Permissions nightmare

[unclemac]

OK, and to confirm, you have run Repair permissions on the snarfed partition from Disk Utility (While booted to 10.5), correct?


Is so...and BatchMod is a no go too.....try this:

Drop the entire snarfed partition on BatchMod, and see what is shows. Don't change anything, just inspecting. Oh, and is the Apply button blue, like you can use it?

[All Systems Go]

Yes, the Apply button is good and when I have tried it I get a "Done" message.

Here's the volume.. Attachment 1059

[All Systems Go]

Oh, and yes, I originally ran Disk Repair but could not repair it.

[unclemac]

So, Disk Utility/Repair ran, and it still is not working....or you got an error, and it would not run?

Going for Broke here, but you could consider:

• Many years ago, there was some weirdness associated with spaces and non-standard characters in volume/drive names. Might try renaming the drive to rule it out. No spaces, no dashes.

• If security is no concern, try checking all boxes for everyone, and check Apply to Enclosed Folders, Clear ACLs and click Apply. All that should happen is that anybody with physical access can now open, use, or delete files.

[All Systems Go]

So, Disk Utility/Repair ran, and it still is not working....or you got an error, and it would not run?

Going for Broke here, but you could consider:

• Many years ago, there was some weirdness associated with spaces and non-standard characters in volume/drive names. Might try renaming the drive to rule it out. No spaces, no dashes.

• If security is no concern, try checking all boxes for everyone, and check Apply to Enclosed Folders, Clear ACLs and click Apply. All that should happen is that anybody with physical access can now open, use, or delete files.

Can't change volume name.
Tried checking all boxes for everyone. Doesn't work.

Shot of Volume info (L) & a folder (R)

Volume gives "Staff" read/write but I have never created a "staff" account. I just created one called and tried to access files but that didn't work.
Attachment 1060

[unclemac]

OK.

The staff group is part of the OS, not something a user creates. There are quite a few built it.....many layers of permissions.

And your sure you cannot click on the little lock icon? If not, we are beyond any GUI tools I am aware of.

So next, I would move on to either CLI commands to try and unlock the partition, of I wold try something like Get Backup to copy the data off the partition.....if you have room somewhere else handy to copy stuff to.

[All Systems Go]

The little lock icon was/is greyed out. When I drop the volume in Batchmod and select unlock and make the other changes it instantly gives the "Done" message. I log out, log back in, check "Get Info' and nothing has changed.

Get Backup is for Intel macs.

I just can't understand why the volume will not recognise me as the owner. Is there any data from the computer hardware that tells the volume what the computer is?

[unclemac]

I gave you a link to the older version for PPCs....... click here if you want to download it a give it a whirl.

The permissions on the partition are whacked. Not a hardware issue....at least in the last few thousand Macs I have not seen anything that can cause this. Always has been permissions.

As we have covered, permissions are quite complex, and intentionally opaque and even invisible to users. Usually no issues, but when something goes wrong, it is hard to diagnose. Harder to do remotely.

If it were only files and folders, BatchMod or any other good permission tool would have had you back to happy pretty quickly with a little guidance. Since it appears to be at a root level to the volume.....it gets more tricky, and much less common. So harder to resolve.

So...

Work on moving files off to another volume. Or work with more obscure tools to fix the volume. Here are some others experiences and suggestions:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0
https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

You can see command line tools, and different options. CLI tools are not forgiving, and typos can be serious problems. File paths, even spaces are fraught with peril to the novice. But, I think we have tried everything else. I realize you are probably going full circle again......but I hope at least we have ruled out just about everything else.

Oh, one more variable. Found this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread...art=0&tstart=0

Disk Warrior is a great tool; never had it fix this sort of thing for me, but they do have a directory and permissions rebuild. If you have it, run it. If you don't, it will cost you about $79, and no promise it will fix this. If you know any local Mac techs, they would likely have a copy and could run it on your drive for you.

[All Systems Go]

One last clue maybe?
I ran repair permissions and the last two lines may be of interest but I don't know what they mean..Attachment 1061

[unclemac]

Good eye, but doubtful that is part of our issue. Two obsure files not related to user data or booting.

Been thinking about other ways to safely and easily"reset" your system.....

1. If you have another boot 10.5 partition on any drive, download and run the 10.5.8 Combo Updater on the snarfed up partition. This will reset the OS back to OEM state, with out risking your data or apps. It will however, likely not change user data permissions....but may fix the volume flags....dunno, but pretty easy to try.


2. If you have a 10.5 DVD or other bootable installer, you can run the password reset tool from the utilities menu. Select your user, and and reset all permissions. Easy and risk free, but will only solve user level permissions, which from our testing, I don't think is the issue.

I would try both of these if possible.

[unclemac]

.....Any progress?