Guest user broken after 10.6 > 10.8 upgrade

[stevebr]

The guest user account on my recently upgraded (from 10.6.8 directly to 10.8.2) machine is unusable and not acting like a guest account normally does. The most significant issue is that it requires a password (unknown to me, not set by me) to log in, but there are other strange effects, including that the account appears at the login screen and in the FUS menu even when disabled, and that a home folder /Users/Guest1 is always there (i.e., no guest logged in).

I've poked around here and elsewhere for troubleshooting info. The following list is comprised of things I've observed and/or tried based on that and whatever little I knew before looking for help.

• Requires a password (not set by me nor known to me)
• Appears in login screen and FUS menu item even when disabled, including after a fresh boot immediately following disabling the account.
• Can't access over the network when sharing is turned on and enabled for guest user.
• Managed/not managed combinations yield the same results
• Home directory /Users/Guest1 is permanent. Ownership is Guest1:_guest (same for files inside)
• dscl localhost list /Local/Default/Users shows users called Guest and Guest1
• /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users has plists for Guest and Guest1. Examining them yields some observations that to me seem strange:
  • User Guest is UID 503 in group _guest (201) with home /Users/Guest
  • User Guest1 is UID 201 in group _guest (201) with home /Users/Guest1
  • Different values in the password field
  • The key "_guest" is true for both
  • They both have the same generateduid: FFFFEEEE-DDDD-CCCC-BBBB-AAAA000000C9

Note: if it will help, I can attach copies of those plists. I may have missed something relevant.

I've seen in other threads about user problems some mention of using the server setup as potentially being part of the issue, so I'll point out that the computer was running the client version of 10.6, and I have not installed the server apps since upgrading. The upgrade itself was done in-place (or whatever the term is -- not a clean install), and the machine originally shipped with 10.5.something (also an in-place upgrade to 10.6 if memory serves)

I'd like to avoid a reinstall from scratch if it's at all possible. Maybe I can delete both of these users and the system will make a new functional guest user? If necessary, my Time Machine goes back to well before the upgrade and have a clone of the boot drive from the day before I installed the new OS.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[DeltaMac]

The Guest User account will naturally delete anything created by the "guest" when the guest logs out. Anything in a Guest User account that is left behind by the system should be fair game for you to delete.
The default UUID for the guest account is 201. I suspect that the account that you see with the UUID 503 is therefore completely bogus, maybe a glitch created by your upgrade to Mountain Lion, and (maybe) the guest account was left enabled when you upgraded, and some glitch changed the account named "Guest" to a normal account (which would "explain" the UUID of 503)
What is displayed in the Users & Groups user list?
The Guest User should be listed as either "disabled", or "Enabled, Managed", and should be named "Guest User", not simply "Guest" or "Guest1"
If you have a user "Guest", or "Guest1" listed, have you tried _deleting_ any such named users?

[stevebr]

Thanks for following up. I was just about to update the post with some more observations that are related to your questions.

Guest (503) long name is "Guest Account" (found this in the plist mentioned above). It does not appear in the Users & Groups prefpane, login or FUS menu. However, it does appear in the Parental Controls prefpane. When trying to delete it in Parental Controls, nothing happens (it's still there, even after rebooting).

Guest1 (201) long name is "Guest User" It appears in Users & Groups (& the other spots I mentioned). Within Users & Groups it acts like a normal guest user (setting the options you list), but none of these have any effect, nor can it be deleted from there (minus sign is greyed out). When it is enabled, it shows up in Parental Controls with an option to delete it from there, but nothing happens when I try it.

Guest (503) was definitely present when the machine was running Snow Leopard while Guest1 (201) was not -- I've just confirmed by poking around in a Time Machine backup.

I don't know if it will help, but looking around on the web I see that under Leopard, the guest user's long name was "Guest Account" (or at least that's the way it looks in screen shots I'm seeing about its use in 10.5). It's possible that my guest account dates from back when this machine was running Leopard (which it shipped with). Was the guest account given a 500-series UID in 10.5? My backups don't go back that far. Again, I don't know if it will help.

[DeltaMac]

"Guest Account" is listed that way in Leopard, but is "Guest User" in Lion
Both Leopard and Lion show the guest account as UUID 201 by default.

My guess is that your real guest account is corrupted in some way, and the system has tried to create a new default account, but can't. The additional problem is certainly because the account name (Guest User, or Guest) is protected, and can't be used by anything else in the directory. However, on your system, it is now used for something else, so the real guest user just doesn't work, because it can't.
Not sure if this will work (or if it is even safe to do), but open your Users & Groups pref pane, then unlock that pane, and click on Login Options, then the Network Account Server Join button.
And, then click the Open Directory Utility button. Click the Directory Editor icon.
Make sure that Viewing drop down is for Users, then scroll down to Guest User. I think only "Guest User" should exist. If there are any other "Guest" or "Guest1" or anything else with guest, delete from that list. I think it would be a mistake to delete ANYTHING else, unless you know exactly what you are doing.
Click the Save button, Quit that utility, and restart your Mac.
I honestly don't have complete confidence with this, so you may find no change after a restart. Perhaps someone else will chime in with a better solution (one that helps ).

[stevebr]

Well, after deleting Guest Account (Guest, 503) the way you suggested and rebooting I have a functional password-less home-auto-deleting Guest User (Guest1, 201). Guest sharing works as well. Thank you very much.

Also I fixed the short name and home path (Guest, /Users/Guest) in the advanced panel for Guest User in Users & Groups (not wanting to muck with it in Directory Utility) After disabling and re-enabling the account this updated it to the new values.

Incidentally, I was looking for Directory Utility. Well, actually I was looking for the functionality of the old NetIinfo Manager but couldn't recall what it was called. It would have made the diagnosis a lot easier. Thanks for that too.

[DeltaMac]

Yes, there's been a lot of changes with the various utilities that give you "advanced" functions. Some are consolidated, others have become more difficult to dig out.

Anyway - I'm glad to hear that worked for you, and that you are almost 100% now.

I think you just hit an odd glitch, as some of those functions for the guest user changed significantly through the multi-version OS X update that you experienced...
It's also a good reason to _consider_ backing up everything, and do a clean install of MLion. Some folks would go for a clean install of all third party apps, then restore all your files.
That would be one way to get rid of other possible "strangeness" that you may still have in your system over the various upgrades. Ultimately, that can result in the best possible performance, too.
But - it can be a big, time-consuming job - and, in the end, might not result in any improvement that you would notice. And, if you are happy - who cares what other users do, anyway?

And - now you know where the Directory Utility is located! I made an alias for that, and put the alias in the Utilities folder. I don't use it often, but it's nice when I don't have to track it down in the System folder library.

[stevebr]

Quote: Originally Posted by DeltaMac It's also a good reason to _consider_ backing up everything, and do a clean install of MLion. Some folks would go for a clean install of all third party apps, then restore all your files. That would be one way to get rid of other possible "strangeness" that you may still have in your system over the various upgrades. Ultimately, that can result in the best possible performance, too. But - it can be a big, time-consuming job - and, in the end, might not result in any improvement that you would notice. And, if you are happy - who cares what other users do, anyway?

Of course. But as you point out, the big issue is time. And when you're reinstalling your apps as well, you're not doing yourself any favours bringing over your crufty old preferences and app data, so you need to double the time to get everything back the way you had it. And as long as you're doing that, you might as well reorganize your documents, etc. etc. Losing a couple of half-days of productivity preparing for and dealing with an in-place upgrade isn't great, but it's nothing compared to what I'd lose if I did it right. Maybe over the holidays. Pretty sure I said that last year too.

Quote: Originally Posted by DeltaMac And - now you know where the Directory Utility is located! I made an alias for that, and put the alias in the Utilities folder. I don't use it often, but it's nice when I don't have to track it down in the System folder library.

Funny... that's exactly what I did after opening it earlier. Thanks again.

[DeltaMac]

Hey! I try to teach here, just a little. Sometimes the 'student' doesn't need it so much, but you never know...

I like to ALSO repeat (related to clean installs) what I think of as a corollary to Murphy's law: If it ain't broke, don't fix it!