Messing about with permissions, won't turn on.

callumacrae · 10-28-2009, 07:04 AM

Hello,

I was messing around with permissions, and now my computer won't turn on.

I changed the permissions of the /bin, /boot & /dev directories to "Others: none". My computer promptly crashed when I switched users and now it won't turn on. When I try to turn it on it displays the Fedora loading thing and loads. When it get to the bit where the mouse displays on screen it goes to a black screen and then back to the mouse, and back to black etc.

How can I change the permissions back?

Thanks,
~Callum

repo · 10-28-2009, 07:15 AM

Boot from a live cd, mount the drive and put the permissions back to the original.
I hope you know the original permissions though.
Note: don't mess with permissions :-)

indiajoe · 10-28-2009, 07:16 AM

Hi,
How can permission problem cause trouble while botting? I thought root always have permission. And while booting everything is done as root.
Cheers
-indiajoe

ozanbaba · 10-28-2009, 07:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by callumacrae

Hello,

I was messing around with permissions, and now my computer won't turn on.

I changed the permissions of the /bin, /boot & /dev directories to "Others: none". My computer promptly crashed when I switched users and now it won't turn on. When I try to turn it on it displays the Fedora loading thing and loads. When it get to the bit where the mouse displays on screen it goes to a black screen and then back to the mouse, and back to black etc.

How can I change the permissions back?

Thanks,
~Callum

probably easiest and ugliest way is to reinstall system from scratch. i hope Fedora installer have a way not to touch some files (like /home/*).

other method is to use a boot CD or DVD and use chmod chown to change them to original ways. you can find a lot of small and big boot disk on the net like knoppix, DSL (or use original Fedora CD(DVD) for it).

callumacrae · 10-28-2009, 07:27 AM

How can I change the permissions when I have changed the permissions so that I wouldn't be able to see it?

I don't really want to reinstall

~Callum

callumacrae · 10-28-2009, 07:30 AM

@indiajoe: That is exactly what I thought.

~Callum

repo · 10-28-2009, 07:34 AM

Why can't you see them?
How did you changed the permissions?
unless the user "Others" and the group "none" exist, you can't change them.
Login with a live CD and give the output from

Code:

ls -l /bin

They should be root:root

After boot can you press ctrl-alt-f1 to go to a tty
and login as root ?

callumacrae · 10-28-2009, 07:53 AM

I changed the permission like this:

sudo nautilus

Right click on /bin -> Properties -> Permissions

Then changed "Others" to "None".

This is the same in all distros using GNOME, I believe.

Ctrl + Alt + F1 doesn't work.

Burning a live cd now.

~Callum

callumacrae · 10-28-2009, 08:06 AM

Okay, I can see those folders, I just don't have access. I can also view their permissions (in properties), but not change them: "You are no the owner, so you cannot change the permissions)

ls -l /bin return quite a lot, and I don't have internet on that computer.

First few lines:

Quote:

total 6268
- rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 123 2009-05-15 08:38 alsaunmute
- rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 35016 2009-04-01 07:20 arch

I could find a memory stick from somewhere?

~Callum

callumacrae · 10-28-2009, 08:08 AM

Hmm. /bin is apparently unreadable. The permissions for other are set to none. But /boot permissions for other is allow access but /boot itself appears to be empty. I can view the contents of /dev as well.

Am I barking up the wrong tree?

~Callum