chmod -R 600 /. Salvageable or reinstall needed?

[Allshevski]

So, I was setting up a backup server to prevent situations like this from happening, but irony has just had it that I ran the chmod on the /. (slash dot) directory instead of ./ (dot slash)

When I realized what was happening, it was already too late, it had gone through a sizeable portion of the directories in the root folder.

Now, do you know what it would take to fix that? Thankfully I did not run with sudo privileges. From my understanding, only the user-owned writable files got affected, and from what I gather, some of the files in my home directory have reatined their privileges.

Would it be possible for me to recover it all just the way it was before, or do I have to start again with a fresh install? I've got my home directory backed up, so it would not be a huge issue. Will make sure I also backup the whole system using timeshift or another utility in the future.

[Bacon soup]

I would not do a fresh install. if you did not use sudo then you should be ok. I think two things will have happened: you have removed read/write to other users in your home files/folders, and you have removed the executable permission to everything in your home folder. You don't need executables in your home folder unless you have steam installed. If you have steam installed in its default location, your games won't run.

[Allshevski]

31 minutes ago, Bacon soup said:

I would not do a fresh install. if you did not use sudo then you should be ok. I think two things will have happened: you have removed read/write to other users in your home files/folders, and you have removed the executable permission to everything in your home folder. You don't need executables in your home folder unless you have steam installed. If you have steam installed in its default location, your games won't run.

So what do I do now? chmod -R 755 /  on everything? Themes don't work, Dolphin does not let me access home directory, it looks bad, but hopefully is solveable.

[Bacon soup]

2 minutes ago, Allshevski said:

So what do I do now? chmod -R 755 /  on everything? Themes don't work, Dolphin does not let me access home directory, it looks bad, but hopefully is solveable.

start by giving read permissions to other groups. Here is what my home folder looks like

-rw-------  1    3148 Nov  1 17:24 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1     220 Oct  8 22:59 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1    3771 Oct  8 22:59 .bashrc
drwx------ 21    4096 Nov  1 06:39 .cache
drwx------ 22    4096 Nov  1 06:39 .config
drwxr-xr-x  2    4096 Oct  8 23:15 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  5    4096 Oct  9 00:07 Documents
drwxr-xr-x  2    4096 Nov  1 13:38 Downloads
-rw-rw-r--  1      29 Oct  9 06:37 .gtk-bookmarks
-rw-------  1    5604 Nov  2 05:44 .ICEauthority
drwx------  6    4096 Oct 25 14:25 .local
drwx------  5    4096 Oct  8 23:21 .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x 15    4096 Oct  9 00:05 Music
drwxr-xr-x  3    4096 Oct 23 08:34 Pictures
-rw-r--r--  1     807 Oct  8 22:59 .profile
drwxr-xr-x  2    4096 Oct  8 23:15 Public
drwxr-xr-x  3    4096 Oct 17 02:18 snap
drwx------  2    4096 Oct  8 23:21 .ssh
drwxr-xr-x  2    4096 Oct  8 23:15 Templates
drwxr-xr-x  2    4096 Oct  8 23:15 Videos
 

[Sauron]

You can't go back to the way it was before if you don't know exactly what permissions every file in your home folder used to have. You can probably get it back to a usable state but personally I would backup your personal files and reinstall the system to avoid forgetting something important or causing problems down the line.