Permissions can't be repaired

Question

I'm having some apparently random kernel panics which I'm trying to track down. Attempts at permissions repair (using both Apple Disk Utility and Diskwarrior) give me a list of the following permissions that "have been modified and will not be repaired":
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Filesystems/AppleShare/afpLoad" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Versions/A/Resources /
DiskManagementTool" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "sbin/umount" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/quota" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DesktopServicesPriv.framework/Versions/A/Reso urces/
Locum" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Extensions/webdavfs.kext/Contents/Resources/loadwebdav" has been
modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/pppd" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/vpnd" has been modified and will not be repaired
Also, each permission repair throws up the same vast list of incorrect permissions but with no indication that the permissions were fixed - for example:
"Permissions differ on "System/Library/Frameworks/CoreVideo.framework/Versions/A/CodeResources", should be -
rw-r--r-- , they are lrw-r--r--"
But it never tells me "owner and group corrected" or "permissions corrected" - is this a change in reporting since Tiger or is Leopard's disk utility just verifying when I tell it to repair? The same long list of issues keeps showing up each time...
I'm DEFINITELY using "REPAIR disk permissions" and not just "verify disk permissions". Have tried repairing using Apple Disk Utility on the MBP, and also by booting from two different firewire drives (one carrying a clone of the MBP system, the other a Time Machine backup with a clone of the installer disk on it). I've also tried repairing permissions using Disk Warrior 4.1 with the same result.
What next?
I have multiple backups of my data and a Time Machine backup - if necessary I can do a clean reinstall of the OS and then restore my account from the Time Machine backup. If this is necessary, would welcome advice on the best strategy (restoring from time machine during OS installation or using Migration assistant after installation is complete).

Answer 1

several of those errors can be safely ignored. Some others of the ones you mention are not listed on that page and I don't know about them. Is your computer behaving strangely?
I'm getting intermittent kernel panics (which I acknowledge may be nothing to do with this issue), apart from that it seems to run fine.
Thus the vast majority of messages reported by users are false positives and can be ignored, but technically, due to the sensitive nature of 'setuid' files "SUID" messages should only be ignored after confirming that they are in fact false positives.
As Pullman points out, the following alerts I'm getting aren't listed in the apple document:
Warning: SUID file "sbin/umount" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "usr/bin/quota" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/Extensions/webdavfs.kext/Contents/Resources/loadwebdav" has been
modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/pppd" has been modified and will not be repaired
Warning: SUID file "usr/sbin/vpnd" has been modified and will not be repaired
Question is, what next? I've taken various other actions in regard to the kernel panics (such as uninstalling potentially problematic software and dumping corrupted prefs files) I'm waiting to see if any of those actions have solved the problem. Should I be worrying about the SUID alerts as a separate problem or just hope the next software update fixes them?