GNU bug report logs - #16104
Desktop Linux Mint 15 Olivia is broken due to chmod permission changes

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Denise <petitechisa <at> yahoo.com>
To: contact <at> linuxg.net, bug-coreutils <at> gnu.org
Subject: Desktop Linux Mint 15 Olivia is broken due to chmod permission changes
Date: Tue, 10 Dec 2013 16:47:05 -0500

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

I found this web site - 
http://linuxg.net/how-to-change-file-and-folder-permissions-with-chmod-part-1/ 
-  to learn a terminal command to change permission to a usr/share/ 
folder so I could install a pidgin theme folder in pidgin directory but, 
obviously, without knowing what I was doing, Mint 15 got broken with that.

I entered the following command:
sudo chmod -R u-x,g-x,o-rwx usr/share/

And now booting Mint will give me gibberish dialog windows in an empty 
black background.

Either Nemo or Cinnamon is not working correctly and I would like to 
restore it back to its original setup.

I'm guessing the way to fix this is enter a command restoring all 
permissions to default in "drop to root shell prompt" in recovery mode.

Thankfully, I have also Ubuntu 13 installed in the same desktop PC so I 
could write this message, because Mint 15 is totally unusable.

How do I fix this or where do I ask for help?

Thanks for reading and hope to hear from you soon.

Denise.

[Message part 2 (text/html, inline)]

Message #10 received at 16104-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Bernhard Voelker <mail <at> bernhard-voelker.de>
To: Denise <petitechisa <at> yahoo.com>
Cc: contact <at> linuxg.net, 16104-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#16104: Desktop Linux Mint 15 Olivia is broken due to chmod
 permission changes
Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 00:42:06 +0100

tag 16104 notabug
thanks

On 12/10/2013 10:47 PM, Denise wrote:
> sudo chmod -R u-x,g-x,o-rwx usr/share/

outch.

Thanks for the bug report, however, as you might already know,
this is not a bug in coreutils' chmod but rather an issue in
the way you used it.  Therefore, I'm marking this bug as done.

Okay, back to your case. To get your system back to work, you
should understand what the above command did. Read about it.

To restore the permissions, your best bet would be a backup.
With this, you could go there and run a command line like the
following to change the permission back to what they have been
in that backup.

  $ cd /backup/usr/share
  $ find . -exec chmod -v --reference="{}" "/usr/share/{}" \;

But again, please first read the documentation of the involved
programs to understand what happened and what you are doing,
at least:

  $ info coreutils 'chmod invocation'

Have a nice day,
Berny

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