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TICKET ARCHIVE -> permissions
msmurdock86 - Jul 24, 2006 - 4:32 pm
I was trying to become familiar with how the permissions worked so that I could create an account for my mother without having to worry about her screwing up something important by accident. What I did was highlight the hardrive and lock everything and put "nobody" as the owner. I have an OS X book and it said an administrator could go back at any time and change anything so, I was not worried. The truth is, now my desktop has nothing on it but the background and I think I'm in serious trouble. Please help me to unlock my computer. Thanks, Mike
ishan - Jul 24, 2006 - 4:48 pm
Boot up with your original installer CD and run Disk Utility off the installer and repair permissions on the drive that's giving you the problem.
You don't have to-and you shouldn't-directly mess withe permissions unless you are pretty comfortable with how Unix permissions work.You can limit the privileges an user has when you create the account, so that no apps or documents are deleted by accident. Also, please have a cloned bootable copy of your hard drive (hard drives are cheap, data recovery is not) available, so that if, for whatever reason, your hard drive misbehaves, you have another drive which contains all your data to boot from.
I strongly encourage users to use a backup program like SuperDuper (shareware) to make incremental backups daily or at whatever interval you like so that you never have to worry about your hard drive. You're still going to have to worry about your mother
HTH and please let us know what happens. Thanks.
You don't have to-and you shouldn't-directly mess withe permissions unless you are pretty comfortable with how Unix permissions work.You can limit the privileges an user has when you create the account, so that no apps or documents are deleted by accident. Also, please have a cloned bootable copy of your hard drive (hard drives are cheap, data recovery is not) available, so that if, for whatever reason, your hard drive misbehaves, you have another drive which contains all your data to boot from.
I strongly encourage users to use a backup program like SuperDuper (shareware) to make incremental backups daily or at whatever interval you like so that you never have to worry about your hard drive. You're still going to have to worry about your mother
HTH and please let us know what happens. Thanks.
msmurdock86 - Jul 24, 2006 - 6:11 pm
I ran disk utility and i clicked "verify". "Permissions" did not come up on the list of things after I hit verify. I have no idea what I'm doing. This stuff was never explained to me. Could you please tell me step by step what to do in disk utility? I've already booted from the install cd and opened disk utility from the file menu. I just do not know what to do now in order to affect "Permissions" Thank you.
ishan - Jul 24, 2006 - 7:29 pm
No problem:
1. Boot your computer with your original install disk for your Macintosh. To do so, insert the CD or DVD and restart with the "C" command held down.
2. After your computer finishes booting off the CD/DVD, click "continue" on the first screen that appears. After that, go to the menubar and I think there is a menu item called "Utilities..." Choose that and from the dropdown, pick Disk Utility.
3. Disk Utility will launch. Click on the drive that's not working right. Click on "Repair permissions" for that disk.
4. If the drive that isn't working does not show up as one of the drives seen by Disk Utility, you have a bigger problem. We'll deal with that if need be.
5. For safety's sake, all "Repair Disk" with Disk Utility after you've repaired permissions.
6. Quit Disk Utility and quit the Installer. Your computer will restart. Before it does, hold down the "option" key. Instead of restarting in the usual way, you will see a blue screen. On that screen, you will see a row of icons, each representing a disk or drive that the computer can use as your startup disk. If you have just one drive, that and the installer CD will show up. Click on your drive, then click the right-pointing arrow to proceed with booting up.
7. If all goes well, you'll see your familiar desktop, icons, etc..
8. If you do, backup everything important NOW!
Hope that makes sense. I've been up since 2 am and it's 7:30 pm here, so perhaps this is not as coherent as it should be...
1. Boot your computer with your original install disk for your Macintosh. To do so, insert the CD or DVD and restart with the "C" command held down.
2. After your computer finishes booting off the CD/DVD, click "continue" on the first screen that appears. After that, go to the menubar and I think there is a menu item called "Utilities..." Choose that and from the dropdown, pick Disk Utility.
3. Disk Utility will launch. Click on the drive that's not working right. Click on "Repair permissions" for that disk.
4. If the drive that isn't working does not show up as one of the drives seen by Disk Utility, you have a bigger problem. We'll deal with that if need be.
5. For safety's sake, all "Repair Disk" with Disk Utility after you've repaired permissions.
6. Quit Disk Utility and quit the Installer. Your computer will restart. Before it does, hold down the "option" key. Instead of restarting in the usual way, you will see a blue screen. On that screen, you will see a row of icons, each representing a disk or drive that the computer can use as your startup disk. If you have just one drive, that and the installer CD will show up. Click on your drive, then click the right-pointing arrow to proceed with booting up.
7. If all goes well, you'll see your familiar desktop, icons, etc..
8. If you do, backup everything important NOW!
Hope that makes sense. I've been up since 2 am and it's 7:30 pm here, so perhaps this is not as coherent as it should be...
msmurdock86 - Jul 25, 2006 - 12:27 pm
I think I understand what you mean with this whole process, however the step to "repair permissions" is not anywhere on my screen. All I can do is "verify" and a list comes up but it says nothing of "permissions" I'm getting a little nervous.
msmurdock86 - Jul 25, 2006 - 12:31 pm
It says "The volume '60 GB HD' has needs to be repaired. Verify completed"
1. 60 GB HD is the name of my hardrive
2. The repair button is gray. It is not highlited and cannot be clicked on.
1. 60 GB HD is the name of my hardrive
2. The repair button is gray. It is not highlited and cannot be clicked on.
ishan - Jul 25, 2006 - 10:03 pm
You cannot run Disk Utility to repair your disk if you're booted from the disk on which you have Disk Utility is installed. In other words, you have to run Disk Utility of another bootable disk. That can be your installer CD/DVD (per my instructions), a bootable internal hard drive or a bootable external hard drive. If it's an external drive, it must be connected by Firewire to your Macintosh to work as a boot disk.
The message you're getting says that you do need to repair your disk.
Another way to repair your disk is to boot up in Single User Mode and use Unix commands to repair your disk. However, try the usual way first. HTH.
The message you're getting says that you do need to repair your disk.
Another way to repair your disk is to boot up in Single User Mode and use Unix commands to repair your disk. However, try the usual way first. HTH.
msmurdock86 - Jul 26, 2006 - 4:47 pm
Hi. I found that the boot disk I was using was 10.1.3 and that's why permission repairs were not working. I took the machine to my Dad's house and we used his Tiger 10.4 to boot and the permission repairs were successful. Apparently, when I messed with the Admin. Account accessible items, I basically disallowed myself from accessing the items and hard drive that I didn't want my mom to inadvertently mess with. I won't mess around with the Admin. settings anymore, and probably let my Mom use only the G3 that she keeps freezing. Thanks for all your help, guys. GREATLY appreciated. Michael.
ishan - Jul 26, 2006 - 6:46 pm
You're more than welcome. Nice to know you persisted. No OS is "intuitive."
Good luck to you.
Good luck to you.
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