[X-Unix] Re: Repair permissions on volume with no OS?

[Bert Knabe]

On Mar 27, 2005, at 7:38 PM, Timothy Luoma wrote:

>
> On Mar 27, 2005, at 5:53 PM, Bert Knabe wrote:
>
>> Can it be done? I can't find a GUI utility to do it, and can't 
>> remember how to do it using the command line (if I ever knew). I have 
>> a volume that seems to have developed permission problems, and I have 
>> to get it fixed.
>
> Wait, it sounds like you are asking if you can repair permissions on a 
> drive that doesn't OS X on it?
>
> Can you say a bit more about what problems you are having?

Sorry, I should have given more detail. I am asking if there is a way 
to repair permissions on a volume that doesn't have OS X on it. Here is 
what I know:

1. Last Friday (3-18-05) I was told that one of our OS 9 Mac's was 
having problems connecting to one volume on our Xserve Raid (hosted by 
a G4/1.33 Xserve running OS X Server 10.2.8). No other volumes are 
causing trouble. I later learned that all but one of the OS 9 Mac's 
were having the same problems, and the one that didn't actually did, 
but intermittently. Only one person has problems on the 'intermittent' 
computer. OS X Mac's are not having any problems, even though they are 
using the Classic Chooser to connect.

2. The problems that I've seen or been informed of are:
      Slow logins - 10+ minutes for the volume to appear on the desktop.
      Throwing items on the server away takes 5+ minutes, then have to 
delete them immediately.
      Can't create folders on the server- create on desktop, then drag 
copy over.
      Xserv Admin account can login from OS 9 Macs and experience no 
problems
     Just discovered that new accounts created in Workgroup manager have 
problems, even if administrative.


The volume is set to ignore permissions, so I tried changing that. It 
fixed the problem, but caused problems with a couple of essential PC's, 
so I changed it back. It has been ignoring permissions for over a year, 
and having problems for about a week, so I don't think that is the 
cause of our problem.

I ran Disk Warrior on the volume, and it found many, many problems, but 
it didn't fix the problem of OS 9 connections. I think it's been over a 
month since we last ran an update on the server.

About the only suggestion I've received from other lists has been that 
it's a permissions problem, and that seems to make sense in a weird 
way. I say weird because the volume is set to ignore permissions, so it 
would seem that shouldn't be an isssue - but turning 'ignore 
permissions' on fixes the problem, so it is an issue. Unfortunately 
turning off ignore permissions causes problems with PC connections that 
have to be made, so I have to find a way to bring it back to the way it 
was 2 weeks ago - everyone happily connecting with the volume set to 
ignore permissions.

I have run Diskwarrior and Norton 7 on the OS 9 Mac's, as well as 
trashing a number of preference and invisible files that have been 
known to cause problems, but nothing has helped. Frankly, I'm stumped.

Bert Knabe
Computer Technician
Lubbock Avalanche Journal
(806) 766-2158
safe:morris