что-то вы недоговариваете
zera@zera:~/temp$ mkdir testrm
zera@zera:~/temp$ mkdir testrm/test1
zera@zera:~/temp$ mkdir testrm/test2
zera@zera:~/temp$ touch testrm/testfile1
zera@zera:~/temp$ touch testrm/test1/testfile1
zera@zera:~/temp$ chmod -R a=rw testrm/
chmod: cannot access `testrm/test1': Permission denied
chmod: cannot access `testrm/test2': Permission denied
chmod: cannot access `testrm/testfile1': Permission denied
zera@zera:~/temp$ ls -la testrm
zera@zera:~/temp$ ls -la testrm/
ls: cannot access testrm/.: Permission denied
ls: cannot access testrm/..: Permission denied
ls: cannot access testrm/test1: Permission denied
ls: cannot access testrm/test2: Permission denied
ls: cannot access testrm/testfile1: Permission denied
total 0
?????????? ? ? ? ? ? .
?????????? ? ? ? ? ? ..
?????????? ? ? ? ? ? test1
?????????? ? ? ? ? ? test2
?????????? ? ? ? ? ? testfile1
zera@zera:~/temp$ chmod 775 testrm/
zera@zera:~/temp$ ls -la testrm/
total 1
drwxrwxr-x 4 zera zera 128 2008-09-04 10:35 .
drwxr-xr-x 8 zera zera 1112 2008-09-04 10:35 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 zera zera 80 2008-09-04 10:35 test1
drwxr-xr-x 2 zera zera 48 2008-09-04 10:35 test2
-rw-r--r-- 1 zera zera 0 2008-09-04 10:35 testfile1
zera@zera:~/temp$ ls -la testrm/test1/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 zera zera 80 2008-09-04 10:35 .
drwxrwxr-x 4 zera zera 128 2008-09-04 10:35 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 zera zera 0 2008-09-04 10:35 testfile1