Darwin UNIX prompt -- What now?

Question

My wife attempted to change read & write permissions to the hard drive so our children could not access her files. She set the group to "admin" and the permission to "no access." The result is that the computer boots up to a black/white Darwin UNIX prompt asking for username and password. She logs in and gets a blue empty screen with the curser showing and nothing else. What do we do now? Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You could boot up your install cd/dvd and repair permissions. Power on the machine, quickly insert the cd/dvd, then hold down the c key. Look for disk utility. I think it is on a pull down on one of the items on the top of the screen. Pick the disk and click the repair tab. ( Something like this. )
Perhaps you could find a Mac Terminal expert. You can use terminal commands to change the permissions on any file.
I assume the mac put you in single user mode. You can get into single user mode by holding down the command-s key. Follow the hints to get the disk in read/write mode.
You can change the permissions of files and directories in Mac OS.
The lines below are some powerful stuff. You best read up on this. See:
http://kb.iu.edu/data/abdb.html
Your going to have to find the UID and GID of the user you want to change. To see the users, do:
ls /Users
Let's assume myuser. Do:
cd /Users/myuser
To find out your UID and GID do:
ls -ln
ls -l
compare the output and write down what you find.
You best use the numeric value for your userid. In this case it is 500. To list all the files owned by a userid do:
This is a safe command since we are listing the files found.
sudo find / -user 500 -exec ls {} \;
/* adding a -x before the / limits the search to the current file system. */
I
You best use the numeric value for your userid. In this case it is 500.
This could cause you trouble. Be careful.
sudo find / -user 500 -exec chmod 644 {} \;
/* Let you read & write. Everyone else can read */
On the Mac you get into single user mode by holding down command-s when you poweron your machine. Just in case you run into problems.
The real way to do control access for your children is to set up another account on the machine. Turn on user logon. Have everyone logon.
Robert