After Lion upgrade only guest account showing

Is the

ls /volume

It should look something like this which is from my Mac Mini.

MacMiniHD-2:~ peggymain$ ls /volumes

Macintosh HD                              Peggy Enes's Public Folder

Mini Clone                              SL Clone 2

MiniTV Time Machine                    TimeMachine

OldVideo

If you aren't getting any output from running terminal I think it would be best if you leave well enough alone until you can get an external drive or two for backups. You should be able to use the restore tab in your recovery partition's Disk Utility to make backups.

Update:

At the login screen, when presented with only the 'guest account' do the following:

Ignore the password box and click on the 'guest user head icon' this should bring up -

'This computer will restart to a secure, Safari-only system for the Guest user'

click 'Cancel' then hold down 'control' + 'option' + 'command' and tap 'enter'

your usual login entry boxes (username and password) should show.

This technique will get you into your system without the need for Terminal tweeks.

If you wish, from here you can disable this security feature in System Preferences / Internet & Wireless / iCloud, unclick 'Find My Mac' - the 'guest account' will now not show at login, only you usual login identities.

I have this issue with a new MacBook Pro - it was working fine, then had an issue coming out of sleep requiring a forced turn off, and now every time it boots it's showing Guest only...

I've tried everything listed in this thread, in addition to the usual Verify and Repair Permissions etc. If I firewire target mode into the thing I can see my user account and files etc, but typing in my username and password after the 'control' + 'option' + 'command' and enter trick just results in the spinning wheel for a few moments - then it doesn't log in!

Any suggestions guys besides copying files off manually in target mode and doing a clean install?!!

I took the lazy approach to this problem when it happened to me. I called the Apple Store, and after some heated tech discussion, solved the problem in minutes.

I realize that this solution will only work if you have a portable, but if you do, take advantage of this option.

I installed OSX 10.7.2 on a perfectly functioning 10.6.8 MBP. Immediately had issues. It wanted the password to throw anything in the trash, etc. I recognized this as a permissions issue. After examination, discoverd that guest and wheel were all that was present. No administartor or user account. Tried everything I knew from years of sorting out these kinds of issues.

Finally spent three hours at the Apple Genius bar where I was congratulated for trying everything they could think of, save one. They reset the ACL's, using a somewhat hidden procedure. That didn't do it either. They say that erasing the entire drive and then pulling "only some things" from a Time Machine backup is the only solution. This is unacceptable.

Repairing permissions takes forever, and has tons of pages with references to ACL's. It never fixes anything, so it always takes this long. I mentioned to the Genius bar person (three actually) that I was a bit concerned that they didn't appear to be as surprised by this as I felt they should be. They mentioned that they have seen this somewhat regularly. They were not sure why some people got this while others didn't. They were hypothecating that people who had changed the name of their HD seemed to be the ones getting this.

Clearly there are some major issues with permissions and ACL's in Lion. I waited until the third release (10.7.2) in the hopes that Apple would have things sorted out. Clearly they have not. They need to fix this without erasing the drive... as that qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.

You did the right thing to visit the Genius Bar, but I'm discouraged that the staff wasn't able to solve the issue satisfactorily.

I also visited them for roughly the same reason. At first, the GB was confused by the error, but was able to force a solution by altering BIOS data. (I've never done this, personally, but I did know that it's a sensible way to change privileges from Guest to Admin.) I also agree: it doesn't make sense to have to erase the drive to fix inconsistencies in permissions.

I hope you'll continue to post your results. Good, detailed information here - and a lot of peope are going to read this, I hope.

Dude you hit the Disney/Apple/Jim jones MO culture on its foggy head. (Fueled by Steve's special medicinal blend..) I have so many problems with my mbp after lion and particularly 10.7.2 I am way too lazy to write them down; but two things you mention are both important and, necessarily, related: 1) lion cannot control acl's in a reliable and/or predictable way, and 2) the "lack of surprise" you mention is the lazy-end of the apple culture peaking out from behind the controlled and sedated minds of the, uh, geniuses that work there.

Over the years I found it was just too much of a coincidence that questions as broadly placed as "why did apple not stock and sell toslink cables for the mbpro as it is the only connector cable (spdif comes STANDARD afterall!) on the machine that will allow you to play 5.1 externally, to the more mundane yet equally vexing "how come after all this time you still only sell those cheap looking carnival colored trick ipad2 covers?": these any many, many more questions elicit a look of genuine surprise and and answer something very, very much like, "huh! None of my clients has ever asked that that before." *long, blinkless stare ensues*

A page from an apple upper tier management manual even popped-up on cnet that instructed how to convincingly lie to customers complaint about am (internally) known problem.

They just "wish" their problems away!

But, yeah...all roads in 10.7.2 issues ive faced lead in one way or another to permissions.

Hope somebody can write a script you can run after installation that goes back and resets all to the previous version.

JJW

(is that a lot? All I can see is the last few lines I've typed on my phone but it FEELS like a lot! (sorry)

Wow, this thread has officially gone into a ditch. Can it be closed to new comments so the useful information that's been posted doesn't get lost among the noise?

The purpose of my post was to point out that all of the things you've listed here do not work. Everyone knows this is a serious problem. The way we get Apple to do something is to get enough people to realize that they are not an isolated case and then as a group we'll get action.

BTW, did I miss the part where you were made forum moderator?

Thank you!, just worked.

I was so frustrated, and was quite simple to get everything back.

I fixed the second part of the problem by going on System prefrences and changing the logging and accounts. Try that!.

Cant thank you enough for the fix.

Next time I fool around with Onyx I will be a little more tentative.

thanks Again

I have this problem with a twist:

No recovery partition shows when I try to change the startup disk (only the main drive shows up) and it logs directly into the guest account without even showing the login window. I have FileVault2 enabled too, I don't know if this affects anything. None of the solutions in this thread help because I can't go to the recovery screen terminal (is there a way to boot straight to terminal?) and I can't go to the login window.

Any ideas what happened or how to fix?

Thanks NamedUser. Helped me out alot. didnt work at 1st. Tried the terminal method but i just couldnt find my root directory. the "Is" command doesnt work or mayb how i used it. Tried your method again after seeing the update on a more recent post u did, and it worked...(after click cancel on the safari crap....quickly pressed and hold control+option+command int hat order and clicked "enter")...the guest icon changed to an icon with multiple users....type my name and password and it worked. Then change my login setting back to default....was using onyx....and deeper. tampered with the login settings.

thanks though....learned my lession with messing with app i dont kno how to use. When in doubt, leave it alone. or research.

for others, try this method 1st before trying any other method. worked for me.

This worked except there was one error in the description of the procedure:

• Reboot your mac, hold down Command R just as it chimes

• Select Disk Utilities then Terminal

The first step works fine. However, when the Mac Utilities comes up, you DON'T select Disk Utilities.

Instead, go up to the top menu bar. Under Utilities you will see the Terminal option. Then follow the procedure.

I HAVE THE SOLUTION !!!

Try this:

..............................................

• Step 0 : Don’t panic, your files are not gone !

• Step 1: Reset ROOT Password for Mac OS X Lion:

• Restart your Mac,
• Hold “Command+R” buttons just the moment your Mac starts up,
• Hold still…
• A window should appear, it says “Utilities…”
• From the tools menu, at the top, open “Terminal”
• Type “resetpassword” and hit enter
• A new window opens, select the System Administrator account (root) option
• Set a new password, easy to remember for you,
• Confirm and close all the windows,
• A question will appear as would you like to restart?
• Restart!

• Step 2: Login as ROOT on Mac OS X Lion:

• Let the Mac startup,
• At login screen, type the user name as “root” and put in the password you’ve chosen in step 1.8 above.
• Wait a while…
• You should be logged in with the “root” account to your Mac OS X Lion.

• Step 3: Re-create your user (Reincarnation!)

• Right click on the “Finder” icon in the dock, select “Go to folder…”
• Type “/” and click on “GO” to go to your Mac’s hard drive,
• Navigate to the “Users” directory, you should see your own user folder, remember the folder’s name!
• Click the Apple logo on the left top side of the screen, select “System Preferences…”
• Go to “Users and Groups”
• Your user should not exist in the left side list, so click the small “+” button below the users list to add a new one.
• Set your Full name as it was previously (not very important though)
• Set the “Account name” EXACTLY AS THE FOLDER NAME YOU SAW IN STEP3.3 (VERY IMPORTANT)
• Set an easy to remember password for your account,
• And hit “Create User”
• Confirm on “using the Existing folder for Home…”
• Wait….until you see your user appear on the users list…

• Step 4: Back on the Road:

• Restart your Mac
• Login to your own account easily and get all your data back!

..............................................

Hope this helps you out.....

/ G