[Kikaida]

Friends:
My admin account recently bit the dust. It was suffering from problems after 10.3.6, and 10.3.7 finally put my admin account out of it's misery. I can log in, launch firefox, terminal and a couple of Adobe apps, but everything else (Mail, Safari, Preferences, etc.) beachballs on launch.

I've tried everything: repair permissions, disk, etc. Even did an archive/install. Nothing seems to help.

I keep a clean "test" account available for these situations, and it runs beautifully. I'd like to replace my existing admin account with this account. I'm not sure how to go about it, and am hesitant considering how much trouble I could wreak.

Any tips on how I could do this from the terminal (logged into the 'dead' admin account) or NetInfo? I appreciate any insight.

[Laurence]

sudo niutil -appendprop . /groups/admin users <Non-Admin Account>

This should add the non-admin user to the Admin group.

[Kikaida]

Originally posted by Laurence:
sudo niutil -appendprop . /groups/admin users <Non-Admin Account>

This should add the non-admin user to the Admin group.

Awesome! I'll try this when I get home tonight. I assume that I replace <Non-Admin Account> with the account name that I plan to "upgrade", correct?

Thanks again for your help.

Kikaida

[Art Vandelay]

You can just simply login with your test account and make it an admin account through System Preferences. You'll just need to authenticate with your admin account in Sys Prefs to make the change.

FYI..
Also since the problems are isolated to your account, the problem lies in your home folder with the preferences. Repairing permissions will do nothing to fix it since it doesn't even look within home folders. Also, if you preserve your accounts when you do an Archive and Install, then you will just carry the problem over since it lies in your account.

You can also just move your Library folder out of your home folder, logout and login. This will reset your prefs and most likely the problems will be gone.

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
FYI..
Also since the problems are isolated to your account, the problem lies in your home folder with the preferences. Repairing permissions will do nothing to fix it since it doesn't even look within home folders. Also, if you preserve your accounts when you do an Archive and Install, then you will just carry the problem over since it lies in your account.

You can also just move your Library folder out of your home folder, logout and login. This will reset your prefs and most likely the problems will be gone.

Users and groups information is stored in the NetInfo database, not in Library/Preferences. If he has really lost his admin privs then that won't fix it.

[Kikaida]

Originally posted by Art Vandelay:
You can just simply login with your test account and make it an admin account through System Preferences. You'll just need to authenticate with your admin account in Sys Prefs to make the change.

FYI..
Also since the problems are isolated to your account, the problem lies in your home folder with the preferences. Repairing permissions will do nothing to fix it since it doesn't even look within home folders. Also, if you preserve your accounts when you do an Archive and Install, then you will just carry the problem over since it lies in your account.

You can also just move your Library folder out of your home folder, logout and login. This will reset your prefs and most likely the problems will be gone.

FYI - Removing the library folder for the admin account worked like a charm. Everything is back to normal, and I'm enjoying an appreciable speed boost...althought that could be my imagination.

Thanks again!

Kikaida

[Art Vandelay]

Originally posted by Angus_D:
Users and groups information is stored in the NetInfo database, not in Library/Preferences. If he has really lost his admin privs then that won't fix it.

That wasn't his problem. His account still had admin privs, just various apps stopped working only on his account.

[Angus_D]

Pah, that's what you get for skim-reading a topic