Worst Mac OS X mistake you can do...

B

Betox

Registered
... is to apply Read / Write permitions to everyone to the entire system disk and sub folders. This is the list of things it screwed on my case:
1) Disk Copy doesn't mount .img and .dmg files(error 192)
2) Classic doesn't start ("TruBlueEnmviroment isn't owned by root" error)
3) Virtual PC doesn't open (Dont have permition to modified)
4) I can't no longer do a "sudo" command in the terminal.

I manage to fix 1, 2 and 3 but nerver could fix 4. I had to reinstall my entire system angain. F**k!!!!!!!
 
Been there. Done that.

I guess the good news is you'll never make this mistake again, and you have a fresh new system folder.
 
Never ever ever ever mess with permissions of system files. What I would love, though, is some sort of utility that would examine the permissions of every file in a standard Mac OS X installation, and then would reset the permissions of every file to the correct permissions. Apple? (Hmm, maybe I could program something like this in AppleScript Studio. :) )
 
File permissions and ownership are already stored for Apple-installed items, in what's called a bom (bill of materials) file.
A thread by The Madhatter has a link to an archive (chkstuff) which contains a perl script which uses those bom files to restore permissions. The weird thing is I was starting to write one myself when that thread came up; I checked out that script (called chkUGM) and it was scary how similar it was.
 
I did that exact thing over Christmas break and have not fully recovered since then. I am going to do a complete wipe this weekend, now that I got my DVD-RW's burning in OS 9.

Yes, applying those privileges to all folders sucks, I had huge problems. Unfortunately, as I was on the brink of fixing it via the Terminal and privilege commands I learned from others, I did a -r command for someone on the whole HD, and all my icons disappeared and X doesn't even startup anymore.

I had to learn the hard way, but at least I know how to change privileges from the Terminal now. I can't wait to get X up and running.

NEVER APPLY TO ENCLOSED FOLDERS, IT BITES!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top