Help with permissions in ubuntu 9.10
 

hi all,
recently i was trying to mount my partition automatically at start
up ...so i gone through some tutorials on the net nd made some changes
in /etc/fstab file (i made a back up before making any changes). when
i was changing permissions of folder in which i tried to mount my all
partitions i got my system screwed up.then it was showing following error at start up
and GUI was not turning up.
"could not update ICEauthority file "
also my sudo was not working so first i restored original fstab file
through recovery console then i googled out about above errors. I
found some solution now my system is working but showing strange
behaviour like:

> ubuntu is not detecting any of my hdd partition
> disk utility is not working (showing no error)
>fdisk -l shows nothing
> no new software is getting installed via ubuntu software center (shows no error when clicking on install but nothing turns up)
>i cannot restart or shutdown my system from GNOME it only logs off my session (although through terminal its working)
>no media player showing sound controls enabled
>gnome not showing ethernet or sound volume icon in upper panel (although net is working)
>users and groups from system->administration menu is not working (error:cannot load configuration)

i think most of the administrative tasks are not working.........i googled out but found nothing satisfactory.....if nybody hav ny clue plz help...i dont want to reinstall it, coz i m not very experienced with linux n it took about a whole month to customize my ubuntu 9.10 on my college internet...
thanx in advance.

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