authorized to play songs purchased on my iTunes account? And would it remember that this computer was authorized to use programs that have limited installs (like Photoshop)?

Thanks again for all your help!

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Answer 7

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jun 13, 2008 8:49 AM in response to Bill Ryan2

Bill Ryan2 wrote:
Actually, I was thinking about leaving all the home directory data on the original start-up disk, and just accessing it when I need it. (There's about 500 GB of data, so I'd rather not copy it all over to the new start-up disk.) Both disks are internal disks on the Mac Pro, so I'd basically just be changing my start-up disk and using my old start-up disk as just a storage disk. Do you see any downside to that approach?

The only possible reason I might consider doing the archive and install on the original start-up disk would be if I could preserve any of my authorized application installations. For instance, after the archive and install, would it remember that this computer is authorized to play songs purchased on my iTunes account? And would it remember that this computer was authorized to use programs that have limited installs (like Photoshop)?

yes, that info should be preserved by an archive and install which is why I find it preferable to an installation on a different drive.

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Answer 8

Bill Ryan2 Author

Level 1

50 points

Jun 13, 2008 9:09 AM in response to V.K.

V.K., that is the best news I've heard since this fiasco began! So if I do archive and install like you're suggesting, should I preserve user and settings, or not? Rodney up above suggested that I NOT preserve users and settings...but if I don't preserve them, won't I lose the authorized installations (like iTunes) that you said I'd probably be able to save? Thanks again!

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Answer 9

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jun 13, 2008 9:22 AM in response to Bill Ryan2

Rodney might be right. what you did with the permissions on the whole drive might have some unexpected results. I'm frankly not sure about that. Even if you don't preserve the users settings, you can still recover your old user with all its data. use this [link|http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107297] for instructions (scroll all the way dow to the section on 10.5). this might be the safest way now that I think of it.

last but not least (and you probably don't want to hear that either) it's a good idea to back up your entire drive before you reinstall. ANY kind of reinstall can go wrong for one reason or another.

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Answer 10

Bill Ryan2 Author

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50 points

Jun 13, 2008 9:44 AM in response to V.K.

Thanks so much for that link. Do you think it's worth trying to preserve user settings first? I could always do it again clean if I needed, too, right?

And do you know if I follow the directions in the link, am I able to MOVE the old home directory, or does it copy it? (Because I don't have the room to copy it...)

And thanks for the reminder to back up.

I really, really appreciate the time your taking to help me on this. Thanks again.

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Answer 11

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jun 13, 2008 9:51 AM in response to Bill Ryan2

I would actually not preserve the settings just as rodney suggests. you can always easily recreate your user later using the instructions in that link and reinstall without preserving settings is much less likely to run into problems.

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Answer 12

Bill Ryan2 Author

Level 1

50 points

Jun 13, 2008 10:29 AM in response to V.K.

Okay, I'm doing it now. I'll let you know how it turns out.

One other question, I think related to all of this...

After performing the catastrophic "apply to all" permission change, two of my external drives suddenly have little padlocks in the lower left corner of their desktop icons. I am unable to copy or write to the hard drive, unless I do it within an already existing folder on the hard drive. Any attempt to write to the main hard drive is met with a message saying I don't have permission to do so. Any suggestions? Thanks so much...

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Answer 13

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jun 13, 2008 10:54 AM in response to Bill Ryan2

run the following command from terminal (one for each drive)

sudo chflags nouchg /Volumes/"drive-name"

Put the name of the affected drive instead of drive-name in the above. keep the quotes. You'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal.

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Answer 14

Bill Ryan2 Author

Level 1

50 points

Jun 13, 2008 10:57 AM in response to V.K.

Well, it worked, in that I was able to move the home directory and get back up and running. My applications launch, but unfortunately they seem to have lost the authorizations that I was hoping to retain. Also, even though the applications launch, they are not in the applications folder...they are instead in the applications folder inside the "previous systems" folder after the archive and install. Is there a way to get them back into my main applications folder? And do you have any final suggestions on how I can restore the authorizations on limited-install software? Thanks so much!

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Answer 15

V.K.

Level 9

56,192 points

Jun 13, 2008 11:07 AM in response to Bill Ryan2

depending on how the applications were installed you can simply move them to the main Applications folder. I'm sorry i'm not sure about restoring authorizations. i thought they'd be preserved by an archive and install. I think some of the authorization files are in your old home directory. Have you recovered that directory and your old user? Others might be in the the /Library folder somewhere inside the previous system folder but I'm not sure where.

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