Help with permissions in ubuntu 9.10

[abhishek1]

hi all,
recently i was trying to mount my partition automatically at start
up ...so i gone through some tutorials on the net nd made some changes
in /etc/fstab file (i made a back up before making any changes). when
i was changing permissions of folder in which i tried to mount my all
partitions i got my system screwed up.then it was showing following error at start up
and GUI was not turning up.
"could not update ICEauthority file "
also my sudo was not working so first i restored original fstab file
through recovery console then i googled out about above errors. I
found some solution now my system is working but showing strange
behaviour like:

> ubuntu is not detecting any of my hdd partition
> disk utility is not working (showing no error)
>fdisk -l shows nothing
> no new software is getting installed via ubuntu software center (shows no error when clicking on install but nothing turns up)
>i cannot restart or shutdown my system from GNOME it only logs off my session (although through terminal its working)
>no media player showing sound controls enabled
>gnome not showing ethernet or sound volume icon in upper panel (although net is working)
>users and groups from system->administration menu is not working (error:cannot load configuration)

i think most of the administrative tasks are not working.........i googled out but found nothing satisfactory.....if nybody hav ny clue plz help...i dont want to reinstall it, coz i m not very experienced with linux n it took about a whole month to customize my ubuntu 9.10 on my college internet...
thanx in advance.

[Mudgen]

Can you explain a little more clearly:

"i was changing permissions of folder in which i tried to mount my all partitions i got my system screwed up"

What folder? What changes did you make?

"first i restored original fstab file through recovery console then i googled out about above errors. I found some solution now my system is working but showing strange
behaviour"

What else did you do besides restoring fstab?

[abhishek1]

Can you explain a little more clearly:

What folder? What changes did you make?

I made a folder named "drives" in /media/ then i tried to change its permission by
chown -R abhishek:abhishek /media/drives
that screwed my system.......

What else did you do besides restoring fstab?

My GUI was not turning up (except for a brown-orange screen with my computer name in between)
there was a error related to ICE authority file for that i wrote following code in recovery console
sudo chown -R gdm: /var/lib/gdm

as i stated my sudo was not working after that so i wrote following code in recovery mode:

chown root:root /etc/sudoers
chmod 440 /etc/sudoers

now my sudo was working but othere problems remained as it is....

[previso]

Get a live-cd, boot from there. Access your system with superuser file manager. (What I would do is to save my data in DVD-RWs, and reinstall) The live-cd has k3b to burn discs.

[abhishek1]

Get a live-cd, boot from there. Access your system with superuser file manager. (What I would do is to save my data in DVD-RWs, and reinstall) The live-cd has k3b to burn discs.

i m sorry but i do not want to reinstall my ubuntu coz i dont hav ny problem for backup of data....i do hav Window XP installed as my second os on my desktop ...I was actually looking for some solution for this problem.....if reinstalling of os is solution for simple permissions related problem like this then what is the point of having linux as primary os.......??

[previso]

Simple permissions related problem does not adequately describe what you have done to your system.
(What I would do is to save my data in DVD-RWs, and reinstall), not that you would.

[Mudgen]

I'm guessing a typo in a chown command, like

chown -R abhishek:abhishek / media/drives

That would chown everything on the system to abishek:abishek, before returning an error if "media/drives" could not be found in the current working directory. Darned near impossible to fix without reinstalling. OP would not be the first to make a mistake like this. I probably wasn't, either. About 20 years ago, HP-UX 4.0 I think.

[abhishek1]

Simple permissions related problem does not adequately describe what you have done to your system.

what other details u need ..plz give me some hint i will try to give u as much possible details.........

(What I would do is to save my data in DVD-RWs, and reinstall), not that you would.

i didn't meant a offense i just was presenting my opinion......is there any way while reinstalling system i can preserve my all customization and software installations......???

[abhishek1]

I'm guessing a typo in a chown command, like

chown -R abhishek:abhishek / media/drives

That would chown everything on the system to abishek:abishek, before returning an error if "media/drives" could not be found in the current working directory

i dont think that there was a typo coz i checked those commands on my terminal after ur post and they seemed perfect.....

[previso]

I have messed up my system so many times it's not even funny. A new install will probably preserve your /home partition, that's it. Typically for me the system runs much better after it sheds some baggage. Which reminds me I should do a fresh XP install. I keep hard to find software install packages around in the /home partition, and save them before a clean install. Then it takes me about a month to muck it all up again. If you use the same install CD\DVD then there shouldn't be too much of a change from what you had before.
Look at greyhairweenie's assessment.
In Windows, users sometimes delete system files, making a mess of the OS. If greyhairweenie is correct, your OS may be too damaged for repair.