That made it even worse, it won't let me access it as root anymore. :scratch:

From what I understand, umask is the bitwise inverse of permissions and a nonzero umask blocks you from setting certain permissions. In other words, umask=000 allows you to set any permissions up to 777. I'd set it at least umask=033 so root could have total access (as long as permissions are also set properly, eg. 7xx).

This permissions stuff can easily reach out and bite you.