systemversion.plist accidently sent to desktop

[ramos1209]

hello,

i am actualy very new to mac, i was testing something and accidently moved systemversion.plist to desktop and then restarted my laptop, as a result the mac is stuck on the login screen adn wont boot up.
using terminal sudo nano, i saw the file on desktop but couldnt copy it back to system/library/coreservices using terminal.


i dont have apple service in my country.

please help.

 

[pigoo3]

What OS version is it running?

- Nick

 

[ramos1209]

yosemite 10.10

 

[pigoo3]

Thanks for the info. You should still be able to boot into the "Recovery Partition"…by pressing the two key combo of "Command + r" on reboot.

Once you do this…try launching Disk Utility…and then try "repair disk". I don't know if this will help. If not..then your other option is to "Reinstall Mac OS X"..(when in the recovery partition).

- Nick

 

[Csmac]

I'm not an expert on the Mac by a long shot and this may not work, but the thought came to me if ramos1209 was able to find someone with another Mac and if he could connect the problem Mac to it via Firewire/Thurderbolt and boot the bad Mac in Target Disk mode then be able to move the file since it was not involved in the running system.

See: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19021?locale=en_US

Cliff

 

[pm-r]

I'm trying to figure out how the OP when "...the mac is stuck on the login screen and [sic] wont boot up…", was actually able to even run Terminal, regardless whether it worked or not to move the file back.

How can one run an app on a Mac that hasn't even booted??

And I'm guessing there isn't a cloned bootable backup available or another similar Mac that could be used as suggested above. IF the new Mac actually has any ports that could actually be used that Apple hasn't removed.

 

[harryb2448]

,plist files should make a brand new copy on reboot and the desktop one can be trashed. Unplug from the power mains for half an hour, connect and try to boot again.

 

[TattooedMac]

I'm trying to figure out how the OP when "...the mac is stuck on the login screen and [sic] wont boot up…", was actually able to even run Terminal, regardless whether it worked or not to move the file back.

Booting into the Recovery Partition could accomplish this, as Nick posted how to in Post #4.

It also makes me wonder what the OP was attempting to do mucking about with that file in the first place. Sorry, no tear shedding here.

It really doesn't matter what they were doing. Some users make mistakes, and its easy to get themselves into this situation.
Telling the OP you are not shedding any tears over what they have done, isn't helpful in any sense. We are here to help, so keep your "no tear shedding" to yourself, and move on to the next post, if you aren't going to help.

@OP is it possible for you to boot into Safe Mode ?? Start your Mac while holding down the ⇧ (Shift) key, then release the ⇧ key when you see the Apple Logo. This is a long shot, but still it will help in weeding out what can and can't be done.

I'm guessing the post by Csmac is going to be the best solution, starting up in Target Mode. . .

 

[Rod]

Because this is not really "damage" as such I doubt if the repair process in the restore partition will help. However reinstalling the operating system should. So booting to the Recovery partition and selecting reinstall OS should produce a new mint copy of the OS structure minus any preference changes made on the original. So long as Clean Reinstall is not used everything else should remain as it was. Of course all this could have been avoided if the OP had a Time Machine backup or a clone of the hard drive.
ramos1209 I strongly suggest that before any more experimentation with system settings you invest in a dedicated USB hard drive and and run the native utility Time Machine.

 

[ramos1209]

Hello,

thank you for your posts,reinstalling the os is my last solution.
i am trying to figure out how to copy systemversion.plist located in /users/ramos/desktop/ to /system/library/coreservices/ but the real problem is that i have to change the permission to be able to cp systemversion.plist to coreservices.

i am opening terminal using cmd+S and login under my user , i was able to locate the file using sudo nano, but unable to copy the files due to file permission. read only.
i am not an expert in cmd but ive been digging up for a solution.
at this point using terminal is my only solution. if its possible to change the file permission at this level.

thank you.

 

[ramos1209]

i am unable to boot into safe mode, its not working.

i was trying to install a software, it said it couldnt be installed because it required a osx 10.7 or above, my osx is yosemite 10.10, so the software was reading that my os was 10.1 instead if 10.10, thats why i tried changing the sytem version to 10.9 and was able to install my software, but i forgot to revert the changes before restarting my MBP, so ...

 

[vansmith]

If you are trying to write the file using sudo, you should be able to write anywhere. What error message do you get when you try?

 

[ramos1209]

vansmith,

i tried changing the file permission using chmod, copying using sudo, sudo nano, nothing worked.

if i could get a detailed instructions of what to do, to change the permission of system files. that would be nice.
error : Read-only files system

 

[pm-r]

I usually try and avoid Terminal, but a google search on 'change permissions on systemversion.plist file with terminal' came up with these if any of them might work for you:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2256647
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2256648
osx - How do I unlock a .plist file so that I can change it? - Ask Different

Or is there no-one around with a compatible Mac or some bootable drive that could be used as a boot device and get the file back, even with the Finder??