[mythtv-users] Broken Home Directory / Messed up permissions

[backuppc at sundquist.imapmail.org]

> hmm that definately made some progress... 
> Now... my root drive is full... o.0 

I had the same problem, using Mythbuntu 7.10.  Whenever I filled up the
hard drive, it would change all the permissions in my home directory to
(well, I can't remember right now, but something not normal).  This
is/was really strange and I have never seen anything like it in 12 years
of using Linux.  I did it more than once trying to burn a show to DVD
(this uses a lot of temp-file space in your home directory I now know).

My only solution (besides getting an external eSATA drive separate from
the partition my root was on and moving home there) was to (after
freeing updisk space) creating a new user.  Then I would boot from a
rescue CD and switch the names on the home directories (i.e. olduser ->
newuser and vice versa) and do a recursive chuser across each directory
so it matched /etc/passwd and rebooted.  Any important files in my "old"
home directory I had to move over as root and do a chuser again.

J.S.