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kOnshii · Dec 31, 2002, 02:05 AM

Gooday,

I was fiddling with the show info on my HD, and went to privileges and then went to everyone selected read only.

Now i can't delete stuff from my Hard disk, and can't make new folders or anything.

I don't know how to rectify this problem, as read and write is still available to group and owner, only at the top it say that owner and group is unknown.

I tried going to Mac help and booting from OS 9.

Can someone help me, i heard of this way of become a root user, or superuser, where you are able to change anything, "is that the same as being the owner?).

Even though i am the owner of my computer!

I would really like to become this superuser, as i don't like the idea of me not having full control over my computer.

BTP · Dec 31, 2002, 02:26 AM

Hmm. I can't be sure of what you did, but try the Repair Permissions option on Disk Utility for starts.

I *strongly* recommend that you do not use your computer as root. If you are asking the questions that you are, it says to me that you should NOT be playing with root. Most people never need root, as sudo will suffice.

A good rule of thumb is not to touch things you don't know about. I only mean that in a nice way, in hopes that you will not do anything like this again.

Root is not the same as owner, though they can be the same person. You do not want to be root/superuser, as you have all the access you need, wether or not you believe it.

I had a friend that wanted to move system files and other wacky things around and was concerned that he couldn't. I explained that he needed to understand that this was a different operating system and the changes he wanted to make were a) stupid, b) had no positive effect and c) were only his nitpicking. He got hung up on nomenclature, as you seem to be doing. "Root" "Superuser" etc, you should learn more about it, if you are inclined. You can also do nothing, as you don't need to know about these things. Apple did a nice job of giving users the power of Unix with out the complication.

I wish I could help more. Hopefully repairing permissions might help, it certainly can't hurt.

Good luck.

brachiator · Dec 31, 2002, 02:33 AM

it's not a good idea to be root on an everyday basis. Especially if you're the sort of person who likes to experiment with, say, permissions and privileges...

That's one reason why root is not the default admin account, I'd guess.

Anyway, much of what you'd need to do as root you can do from the CLI via the "sudo" command, as in "sudo command parameters"... Then you have to put in your password, and it executes as superuser.

On your current problem, can't you just change the privileges back in the SHow info window? If not, you may have to log in as sudo or root... I don't know how to fix the privileges in the CLI, but you enable root in the NetInfo Manager app in Utilities. Then pulldown Security>Authenticate and put in you password. Then Security>Enable Root User, and so forth. You'd have to log out and back in as root, then maybe you can change the privileges back in the SHow Info. But don't do anything else!

Then log out and see if it worked.

Mind you, I don't know if this will do the trick at all. Last resort? Better to wait for someone who can better diagnose it.

kOnshii · Dec 31, 2002, 07:32 PM

repair permission doesn't exist in disk utilities.

Is this because i'm running X.1.5 or is it somewhere that i can't find.

i logged in at the root user, buy those steps, and still in the now SHOW INFO instead of GET INFO, still will not allow me to alter the previleges.

dadder · Dec 31, 2002, 10:54 PM

Can you not just simply create a new user 'Log Out' and log back in as this new user? Then delete that user and name yourself and your new user name as Administrator of your Mac in OS X?

mrtew · Dec 31, 2002, 11:35 PM

There is a program called Apple Repair Privilieges that is actually released by Apple for 10.1.x that should fix you up. I think it's basically the same thing that is now part of Disk Utility. Try that and tell us if it worked. Here's the link.

http://www.versiontracker.com/morein...313&db=mac

kOnshii · Jan 2, 2003, 05:01 PM

Thankyou for your advise, but unfortunately it didnt do the trick.

The repair priveleges only set the Owner, User and Groups to all defualt settings, but the last option, that say's everyone ( the one that i made read only) is still READ ONLY.

It has not changed, and i don't know what else to do.
I guess i might have to live with it, untill i do a full re-install in the future.

chris v · Jan 2, 2003, 10:03 PM

so, if you're logged into an administrator acount, you're saying you can't click on the lock icon next to the Owner pop-up menu in get info, and just change the owner from unknown to your username?

CV

kOnshii · Jan 3, 2003, 02:31 AM

that's correct,

it doesn't give me that option

kOnshii · Jan 3, 2003, 02:54 AM

I tried this also, is there something wrong with this command

I tried to ignore ownership on this volume but it didn't happen.

[localhost:~] yanyorm% sudo vsdbutil -d /VolumeName
vsdbutil: Couldn't get volume information for '/VolumeName': No such file or directory
vsdbutil: no valid volume UUID found on '/VolumeName': No such file or directory
[localhost:~] yanyorm%

Taipan · Jan 3, 2003, 06:10 AM

Originally posted by kOnshii:
I tried this also, is there something wrong with this command

I tried to ignore ownership on this volume but it didn't happen.

[localhost:~] yanyorm% sudo vsdbutil -d /VolumeName
vsdbutil: Couldn't get volume information for '/VolumeName': No such file or directory
vsdbutil: no valid volume UUID found on '/VolumeName': No such file or directory
[localhost:~] yanyorm%

Hi!
I think you have to use the mountpoint, not just the volumename. So it should be /Volumes/VolumeName.
You might also try to change the user or privileges via terminal with the chown and chmod commands.