Post-installation questions

[nitzw]

Hi,

I was trying yesterday to change the permissions on the Boot file to make the timeout 5 seconds instead of 10 and to define a better resolution for display. Well, I haven't succeeded at all at changing the permissions... At this point, you probably know I'm a newbie ;)

I was logged as me. I tried several things to finally make a potential mistake:
chmon -R MyName:admin /*

I presume that this command changes the ownership of all the files to me, of the admin group. Well, my system doesn't boot anymore. Am I right to suspect that because somes files are no longer own by the "system" user, there are problems? So here are my questions:

1- Can I revert to command or do I need to reinstall the OS?
2- How in hell do I change the permissions of a file when I'm logged as me?
3- What's up with the "root:wheel" I see in every examples I find on the web... "wheel"??
4- I know there are tons of post about this, many old, which is what makes it very confusing, but what do I have to do to make the OS recongnize my AGP ATI Radeon 9800?

I use Zeph's 10.5.2 rev.2 release.
Thanks a lot!

[Puttabong]

Hi there,

You set the permissions wrong, mate :-)

Most System Files are labeled as root:wheel, which means User: Root and Group: Wheel. This is the default by Apple.

Here's how to fix/repair the permissions correctly, after you have installed a new kext, for example:

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/Your.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/Your.kext
rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions.mkext
Explanation:

1. Chmod -R 755 changes the File Permissions to 755, which means read and execute access for everyone and also write access for the owner of the file.
2. Chown -R root:wheel sets the owner to root and the group to wheel
3. The last step deletes the extensions cache

---

To edit your boot.plist file, you don't have to change any permissions, though:

All you do is launch a terminal, and type -

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
- to open & edit the file to your liking, save it by pressing CTRL + O, then quit with CTRL + X.

---
As far as I know, the permissions for com.apple.Boot.plist are labeled as root:admin

Try this to fix your system:

1. Boot with the DVD

2. Enter single user mode by entering "-s" at boot prompt, without the quotes

3. Type
sudo chmod -R 755 /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
sudo chown -R root:admin /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

[nitzw]

Hey,

first thanks a lot for the answer. Great post :) Sorry about the delay, I have had crazy days.

I reinstalled the OS and haven't tried to fix it like you suggested, because anyway I had done nothing to it so far. I modified the Boot.plist file like you said (with the sudo nano command) and it worked great. But I must ask... why I wasn't able to save my changes when I was opening the file with TextEdit?? When trying to save, I always got a message "you don't have the permissions"... that is why I was going crazy about trying to change the permissions on this file...

Another question... so if I change the owner of a file to root:wheel, what does it do to me? I mean, if I'm logged as MyName (group admin), how root:wheel will affect my permissions?

Thanks again for taking time to answer my newbie questions :)