Administrator privileges screwed after deleting etc & var alias

M

mickey79

True Defiance
Ave,

Alright, yesterday by mistake I deleted the etc & var aliases - the two hidden files that sit on the macintosh hd root folder. Of course my system wouldn't work after that, rebooting to an ugly unix prompt saying things like "/etc/master.passwd: no such file or directory".

Following this article (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106908-en), I was able to restore the etc & var alias, and my system started working again.

Partially, though. Well, the system is running fine - except that some applications or services that require Authentication (You know that something that box pops-up which says enter your administrative password to proceed) .. well when I put in my Admin Password - it doesn't work. It doesn't say that it's the wrong password - it just says something like "You need administrative privileges" ... something to that effect.

I'm trying install my Printer as my Printer had completely stopped working. I can't even install it because it's giving me that error.

Any suggestions?
 
Those folders were not empty. So even if there are empty folders now there, there are a lot of functionalities missing.

If you are running 10.4, run the latest 10.4.10 Combo installer - hopefully that will fix the missing files for you. Intel combo if you are on an Intel Mac, PPC if on a pre-Intel. And if in 10.3, the 10.3.9 combo updater.
Those can be downloaded from Apple's webpage.
 
Running 10.3.9 Panther on Power Mac G5... so downloading the 10.3.9 Combo Updater from Apple as I type this. Will write back after Install to see what happens.
PS: Is this the April 15, 2005 Combo Updater?

Thanks.

Giaguara said:
Those folders were not empty. So even if there are empty folders now there, there are a lot of functionalities missing.

If you are running 10.4, run the latest 10.4.10 Combo installer - hopefully that will fix the missing files for you. Intel combo if you are on an Intel Mac, PPC if on a pre-Intel. And if in 10.3, the 10.3.9 combo updater.
Those can be downloaded from Apple's webpage.
Click to expand...
 
It didn't work. :(
Ran the combo updater, restarted, still the same.

Right now there are two places where I'm having a problem, and I don't know if there are problems in any other areas or not because everything else seems to be working fine, including Administrative Authentication.

One is PureFTPD Manager. I had it installed and running fine before all this happened. Now, it doesn't work. I click on it - and it just doesn't launch. It's one of those applications that required Authentication to launch. It doesn't even come up with the Authentication Box.

Second is, I'm trying to install my Printer, and it won't let me. As soon as I click the Installer - it brings up the Authentication box - I enter my root password - and this is what I get:
system.jpg


So what next?
 
Hm.. so this is on your admin user right??

cups in under /etc so printing would be explained with that
And that master pasword, xinetd ...

And there are plenty of things in /var that will cause problems if missing : cron, audit, samba, log, root, launchd

I hoped the Combo updater would have been able to install those missing pieces. Looks like it wasn't enough, and pieces are still missing.
In theory youl could find the missing files from somewhere else, however those would not work copied over as most of them will be customized for your system.
So OS X install ...

Archive and install, and import the data from the previous systems folder, or if you can, backup all user files and do a clean install.

Sucks to have to do a new install of OS X but getting those files from someone else's system would just give more problems than you have now with the system, and the Combo install was the option before the new installs. At least all your user files are safe, so we didn't lose any of them.
 
Well, before I do that, here's what I don't understand.

I only deleted the "Alias" to the etc & var folders - not the actual etc & var folder. Both etc & var have an alias that have to reside in the root directory, and by mistake I deleted those Alias files, which according to this article (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106908-en) renders the Mac useless and gives the error I was getting.

So what I don't understand is - Why are there other files missing on my system? Like I said, I only deleted the Alias - Not the actual folder!

And secondly, NO - this problem is only happening on the regular User (who has admin rights). If I login to my "Root" account using the Root User & Password - Everything Works!!! Including PureFTPD Manager & Installation of the printer. But when I log back into my regular User Account, which is what I usually use - That's when all these problems are happening. Please note that this User Does Have Admin Privileges as specified in the "User Accounts" panel of the System Preferences. And I was always able to put in the root password in the "Authentication Box" whenever I tried to run something on this regular User account.

Any clues?
 
Giaguara said:
Hmm...
Make an /etc alias that goes to /private/etc
and /var to /private/var
Click to expand...

Well technically that Article I linked to did exactly this for me, i.e., recreate those two aliases. But regardless, I just deleted those two aliases again, while staying in the Finder Window - and then recreated the two aliases.

Again same thing. Printer & PureFTPD Manager still not working. And everything still works absolutely fine in the "Root" Account.

Which is making me think - is there anyway that I can reinitialize my regular account - OR - is there anyway I can give all "Root" Account privileges/properties to my regular account?

I tried creating another User Account - but that does the same thing. Only the "Root" account is working normal - doing everything it should. There should be a solution to this without doing an Archive & Install.

I do appreciate your help man - thanks.
 
What do you get with ls for those folders contents now?

If you go to folder /private/etc can you see a file called sudoers inside it?

(/etc contains around 90 files in 10.4, and /var 22 - can't check how many should be in 10.3 as I don't have any PPC things here. But these folders should be far from empty)

Do you still get the /etc/master.passwd error as well?

Giving all root access to regular account, even if it was an admin account, is a bad idea. :(
 
Yes, both folders are full of files. I'd have to say they kinda match your numbers, around 90 in /private/etc and around 25 in /private/var.

Yes, both sudoers & master.passwd exist in /private/etc.

I stopped getting the master.passwd error after I followed the procedure in that URL Article. I couldn't boot into Mac without that. That was the Article that fixed the aliases and allowed me to get in.

Basically like I said - the system is working perfectly fine if I login to the Root account - but within my regular User Account, although as yet I haven't encountered any other problem - I still can't print, install the printer or open PureFTPD Manager.

Giaguara said:
What do you get with ls for those folders contents now?

If you go to folder /private/etc can you see a file called sudoers inside it?

(/etc contains around 90 files in 10.4, and /var 22 - can't check how many should be in 10.3 as I don't have any PPC things here. But these folders should be far from empty)

Do you still get the /etc/master.passwd error as well?

Giving all root access to regular account, even if it was an admin account, is a bad idea. :(
Click to expand...
 
Hm...

Did you try Disk Utility's Repair Permissions (booted from Install Disc 1) yet after the combo update?

Looks like those files were installed there after all - or at least most of them. Maybe some bits of those files are missing.

Can you even print as PDF now?

If DU doesn't fix .. then judgement call if to use the root for those purposes or to install the system again. :-/
I would personally choose getting the normal and non-root admin accounts functional rather than logging as root. Not only safer for yourself, but .. imagine now if any of your friends would need to print. You'd need to log in them as root.
 
I certainly understand the risk in running as root permanently, trust me, it's not what I want. I'd like to really be able to resolve this.

I've tried Disk Utility's Repair Permissions so many times - it's not helped at all. Even ran Onyx & Tiger Cache Cleaner to repair permissions and other things.

Yes, I can print as PDF. And again, I am yet to find anything else besides PureFTPD Manager & Printing that is not working. It just appears that everything else is working.

I don't know how to resolve these two things.

Giaguara said:
Hm...

Did you try Disk Utility's Repair Permissions (booted from Install Disc 1) yet after the combo update?

Looks like those files were installed there after all - or at least most of them. Maybe some bits of those files are missing.

Can you even print as PDF now?

If DU doesn't fix .. then judgement call if to use the root for those purposes or to install the system again. :-/
I would personally choose getting the normal and non-root admin accounts functional rather than logging as root. Not only safer for yourself, but .. imagine now if any of your friends would need to print. You'd need to log in them as root.
Click to expand...
 
S.O.L.V.E.D.​

Unbelievable if you ask me, and quite frustrating.
When I had deleted the Symbolic Links "etc" & "var" in my root directory, knowingly or unknowingly, another Symbolic Link, "tmp", which points to /private/tmp, was also deleted. THAT is what was causing all the problems, including anything to do with Print not working, or PureFTPD Manager.

I recreated the "tmp" Symbolic Link to "/private/tmp" - and Everything is working fine.

My only Gripe is - Even though this Apple Doc is what lead me to find out the problem and conjure up the solution - the same doc clearly states that "Recreate the missing /tmp link by using the Disk Utility application to repair permissions on your Mac OS X startup volume." - Well I got News Flash for Apple - They are WRONG! The Repair Permissions in Disk Utility DOES NOT recreate the missing /tmp link. I had to do it manually using ln -s /private/tmp tmp in the Terminal window. I ran that Disk Utility 40 times between yesterday & today - did nothing!

Anyhow, can't complain at this point. Everything is norally again.

Thanks.


 
Pheow.
Hopefully if anyone else runs to this problem later will find this to save themselves a fresh install.
 
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