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WTF Did I do? Permissions Issues

bobber205

bobber205

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 15, 2005
2,183
8
Oregon
I know this was kind of stupid. I was accessing my OS X partition from my linux install. I need access to my Music so the other day I went and chmod 777 on my Music folder. Then I could access it.

So today I decided I should chmod 667 EVERYTHING. :(

Now my dock's arragement is gone, I can't access most of my folders etc. Chmod 77 my desktop brought that back..

Any ideas?
 
Really? :(

I tried running chmod * 777 on my home directory and most everything seems to be working now.
 
bobber205 said:
Really? :(

I tried running chmod * 777 on my home directory and most everything seems to be working now.
Click to expand...

No, you screwed the OS over hard. You've basically ripped out all the security because now any user or rogue process has access to the core systems and files, as well as your home directory.

Reinstall, and be more careful.
 
I have Linux on a seperate install. Is it possible to just install OS X on its partition again? :eek:
 
bobber205 said:
I have Linux on a seperate install. Is it possible to just install OS X on its partition again? :eek:
Click to expand...

Yep. Just make sure you install it on the right partition. You might be able to archive and install, but I would highly suggest being careful about what you migrate over to the clean install.

Though, you'll waste quite a bit of time resetting permissions for whatever you migrate over. I'd avoid bringing applications or anything in the system, only import your home directory, but only after you've reset it to being owned by your user account and your group, as well as being set to 700 with the exception of Public and Sites, which are both 755 and the Drop box inside of Public being 733.
 
bobber205 said:
I know this was kind of stupid. I was accessing my OS X partition from my linux install. I need access to my Music so the other day I went and chmod 777 on my Music folder. Then I could access it.

So today I decided I should chmod 667 EVERYTHING. :(
Click to expand...
Are you sure you chmod "everything"? You may have messed with only the top directory. I'd think it would take forever to change the permissions on every file and folder in your System, Library, Applications and Users directories.
 
theBB said:
Are you sure you chmod "everything"? You may have messed with only the top directory. I'd think it would take forever to change the permissions on every file and folder in your System, Library, Applications and Users directories.
Click to expand...

I'm inclined to agree - to chmod eveything you would need to have done it in the top level root directory using the -r flag. If you've done it in your home directory you should be ok.
 
bobber205 said:
I know this was kind of stupid. I was accessing my OS X partition from my linux install. I need access to my Music so the other day I went and chmod 777 on my Music folder. Then I could access it.

So today I decided I should chmod 667 EVERYTHING. :(

Now my dock's arragement is gone, I can't access most of my folders etc. Chmod 77 my desktop brought that back..

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Hehe. You mischievous little monkey you. Let this be a lesson to you!
 
Would Disk Utility fix it?

the Disk Utility verifies and repairs disk permissions.
It's Located under Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility
Would this not fix it ... fix it good?
 
No. Most of the time Disk Utility consults the /Library/Receipts folder, and I'm not sure if the list is comprehensive enough, let alone would I trust Disk Utility to "get everything"
 
Looks like I might be ok for ALL my files. I checked the system files and they're still the same.
 
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