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User profile for user: RBehymer
RBehymer Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Can't demote from admin to standard - option both turned on AND greyed out

I have been running out of my admin account for a long time, but have since decided to run from a standard account. I have created a new admin account and from there changed my original account to standard. The problem for me has been that now my original account has the "Allow user to administer this computer" option both turned on AND greyed out. It allowed me to uncheck it once, then turned grey and remains turned on. I have rebooted and logged into the new admin account and attempted to change the old account to standard, it's still set to admin and greyed out. Restarted again and logged into root, same problem. Original account still admin and admin option greyed out so I can't disable admin for that account. This is all done after unlocking the preference panel, so that doesn't seem to be the issue. Any suggestions how to proceed?

I have been posting in the thread "New Mac User Accounts-Need dedicated Admin account?"
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1717400
No luck so far, so I'm opening this up to more folks

Dual 1.8 G5, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Sep 25, 2008 5:17 PM

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7 replies
User profile for user: V.K.
V.K.
User level: Level 9
56,174 points

Sep 25, 2008 5:41 PM in response to RBehymer

do I understand it correctly that now you have two admin users: the old and the new accounts? If so log into the new admin account and run the following terminal command

sudo dscl . delete /groups/admin GroupMembership username

instead of the username put the short user name of the old account that you want to make standard. You'll have to enter your admin password (which you won't see). that's normal.

restart and you should see your old account as standard.

Message was edited by: V.K.
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User profile for user: RBehymer
RBehymer Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Sep 29, 2008 6:34 AM in response to V.K.

You are correct. There are 2 admin accounts and both have the option to remove admin status greyed out and unselectable.

I ran the command you listed (copy/paste and replaced username). It came back with an error. I restarted just to be sure, and the problem remains with no apparent changes.

Here is the error msg:

<main> attribute status: eDSAttributeNotFound
<dscl_cmd> DS Error: -14134 (eDSAttributeNotFound)
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User profile for user: RBehymer
RBehymer Author
User level: Level 1
20 points

Sep 30, 2008 4:48 PM in response to V.K.

GroupMembership: root boss

which should be correct if I understand the results correctly, but "roy" remains admin in account prefs and both "boss" and "roy" can't be changed to standard, checkbox is greyed out when pref pane is unlocked. If I run an installer in "roy", "roy"'s password still allows installation as if it's still admin

Message was edited by: RBehymer
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User profile for user: V.K.
V.K.
User level: Level 9
56,174 points

Sep 30, 2008 8:11 PM in response to RBehymer

this is very strange. according to the result of that command user roy is standard as it's not listed as an admin. the fact that you can't change user boss to standard now is normal. there should always be at least one admin user besides root. let's try delete and recreate user roy as standard. do this as follows. log in as boss and run the following terminal command (copy and paste please).

sudo rm /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users/roy.plist



You'll be prompted to enter your admin password (which you won't see as you type it). that's normal. this will delete user roy but not its home directory.

Restart and try creating the account with that short name roy as a standard user. it will say that a home directory by that name already exists and ask if you want to use it. say "yes".
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Can't demote from admin to standard - option both turned on AND greyed out

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