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HELP!!! MASSIVE ACL Corruption

I seemed to have made a colossal error in setting up my iMac.


I have divided the internal HDD into two partitions: P1=OS X 10.10.5, P2=OS X 10.7.5. All updates applied


Here is were I think I went wrong:

I installed OS X Server 5 on the Yosemite partition, AND OS X Server Lion on the Lion Partition. I did this so I could do testing with Server on both systems.


Everything was working fine and I was able to switch back and forth between the two partitions, testing various settings, including VPN.


However, last week, after doing some work in Lion, when I restarted into Yosemite, I was besieged with ACL errors, and "can not access Library" messages.


I ran Disk Utility and it seems EVERY file on the system had "Unexpected ACL" error. Clicking "Repair" did nothing to resolve the problem.


Displaying info on any file showed multiple redundant Sharing and Permissions entries, ALL of which are set to Privilege=Read Only.


I have tried to delete and/or change the privileges manually, but I am not able to modify the privileges even after entering my admin id and password.


I tried to use terminal to delete the ACLs (while in 10.10), but that failed (I can not seem to get the syntax correct).


I figured the problem probably occurred when I was in the Lion partition, so I tried to restart into Lion, and Lion is completely locked now as well. Restart is stuck on the grey screen with the spinning wheel (for 3 days).


Then I tried to restart into Yosemite, and it is stuck as well on the grey screen and spinning wheel.


I would like to try deleting the ACLs again by using Terminal after restarting into the 10.10 recovery partition, but need help with the syntax for removing the ACL from the partition.


i.e.

The Yosemite drive name is "iMac 27 HD"


After launching Terminal I would enter the commands

  1. cd /volumes/"iMac 27 HD"
  2. chmod -N -R "iMac 27 HD"

Will this successfully remove the ACL parameters for all files on the partition?


I have attached a link to a capture of "ls -el" and "ls -al" commands on the partition, if it helps with the diagnosis:

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/lzrlmb4ttmq9gux/AADR8wsWQNqFoOtF8elTJZUva


Any help, suggestions or cautions would be greatly appreciated


TIA


BTW - As a last resort, I tried to reinstall Yosemite, but the installer will not function either. I am hoping that if I can remove the ACLs I can complete the reinstall.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), OS X Server 5, 10GB RAM, 750GB HDD

Posted on Dec 1, 2015 5:14 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Dec 1, 2015 8:49 PM

Yeah, something has added a whole load of ACL permissions where they shouldn't be. This:


sudo chmod -N -R "/Volumes/iMac 27 HD"


should remove them.


C.

2 replies

Dec 1, 2015 8:50 PM in response to cdhw

OK.


Tried chmod -N -R "/Volumes/iMac 27 HD" and I ge the message: "chmod: Failed to clear ACL on file -R: No such file or directory"

So, I tried with -R and adding a directory to the path, and the command worked on the directory.

Thought for a bit, then reversed "-N -R" to "-R -N":

chmod -R -N "/Volumes/iMac 27 HD"

YEAH!!!! All ACLs are removed! Ran the command on the Lion partition, and I am able to startup Lion.

I am also starting the ill-concidered reinstall of of 10.10. 23 minutes left

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again/.

HELP!!! MASSIVE ACL Corruption

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