Duplicate /library/ made by mistake

Question

I need some help. My 70+ year old mom called in a panic, as it seems she has created a duplicate /library/ folder. Since this has happened she can log into her account (she has admin permissions), but can not connect to the internet, email or anything else. I am guessing that since there are two /library/ folders it can't locate items to run these. I am 200 miles away trying to troubleshoot for her. What can I do, short of reinstalling the OS? Any suggestions would be great.
Her system: iMac G5 intel, OS 10.4.11
Appreciate your help in advance.

Answer 1

I need some help. My 70+ year old mom called in a panic, as it seems she has created a duplicate /library/ folder. Since this has happened she can log into her account (she has admin permissions), but can not connect to the internet, email or anything else.
you may have missed diagnosed the problem. Not being able to do e-mail is a symptom of a bad ~/Library because this is where Mac OS saves your mail.
What she mean by not being able to do Internet? I would think you could do Internet but no bookmarks.
Nor would your desktop look the same. Perhaps she is saying she cannot Find the internet browser. This would be a symptom of the a bad user library. It is possible for the user to rename their library folder. It is not possible for the administrator to rename the System Library folder from the GUI interface without some clever use of the getinfo command. Just because your administrator does not mean you can go and change system files without doing some administrator type things. The administrator does not own system files. The system owns system files.
Is so, there is /Library and ~/Library. Which one was change? ~/Library is the more likely. For example, /Users/mac/Library
you will note ~ means the current users directory path. For example. /Users/mac
There is a mistake with these commands.
The commands are missing a sudo and there is the matter of the /.
There is also the matter of two library folders. There is one library folder /Library and there is a another library folder in the user's account /Users/mac/Library. Which one are we talking about?
But my reading of the problem was that it was the user's Library account. If it was the system's library account that is another problem, which I was not addressing. I don't think the system would run at all if it was this one however.
And you need to make any changes to /Library from a single user mode.
You need to get into single use mode for steps one and two that are listed below.
This page will tell you how to get into single user mode.
http://www.securemac.com/macosxsingleuser.php
Basically, you hold down the command-s key then powering on your machine. The command key has a little apple symbol on the lower left. It is between the alt/option key and the space bar. On a PC keyboard, it will be the windows key, I think.
1) You can change the password on an account. ( Do you know Unix. You are in a Unix single user console. ) The setup commands you need should be listed on the screen. For Mac OS 10.4.11, the commands are:
# Type the follow two instructions to accessing the startup disk in read/write:
/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /
pwd
ls -lF L*
mv -i Library Library_new
mv -i "Library 1" Library
This commands are for a user account...
run these commands from an administrator account that is not the problem account.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
cd /var/root
pwd
sudo ls -lF L*
sudo mv -i Library Library_new
sudo mv -i "Library 1" Library
It is a good that people are reviewing these commands. It is easy to make a mistake.
Than here is what these commands maybe:
cd is change directory
pwd is a print working directory
ls is list
sudo is Super user do
mv is move
for cryptic comments you can always uses the manual command which is man. for example:
man mv
Message was edited by: rccharles
Message was edited by: rccharles