Permissions NIGHTMARE!

timzilla

timzilla

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So I'm trying to get the previous owner of my new iMacs' home folder & shortname to change..

I've created a new account, set it to admin, etc. etc.. everything I could think of and more.

Now I do not have permissions to empty my trash and applications begin to launch and then quit!

Is there a fix that will reset EVERYTHING back to square one and allow me to start fresh...besides a clean install?

Thanks
Tim
 
In short: no. I received a used iMac with an old account as well, and I could not figure out a single way to make the root user me until I finally was forced to reinstall the system (a pain in the ass, but worth it in the long run). Basically, either reinstall the system or use the root account the computer has.
 
Might seem ironic but if you can boot the machine into classic via HD or CD I think you can access the user folder in the OS X HD and dump the profile you so wish. If you have the time consider a fresh install...
 
Finch is right .. I did this with an extra superfluous account. You can also remove in macosX by opening a terminal and then using the sudo -command. The solution given by Finch is safer though..
 
Short answer: no, there is nothing that will reset the system short of reinstalling.

This is one of the inherent problems with used machines: you don't know how thoroughly the previous owner trashed the system. Sometimes the damage is so great that it is an impetus for them to purchase a new system and unload their sick old system.

The easiest and fastest thing to do is to wipe the drives clean and start from scratch. You have probably already spent more time trying to figure out the problem (unsuccessfully, I should point out) than it takes to do a clean reinstall.

P.S., Only idiots use the root account as a daily login. The risk of systemwide damage due to carelessness and/or ignorance is so great with the root account, that anyone who knows anything about *nix would never use it at anytime but in an emergency/system maintenance situation.
 
It's good policy for any UNIX based machine to re-install the root after changing the owner.
 
Okay, not the root account, but the owner account (if by root you mean single-user mode).
 
He's talking about the actual root user, Arden. You know about enabling root via NetInfo, right? When you do that, you enable the root user. You can actually log in as user root and the password you gave for it after doing that.

And it's definitely a good idea to change root's password after getting a used machine!
 
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