Hi Guys,
Forgive me if this is old news but searching the list didn't find a
discussion of this. I may having simply searched for the wrong words.
NetInfo apparently has a bug. (surprise, surprise) It has caused the
following problem that I've heard about on lists lately. Fink creates
several extra users, like pgsql, mysql, etc. The problem begins because the
home directory of these extra users is assign the value /, the root of the
boot drive. Some users have used NetInfo to delete these users and NetInfo
replies with a dialog asking if the user would like to have ownership of the
deleted user's files transferred to him. The user thinks, "What harm could
that do?" and clicks yes.
Here is the bug: NetInfo doesn't check ownership of any files, it simply
begins changing ownership of all files in the user's home directory.
Remember that that is the entire drive! Needless to say, the machine will
not even boot after that. Apparently it will boot into single-user mode, but
most users don't know where to go from there. The quickest fix is to run one
of Larry Prall's scripts that restores the machine to some standard state.
If you want to put this in an FAQ, his script is available at
http://homepage.mac.com/lprall/
in an archive called chkstuff. (with a last-modified date appended)
It is clear that the problem lies with NetInfo but the experience
doubtless leaves these unfortunate victims with a bad feeling toward Fink.
Is it absolutely necessary to assign / as the home directory for these extra
users? Would the corresponding software run if the home directories of these
extra users was assigned to be /dev/null?
Unfortunately, this is bound to happen repeatedly. I did get the
impression from this list's archive that creation of the extra users on a
per package basis isn't a simple matter. Still, nobody wants to point a user
in the direction of a bug, so I was sure that you would want to know about
this issue.
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news; please don't shoot the
messenger. A great many Mac users couldn't live without Fink! I saw a thread
on one of Apple's lists where someone felt that Fink-XFree86 was the only
alternative to installing Linux. I would personally like to see Apple ship
OS X with Fink installed and pay you guys money that you so richly deserve
for your superb work!
--
Gary Kerbaugh
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A computer scientist is someone who, when told to "Go to Hell", sees the
"go to", rather than the destination, as harmful.
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