I'm not the admin of my computer??? Permissions screwed up??? Oh, no!

eyedeaeyedea
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
OK.



I took my first trip to the world of the Mac this past February with my Powerbook. I just recently upgraded to Jag and noticed that in system preferences I no longer have a "Users" icon. It was brought to my attention that this happened because I'm no the admin of my computer. "Hmmmm," I wonder, "then who is?"



It looks like somehow my permsissions are screwed up as I no longer have the ability to admin my own computer. I stumbled upon this when trying to setup a Windows share and was told to go to the users pane but instead was greeted with a "My account" option.



Please help, if you need more detail let me know and I'll try to fill in the blanks.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    First of all, the "Users" pane no longer exists in 10.2.. Now it is split into "Accounts" and "My Account". My Account is accessible by any user because it affects only that user. The Accounts section, however, is accessible only to admin users because it lists details on all users. It is in the Accounts section where you set admin users.



    If you think there are permissions problems, the FIRST thing I would suggest is running Disk Utility. Select your drive, click the First Aid tab, and click Repair Disk Permissions. Be patient as the verification and repair process may take a tong time depending on the size of your drive and the extent of the damage. Once everything is repaired, I would also recommend restarting the Mac, just for safe measures.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    eyedeaeyedea Posts: 20member
    That did not work.



    Not to mention I logged out and logged in as root. Went to the systems preference and selected Accounts. I then created a test user that's setting exactly equaled my account settings.



    When I logged back in with this test account the Accounts option was visible in the System Preferences.



    I then logged out and deleted this test user and logged back in as myself. I tried to delete the folder where it stores the test user deleted account and it says, "The operation could not be completed because this item is owned by root".



    [ 09-12-2002: Message edited by: Eyedea ]</p>
  • Reply 3 of 6
    ghost_user_nameghost_user_name Posts: 22,667member
    Ay. He's using root too. <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />



    I take it you haven't read the probably thousands of posts across the various Mac forums on the internet about root being a bad thing to use in the GUI.



    Well, when you created the test user as an admin, did you check your regular account to see if the admin switch was enabled?
  • Reply 4 of 6
    eyedeaeyedea Posts: 20member
    I was told on another forum to login as root and try that.



    The admin switch is enabled, yes.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    alcimedesalcimedes Posts: 5,486member
    lol, root and GUI. scary.



    well, i had a well thought out answer and stuff, but it's the end of the day, i'm on the phone now and i don't really want to think that much.



    best of luck. if i find my brain again i'll come back and see if i can find an answer for you.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    eyedeaeyedea Posts: 20member
    This happened after I upgraded to Jaguar before somebody suggested I try to login as root. Prior to that I never tried to do anything with root in terminal or anywhere else. So that excuse is out the window.





    ***UPDATE:***

    Somehow the probelm righted itself, I removed a few items from the "Login Items" pane (WindowsShadeX, Xounds and Run Net Monitor) and now the problem doesn't exist. Weird.



    [ 09-13-2002: Message edited by: Eyedea ]</p>
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