Software Update has no permission

November 7, 2008 6:00 AM

G5 PPC Tower never lets me auto update software?

I have two computers, a G5 tower and a Macbook.

They are running the same OS X level, except one is Intel and hte other PPC. For as long as I have had these two computers, the PPC never allows any software (other than the Apple Software Updater) to auto update, like when the software does a version check and a dialog box comes up to ask if you want to update. I say yes, it downloads the updates, prompts me to install and restart the software, then I get a dialong box that basically says I do not have permission to execute. The wording is not alwasy exactly the same. Here is a screen shot from the CyberDuck attempt this morning:



Any thoughts appreciated.

Henry

posted by silsurf to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Have you tried repairing permissions through Disk Utility?

Seems like, for once, that might actually do something helpful.
posted by Remy at 6:38 AM on November 7, 2008

Response by poster: This issue has been going on for a year. I repair my permissions using AppleJack, Xupport, Onyz on a regular basis I also boot from a external and do a full optimization adn repair every few months.

Henry

(I placed a link to an screen shot, but it did not come up in the original post, I am adding it here again.)
posted by silsurf at 6:49 AM on November 7, 2008

Response by poster: The "link" attribute does not seem to work for me, image is at:

http://interactivehank.com/docs/images/misc/permission.png
posted by silsurf at 6:50 AM on November 7, 2008

Are you logged in as an admin user when you try to run these updaters (like CyberDuck)?

What happens if you create a secondary admin user (call it Test Admin, whatever), log in as that user, and attempt to update CyberDuck, et al?
posted by mrbarrett.com at 7:23 AM on November 7, 2008

Both Remy and mrbarrett hit the first two things I would check.
posted by -t at 7:32 AM on November 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

I bet you fifty cents if you do a "download only" on one of the installs it will give you a path that it failed to write you. Probably "receipts," but could be another path.

A new admin will resolve it, or log in as root.
posted by cjorgensen at 10:54 AM on November 7, 2008

Go grab your OSX disk. Boot from them. Reset the accounts password for you, and for the root user.
posted by filmgeek at 3:57 PM on November 7, 2008

Response by poster: OK,

I can indeed auto update from another admin user.

Is there another way to fix this other than rebooting from an OSX disc?

And the more interesting question is why this happened? I have been migrating this particular user over three computers now and there has always been some privilege issues, it comes up with shared printer and file sharing as well.

Sometimes I will see the name of one of my previous machines in an error message even though I have changed everything I know to change.

I am very glad to fix the initial issue, but is there something more I need to do to this, my main desktop, in order to circumvent future related privilege and sharing admin issues?

Henry
posted by silsurf at 9:24 AM on November 8, 2008

Response by poster: If I login in as a test user, the issue goes away.
I reset both my user and root passwords via the OSX install disk.

The issue persists?

There is something I am doing wrong here I believe?

Henry
posted by silsurf at 9:19 AM on November 16, 2008