Having a problem. When booting up Ubuntu it doesn't starts in a terminal like mode (pardon my terminology, I'm not super familiar with linux) instead of the normal login mode, I try to log in as "administrator" (there is no root account, this is the only one) and this fills the lines

bash: /dev/null: Permission denied

I've read some of the other topics related to this, but the closest to my problem suggested logging in as root and changing the permissions of the /dev/null directory. Problem is, there's no root account for me, just administrator.

The permission denied issues started before i restarted. I was logged in and everything locked up, couldn't access anything. Last changes I can remember making is changing the permissions of the contents of "bin" (or possibly "sbin") from 755 to 777. I didn't figure this had anything to do with it since it's a different directory and I was adding permissions, not removing them. Then the system shut down and, like said, I can't log in.

Is there any way to change the permissions of the /dev/null directory or another walk-around to get Ubuntu up and running again?

Oh, I'm also running this as a virtual machine on fedora if that makes any difference.

tried single user mode?

To gain access, try starting it up in single user mode. If you were doing a normal boot, you would do this by putting the numeral "1" on boot line. I don't know how you do it as a virtual image. Once you boot you are running as root, but I don't know how to troubleshoot you problem.

I wouldn't expect changing the permissions on /bin/ or /sbin/ form 755 to 777 to cause your problem, but it is a horrible thing to do from a security perspective.

Normally, you can get to a "virtual terminal" by hitting Ctl-Alt-Fn where n is from 1 to 6. I don't know if this would work for you as a virtual machine. Fedora would probably intercept it.

Got it fixed! logged in as root using single user mode, changed the respective permissions back and i can log in now.

Yeah, I realize that now- long story how I got to the point of doing it. It seems I didn't increase the permission (as I thought), but restricted it, which is what indeed caused the issue to begin with. I'm just retrieving my data now and then plan on doing a clean install.