Major Shortname/Admin/User Problem

[cozbaldwin]

I've never quite screwed anything up this bad before. For now, let's try not to concentrate on WHY I did these things... just that they're already done... and I severely regret them.

This is my work computer, which also holds many personal files.
I am running 10.4.11 on a G5 PowerPC
There was only ever one user account on the machine.

I went to change the short name using Netinfo Manager.
I changed the "name" and "home" to reflect the changes I wanted.
For the sake of this example, let's say the original name was "WORK" and I changed it to "Coz". So, "home" is now labeled as "/Users/Coz"

This of course wiped out the profile I've been using all along, created what appears to be a new Home account by the name of "Coz" and no other user can be selected at startup. In Preferences/Accounts, there's only this one -- and it's a Standard User. I have no admin rights because there appears to not be an admin password/name anymore.

But...

I can see my old files and everything still exist in the directory "/Users/WORK" -- yay. they're where they're supposed to be.

I just need to get WORK to be considered the home account again and make sure it's got admin rights. But that's hard to do when no one has admin rights at the moment.

Puhleez. Help.

 

[MWPULSE]

I think if you create an admin account. That should help you out, I'm not entirely sure I understand the problem though. You could give your co profile admin rights as well
PTP

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

http://guides.macrumors.com/Renaming_Home_Directory

<edit>...did you try using Netinfo Manager to change the name back to WORK, BTW?

Oh, and PLEASE say you backed up your files before you started this...?</edit>

 

[cozbaldwin]

I think if you create an admin account. That should help you out, I'm not entirely sure I understand the problem though. You could give your co profile admin rights as well
PTP

Thanks, but can't add new admin account without having admin rights in the first place.

http://guides.macrumors.com/Renaming_Home_Directory

<edit>...did you try using Netinfo Manager to change the name back to WORK, BTW?

Oh, and PLEASE say you backed up your files before you started this...?</edit>

Thanks, but Home Directory still exists... just not for the user it should be on.
I've tried renaming the file, just as I would rename any other file -- but it does not click "into" the name to allow the change. And using ChangeShortName app by Dan Frakes doesnt work because it requires an admin password, which doesn't exist.

When trying NetInfo to change back, it says I no longer am authorized to make the change. (Guess it needs to be done with that admin account, which doesnt exist anymore)
Nothing's backed up at this point. But the files are still there in their old place as they should be.

I wonder if I can take all the contents of it and replace the contents of my new home account...
Id still then need to make this main user an admin somehow.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

You could always have booted off of the disc, enabled the Root account, restarted, logged in as root, then recreated your Administrator account, or bumped the other account to Admin.

TEG

(Just remember to disable Root login afterwards )

 

[cozbaldwin]

(Just remember to disable Root login afterwards )

This might be worth a shot. As it stands now, I cannot enable root login. But I suppose off the disc, I can.

Do you know what would happen if I do end up overwriting the content of my old user into the new home account?

 

[cozbaldwin]

This might be worth a shot. As it stands now, I cannot enable root login. But I suppose off the disc, I can.

Do you know what would happen if I do end up overwriting the content of my old user into the new home account?

When attempting to boot from the disc, by holding C, I am getting an error. I see what resembles single-user mode, as it starts up - the screen goes 40% grey, and it ends with "We're hanging here" and doesnt do anything. This happened 3 times in a row.
Trying to start the install from the cd ofer osx loads, it asks for admin password... so i cant do that either.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

When attempting to boot from the disc, by holding C, I am getting an error.

Try holding down the option (alt) key when booting (with the disc in your player). The disc should come up as an alternative to boot from.

 

[cozbaldwin]

Try holding down the option (alt) key when booting (with the disc in your player). The disc should come up as an alternative to boot from.

Tried it. Got the screen where I could choose where to boot from, but then got the dos-like screen again ending with "we're hanging here...".
For the record, the disc im using probably isn't the original one for this machine but I dont think that matters in this case because im just trying to boot right now, not actually trying to install anything. (i may be wrong on this though)

 

[J the Ninja]

Tried it. Got the screen where I could choose where to boot from, but then got the dos-like screen again ending with "we're hanging here...".
For the record, the disc im using probably isn't the original one for this machine but I dont think that matters in this case because im just trying to boot right now, not actually trying to install anything. (i may be wrong on this though)

If it's a grey restore disc from another type of Mac, you cannot even boot from it, it does not have the proper drivers.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

You should need the original disc (or at least a disc from the same model machine) or a retail version of Mac OS X.

 

[cozbaldwin]

If it's a grey restore disc from another type of Mac, you cannot even boot from it, it does not have the proper drivers.

No, i dont think it's a restore disc. It's kinda black with a big X disc, which I believe came with the machine of my co-worker. It's also now spinning in my CD drive right now and wont eject, so I cant read off whatever it says on it.
it's the black disc, for tiger, install DVD. Ill see if i get any better results, if i can find the one that came with my machine. But really, im pretty sure its the same thing.

 

[angelwatt]

No, i dont think it's a restore disc. It's kinda black with a big X disc, which I believe came with the machine of my co-worker. It's also now spinning in my CD drive right now and wont eject, so I cant read off whatever it says on it.

Holding down the mouse button during start up should eject any media.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

You could try this hack, which works without the disc.

I wouldn't do it without backup, though...

 

[cozbaldwin]

You could try this hack, which works without the disc.

I wouldn't do it without backup, though...

YOU WIN!
4 forums were being tapped with this issue. Your link (http://www.hackmac.org/?q=node/4) did the trick.

With that "hack", i was able to create a new user, an admin. Since it didn't wipe clean the data, i still had my old user on there. I made him an admin.
NOW, I could go in and edit those two areas in NetInfo Manager back to what they were. Whew. Now ive got two admin accounts and the original, so far, seems just the way I left it.

Hale-frikken-lujia. You are the man. Or woman, perhaps.
Thank you, endlessly!