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I recently fat-fingered a permissions change in my /home/randy folder. When I check permissions by booting off a live session cd I see user is 1000. I can't gain access to it. Is all lost?

Hey Guys, I tried these. I wasn't able to boot into the grub menu. When I press and hold the left shift key during boot it just keeps booting normally. If I push it too early it brings up a "keyboard" error. I can get into the terminal per wayzhc and Pilot6 instructions. I run the command

sudo chown -R randy:randy /home/randy

It asks for my password. I give it. I accepts it. It runs it but then I have to shut down as when I use the CtrlAltF7 it goes back to the screen I got after I clicked out of the message windows. When I boot normally it still gives the same error which is... right after I enter user name and password during normal boot I get these 3 messages... First

Could not update ICEauthority file /home/randy/.ICEauthority

Then I get

There is a problem with the configuration server. (/usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfig-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256)

Last I get...

Nautilus could not create the following required folders:/home/randy/Desktop,/home/randy/.nuatilus. (before running Nautilus, please create these folders or set permissions such that Nautilus can create them.)

Remember I'm running 10.04 LTS I'm very inexperienced at Ubuntu even though I've run it for years. It's been problem free for me until I tried to change the permissions of a photo folder. That's when the problem started. I'm VERY inexperienced at using the terminal.

By the way... when I ran the line

getent passwd 1000

per muru's request it returned this.

randy:x:1000:1000:Randy Thibeau,,,:/home/randy:bin/bash

Whatever that all means!

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  • Unless you added additional users, the first user (aka the user you created on installation) has ID 1000. What does getent passwd 1000 say (from a normal boot)?
    – muru
    Jun 14, 2015 at 20:08
  • Add the output of ls -al /home/randy/.ICEauthority and ls -lad /home/randy/
    – A.B.
    Jun 16, 2015 at 6:12
  • Specifically how do I do this? I should have prefaced this by thanking all of you for your patience. As I said I've not used or learned much about using the terminal. Jun 17, 2015 at 12:06

4 Answers 4

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Once you booted normally to the login screen, hit ctrl + alt + F1 to access terminal. Login there and use command

sudo chown -R <user>:<usergroup> /home/randy

For example

sudo chown -R randy:randy /home/randy

If you have set a custom group for yourself, you can see it with groups <username>. Your group is the first one after :.

-R makes sure all the subfolders and files inside the /home/randy will get the same permissions.

ctrl + alt + F7 to get back to graphical and login normally.

If you can't boot to login screen, use A.B's guide for recovery mode.

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  • In a Live System is no user randy, therefore the user can't be set.
    – A.B.
    Jun 14, 2015 at 20:47
  • Live session is not needed for this. He should still be able to boot and access terminal (ctrl + alt + F1). If not, he should be able to boot in recovery mode. Live session would be the last resort. Easy task, unless he destroyed something else in the process.
    – wayzhc
    Jun 14, 2015 at 20:58
  • I just tested this in virtual environment. He should be able to get to the login screen just fine. Then just (ctrl + alt + F1) to access terminal. And ctrl + alt + F7 to get back to graphical and login normally.
    – wayzhc
    Jun 14, 2015 at 21:06
  • Please see my edited question. Still locked out. Jun 16, 2015 at 1:46
  • I can boot to normal log in screen. It does seem to recognize my password. It just doesn't access my user folder /home/randy. When I go to terminal the first line says something like bash permission denied. Jun 16, 2015 at 1:49
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Just run in terminal

sudo chown -R <user>:<user> /home/randy

If your user name is randy then

sudo chown -R randy:randy /home/randy
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  • In a Live System is no user randy, therefore the user can't be set.
    – A.B.
    Jun 14, 2015 at 20:47
  • @A.B. There is no need to boot from live. It can be done from recovery.
    – Pilot6
    Jun 14, 2015 at 20:48
  • Yes, I know. =)
    – A.B.
    Jun 14, 2015 at 20:49
  • @A.B. Or even with normal boot to console. OP knows how to get there ;-)
    – Pilot6
    Jun 14, 2015 at 20:50
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Start the recovery mode.

  1. Boot into the GRUB menu

    Press and hold the left Shift key during boot.

  2. Start the recovery mode

    Select the entries Advanced and recovery mode

  3. Open the root console

    Select the entry root

  4. Remount the root partition

    mount -o rw,remount /
    
  5. Mount your home partition, if your /home is on a separate partition

  6. Change the permissions

    chown -R <your_user_name>:<your_user_name> /home/<your_user_name>
    
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  • Please see the edited question above. I still get the same results. Randy Jun 16, 2015 at 1:46
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Running sudo chown -R randy /home/randy in the console (Press CTRL+ALT+F1) should fix your problem.

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