inifinitely regressing "ls" drive under "Volumes"
I think you just accidentally renamed the system volume to &quot;ls&quot;, probably by typing it while not realizing the system volume's name was selected. I was able to reproduce your results by just renaming mine in the Finder. To change it back, go to the Finder's computer view (Choose Go menu &gt; Computer, or press Command-Shift-C), select the disk &quot;ls&quot;'s name, change it to Macintosh HD, and press Return.
(Note: it's normal for there to be a symbolic link from /Volumes/systemvolumename to /.)