Unable to access /etc folder

hey guys need some help here, my /etc folder has somehow changed ownership to user, thus meaning I can no longer sudo.

I was going to do a fresh install again however there are files I need off the drive, of course I can just do a straight forward copy as these are owned by the root user (I need to recover the website and the mysql database)

My theory was to boot up from a usb linux and then try changing the chown of the /etc folder hopefully allowing me to boot up.

would this work? also where can I get the usb linux from.

Thanks for the help

 

This should be easy to download and image your USB key:

http://featherlinux.berlios.de/usb-instructions.htm

Then find a terminal and chmod 755 the directory. If that's what it is... If not, let me know!

 

thanks for the reply, the chmod is correct its the chown, I'll start that downloading now just hope I can undo whatever has happened to it lol

USB Version reports a 404 on the site (missing file)

Once i finally found some time to hunt online I foudn this

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/live-ubunt ... /#more-630

This will help you download and install ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid onto a USB pen drive, now lets see if it works

Well the good news is I have the notebook booting, and managed to copy over the files but not the database still claims I dont have permission, anyone have any ideas?

 

What kind of database are you using? What kind of permissions does it need? Is it trying to write in the /etc directory? Everyone can read from /etc, but no program should write there unless its to reconfigure the system.

 

the database is mysql and the folder for the table is locate in the /opt/lampp/var/mysql folder

my problem was the entire /etc folder had been chowned to user:user which meant half the things wouldn't work.

I have managed to chown back using the usb ubuntu listed above (after finding where it mounted the linpus drive to /media/linpus) and looks like it is all working.. now I can dump the table using mysqladmin and wipe the damn thing to fix any other problems