Major Permissions Issues With My Upgrade; All Resets Failing

I'm sorry to hear your computer is not functioning properly.

A little background to your issue:

1. What was the original symptoms that caused you to run these commands?

2. Are you able to create a new (admin) user on the computer using System Preferences? (if so) does it function properly?

3. Do you see any personal items on your desktop?

EE

Hi EE,

The original issue was I needed to tpye in my system password to move files into my folders. A general perrmissions issue that was not repaired completely by the Hard Disk Utilitiy.

I am only able to boot into the Macbook Pro and the move the mouse. No key entry or mouse clicks work. The Caps Lock key lights up when toggled.

I booted up into Lion from a DVD I made and repaired permissions from the HD Utility. Then rebooted with no improvement.

I see Firefox's window open and my desktop with the Macintosh HD drive but no key commands work otr mouse clicks.

Below are the steps I used:

"1. You will want to boot directly into the effected user.

2. Open Terminal.

3. These commands can be copied and pasted into Terminal one at a time, and wait for the next line that ends in chris$ to indicate the process has finished and the shell is ready for the next line:

sudo chflags -R nouchg /Users/michaelortega/

sudo chmod -R 775 /Users/michaelortega/

sudo chmod -RN /Users/michaelortega/

sudo chown -R michaelortega:staff /Users/michaelortega/

The first removed locks from all files in your home folder.

The second command will correct the permissions of all files in your home folder.

The third removes any ACLs (access Control Lists) from the files in your home folder.

The last command corrects the ownership of the files in your home folder.

4. Reboot the computer as soon as all commands are completed."

Once I got to the third step the terminal reported a fail.

I then tried all the 2nd 3rd and fourth step again.

Then I rebooted like step 4 above says.

Michael

auralwiz wrote:

Help! I tried these commands (substituded my name instead of chris) and now my mac will not respond to keyboard inputs or mouse clicks. it boots up and the mouse moves and thats it. I tried booting with the shift key and had the same results.

I just spent 60 hours upgrading and installing all my software.

This can be seen as a clear example of posters believing they have the 'exact same' issue as another poster. You have used a solution that was given for (and helped) another user with a distinct issue. Had you have started your own thread in these forums, and given details of your own problem, then you would have been given steps to take to address your individual problem. Hopefully someone can still help you, but please realise that 'similar' symptons may come from a variety of misfunctions.

Good Luck

True I know better.

I did repair it by booting up into target mode and removing some files from my user prefs that had the mod dates as the moment I made the changes.

Thanks for the feedback.

If you have permissions issues, then let's provide the easiest solutions.

1. Reinstall Lion from the backup

2. Buy COCKTAIL for Lion . . . there is an option to specifically repair user permissions and reset and that's precisely the same as using resetpassword from the backup permission boot.

Mybe this would work for me?

Well, it's worth a shot and these are the simple methods without getting involved with the terminal. See below first to reboot into your Backup. I've done this and used the same password. The problem MAY be the ACL files.

Repairing User Permissions in OS X Lion

You’ll need to reboot to perform this, and then use the same resetpassword utility that is used to change passwords in Lion, but instead choosing a hidden option.

When you use the Disk Utility app and Repair Permissions — it doesn’t actually repair the permission settings on folders and files in your Home folder where your documents and personal applications reside.

In Lion, there is an additional Repair Permissions application utility hidden away. This tool is located inside boot Repair Utilities. Here’s how to access it.

1. Restart Lion and hold down the Command and R keys.
2. You will boot into the Repair Utilities screen. On top, in the Menu Bar click the Utilities item then select Terminal.
3. In the Terminal window, type resetpassword and hit Return.
4. The Password reset utility launches, but you’re not going to reset the password. Instead, click on the icon for your Mac’s hard drive at the top. From the drop-down below it, select the user account where you are having issues.
5. At the bottom of the window, you’ll see an area labeled ‘Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs’. Click the Reset button there.

The reset process takes a couple of minutes. When it’s done, quit the programs you’ve opened and restart your Mac. Notice that ‘Spotlight’ starts re-indexing immediately.

Hi Paul and ebinellis/EE,

Are you able to help me?

I am having great problems with permissions (many of them mentioned in this thread) and a series of other serious issues after upgrading to Lion, so I did a clean re-install of Snow Leopard 6.4 (from disk) upgraded to 6.8 and still had permissions problems which I have made worse by doing what I thought made sense - giving my administration user access to all disks and time machine back-ups.

This has had the reverse effect of not giving me access to anything other than my OSX system volume on my 250GB Flash drive! I can only see my files with the root user (which I have used for the first time ever to get access) which will NOT allow me to change permissions of either my Time Machine backup disk or the Hard drive on my iMac (2.93GHz i7 16GB)!

Googling for solutions suggested using iRepair to change permissions but that gives me a "boing" when I try with no effect - at least a "boing" is more feedback that the Apple Finder's response to my attempt to alteration of the permissions in the "info" window!

Oh! and of course I have unsuccessfuly tried the Disk Utility as well, which does come back with errors - that appear to be "safe to ignore" from Apple Support's website!

I suspect I need to learn to use Terminal Console and that's why I have posted this message - could you or others assist me to diagnose what I should do please?

Adjusting the permissions of the boot volume is inadvisable.

With that said, have you booted to the OS disc and attempted a repair of permissions on the boot volume using disk utility?

When you adjusted permissions on the root level of the drive, do you recall if you applied them to enclosed items or not? (I'm not suggesting you do so, only trying to understand the steps that caused your circumstance.

EE

I am with ebinellis with respect to the permissions issue. I would not advise changing permissions on the boot volume either. Sometimes the disk utility does not do the job either, but it's worth a shot in your case. One of the problems is an existing boot volume with 10.6.8 installed because Lion will install on a clean drive ( no existing system ) without the necessity of Snow Leopard. Therefore, the install is even cleaner. You may want to read the following article:

http://www.macstrategy.com/article.php?7

In any case, you need to repair permissions using an outside volume such as the OS disc mentioned by ebinellis or an operating sytem on an external drive.

How extensive is your drive? Is it populated with loads of applications and files? If not, and this is time consuming, you may wish to wipe your drive and START with Lion . . . no need to install Snow Leopard.

Paul

Hi EE and Paul,

Many thanks or your comments. It takes a while to describe and analyse the situation - a key thing is that I have not altered the permissions of the boot volume. The boot volume is on my Flash Drive which, apart from continuous error messages referring to .kext files that have not been installed properly, the permissions (at least) on that volume appears to be ok.

I simply don't have any access to the whole of my hard drive (remembering that I don't store OSX there) unless I log in as a root user! And no matter what I do, I can't change permissions either as a "normal" admin user or as a root user. The same problem for my back-up Time Machine hard disk!!!

I have also just run Applejack which took about 12 hrs (in between my 1st post and this one) in "Single User Mode" but nothing has changed. I haven't been able to understand whether it looks at all the disks or just the boot disk.

To conclude/summarise: although I am consistently getting boot disk ".kext" errors:

eg "The system extension "/System/Library/Extensions/BJUSBLoad.kext" was installed improperly and cannot be used. Please try reinstalling it, or contact the product's vendor for an update";

my urgent (first?) priority is to get access to my iMac Hard Disk and Time Machine back-up disk.

I am conscious that I should probably be setting up a new post for this, but I don't want to lose you both by going elsewhere!

Godfrey Bridger

Hamilton, New Zealand

Message was edited by: Godfrey Bridger

Godfrey:

Send an email to me: ptklenk@mac.com.

Paul

1. When you say "flash drive" do you mean an externally connected USB drive?

2. Your boot drive, what is it titled? (IE "Macintosh HD")

3. What is your TIme Machine Backup drive titled and is it externally connected or internally connected?

ALTERNATIVE OPTION:

1. Boot into root.

2. Open System Report (called System Profiler in 10.6 or earlier) Hold option while clicking the Apple menu and it will be the first option.

3. File> Save and save it to your desktop.

this will give me the needed information to understand the basics to your computers circumstances.

NEXT:

1. Open Terminal.

2. TYPE: ls -leAo /

3. TYPE: ls -leAo /Volumes/

4. Shell>Export Text as...

5. Save to your desktop.

This will give me the information as to the permissions and related attributes of your main drive and all connected drives.

If you could be so kind as to email these files:

apple.ee@me.com

Hi Paul and EE,

Once again, thank you both for your continued interest. I will send you both e-mails. Mine is bridgerbeavis@me.com.

In the mean time, my 250GB Flash Drive came Apple installed as part of the iMac, so no, its certainly not a USB or external drive.

I'll send you the information shortly. I am using my laptop to get outside world access.

Godfrey Bridger

Just bought a new iMac and migrated from my previous iMac. Had permission issues such as inability to trash files without authentication and no showing of full trash. Use you the terminal and substituted the name, of course, first on an external HD with an exact copy of my internal HD. Worked like a charm on it, so followed the same course on my internal HD . . . beautiful.

Accolades on your responses and assistance!