Give me back my Permissions!

D

Dogma

Registered
I've found OS X extremely cool extremely powerful etc. but I have found a few issues which definitely I would like changed - namely the whole multiple user/directory structure thing.
I have never been a fan of the Multiple Users thing since it arrived, even though it is helpful for my work, but at home it is too secure!
If someone gains access to my home computer it is simply because they are a burglar and want to steal it, they really aren't going to be bothered by my data.
My problem is that even to delete some files (even ones on the desktop) I have to log in as root, which is hardly a quick way to do stuff (or do an 'su' through terminal).
I would really love to have single root account (with an active firewall of course) that works as a normal user too (you simply cannot use root as a permanent user account) so that I wouldn't have to waste so much time logging in and out all the time.
Any Unix Gurus have any suggestions?
 
Hey Dogma,

I'm having the same annoying problems. Check out the thread I started under "Report Problems" about deleting files:

http://www.macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=2380

I'm assuming that I just have to keep everything in my User directory which is dumb because there's only one of me, and as admin, I should be able to delete what I want, even if they're important files.

Grover
 
You can't delete files on the desktop? That's weird. They are in <i>your</i> personal desktop folder, so you ought to be able to delete them. Must be what you'd call a bug...

Personally I love multiple users - I share the computer with my girlfriend and sometimes my parents. With multiple users, there is no way that we can accidentally change preferences for some program and muck with one anothers' carefully tuned settings.

We can also keep our desktop items separate, so there is no way that my cleaning up the desktop or emptying the trash will delete my girlfriend's work, etc.

You can set the OS to automatically log in a particular user account at boot time, so you'd never need to know that it's not all just you. Except of course for that funny trash-emptying bug...
 
Well, it's not just any file from the Desktop or directory, it's only certain files.

I have the computer set up so I am the admin, and it boots me up every time. However, sometimes, I'll try to delete a file that belongs to the "wheel" or "www" group (all of these groups are listed in the NetInfo Manager, but I don't know what they do)

So, apparently, the files belong to a group that I don't have control over.

Sometimes, launching into Classic and emptying the Trash deletes the files, but other times, I'll come back into OS X and they're in the Trash again!

Ugh. Maybe I'll go through and make sure all of my files are in their correct folders, or change my network settings. I don't know. This is annoying.

Grover
 
Same thing Happening here. When I empty the trash I see it saying that its preparing to delete 1500 files or so. Most of them belong to Bryce. As administrator I can't dump them and they are in My trash. As root i can't dump them because they are NOT in my trash. Moving them out of the trash only succeeds in copying them into a folder on the desktop. Arrrghh!! I guess I need to su to root and then navigate to /Users/"myaccount"/Trash and delete it from there? I can't seem to find the trash though. And somehow I don't think that I should have to do that. Apple has said that the average user should never have to touch the terminal. Any suggestions?
 
to be honest the thing you should do is learn to use a shell/terminal - it is vital to any form of unix. SGI make the most proven user intuitive Unx variant - IRIx, I use it all day at work and you just have to accept that the User/Admin strcture is built into the OS - it has advantages - it means that you or your apps will never delete system files accidentally for a start.
Believe me the advantages outweigh the teething troubles. remember apple have had what, 16 years or so to develope OS9 and they have done what Sun and HP still haven't done and what SGI only half did - make Unix user friendly to a level acceptable to a casual computer user.

I applaud them.
 
Mac OS classic had no permissions set per file, and no user ID (uid) so when X sees it, it makes it accessible to root only. These problems will persist if you continue to drop back to 9 for doing lots of work. Also, because Apple changed what number the ID's start at from beta to release, upgrading may cause similar headaches. If you stay within or start within X, there should be no problems that appear.

I have this as a current solution. As an administrator, open a terminal, and type
sudo chown -R bobsmith ~bobsmith

that is of course if your username is bobsmith. This is a step towards an answer. If you are prompted for a password, it's your login password, and this will allow that command to be run as root. All it does is set all files in your home directory to be your files. If those files are locked, you'll need to issue this first to unlock all files

sudo chflags -R nouchg ~bobsmith

and in case you're not unix savvy, the ~ is important.
 
your sir\te syas os x is not relesed yet it is oviously you might wanna update you r site
 
Originally posted by loki
Same thing Happening here. When I empty the trash I see it saying that its preparing to delete 1500 files or so. Most of them belong to Bryce. As administrator I can't dump them and they are in My trash. As root i can't dump them because they are NOT in my trash. Moving them out of the trash only succeeds in copying them into a folder on the desktop. Arrrghh!! I guess I need to su to root and then navigate to /Users/"myaccount"/Trash and delete it from there? I can't seem to find the trash though. And somehow I don't think that I should have to do that. Apple has said that the average user should never have to touch the terminal. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

maybe u should try this command in the terminal

cd ~/.Trash
if it says the directory does not exist then try this
cd /.Trash
the . in the front is for invisible files or folders then u try
rm -r *
Warning this commands deletes everything including directories so u might want to check properly before u do anything
that should clear it up
if u dont have enough permission to do it use sudo to do it
 
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