Single user mode, Lost Admin Account, and Disk Permissions

Okay, so I have quite a few issues here. I will start from the beginning.
About a week ago, I tried to install some updates and I could not get the Admin account to work. I went to the users profile and noticed my Admin account was not there. Did a quick search and found Apple's outline of how to fix this via the Operational DVD and the root user. Tried this and it would never work, because as soon as I restarted the computer or changed screens it switched back to a standard account.
Next up, I went into the terminal to check the Admin User group. As it turns out it is not there. So I find a discussion on there that outlines how to rebuild this in single user mode and the Unix prompt. So, I print it off and try to restart in single user mode. After trying two different keyboards and a sum total of 8 to 10 times, I can't restart in single user mode to get to the Unix prompt.
One last thing, last night I went into the Disk Utility on the start-up DVD. I wanted to check the Repair Permission log and I got the following:
ACL found but not expected on "private/var/root/Library/Preferences"
ACL found but not expected on "private/var/root/Library/"
ACL found but not expected on "Network"
Thoughts?
Thanks for your help!
tpp

first, the ACL messages can be ignored. if you can't get to single user mode you can't fix your admin group. the only reasons that I know why you wouldn't be able to do that is
1. a defective keyboard
2. you have a firmware password set. have you? you'd have to turn it off before you can get to single user mode.
lastly when you restart in single user mode make sure you press command+s right after you hear the chime. do not press it too early or too late. lastly, I'm not sure which instructions you've found to fix the admin group but I have them in this thread
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8011324

Similar Messages

Single User Mode - mount external drive and copy user files to there

I have an iBook G4 running (I think) Tiger (although it may be Panther). AHT reports a bad HD and it will not boot from that drive. Mounting it via Target Disk to another Mac won't permit me to even see beyond the root directory; just a spinning sunburst at the bottom of the Finder window.
If I boot into single-user mode, I can "ls" and "cd" to see the files and folders in the home folder. Assuming the HD is named "Macintosh HD" and I have a USB-connected hard drive named "Backup", what are the commands I need to use in single-user mode in order to mount "Backup" and copy the user's home folder (there's only one on this drive) over to "Backup"?
As I indicated above, I'm not absolutely sure whether this iBook is running Panther or Tiger.
Thanks in advance for any assistance!

I'm in the middle of copying things.
I did a chmod -R ug+w (IIRC) to the 300GB volume and this made it writable.
I then CD'd to the Pictures folder on the Macintosh HD.
I then did a cp *.jpg /Volumes/300GB/ and found that it managed to copy all of the jpegs that were sitting loose in the Pictures folder. Some of the photos were corrupted but I expected this as the drive is reported to have a hardware issue by AHT.
I'm now in the process of copying the iPhoto Library using the cp -r command. Some files are being reported as bad and can't be copied but, again, I'm expecting this.
Whatever I can get from this drive will be a bonus. I'll mention that I used Drive Genius to duplicate the HD to a disk image and, while this was done successfully, it resulted in a "no filesystem" error when I attempted to mount it. However, I -did- ask for it to be mounted anyway and then used DiskWarrior on it (even though it didn't appear in the Finder). It took a few hours for DiskWarrior to come up with a "preview" of the disk (as the filesystem was thoroughly hosed). The User folder was nowhere to be found and every file that was displayed was corrupt. That's why I'm trying this "out of the GUI" process.
I'll thank everyone who made suggestions; they all pointed me in the proper direction.

What's "...start in Single User mode"? HOW? and WHY?

A silly question...
What's "...start in Single User mode"? HOW? and WHY?
Can anyone, please explain that to me?
Cheers!

Hello Nando,
The only silly questions are the ones that never get asked
Have a look in here...
Single User Mode
Hope that helps
Regards
Ian

Single-user mode: How to mount and access an external USB drive?

My MacBook Pro HD is acting up. Cannot boot normally or into "safe mode". Cannot reinstall OS without wiping out the HD. Need to recover some critical files but DiskUtil First Aid and Restore options cannot successfully complete. Problem traced down to "invalid node structure" which means I either have a hardware problem or my filesystem partition directory structure is corrupted. I need to recover some files that are not backed up (timin issue with my regular backup process).
I can boot into single-user mode, mount the root file system (/sbin/mount -uw /) and can see/navigate the rot filesystem structure via good UNIX command line. Here's what I would like to do (in single-user mode):
1. Mount an external USB drive (250 GB already formatted as Mac OS X Extended)
2. Copy various files and/or directories from my HD to the external USB drive (UNIX cp command)
I realize I could go spend $$ for the Disk Warrior or Data Rescue products (or something similar) that SHOULD help me recover my HD or files, but it seems silly to do this when I can see, touch and taste them from within single-user mode....
Comments? Suggestions?
TIA --
Trent
P.S. Once I've recovered my files, I'll try to reformat the HD and then reinstall the OS. And THEN go have Apple look at my machine (thank goodness for AppleCare coverage)!

Resolution:
1) Boot system in single-user mode (SUM) with external HD attached.
2) Execute the following UNIX CLI commands once SUM boot process is completed:
# fsck -fy
# mount -uw /
# mkdir /Volumes/target_directory
# mount -t hfs -w /dev/diskXXX /Volumes/target_directory
# cp -RXv /source_directory /Volumes/target_directory
Where XXX is the device-level name for your external HD's data partition. In my case this was /dev/disk1s2. It may take some experimentation to identify this device name if your system has multiple HD's.
3) Verify contents were successfully copied onto the /Volumes/target_directory.
Comments and observations:
- Do NOT use "/" as your source directory - cp will make a second (redundant) copy of /volumes/target_directory
- I was able to successfully copy ALL files off my HD despite the fsck command's "invalid node structure" error message with this simple procedure. YMMV, depending on the state of your HD.
- The repeated disk0s2: I/O error warnings displayed during the SUM boot process did not seem to have a negative effect on this procedure. I also received this same error warning intermittently as I navigated the mounted filesystem did not seem to be a problem, either. Again, YMMV.
Commercial software:
I downloaded ProSoft Engineering's Data Rescue 3 product (trial version) before spending $99 to attempt to recover my "bad" HD's data via mounting to a good system with FW target mode. It could not successfully complete its "QuickScan" process and immediately hung on block 0 of 390M during its "Deep Scan" process. The product did seem to function properly on an operational system. ProSoft's technical support was responsive and helpful but had no answer for my "Deep Scan" error.
I did not attempt to use Alsoft's Disk Warrior 4 product. I could not find any trial software available and was reluctant to spend $100 based upon the mixed reviews and comments on this discussion forum as well as other reviews. Alsoft does claim to address the "invalid node structure" error in their marketing materials. Hindsight being 20/20 - I saved $100 by using this simple procedure.
Final note:
Neither Leopard nor Snow Leopard's installation DVD could recognize the bad internal HD when trying to do a reinstall. While DiskUtil was able to "see" the bad internal drive it immediately failed when I tried to do an "erase and format". Took the system to my local Apple store and the Genius ran a tool called "SMART Utility" from Volitans Software (www.volitans-software.com). SMART utility confirmed that my HD was bad so it was replaced. AppleCare pays for itself (once again!).

Single User Mode - mount external drive and make it r/w

How can I access a USB disk and make it read/write?
I can't +mount -uw /Volumes/"Time Machine Backups"+ because it says that the disk is a special type.
Can I just use chmod because the disk is automounted?
When I attempt to chmod my USB disk, I get this message:
chmod: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups: Read-only file system
chmod: /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/.autodiskmounted: Read-only file system
I know that I can cp from the internal disk, since I can cat the pictures to the terminal. But I can't make the external hard disk writeable.
I need to do this from single user mode, because the machine won't boot from the DVD.
-Michael

Just got back from the apple store. The genius found these things:
* My DVD is fine. It loaded in another computer
* My computer is mostly fine, except for the hard disk. It was able to boot off of an external Firewire disk.
* The DVD drive is fine. When the computer was booted off the external disk, it was able to mount my DVD.
* The internal HD is definitely bad. Drag/drop copy to an external HD was going to take 3 hours for about 30 files. Disk Utility shows it in red.
* He suspects that the failing HD prevented the machine from being able to load a DVD. (?)
His advice:
1 Buy a new 2.5" SATA disk at Frys.
2 Buy a USB sled for the old disk
3 Replace the failing HD in the laptop with the new, unformatted disk
4 Boot from the OS X DVD
5 Install the OS from the DVD
6 Reboot from the internal HD
7 Insert the failing HD in the sled, and connect it to the computer once it's booted off the new HD. Copy everything from the /users directory
8 But a new HD for the sled and use it for Time Machine backups
9 Teach the daughter the importance of regular backups
Let's hope this works.

Unable to start in single-user mode - HD dead?

My MacBook Pro (Mac OS X) refused to start, it hung up on the loading screen where you see the apple and the spinning loading wheel. I found out how to fix this, I had to go into single-user mode and type "/sbin/fsck -fy" to repair/verify the disk (I was unable to do so from the Disk Utility via the Install Disc, the repair/verify buttons were just grayed out).
Anyways, doing this from the command line (single-user mode) fixed the problem and I could boot into Mac OS X (there were more issuses after this point which forced me to do an "Archive and Install").
^ that happened a week ago. And happened again yesterday, hung up on the exact same point. So I boot up my Mac into single-user mode, and type in "/sbin/fsck -fy" to start the process. Different from last time, I got a lot of text this time. It also kept going for a longer while. After about 10 minutes, there was a couple of minutes where nothing happened. So I typed "/sbin/fsck -fy" again (as I'm supposed to do so until it says "** The volume (nameofvolume) appears to be OK"), and I got some more text, then nothing happened for a while.
Inpatient as I am, I considered the process to be complete, and restarted my Mac by typing "exit".
I think I ****** up my Mac OS X partition at this point. Because when I try to start my Mac now, it automaticly boots into Windows XP (my other partition). Also I cannot enter single-user mode or Verbose mode, the Mac just ignores and goes right into Windows XP.
I've tried to boot from the Install Disc. When I run Disk Utility, the "HD"(name of Mac OS X partition) is grayed out. I can't do an Archive and Install because it cannot detect my main partition.
An interesting thing though: When I have the Install Disc inserted, I can enter single-user mode (by holding cmd+s at startup). However, when I type /sbin/fsck -fy, it starts verifying the Install Disc rather than the HD.
Also when I open My Computer in Windows XP, I can see the other partition (MacDrive). When I select it, I see:
Free Space: 219GB
Total Size: 168GB
This indicates that my HD is dead/erased, and that my last three months of work is gone. This just because I'm impatient, and didn't wait for the fsck process to complete.
What is the next step? How can I get into single-user mode so that I can verify/repair my disc?

On the point of contacting the folks at Alsoft, I have found that they seem to be unobtainable on www.alsoft.com at present.
I wanted to get in touch as I had a small problem with Diskwarrior on updating to 10.5.5 from 10.5.4 ,
Disk permissions ends with an error code.
I wonder if there were so many queries re this that they are unobtainable?
I run 3 machines from a wireless router, an iMac, an HP laptop with XP and a totally obsolete Dell into which i have squeezed W2000, with a resultant mix of browsers but no contact with the folks at Alsoft.
Am I in a minority of one here?

Single-user mode freeze

I am trying fsck a mac mini.
When I start up in single-user mode, the keyboard(Bluetooth and usb) do not work. I have to unplug the cpu.
Does this mean it's broke?

Leopard.

Mounting external drive while in Single-User mode

Last night, a friend of mine's hard drive was failing in his Macbook (in San Diego, I'm in Colorado). Booting into normal mode would cause a lot of errors. He booted into single-user mode and could not figure out how to mount his firewire drive. I booted into single-user mode on my Macbook and hooked up my USB drive and did an 'ls -ltr /dev' to see if the device showed up. Since it did not show up on the listing of /dev, there's no obvious way to mount it. I can't seem to find any legitimate posting out there nor here. Is there an answer to this problem?
Thanks,
Dave

Perform the mount command listed here, using a different mount tool if it's not a Mac formatted drive.
(36291)

Why won't single user mode recognize /sbin/mount command?

I need help from people who are knowledgable abou these Mac wonders of the world and single user mode.
I'm trying for the life of me to run "memtest" in single user mode and am finding it impossible.
After I boot into single user mode, I get a "Shell>" prompt.
I type in /sbin/fsck/ -y to do some check thing. I then type in /sbin/mount -uw /
Both times I get an error saying that "/sbin/yada yada yada is not recognized as an internal or external command, batch or whatever"
No command work at all. I have no clue what I'm doing and am using instructions from where I got the memtest app. Sure I could just run it from the Terminal but then you're not testing all of the RAM, only the available portion. There's a huge chunck that won't be tested as OSX is using it. I want to do this as I just upgraded RAM to 8G with Crucial and now my MBP is acting very slow and weird.
HELP???? Why does this have to be sooooo hard.

I found the solution to the problem. Somone on a different forum had the same issue at one time. The problem is my use of Refit. When you hold Command-S at start when using refit you go into a single user type mode inside the refit shell. So it is something different.
Instead I needed to let the Mac boot Refit like normal. With the Mac partition highlighted press "F2" and it will display boot options for the Mac partition. One of them is Mac OSX single user mode. Simply select and hit enter and then I enter the correct single user mode and I'm off.
Then everything works like it should. I was my own undoing with my use of Refit.

Server going to Single User mode

Hi guys,
I am having a database which we refresh every night with same back up where it is used for testing purposes. we will refresh the database thorough job. every time it refreshes it goes to single user mode, I should manually go and change the process using
following steps:
1) to execute sp_dboption
sp_dboption 'testdb01', 'single user', 'FALSE';
go
2) to retrieve client session per database
select d.name, d.dbid, spid, login_time, nt_domain, nt_username, loginame
from sysprocesses p inner join sysdatabases d on p.dbid = d.dbid
where d.name = 'testdb01'
go
3) kill the particular session
kill 51
go
4)Now I can ‘remove’ the database from Sinlge user mode.
exec sp_dboption 'testdb01', 'single user', 'FALSE'
go
Is there any way to write a query in which if the session goes to single user mode kill that session and start the restore process again? can you guys help in implementing that code.
thanks,
aravind.

i got one solution. I added the below script above the restore step process and in the restore store procedure i removed this statement "SINGLE_USER WITH ROLLBACK IMMEDIATE".
Declare @name as varchar(15)
Declare @spid as varchar(4)
Declare sess_curs CURSOR
for select d.name, spid
from sysprocesses p inner join sysdatabases d on p.dbid = d.dbid
where d.name = 'Test_DB'
OPEN sess_curs
FETCH NEXT FROM sess_curs into @name,@spid
   While @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
       BEGIN
           EXEC('KILL '+ @spid)
           FETCH NEXT FROM sess_curs into @name,@spid
       END
   CLOSE sess_curs
   DEALLOCATE sess_curs
   Exec sp_dboption 'Test_DB', 'single user', 'FALSE'

I changed my wheel group properties to no access at top disk level. I messed up, how can I change back in single user mode "command s" as I am now in Thailand and not able to access startup disks?

I messed up, I changed my "Wheel group" properties to No Access ( or something other than the default) at the top level of my startup disk "Macintosh HD".   Now my computer won't start up, I just get the spinning wheel of death.    I also am in Thailand right now, so I cannot go to a Genius at an apple store, nor do I have startup disks available.
So I was hoping there was a way to change back the properties of my disk (Volume) in single user mode (via Command +s) during startup, i.e. can I do a chmod command on the Macintosh HD listing under the Volume Directory.    Or where do i fix this?   Is it fixable without startup disks, etc...
THANKS FOR ANY HELP!!!!
If you could also please let me know you have an answer, I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT!!!
thanks so much
mark
<Edited by Host>

Thomas,
Thanks for the info on command-R, didn't know about that!!!
Yes I changed the sharing "Wheel Group" permissions on my hard drive via Get Info.    But that's all I did.    And then most of the apps wouldn't respond with anything.    So not knowing I did something stupid, I decided to re-boot, and then nothing but the Wheel of Death at startup.
I was trying to limit access to my computer on this network, changed my public folder settings, and then I thought why not the whole hard drive, but at that time I had no idea what the "Wheel Group" was... so I shouldn't have touched it, BUT IT DID ...... argggggg....
I managed to go to an internet cafe & research the problem yesterday.    I used the command +s single mode to get in, and then did the necessary steps to mount the drive so I could make changes.   I basically did this:
Boot into single-user mode (boot while holding down CMD-S)
Follow the on-screen instructions to mount the file system as read-write (a fsck command followed by a mount command)
Type the following: "chmod o+r /" followed by "chmod o+x /"
Type "exit" to leave single user mode and complete the boot sequence.
I found it at this link http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=416180
It worked... thank God!!!   Well so far so good.
I was going to try my own fix by chmod on the Hard drive listed under Volumes directory, but that doesn't seem to match the info under Get Info Window.    So I just used the fix above.    I probably should now go and do "Disk Utility - repair permissions", however I am a little gun shy right now, so I will probably wait until I am back in the States so I can go to an Apple store if it messes up.   Right now I'm following the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" MOTTO...
So Thomas I just wanted to say THANKS for replying so quickly, and I really appreciate your help!!!
(yes I know I shouldn't have used my email addresses, but I WAS DESPERATE, but that's still no excuse)
Hopefully maybe this thread will help someone else out in the future....
Okay, thanks again!
Mark

Macbook shuts off during start-up - can't get through safe-mode, single user mode (fsck -fy) and target-drive shows no problems when running disk utility repair

Hi everyone,
I'm simply all out of ideas on what to do - my best guess is the problem is not specifically hard-drive related since all the 'normal' fixes just won't work.
What could be the cause of my issue? The only way i've managed to keep the Macbook Pro on for longer than a minute is through target drive, where it seems to work just fine - i can access everything. To sum up everything:
1 - I tried resetting the PRAM
2 - I tried to go in to safe mode, it shut off before i could type the password
3 - I tried fsck -fy command from single user mode, sometimes i can get to actually typing it but mostly it shuts off before
4 - I tried to repair disk via target drive - success, no problems detected (and it didnt fix my issue)
5 - I reinstalled OS Mavericks.
The Macbook Pro previously had some problems with the power-button not working properly (a mac-cunning friend of mine had to open up the mac and start it by swiping to metal pins on a specific (battery/power?) part inside it. The problem kinda went away afterwards but it might be related to this?
This is way off my comfort zone of 'diagnosing' issues, so I'm crossing fingers for some good advice.
Thanks,
Aske
Denmark

I think you're right.
If it's hardware related, is it possible to guess at what it might be? It would be nice to know how much I should expect to pay for a repair before actually getting it fixed.

HT1492 Start-up disk is full and can't go past the blue screen; can't delete read-only files on single-user mode. Please help.

I have had my Mac mini for about 6 years and I guess it had enough of me (haha), so the start-up disk got full and it shut down before I could empty files on my drive. Unfortunately, all these years I hadn't backed up anything and now I can't access anything since it won't boot past the apple logo (and the blue screen for that matter). I have tried rebooting (holding shift as the mac mini loads), but that didn't help since the start-up disk will still be full and stuck on the blue screen. I am now trying the single-user mode (holding command key+s), and I tried to delete files in the trash bin but all of the files are read-only and access is denied! so I basically can't delete anything on the mac mini (it says "Root device is mounted read-only"). So the key here is to change the permissions but I don't know how to exactly do that. Can someone help me figure this out? (and type the command in the unix language please!!) [ Note: We have two users on this mac mini if that helps.]

Run the following command:
mount -uw /
This isn't a permissions issue.
(87807)

How do I reset Tiger Mac OS X 10.4 admin password by using single-user mode

bought a used PowerBook G4 on Ebay. The administrator's password was locked. The Powerbook still can run to the normal screen. However, I am unable to update and install software without a password.
I don't have the original install CD either the second mac for firmware reset. So I wonder if anyone knows how to reset the password by using single user mode or any other methods to do so?
Any input will be greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4)

This morning we lost power and my iMac G5 (10.4) system got messed up. Specifically, when it restarted, all text in all Finder and application menus were blank (e.g. Click the Apple menu and a long empty white box stretching to the bottom of the screen would appear with no text. The whole box turns blue when you click in it. Ditto for all other finder menus and dialog boxes. Event the User menu was empty. The Disk Utility application shows only icons and empty buttons--no text.)
Restarting in Safe Mode was no better.
I then connected the G5 as a target disk to my iMac G4, and ran the OS X install that came with the G5 (10.3.2). It told me that in order to install an earlier OS X version, I must select certain options: I checked "Archive and Install" and "Preserve Users and Network Settings" (I have 4 accounts set up in addition to my onw admin account) and proceeded with the installation.
At the end of installation, the G4 started (G5 is still in target disk mode) with the G5 as the startup disk. It presented the User Login screen (although it normally does auto-login on my account) but the password for each of the 5 accounts was rejected. The original hints still appear, but it seems that all passwords have been changed.
I then tried the G5 on its own (not as a Target disk) but when it starts up the grey Apple turns into a grey "do not enter" (circle/slash) icon and goes no further.
Can you suggest what I should do now?
iMac G5 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7)

How to reset admin password in single user mode

How do I reset and admin password in single user mode. All the posts I have read so far dont work. I tried adding a new admin password as posted on the forums by deleting setup so it will setup like it was first time setup but that didnt work . Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The account now only has the standard user account as admin. Admin account I deleted in trying to fix this problem.

1 - Does it boot into Leopard?
2 - Does it have any important data on it that is not backed up elsewhere?
It it boots into Leopard you could continue using it and hope that you find your Leopard install disks later or discover some other way to overcome the lost password.
If it is fully backed up or has no important data on it you could install Tiger.

Single user mode, Lost Admin Account, and Disk Permissions

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for