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I ran sudo chmod -R myusername:myusername on I thought my /workspaces directory but it appears it did the command ran on the root directory, resulting in errors such as:

Could not update ICEauthority file /home/myusername/.ICEauthority

And then I click on Close, and a second message appears as: 

There is a problem with the configuration server.  (/usr/bin/libgconf2-4g/conf-sanity-check-2 exited with status 256

Also it seems when the screen saver comes on and I need to unlock the screen, it keeps on saying incorrect password, even though I am typing the same correct password. I will need to restart the computer and then be able to successfully login. I turned the screen saver/screen lock option off so I will not need to unlock the computer again.

I read over posts, and some suggested the easiest way to reset permissions is to re-install your Ubuntu.But hhow do I find what version of Ubuntu I am using to get the right version to re-install it over the existing installation? Will this keep my programs/workspaces intact or should I back these up and copy them back over when I finish re-installing Ubuntu. Is there something I am missing to simply revert the permissions of this Ubuntu installation?

This is a station at my new job so I don't really want to change what I have not unless I have too.

Any and all information appreciated.

user68186
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user139727
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1 Answers1

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What you want to do first is open a terminal, and type lsb_release -a Your output should look something like this.

username@computername ~ $ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: LinuxMint
Description:    Linux Mint 14 Nadia
Release:        14
Codename:       nadia

Reinstalling is the easy fix. Just make sure that: A. You can reinstal programs that you have up currently. You can backup your installed files list using this command: 

apt-cache --installed pkgnames > installed.packages.lst

Make sure to aim "installed.packages.lst" to a thumb drive or floopy. B. Install your Linux in the same place. This should be easy. There should be only one ext filesystem on your computer. (You can double check this with Gparted) C. Do not format. If you don't format you probably will not have to worry with step A Do step A any way. D. Find a tech guy at your job: it may be possible to reset the permissions w/o reinstall, but they would need to know what all the permissions should be. E. Be sure you know where the boot loader goes. It'll probably be on the main drive sda, but don't guess. Go into your bios and see which is the boot drive and then look in gparted to figure out the linux name for that drive.

Good luck.

P.S. I used these sites in my research:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Checking...

http://overtag.dk/wordpress/2012/04/ubuntu-tip-save...

horIzoN
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Jason
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  • The output of lsb_release -a is based on Mint. Please may you put the output for Ubuntu instead? – horIzoN Mar 12 '13 at 17:11