On Sat, Oct 06, 2007 at 11:30:42AM -0700, tom arnall wrote:
Realistically, is there any way I can fix my system so I can log in as
root, without reinstalling the OS?
Here is the question: lets say you fix the initial problem and CAN log
in as root. What next? You have a few hundred files with the wrong
permission.
Q: How do you fix this? A: with great pains!
On an average unix system, you can access the data or configuration by
using a live cd or similar, then back that up. Now that you have the
important data like the output of 'dpkg --get-selections´, you now know
what packages to install when you reformat the partition! So you do a
base install, use 'dpkg --set-selections', do the other bits to install
the rest of the packages, and in about 1/2 a day, you can be back to a
reasonable state.
The other way is to fiddle with a few hundred files until you get an
only mildly broken system. At least that is the way I look at it, YMMV.
K