How do I restore permissions?

[eyolf]

I've been an idiot, I think.
I've been running into all kinds of permission problems (yes, I'm new to this...), both for my fat32 partition and other things, so in the end, I chowned everything to myself... yeah, frustration, cockyness, confidence, and trust that if I did something stupid, I'd get some kind of warning... Well, I didn't...
I assume that was the problem, because since then, I couldn't become root from my own user profile anymore, and I couldn't switch users. I get "setgid: Operation not permitted." if I try. Damn.
So, my two questions are: (1) is this in fact the reason for my problems, and (2) is there anything I can do?
(and I promise: I'll RTFM the next time I want to try some command)


Eyolf

Update: forgot to add: I'm using MEPIS 3.3.1

[Dapper Dan]

It all depends on what permissions you changed and where. Different files have different permissions. Don't feel too stupid, I did the exact same thing out of frustration too once, back when I used Mandrake 8.2. I'm really not sure there is a way to undo what you've done. If it were me, I'd just re-install so I would know all the permissions are back where they need to be. Did you create a seperate partition for your home? If so, then a re-install will be easy, and you'll learn a lot in the process.

A word of friendly advice. You can't make Linux like Windows. You have to learn and operate Linux on its terms if you are going to succeed. Once you DO learn Linux, you'll then be very glad it is nothing like Windows.

[eyolf]

I think what I did was "chown <user> /". Then, there came a looong series of error reports - mostly from the hda2 (the fat32 part.) I think, with "unable to perform" or something like that. And then... yeah...
About partitions: I created two linux-partitions: / and /home.
So what you're saying is that I can put the installation cd back in and everything will be fine half an hour from now? what about the settings that I have made?

(One more thing, which I discovered when I went to check what they're called: the / partition appeared to be 100% full. When I looked further, I found a file /root/.xsession-errors, which is now 2.3 Gb, half of that partition, all there is left of it, actually. Is that something I should deal with?)

Point taken about the Win-Lin thing. I'd say, though, that in some respects, I've found Linux way more Windowsy than Windows itself: very slick, the package management system: very user friendly - far more than the procedures involved in installing windows programs (oh, how many times haven't I instructed people how they unpack a zip file, run setup.exe, delete the package, etc...). And the UI - very stylish and uniform. I guess it's mainly KDE's fault (or merit), and it's of course nice that things look the same, but I'm kinda used to each program having its own character...

[Dapper Dan]

If you do a complete re-install just make sure you do not format your /home partition, that is, if there is data and configuration files there you want to keep. I'm not really sure about the /root/.xsession-errors being so huge, but that could have something to do with changing the permissions the way you did. In a fresh re-install, all that will go away anyway...

Your observations about kde are pretty much on the mark. Many feel kde is the most Windows like of the desktop environments. The good thing about Linux though, is that there are many desktop environments/windows managers to choose from in every sort of combination. Here's a good link about all that...

http://xwinman.org/