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Root Changed /system Permissions

jujumane

jujumane

Member
So, here's the deal; I changed the /system folder's permission as the thread title states because I'm an idiot. Aside from the self-pity, I'm ecstatic to know that this did not result in a brick or bootloop. Yes, I have TWRP installed. I'd be toast if I didn't. What I want to know is how I should go about accessing the /system folder and changing the permissions through a PC? It'd be unfortunate to lose my files (mostly worried about how far I've gone in Terraria, honestly), but if there's absolutely no way to settle with the former, how would I be able to safely factory reset the phone? Thankyaw.
 
Do you have a nandroid backup of the phone prior to the changes?

Have you tried fixing permissions in TWRP? (Although, I don't hold out much hope for that.)

Can you give more information about what you mean about changing permissions - how, how so?
 
EarlyMon said:
Do you have a nandroid backup of the phone prior to the changes?

Have you tried fixing permissions in TWRP? (Although, I don't hold out much hope for that.)

Can you give more information about what you mean about changing permissions - how, how so?
Click to expand...
1) no nandroid backup
2) already tried, bootloop still persists
3) I mean changing permissions through the terminal command prompts feature in TWRP
 
Changing them from to what, or at least to what, and applied how??

chmod 750 /system/*/* (for example??)

Otherwise, it's going to be basically impossible to retrace what you did.


In the first post, you said that you were happy because it wasn't bootlooping.

Now you say it is.

I'm not sure I can help until the information doesn't change.
 
EarlyMon said:
Changing them from to what, or at least to what, and applied how??

chmod 750 /system/*/* (for example??)

Otherwise, it's going to be basically impossible to retrace what you did.


In the first post, you said that you were happy because it wasn't bootlooping.

Now you say it is.

I'm not sure I can help until the information doesn't change.
Click to expand...

My bad, what I initially did was change the /system permissions through my file manager. By tampering with it, the entire OS crashed. A glimpse I saw before that was the change of the original permission initials (which I don't recall too well), to simply "r". I'm hoping there's a terminal command conveniently set to fix the permissions of the folder back to how it was before I altered it. About the bootloop, even in a bootloop, I can still access TWRP. As long as the permissions aren't fixed, I won't be able to have the phone bopt into the OS. "Fix permissions" within TWRP was successful, but it aimed for the folders in the /system folder, and not aiming for the /system folder itself. Hope this helps.
 
OK, all of the following is in TWRP.

I'm going to show Terminal commands twice - the first time is the correct way, the second time is with spaces replaced by stars so you can be sure.

Mount -> check box system

Advanced -> Terminal (or Terminal Commands, whatever, Terminal)

You'll see the list with / at the top asking you to select a folder. Tap the / at the top to be sure.

You're at / aka the top or root level, tap Select. A blank screen appears with an entry line.

Confirm that you're in the right place. The following command uses lowercase L not the number 1. Remember that the stars version is for your readability.

Study each line compared to what I'm saying below. Typos and mistakes are not an option in here. This is your last chance Texaco.

Confirm -

ls -ld system

ls*-ld*system

Expect to see some posix complaints about time zone and then a line that says

d(junk) (size) root root (date) system

(That might be out of order - what you care about is that it begins with the letter d, has root root, and ends in system.)

Stop and report back if uncertain or you see other.

Next, fix it -

chmod 755 system

chmod*755*system

Confirm -

ls -ld system

ls*-ld*system

Expect to see some posix complaints about time zone and then a line that says

drwxr-xr-x (size) root root (date) system

Study the first term carefully.

Stop and report back if it's not drwxr-xr-x

Otherwise, use the back key until you're at the main menu.

Reboot -> System
 
So, I'm confused at this point to say the least. Here's what I get out of the first command.

"__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for CST6CDT!
__bionic_open_tzdata: couldn't find any tzdata when looking for podixrules!
drwxr-xr-x system system 1969-12-3 1 19 : 00 system"

So the permissions were fixed... I'm frustrated at that because that was the cause of the problem. I'm clueless at this point. I'd much rather just go with a safe way to factory reset my phone. Thank you for helping, though, buddy. You're a great mod. I'll look into the other threads to get a safe reset done.
 
A factory reset of any kind isn't going to save you. :(

The tz errors were the ones I warned about, just reported differently.

Is it possible that you changed permissions for /system/bin or are you sure that it was /system?

I'm not questioning your integrity, just trying to get a handle on the underlying problem ok.
 
And it could be an ownership problem.

If from the same place you try -

ls -l

ls*-l

Do you see other stuff owned by "system system" instead of "root root" or "root system"?
 
No, it was done to the "/system" folder, I promise.
And yes, there's a bunch of "system system", with 13 of each going down non-consecutively, while with "root root", it's only 4. Fingers crossed that I'm NOT toast.
 
Oh yeah, I was trying to figure out how to move it, lmao.

Stock ROM is correct, and thank goodness I played it safe and didn't let myself flash CM12 till it was stable enough.

I know where you're going with this. I have an SD card so I'm more than willing to use that nandroid file. I was actually thinking about that earlier today, but it was slightly doubted. Can only hope for the best.
 
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