[Nobody]

IDIOT me decided to have a play around in NetInfo Manager

now, my short name was originally "nathanad" - i didn't like this, so i changed all instances to just "nathan" (These being; "writerspasswd", "home", "name", and "writerspicture")

I then logged out and logged back in

Well then, my desktop has reset, I can't access ANY system preferences, All my details have reset (I assume they're in the old 'nathanad' home folder), I've lost my admin status (I think), AND I can't change those details back in NetInfo. (yet it lets me unlock all the details so I can change them, but then doesn't let me save)

HELP!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!

[Nobody]

also note that I cannot log in as Root

I immediatly went to Apple's knowledge base on what to do, and about how to log in as root. It tells me to go to NetInfo's Domain:Security:Enable Root, after unlocking changes. Except it's still greyed out - so I can't enable the Root

[Nobody]

PLEASE??? ANYBODY??
I'm desperate here

[Nobody]

come on! please!!!
applecare here is closed for the night, I can't access the online one because I can't log in (when you dont have access do your own home directory - you get no cookies = no logging in)

This is the only place I have
Can anyone suggest anything I can do?

[Nobody]

Since you haven't enabled the root account, you are in a bit of a sticky situation.

There are several ways of fixing this, all of which require you to boot into single user mode.

To boot into single user mode, you will have to hold down Apple-S on boot.

When you do this, you are taken into a command prompt when the system is in it's lowest init state. You will now have root-privileges, and can exactly what you want.

The first thing to do is to mount the filesystem.
% mount -uw /

When this is done, the easiest way is to delete the netinfo database, and rebuild it. Other options would be to write directly to NetInfo using nicl or niutil. Another option would be start netinfod, and indirectly enabling the root account with passwd root. But, the easiest is to simply delete your netinfo database, and let it rebuild itself.

% mv /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb_BAK

This doesn't delete your netinfo database, it simply moves(renames) it.

Now, to respawn your netinfo database, we will use the Apple Setup Assistant.

% rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone

Notice the punctuation before AppleSetupDone.

These 3 lines will sort you out.
Now you just restart your machine.

% shutdown -r now

When your machine now restarts, it will start the Apple Setup Assistant. This is the same thing you saw when you first installed OS X. You will again have to setup the primary administrative user.

The easiest now would probably be to name your user 'nathanad', and everything would revert back to normal. You could name the new user 'nathan', but then you would have to do some more Terminal commands, to move your old userfolder to your original user(or log in as root).

Do this, and get back to us if there are more problems.

PS: The reason why everything failed after you edited NetInfo is because when you changed your short-username you where moved out of the administrator group. There is still a user in the Administrator group named 'nathanad', so when you now logged in as 'nathan', you didn't have admin privileges. Or the user 'nathan' wasn't/isn't in the Administrator group.

Tor

[Nobody]

Thanks a heap. and I mean a whooooole lot.
I've just scribbled down what you said, and I'll try it now (after I back up the Nathanad home folder just in case [i know nothing should happen to it - but there is some deatly important stuff in there, that even 0.2% risk is too much)

I'll get back to you and let you know how it went afterwards!

[Nobody]

YES YES YES YES!!
If you're ever down this way, I'm buying you a keg!! LOL

worked like a charm
some of the commands had to be a little different (i worked out I had to run /sbin/fsc.. whatever first, and then it was /sbin/mount -uw) - but it was all quite painless for my first execursion into unix.

this is what i love about these forums - help comes when you need it ^_^
thanks very much again!

[Nobody]

I assume this can be a lesson to us Unix Guru wannabes images/icons/wink.gif

Seriously, I'm still very cautious when it comes to unknown Terminal commands and the NetInfo thing.

Tor, It's nice to know you're there.

[Rickard]

Yeah, playing around in terminal is pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. I once tried to remove a file I couldn't remove in finder with the command " sudo rm * " I found out that it didn't quite do the job I waned =).

[Nobody]

"playing around in terminal is pretty dangerous if you don't know what you're doing."

Most things are dangerous if you don't know what your doing. Would you ever unscrew your microwave, and play around inside it?
What about your mobile phone?
Would you try replacing the HD of a new computer without knowing anything about it first?

Probably not. images/icons/smile.gif

There are of course those who do, and power to them, for they learn the hard way images/icons/smile.gif

Tor