Mac wont startup, after me messing!

[Mistry]

Hi, I have a MBP and last night I messed with the "Mac hd" settings, I went to get info on the Mac drive icon and started setting the read/write permissions to read only. I was bascally trying to lock access down.

The computer then started working really hard and was unresponsive so I rebooted it. Since then it hasn't started it gets to the grey screen with the apple icon and the spinning wheel and stays there.

I booted in safe mode, which looks promising but the just goes back to the default grey screen with apple logo.

I tried fixing the permissions on the drive which worked but still never completed the boot.

I then tried booting in verbose mode and it hangs at "resetting IOCatalogue"

Any help would be great,

Iain

 

[GermanyChris]

Hi, I have a MBP and last night I messed with the "Mac hd" settings, I went to get info on the Mac drive icon and started setting the read/write permissions to read only. I was bascally trying to lock access down.

The computer then started working really hard and was unresponsive so I rebooted it. Since then it hasn't started it gets to the grey screen with the apple icon and the spinning wheel and stays there.

I booted in safe mode, which looks promising but the just goes back to the default grey screen with apple logo.

I tried fixing the permissions on the drive which worked but still never completed the boot.

I then tried booting in verbose mode and it hangs at "resetting IOCatalogue"

Any help would be great,

Iain

reinstall the OS.

 

[justperry]

reinstall the OS.

NOOOO, for what.
It's not a Effing Pc where many times the only thing you can do is reinstall.

Do you own a second mac, are there any family members/friends or someone you know with a mac.
If so, you can use target disk mode to change the disk Read/Write access.
Another way I think is to start up in Single user mode, mount the disk and set the appropriate permissions.
How to do this I would find out myself if this was the problem I had but you should be able to find out yourself, or someone else can help here.
ReInstall is the last resort.

Edit: I found a similar thread.

Changed permissions now Mac wont start

I think you should do this
In Single User Mode
cd /
sudo chmod 1755
****My disc has it's permissions set to 1755(drwxrwxr-t root(System Administrator (0) Admin 80)
But I should wait for others to chime in for their input since I am not 100% sure if the above is right.

 

[GermanyChris]

NOOOO, for what.
It's not a Effing Pc where many times the only thing you can do is reinstall.

Do you own a second mac, are there any family members/friends or someone you know with a mac.
If so, you can use target disk mode to change the disk Read/Write access.
Another way I think is to start up in Single user mode, mount the disk and set the appropriate permissions.
How to do this I would find out myself if this was the problem I had but you should be able to find out yourself, or someone else can help here.
ReInstall is the last resort.

Edit: I found a similar thread.

Changed permissions now Mac wont start

I think you should do this
In Single User Mode
cd /
sudo chmod 1755
****My disc has it's permissions set to 1755(drwxrwxr-t root(System Administrator (0) Admin 80)
But I should wait for others to chime in for their input since I am not 100% sure if the above is right.

Because thats way easier than putting a cd in and reinstalling the OS..

With reinstalls you don't lose your data and you insure that there is no corruptions resulting from the ham handed mucking.

It takes 20 mins jeez

 

[justperry]

Because thats way easier than putting a cd in and reinstalling the OS..

With reinstalls you don't lose your data and you insure that there is no corruptions resulting from the ham handed mucking.

It takes 20 mins jeez

Nonsense, takes 20 minutes, NOT.

If you have an older system it's very different than a clean install, a reinstall will wipe everything, if it's an archive and install you still have to figure out a lot.
Not only that, what if you cleaned your mac of all it's non PPC code, like I did, it will take hours, what about Removing all languages, removed unnecessary kexts, removed dictionaries-screensavers-voices-help files and so on.

So, it still is NOOOO

Edit: Which brings me to the following, why most people don't have a second or external boot/backup drive is beyond my understanding, it is cheap for external and cost only time to have a second boot partition.

 

[GermanyChris]

Nonsense, takes 20 minutes, NOT.

If you have an older system it's very different than a clean install, a reinstall will wipe everything, if it's an archive and install you still have to figure out a lot.
Not only that, what if you cleaned your mac of all it's non PPC code, like I did, it will take hours, what about Removing all languages, removed unnecessary kexts, removed dictionaries-screensavers-voices-help files and so on.

So, it still is NOOOO

Edit: Which brings me to the following, why most people don't have a second or external boot/backup drive is beyond my understanding, it is cheap for external and cost only time to have a second boot partition.

The OP has a MacBook Pro (MBP) a vast majority of Mac's over 90% are on 10.6 or above..

If the OP is on Leopard or Tiger which is possible then I would still reinstall. You just don't know what he was doing while changing permissions.

 

[justperry]

The OP has a MacBook Pro (MBP) a vast majority of Mac's over 90% are on 10.6 or above..

If the OP is on Leopard or Tiger which is possible then I would still reinstall. You just don't know what he was doing while changing permissions.

I read over that one, why is this even in a PPC thread???

 

[GermanyChris]

I read over that one, why is this even in a PPC thread???

Doesn't know where to post most likely

 

[dejo]

Mod Note: Thread moved to MacBook Pro forum.

 

[AlanShutko]

NOOOO, for what.
It's not a Effing Pc where many times the only thing you can do is reinstall.

The reason that the computer started chugging for a while is it was busy changing the permissions down through the directory hierarchy. That means it's done a lot more damage than just chmod on the root partition.

Changing the root directory, and running repair permissions might fix a lot of problems, but I'm not confident that all the permissions from the system install are in the package receipts. There might be a lot of system daemons and whatnot that need permission updates.

Frankly, I'd restore from a backup if available, other than that I'd reinstall and restore permissions, and prepare myself for some hassles with 3rd party apps for a while until I sorted them all out.

 

[justperry]

The reason that the computer started chugging for a while is it was busy changing the permissions down through the directory hierarchy. That means it's done a lot more damage than just chmod on the root partition.

Changing the root directory, and running repair permissions might fix a lot of problems, but I'm not confident that all the permissions from the system install are in the package receipts. There might be a lot of system daemons and whatnot that need permission updates.

Frankly, I'd restore from a backup if available, other than that I'd reinstall and restore permissions, and prepare myself for some hassles with 3rd party apps for a while until I sorted them all out.

First this thread was in the wrong PPC section and I misunderstood/overlooked/misread the OP's message.
I thought when changing permissions on the disk would only change that folders permission but realize now that it did more damage, dependable on how long he waited more damage was done.
By setting the disk to read/write he should be able to start up from it, then repairing permissions, that should do the trick, however for security it might be better to archive and install.
It completely depends on what the OP wants, if he is happy not to reinstall then that's up to him, depends so much on how much his system is customized, reinstalling is only 20 minutes like the other poster said is a myth, that is only true if you have a clean system before you reinstall.
Installing is 20 minutes but then getting back to where you were will take much more dependable on how much was on it(like apps for instance)
If I had to reinstall it would take days, my system is old, never reinstalled since OSX 10.1 so it would take ages to get back where I am.

In the end the message is, always keep a backup, it is cheap nowadays.

 

[GermanyChris]

First this thread was in the wrong PPC section and I misunderstood/overlooked/misread the OP's message.
I thought when changing permissions on the disk would only change that folders permission but realize now that it did more damage, dependable on how long he waited more damage was done.
By setting the disk to read/write he should be able to start up from it, then repairing permissions, that should do the trick, however for security it might be better to archive and install.
It completely depends on what the OP wants, if he is happy not to reinstall then that's up to him, depends so much on how much his system is customized, reinstalling is only 20 minutes like the other poster said is a myth, that is only true if you have a clean system before you reinstall.
Installing is 20 minutes but then getting back to where you were will take much more dependable on how much was on it(like apps for instance)
If I had to reinstall it would take days, my system is old, never reinstalled since OSX 10.1 so it would take ages to get back where I am.

In the end the message is, always keep a backup, it is cheap nowadays.

If you reinstall with Snow Leopard or above it doesn't take out the applications or user data..