On Fri, 2001-09-14 at 09:28, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hello > > I think I have just done something really inept which seems to have made my Debian system useable details as follows: > > 1/ Login as root working in the -/- directory. > > 2/ While using chmod to change permissions on a file accidentally hit the return key when I had only written -chmod R 777 /- Youve guessed it every file on the system was given a 777 permission level. > > 3/ Logout and login as a user everything seems OK > > 4/ Logout and tried to login as root and got the following error -incorrect login- > > 5/ Did a hard off/on restart of the system (user account not allowed to shutdown-). On rebooting gdm and ssh (prime suspect?) failed to start -incorrect permissions-. > > 6/ System returns -incorrect login- error when trying to login as root- but will allow a user login. > > 7/ The problem cant login as root, user account does not have enough privileges to do any thing meaningful (which seems strange since everything on the system now has 777 permissions). How do I get my system back? > > I have had quick look in the Debian achieves but cant spot anything similar so any pointers would be gratefully received.
The usual answer is a complete restore of your system from your current nightly backups. But since that never seems to be an option . . . I think you clobbered all your suid bits which are required to move to and from root level access for a number of commands runnable by uers. Most likely su and login both can't get root privelages on your system anymore. Unless you have a mode backup list for your system I think you're going to have a really hard time "fixing" it. Perhaps you can find some luck with dpkg-reconfigure * from the list spit out by dpkg --get-selections. You'll most likely have to do this from single user mode as that's going to be the only way to get on as root. So on your reboot put a 1 after the neccessary arguments from lilo to boot your kernel, root and whatever. --mike
