My Ubuntu server just boots to the console and then I can't log in or do anything. It just gets stuck in a boot loop, I have Gnome installed as a GUI.
This happened after I used the command sudo chmod 766 / to try to unlock all folders. I did NOT use any command involving -R.
What shall I do?
-R flag is recursive which means it will affect parent directory and all sub directories and files. You have 3 options here really.
1.) just reinstall your system which is nice if you dont want to spend all day figuring out this problem and you didn't have anything you really needed on the system.
2.) extract data then reinstall. if you did have something on there that you needed try booting to a different medium (USB or optical disk) and extracting your file that way then reinstalling.
3.) spend hours trying to figure this problem out before giving up and drinking a 6 pack and playing some video games. then reinstall your system when you're done rethinking your life.
4.) (maybe) get realllllly lucky that someone did that and managed to fix it and that they're not drunk or playing video games so they post the answer in this thread.
Good luck homie
chmodon the root directory! Yes, the system is pretty much gone. But, no - it wasn'tchmod -R, was it? – Apr 03 '16 at 13:05sudo chmod 766 /not with any -R ( i don't even know what that is xD) – Carl Lyrander Apr 03 '16 at 13:07/tmpneeds to be writeable/sticky (octal mode 1777) for X to start – steeldriver Apr 03 '16 at 13:23