[colci]

I messed around with the file permissions (don't ask why) and now I cannot log in. Before I wipe it and start again I wonder if anyone can help.

I can log in but I do not log into the orginal installation (called gig-ubuntu) but [email protected]

I was getting originally getting some error messages which I have fixed by changing the permissions, namely:-
users $home /,dmrc file is being ignored etc. and
must be setuid root

Now whenver I try and do anything I get a message
"not allowed to access system configuration"

I cannot access my network and hence the internet

Is there a way to reset ubuntu and put it back to how it was beofe I started messing around?
Thanks

 

[Rome5]

First, you shouldn't have needed to change ownership of any file in your users home directory to 'root'. The config files stored in ~/ are personal settings for your user. Any global settings will be stored in the /etc directory -- which is owned by root.

1. Exactly what command(s) did you run?
2. Do you have a separate /home partition?
3. Do you know how to mount a partition from a live CD?

 

[colci]

First, you shouldn't have needed to change ownership of any file in your users home directory to 'root'. The config files stored in ~/ are personal settings for your user. Any global settings will be stored in the /etc directory -- which is owned by root.

1. Exactly what command(s) did you run?

Can't remember (yeah I know you are thinking that there are no limits to some people's stupidity - or laziness in not udnerstanding how this file permission stiuffs work, but it's difficult - I'm doing my best to learn as I go) Something maybe along the lines of
chmod 700 ~
chmod 644 .dmrc
chmod 644 home/colci/.dmrc
chown root:root /usr/bin/sudo
chmod 4755 /usr/bin/sudo
chmod 4755 /usr/bin/su
chwon root:root /etc/sudoers
chmod 440/etc/sudoers

2. Do you have a separate /home partition?

No it's on the same partition as the linux installation

3. Do you know how to mount a partition from a live CD?

Yes I've done that - all the home foilders and subs (on the orginal installation) seem to have me as the owner -sometimes it shows that the group permissions belong to "1,000".

 

[Rome5]

Login as usual and open a terminal, then run the following commands posting the output here

[color=red]ls -l /etc | grep sudoers

ls -l /usr/bin | grep sudo

ls -la ~/[/color]

The first two are just to verify the right owner/permissions of sudo and sudoers (you won't use 'su' in Ubuntu unless you hack availability of the root account). The last one will hopefully show somthing.

We can go from there but, you won't need to reinstall to sort it out.