Question

I can not run the Terminal.app after rolling back my system from time machine.

Mac OS X Version 10.6.2

It displays the following error. "Your are not authorized to run this application" "The administrator has set your shell to an illegal value"

After that I have deleted the file ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist

But the same message is displayed.

I have repaired all system rights with the DiskUtility but that did not help.

Answer 1

This value is set to /bin/bash Nothing to change here. I have controlled these preferences. I get this error for every shell.

Finally I found the solution.

In Finder I go to open folder /etc There I found the file /private/etc/shells which was empty.

I replaced the file /private/etc/shells with the backup file /private/etc/shells~orig

Now the /private/etc/shells contains the following:

/bin/bash

/bin/csh

/bin/ksh

/bin/sh

/bin/tcsh

/bin/zsh

(There are more steps needed in finder, delete empty shells file, change permissions in the information dialog)

Now I can start the Terminal.app with the /bin/bash again

Answer 2

Right-click your account name in System Preferences' Accounts pane and choose Advanced Options. Change the value for "Login shell" - I use /bin/bash, but you're free to use any installed shell.