Question

5

How can I change owner back to root?

rated 0 times [ 5] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 41994 / 3 Years ago, fri, june 4, 2021, 5:50:28

So, I did a stupid thing...

I was installing some software (Java SE 7, if you must know) from a tarball, and I got tired of using sudo, so I went and changed the owner of my /usr directory to myself.

$ sudo chown -R sammy /usr

Whoops!

Since sudo lives in /usr/bin/, it also changed owner. Now, I can't use it anymore. Have I accidentally been caught in a sudo-Catch 22? I can't use apt-get install or any number of other essential features of my shell environment.

$ sudo

sudo: must be setuid root

Is there a way to change the owner of this directory (and subdirectories, too) back to root?

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ardingiba

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answered 3 Years ago aslity · Accepted Answer

Restart the machine, boot into recovery (you should end up being root without having to type in any password). Proceed to chown -R. I think it should work. Report back on how it goes.