Mess up with permissions (chmod -R)

I agree, you're pretty much looking at a reinstall. Many files need to
have _very_ specific permissions to function properly. In doing this you
essentially destroyed a very delicate system of rights and ownership.
You could manually reinstate the ownerships and rights, but that would
take forever and you would truly see how many files compromise a Linux
based OS, and it would take a long, long loooong time. I think most
people have done this at some point, thinking it'd just make things easier.

Nikel wrote:
> New question #12315 on Ubuntu:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/12315
>
> Hi all, I'm quite new to Ubuntu/Linux, since I installed Feisty Fawn a few months ago. If my question seems stupid, feel free to ignore it, or even Lol at me. But some help would be useful.
>
> -The apparent Cause: After getting bored of sudoing and passwording, or even trying the most strange methods to write, move, and erase files in my Filesystem without being a root user (by "files" y mean pixmaps, vids, etc. -no system files) y decided to experiment with chmod. I get the idea, so please dont explain me the chmod command. The fact is that I decided (maybe too stupidly) to [ chmod -R g+w / ], meaning, I decided to make all of my directories and files since "/", writable for the "root" group. Of course a vast list of files returned a negative result, but that's not the problem.
>
> -The Symtoms: The first problem came after reboot. When I logged in, a warning popped up saying something similar to "The home folder shouldn't be writable for other users". Makes sense. After two or three reboots, the message dissappeared, and the home directory works fine.
> Now, the real problem, witch persists is that most administrative tools won't start. No error message, just.. nothing. Some of these are: Gparted, Restricted Devices Manager, Network, Shared Folders, Synaptic Package Manager, Users and groups, and the "root" Terminal. When I hit them, the "starting blablabla" message appears in my panel, but then nothing.
>
> The other applications work fine. I'm using them right now, but this won't last long until I reinstall. So I'm begging for a solution, just in case someone has experience this (he/she should have made the same stupid mistake!! haha).
>
> Thanks a lot, in advance, since the very few things I could work out fine came from online helps like this. Ubuntu really rulz!
> Greetings, from Argentina.
>
>

Well, thanks for the advice. I realize it wasn't a good idea at all *paying over lazyness*.
Reinstall seems the most logical solution, and a lifetime-lesson. I was just hoping such a silly mistake could have a silly solution ahead.
thank you people, I'll tag it as solved since I'm loading the cd in a minute.
Bye

Thanks Bruce Cowan, that solved my question.

It seems a bit odd to address people with both names, worse if you did my full name : Bruce Michael Alexander Cowan.

Yeah, you're right Bruce ;),
when I clicked your answer, it automatically posted that message. It appears to take your Nickname and fill it in the pre-typed answer.