Writed chown / and system does not work now

General system Kernel, boot, graphics & hardware
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Recently I got a problem that I did not own some folder, and just chowned it.
I thought that if I just chown root folder, I will get rid of all my problems at once, but after reboot it just does not work xD
It writes welcome to endeavouros and other terminal stuff, but when it is time to log in screen, it just shows blank screen with text writing cursor (thick line when it is ready to write something), but it is just here doing nothing

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Do you have any important files on the system?

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yes, and I have windows 10 dual booted next to it. Can I comehow get the files?

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Depends what filesystem you formatted your EOS partitions with - you would need to install software to enable support within windows for those filesystems to be readable.

You could probably work it out using WSL but I haven’t played with it enough to know for sure.

The other option is booting from a livecd, mounting your drives and copying them out from there relying on linux’s support for NTFS instead.

Ultimately you have hosed your system and a reinstall is really the most straightforward solution - ownership of objects in the root file system isn’t quite as cut-and-dry as “all of this should belong to my user account”, and the various processes that get your system up and running are reliant on having them set in specific ways. There are likely to be too many individually broken things for you to revive it in any other way.

The real lesson is twofold - always have system backups if you’re going to start tinkering, and don’t play with things you don’t fully understand unless you have those backups in hand :laughing:

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I was hoping the OP would have said “No” to my question, so I could just reply with a laughing gif and tell them, “Welcome to the community! :enos_flag: :vulcan_salute:”

Gif aside, my exact reply would have been.

“Okay. Good. Reinstall your system. Never do that again.
And welcome to the community! :enos_flag: :vulcan_salute:”
insert gif here

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Thanks! I will try tomorrow methods you provided. How should I learn Linux basics so I can fully (or mostly) understand what am I doing? I searched for videos understanding Linux etc, are they must have or is there an easier way?

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First rule of thumb: don’t mess with folders outside your /home/{ whatever my username } unless you are absolutely positive what you are doing and how to recover from possible mistakes. If you feel you need to access some file in a folder outside your home folder, ask on this forum what is the best way to accomplish that goal. You may just get a decent answer. :slight_smile:

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Boot into a livesystem and copy your important files to a safe partition.

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@d00m1k

In addition to this, please note that the mistake you made is not specific to Linux.
It is equivalent to doing the same thing in the C:\\Windows folder on Windows.

I repeat, this is not a Linux issue. :wink:

PS: Haven’t used Windows in only under 4 years, and I had to go look up the names of the root folders. In fact, I didn’t even remember that Windows uses “\\” instead of “//”.
And that right there is how easy it is for people to both and learn and forget something based on frequency of use.

PS #2: I should probably watch a video or two to keep abreast of how things look and feel.
Linux might be illegal in a few years.

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Honestly this is one of the best sources to learn Linux if your willing to do the work.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Main_page

For more EndeavourOS specific
https://discovery.endeavouros.com/

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