This admin account has no admin authority?

December 21, 2009 5:50 PM

Why can't I see around half of the applications in the Applications/Utilities folder on my friend's laptop?

I'm trying to get access to Disk Utility so I can repartition a new external hard drive. But while I can see that the app exists when I go into the folder in Terminal, I can't see it in Finder--or open it through spotlight, for that matter.

The computer (a powerbook G4) is running 10.4.11, and my friend's account is admin and the only account on the computer. I can't back out on the login screen to try and become root or anything--and using SU in terminal, even assuming I could know the password, probably won't get me anywhere.

How can I get access to the full folder? Any thoughts?

posted by thecaddy to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Best answer: This sounds like one of the few times where a verify / repair permissions is truly needed. Unfortunately, the easiest way to do that is via Disk Utility…

If your friend's account really is set up to admin (ie. Preferences -> Accounts ->"Allow user to administer this computer" is ticked), you shouldn't need the true root password. You can run Disk Utility from the console by typing:

/Applications/Utilities/"Disk Utility.app"/Contents/MacOS/"Disk Utility"

If it asks for an admin username / password, your friend isn't set up to admin (or part of the system thinks they aren't). If you're sure they are, enter their username & password anyway.

If that fails, you can boot into single-user mode and run the /etc/[daily|weekly|monthly] scripts manually, or use something like AppleJack to do the permissions repair.

if that fails, you've likely got bigger problems like the disk being corrupted / dying…
posted by Pinback at 6:41 PM on December 21, 2009

Try to create a new admin account from your friend's. Log in as that admin and see if that fixes it for you. If he isn't an admin then find a Mac OS install disk and reset the actual admin password and log in as them.

Good luck.
posted by fenriq at 9:45 PM on December 21, 2009

Best answer: you can also use "open appname.app" from the terminal to open apps, if for whatever reason that disk utility command above doesnt work
posted by CharlesV42 at 6:39 AM on December 22, 2009

And yet another way to get to the disk utility is boot from the installer DVD. It's in the menu's.
posted by DreamerFi at 6:54 AM on December 22, 2009

Response by poster: Thanks for all the help. Even though the actual solution was very embarrassing and involved scrolling up, learning some extra console commands is always handy.
posted by thecaddy at 8:35 PM on February 9, 2010