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How to change entire system permission to my account?

This is driving me crazy - more than usual.


Got a new (to me...actually used) Mac Pro. Signed in as a dummy account on the Lion drive that came with it. Transferred my old drives to the new computer, then used Migration Assistant to re-create my account on the Lion drive.


And now everywhere I turn I don't have permission to do this or that. I've been overcoming it with Batchmod to a large degree, but now when I put a blank DVD in one of my two drives (I installed a new one) it spits it out and tells me I don't have permission. WHAT?


It also drives me crazy to have everything designated as belonging to the dummy account I created! BOO HISS. NO... the whole **** computer and everything on it is 100% MINE and I want MY ACCOUNT to have ALL the persmissions.


Any simple way to do this? What if I just delete the dummy, will it revert to me?


And where is the permission that is not letting me insert a blank disk???

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 21, 2012 4:59 PM

Reply
7 replies

Feb 21, 2012 6:44 PM in response to Shootist007

No, unfortunately, starting from scratch is MUCH MUCH worse. I was thrilled when Apple invented Migration Assistant (i've been on Macs since 1988) because it was such a relief from the **** of a fresh system install and trying to re-create all the little settings and apps and doohickies I have going. No, scratch is not an option.


And from my own understanding, Setup Assitant is no help either, tha'ts just starting from scratch too.


But thanks for giving it a shot.

Feb 21, 2012 6:48 PM in response to Stoidy

Repairing the permissions of a home folder in Lion is a complicated procedure. I don’t know of a simpler one that always works.


Launch the Terminal application by entering the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Drag or copy – do not type – the following line into the window, then press return:


chmod -R -N ~


If you get an error message about permissions, enter this:


sudo !!


You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up.


Next, boot from your recovery partition by holding down the key combination command-R at startup. Release the keys when you see a gray screen with a spinning dial.


When the recovery desktop appears, select Utilities ▹ Terminal from the menu bar.


In the Terminal window, enter “resetpassword” (without the quotes) and press return. A Reset Password window opens.


Select your boot volume if not already selected.


Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.


Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.


Select ▹ Restart from the menu bar.

Feb 21, 2012 7:56 PM in response to Stoidy

My recovery partition? Uh oh...is this something I'm supposed to know about? Is this an automatic in Lion? How do I boot from that?


The disk was set up by the former owner (which happened to be LinkedIn!- Sold to employee who resold to me...) and I did notice when I was cosidering wiping the drive that there were three partitions (the other was a bootcamp drive that appears to be set up with Fedora, I couldn't get very far) and a tiny part was called recovery but I didn't mess with that at all. Since it was set up by someone else will I be able to get in to it? Will I be able to boot with my account?


Aside from all that, does "reset home directory permissions and ACLS" fix the fact that the other drives are giving me problems or that the optical drives are barfing back discs?


Thank you for your time...

How to change entire system permission to my account?

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