(Running Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.10) Everything working well (at least a couple of months), until recently when I changed the permissions through the device manager on the sda1 /2/ 3 drives, thinking it would save all the switching I seem to have to do between users in order to see / use files I previously copied across from an external drive.

Now when I boot up the Ubuntu splash screen loads indefinitely, and if I go in through the GRUB / recover option, i'm getting a load of negative permission messages back (regardless of using the fsck or remount options)

Either way = unusable machine (Laptop Dell Inspiron n5050), and no way through to login.

I'm looking for: (1) a way back in so any help greatfully received (answers need to be pretty basic as i'm a novice), and (2) if i'm to learn anything, a decent thread on setting permissions within Ubuntu / Gnome 3.

I'm new to both Ubuntu & Linux, so please be gentle!! Cheers