[Eug]

I have a Panasonic DMR-E30. In the past I could not get DVD-R recorded on this set top DVD recorder to work in X.2 Jaguar, even though the discs work in OS X.1 and 9.2. This is a known problem - all of us with the Panasonic DMR-E30, E20, and HS2 have experienced this issue with OS X.2. It's supposed to be related to UDF and permissions.

However, it seems that logging in as root has corrected the problem.

Enable root and log in --> DVD-R from DMR-E30 works.

Log back in to usual acct. --> DVD-R from DMR-E30 also works now (whereas it didn't before, even with a clean Jaguar install).

Why? What has logging in as root done?

EDIT: Option 2 doesn't work. I thought it did, but in actual fact I think I had a different disc. So only logging-in as root will let me play the DVD-R.

[Eug]

Hmmmm... other discs only work as root.

So my woes remain, at least for non-root users.

[icruise]

Hmm, interesting. I am having a similar problem (I think) with a data DVD burned in windows. (see this thread: http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=131856)

I will try logging in as root to see if there is any change and get back to you.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Icruise:
Hmm, interesting. I am having a similar problem (I think) with a data DVD burned in windows. (see this thread: http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...hreadid=131856)

I will try logging in as root to see if there is any change and get back to you.

Hmmm... I had the same problem. Disc is "empty" in X.2. Works fine in 9.2 (but not Classic).

[icruise]

Just logged in as root and sure enough I can see the contents of the disc. But after going back to my normal account, it is "empty" as before. This is a pretty big bug, it seems to me. Have you given apple feedback about it? It might help for them to know how many people it is affecting.

[icruise]

As for why this happens, I can't say for sure, but it sounds like a bizarre permission issue. If I "get info" on the problem disk, it says:

Owner: Unknown
Access: No Access

Group: nogroup
Access: No Access

Others: No Access


Whereas a disc that I burned on the Mac says:

Owner: Unknown
Access: Read & Write

Group: nogroup
Access: Read & Write

Others: Read & Write


Logging in as Root lets you get past the "No Access" thing, I guess

[Eug]

Originally posted by Icruise:
As for why this happens, I can't say for sure, but it sounds like a bizarre permission issue. If I "get info" on the problem disk, it says:

Owner: Unknown
Access: No Access

Group: nogroup
Access: No Access

Others: No Access


Whereas a disc that I burned on the Mac says:

Owner: Unknown
Access: Read & Write

Group: nogroup
Access: Read & Write

Others: Read & Write


Logging in as Root lets you get past the "No Access" thing, I guess

Just checked my discs. I get the exact same result with the permissions.

I have submitted my DMR problem to OS X feedback, but maybe you should too, with your findings about the permissions.

I suppose logging in as root is better than nothing.

One wonders if Apple is being overly strict with permissions in OS X.2, or if the discs we have can be considered non-standard. Or else a bit of both?

[Eug]

OS X.2.3 does NOT correct the problem.

[TheMosco]

have you guys tried booting up from your mac os X install cd and and repairing permissions?

[Eug]

Originally posted by TheMosco:
have you guys tried booting up from your mac os X install cd and and repairing permissions?

When I originally posted this thread, it was on my iBook. I had the same problem in all versions of X.2 up to X.2.2.

My new X.2.3 test was on my new TiBook. Same problem.

[Millennium]

OSX is working correctly, given that set of permissions. This is why root would be able to bypass them; root bypasses all permissions.

However, something is definitely wrong. Off the top of my head, I am not sure if the problem is with OSX or with your recorder. Quite possibly it's a problem with both. The thing is, Panasonic shouldn't be burning discs with that permission set. I mean, no access for anyone? That's kind of stupid; it rather defeats the purpose of removable media if no one, not even the disc's owner, can read the data.

However, it may be that Panasonic is trying to burn the disc with some other set of permissions, and OSX isn't reading those permissions right. It thinks that the disc is meant to be no access for anyone, and so it dutifully locks it all away. Except that this isn't the set of permissions it's supposed to be enforcing, and so that's a bug.

Talk with both Panasonic and Apple. At least one of them is doing something wrong, and I'm not sure who it is at this point.

[icruise]

The thing is, as I mentioned earlier, this also happened with a DVD-R I burned in Windows. That DVD-R is readable in Windows (both real and in virtual PC on a Mac) and in OS 9. I find it hard to believe that OS X isn't at fault here.

[Gul Banana]

Originally posted by Icruise:
The thing is, as I mentioned earlier, this also happened with a DVD-R I burned in Windows. That DVD-R is readable in Windows (both real and in virtual PC on a Mac) and in OS 9. I find it hard to believe that OS X isn't at fault here.

Windows and OS 9 ignore permissions; you are effectively always logged in as root. Why do you find it hard to believe that it could be that the DVD is burnt with incorrect permissions?

[voodoo]

What about sindows 2000 or XP? Those systems use permissions AFAIK. Have you tried the DVD on them?

[RMXO]

Originally posted by TheMosco:
have you guys tried booting up from your mac os X install cd and and repairing permissions?

yeah have you tried repairing your permission? you might want to try that & have u ever tried re-installing your OS instead of using the default one that came with the PB?

[Eug]

I have done clean installs of X.2 on my iBook, and a reinstall (for other reasons) of X.2 on my TiBook, although for the TiBook I just did the reinstall from the software restore discs. Same issue.

These discs work in:

Windows XP
Standalone DVD players
OS 9
OS X.1 (at least according to people at the Apple forums and on the DVD forums)
But not X.2.

In other words, these discs DID work in X.1, but X.2 broke support for them.

Anyways, I have submitted feedback to both Panasonic and Apple about this, and haven't heard a peep since. I do know that one guy has sent copies of these discs to Apple to play with. (That was many moons ago.)

By the way, doesn't the Apple compatible DVD-R I burned with Apple software have wrong permissions too? Why is there "read & write" access on a write-only disc? (I suppose that's better than "no access" though. )

[Landos Mustache]

Did you run the permissions check when logged in under your name?

[Eug]

Originally posted by Landos Mustache:
Did you run the permissions check when logged in under your name?

So how do I do that? If you're just talking about "Get Info" under my own name, then yes. If you're talking about something else then please explain.

[Landos Mustache]

Originally posted by Eug:
So how do I do that? If you're just talking about "Get Info" under my own name, then yes. If you're talking about something else then please explain.

Log in as Eug (not root) in the utilities folder go to disk utility, then the first aid tab will have a permissions check button. Always seems to fix all the problems I have.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Landos Mustache:


Log in as Eug (not root) in the utilities folder go to disk utility, then the first aid tab will have a permissions check button. Always seems to fix all the problems I have.

Thanks, but all the permission verification and repair options are greyed out, which makes sense since it is a DVD-R disc after all.

By the way, anybody know how to check these DVD-R permissions in Windows XP? I'd be interested to see what Windows sees it as, since it does play fine in Windows.

Could it just be that the Panasonic is no owner at all (ie. a null setting), and that OS X just defaults to "No Access" for that null owner? I note that the "Owner" is "unknown", and the "Group" is "nogroup".

Added pic:

[Graymalkin]

I think thats what you're seeing, for whatever reason X.2 is seeing Panasonic's recorder setting null permissions (set top players don't need permissions really) and translating the null settings to no access. This is actually behavior I'd expect from a disk mount utility because if the permissions are set to null (zeroed out) the permissions ought to translate to no access for anyone. I bet that some DVD/CD issues that were dealt with in the X.2 upgrade fixed what was a problem in X.1 but are generating a metasproblem because the mounter isn't working like it used to (works right but not as it did).

Edit: I'll see if I can figure out to do anything fancy with automount that might alliviate this problem like override disk permissions on a disc drive or something.

[icruise]

Originally posted by Gul Banana:


Windows and OS 9 ignore permissions; you are effectively always logged in as root. Why do you find it hard to believe that it could be that the DVD is burnt with incorrect permissions?

Because I don't understand why a set-top recorder would have anything to do with "permissions" per se. It's not like the DVD recorder is running a unix based OS or something. But maybe I misunderstand the concept. The fact remains, though, that a DVD-R burned in Windows XP with possibly the most common DVD/CD burning soft (Easy CD Creator) doesn't work. This is a problem, plain and simple.

[Millennium]

Originally posted by Icruise:
Because I don't understand why a set-top recorder would have anything to do with "permissions" per se. It's not like the DVD recorder is running a unix based OS or something.

Frankly, that's irrelevant. Permissions are part of the UDF file format used by DVD's, and the software should at least be able to handle them properly, even if the OS itself will ignore them.

If they really don't consider permissions to be relevant, then they should be setting the permissions on disk to 777 (all access for everyone) rather than 000 (no access for anyone).

The fact remains, though, that a DVD-R burned in Windows XP with possibly the most common DVD/CD burning soft (Easy CD Creator) doesn't work. This is a problem, plain and simple.

If this is true, then the problem is with Roxio -the creators of Easy CD Creator- not Apple. And the problem is, that problem is a lot more widespread than just Roxio.

But UDF is a standard; it's right there to see. If the people making these burners are ignoring the part dealing with permissions, then they are wrong and Apple is right, plain and simple. That's how standards work.

Here's a possible way to test this out, though, to see where the problem is: find another Unix-based OS (perhaps Linux) and look at the disc there, both as root and as a regular user. If the same problem pops up, then Apple is right. But if Linux can read the disc fine as a regular user, then Apple is wrong.

[Eug]

So far I haven't heard of this being a problem in Linux, but I haven't specifically looked for a reference to that. I've only heard of mention of this in Mac OS X.2 (but not X.1). But I'll see if one of my friends has a DVD-endowed Linux box running somewhere to test for me.

Anyways, I've been playing with Win XP a little bit. In the control panel, you can turn off "simple file sharing" which in turns turns on access to the security settings for each individual drive and folder. This appears in a "Security" tab for most drives, but for the DVD-R the "Security" tab doesn't even exist. So my guess is that for DVD-R, Windows XP ignores the permissions. (Or at least, Windows XP is ignoring permissions for UDF 1 DVD-Video discs?)

[typoon]

Have you guys tried booting from the OS X CD and running the Disk Utility and repairing the permissions? So far I have found that fixes quite a few things.

[Eug]

Originally posted by typoon:
Have you guys tried booting from the OS X CD and running the Disk Utility and repairing the permissions? So far I have found that fixes quite a few things.

Covered earlier in the thread. These options are greyed out for DVD-R, which would make sense since it's a read-only disc anyway.

[Emotionally Fragile Luke]

Originally posted by Eug:
Covered earlier in the thread. These options are greyed out for DVD-R, which would make sense since it's a read-only disc anyway.

No no, don't boot from a CD, run it when you are logged on as your user and run it on your hard drive. The files you are trying to burn might have the wrong permissions, that is why using it in root cures it.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Emotionally Fragile Luke:


No no, don't boot from a CD, run it when you are logged on as your user and run it on your hard drive. The files you are trying to burn might have the wrong permissions, that is why using it in root cures it.

This is a DVD Video disc, burned on a standalone DVD-RAM/-R recorder. None of the files ever touched any computer.

ie:

Connect VHS VCR player --> composite video --> DVD recorder.
Press play on VCR and record on DVD recorder.
Press stop on DVD recorder when recording is finished and finalize DVD-R in DVD recorder.

Then try to read DVD-R in various machines.
It works in every DVD-R compatible machine I've tried (computer or standard DVD player), except Mac OS X.2.

The recorder is a Panasonic DMR-E30K:



P.S. It seems like some Mac users (in the Apple Discussion Forums) are learning about this the hard way. They have DVD-Rs made from wedding tapes or whatever, at commercial video conversion shops, presumably which use my machine's predecessor (DMR-E20). Upgrade to Jaguar from OS 9 or X.1 and suddenly all those DVD-Rs stop working.

P.P.S. Is there a PPC Linux distro out there that will be easy to install and configure quickly, with DVD playback support? Yellow Dog?

I have an external 3 GB (don't ask) Firewire drive I could install Linux on just to see if it's an Apple specific problem. Any recommendations? Or will Linux even install on a Firewire drive?

[icruise]

I guess the question we have to ask is, how widespread is this problem? If it really were just a minor incompatibility with one brand of DVD-R recorder, I could perhaps understand the argument that Apple is correct and that there is something screwy with that machine.

But if it applies to other machines, and if all DVD-Rs burned on Windows with Easy CD Creator won't work as well (and I don't know if this applies in every case or not -- I don't burn DVDs on Windows often at all so haven't experimented) it would seem to me that Apple should make a change in their implementation even if they are "right." The argument that Apple is correct in not allowing access to these files isn't going to wash if a lot of people start having this problem. All your average Joe will understand is that something doesn't work on the Mac that does work on other computers. I find it rather ironic that I can access the files in Windows 2000 on VPC running in Jaguar, but not with Jaguar itself.

If it were strictly permissions-related I also don't understand why it would work in earlier versions of OS X and not in Jaguar, but I don't know this to be true, first hand. I don't have an install of 10.1 to test it on.

[Eug]

Well, I downloaded Yellow Dog Linux for my TiBook.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell the install program does not support external Firewire drives. And the drive partitioning portion of the program provides less useful info than even DOS's FDISK, believe or not, so I wasn't too keen on messing about with it. Plus it seemed to want to create three separate partitions for Linux but goes into no explanation as to how it was going to do that without affecting my other partitions, despite it saying that it wouldn't.

Thus, I won't be installing Linux any time soon.

Furthermore, as far as I can tell, YDL 2.3 (Dayton) doesn't support the Radeon 9000 directly anyway. Who knows what wonkiness would happen with only the Radeon 7500 drivers or some other drivers.

Maybe next time I format I'll consider a dual boot with Linux, just for the hell of it. But for now, another strike against Linux for the desktop user...

[Eug]

Video LAN Client allows me to watch these movies without logging in as root. It's a Cocoa app, a little rough the edges, but it works. I guess it simply ignores the permissions. (I still can't read the disc in the Finder though.)

It also plays VCDs.

[T u r b o]

I know it's not a great solution, but has anybody tried unmounting the disk, then remounting it manually?

Try something like (at a shell prompt):
disktool -l

then find where the disc is mounted, it should be something like disk2 or disk2s1s1 or similar, depending on how the disc is made.

then do a
disktool -p disk2s1s1 (or whatever you got in the disktool -l list)

then remount it manually with
mount_udf -o nosuid /dev/disk2s1s1 /Volumes/somedisc

That should re-mount the disc ignoring the permissions.

There's probably a way to get the autodiskmounter to use nosuid as the default for udf, but I don't know what it is. If there was, that would solve the problem.

- Mike

[CharlesS]

To everyone claiming that Mac OS X is working correctly in this case, because the disks shouldn't have those permissions -

You're wrong. The VSDB system in Mac OS X works in such a way that foreign removable media that are inserted should be recognized as foreign and get the "Ignore permissions on this volume" flag checked automatically. You should be the owner of every file on every CD and DVD you insert in your computer. This is the way it works, and if it's not working that way, something's wrong.

See this link for more information:

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/...rmissions.html

Charles

[Millennium]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
To everyone claiming that Mac OS X is working correctly in this case, because the disks shouldn't have those permissions -

You're wrong. The VSDB system in Mac OS X works in such a way that foreign removable media that are inserted should be recognized as foreign and get the "Ignore permissions on this volume" flag checked automatically. You should be the owner of every file on every CD and DVD you insert in your computer. This is the way it works, and if it's not working that way, something's wrong.

See this link for more information:

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/...rmissions.html

Maybe I'm misreading this, but it looks as though that only applies to HFS+ disks. Other filesystems either support permissions (as with UFS) or they don't (HFS Standard, or FAT32).

DVD discs use UDF. I'm looking for information on whether or not UDF supports permissions. If it does, then Apple would appear to be working correctly. If not, then it's an OSX bug.

[cwasko]

Originally posted by Eug:
Covered earlier in the thread. These options are greyed out for DVD-R, which would make sense since it's a read-only disc anyway.

In the earlier post you showed the 'Get Info' window. So far, you have not acknowledged whether or not you have run the 'Repair Disk Permissions' option which is found in the 'Disk Utility' application, which resides in your 'Utilities' Folder of the 'Applications' folder of your boot-drive.

Run this on your *boot drive*, not on the DVD. Then, I'd reboot the machine and try again.

Also, the reason the options are greyed out in the 'Get Info' window is because you have not 'Authorized' yourself. Click the little 'Lock' icon and enter your password. After that, it should allow you to change the permissions; however, I'm not sure how it will handle a drive that is read-only.

[JLL]

Originally posted by cwasko:


In the earlier post you showed the 'Get Info' window. So far, you have not acknowledged whether or not you have run the 'Repair Disk Permissions' option which is found in the 'Disk Utility' application, which resides in your 'Utilities' Folder of the 'Applications' folder of your boot-drive.

Run this on your *boot drive*, not on the DVD. Then, I'd reboot the machine and try again.

How are permissions on his boot drive affecting a read only disc?

Repair Permissions has nothing to do with thes.

[cwasko]

Originally posted by JLL:


How are permissions on his boot drive affecting a read only disc?

Repair Permissions has nothing to do with thes.

I disagree. A system service could be running which is not running with the correct permissions; thus, not allowing him to access the disk. Unlikely? Maybe. Worth a try? Yes.

If he does try this, and it doens't fix the problem, then we know that the problem is not with a permission of a system services and more as how they are programmed. Part of trouble shooting is eliminating things, especialy the easy ones.

[Eug]

BTW, as I said earlier, Video LAN client works fine with these discs even with a non-root acct. VLC is a *nix app. Is this the primary *nix DVD Video viewing program? If so, then even in the *nix world, DVD permissions are considered irrelevant, at least for DVD Video anyways.

Originally posted by T u r b o:

I know it's not a great solution, but has anybody tried unmounting the disk, then remounting it manually?

Try something like (at a shell prompt):
disktool -l

then find where the disc is mounted, it should be something like disk2 or disk2s1s1 or similar, depending on how the disc is made.

then do a
disktool -p disk2s1s1 (or whatever you got in the disktool -l list)

then remount it manually with
mount_udf -o nosuid /dev/disk2s1s1 /Volumes/somedisc

Well, somebody did mention earlier they were able to get partial support under a non-root user with a series of sudo thisandthat commands. But unfortunately I can't find the originally thread. I'll try your suggestion when I get home.

Originally posted by CharlesS:

To everyone claiming that Mac OS X is working correctly in this case, because the disks shouldn't have those permissions -

*snip*

http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/...rmissions.html

Interesting link, but as Millenium said it doesn't say anything about UDF. One thing I do note:

"The "Permissions" panel of the Finder's Inspector window in Mac OS X includes a checkbox labled "Ignore privileges on this volume": if this checkbox is checked, the disk is treated as if foreign and all file and directory permissions actually stored on the disk are ignored; the owner is changed to the current user and the group is changed to "unknown". Files and directories created on a foreign disk whose permissions are being ignored are created with the owner and group fields both set to "unknown"."

This is OS X.1 only? I will point out that my DVD-R in OS X.2 is set as "unknown" owner, but "nogroup" for the group.

Here is a summary of Windows XP's handling of UDF. Microsoft says that it does not support "access control lists" with UDF, if that means anything in this context. Also, are "access control lists" are a function of UDF 2 only, or do they apply to earlier versions of UDF (such as UDF 1.0 with DVD Video), and are they related to my issue? Here are OSTA's UDF specs, and I do note that on page 77 of the "UDF 2.00 differences from UDF 1.50" document it says that support for access control lists is a new feature. (Note that OS X only supports UDF 1.0 and UDF 1.5. There is no support for UDF 2.0.)

Originally posted by cwasko:

I disagree. A system service could be running which is not running with the correct permissions; thus, not allowing him to access the disk. Unlikely? Maybe. Worth a try? Yes.

I don't think it will do anything considering that I get the same results on two different X.2 computers even after reformats and clean installs of both, but I shall give it a go nonetheless.

[T u r b o]

hmm interesting. I didn't know about vsdbutil.

if I do a:

sudo vsdbutil -c /Volumes/DVDdisc

I get:
vsdbutil: no valid volume UUID found on '/Volumes/DVDdisc': permissions are disabled.

I wonder what it returns for one of the non-working discs?

- Mike

[Eug]

I disagree. A system service could be running which is not running with the correct permissions; thus, not allowing him to access the disk. Unlikely? Maybe. Worth a try? Yes.

Tried it. Didn't work.

sudo vsdbutil -c /Volumes/DVDdisc

I get:
vsdbutil: no valid volume UUID found on '/Volumes/DVDdisc': permissions are disabled.

I wonder what it returns for one of the non-working discs?

[Eugs-Computer:/Volumes] eug% ls
DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER EugTiBook_Data

[Eugs-Computer:/Volumes] eug% sudo vsdbutil -c /Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER
Password:
vsdbutil: no valid volume UUID found on '/Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER': permissions are disabled.

[Eugs-Computer:/Volumes] eug% sudo vsdbutil -d /Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER
vsdbutil: Couldn't update volume information for '/Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER': Read-only file system
vsdbutil: no valid volume UUID found on '/Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER': Read-only file system

[Eug]

I seem to be doing something wrong:

[Eugs-Computer:/Volumes] eug% disktool -p disk1
disk1 partition will attempt to be unmounted ...
***Notifications Complete for type 1
***Responding yes to unmount - disk1
***Disk Unmounted('disk1')

[Eugs-Computer:/Volumes] eug% mount_udf -o nosuid /dev/disk1 /Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER
mount_udf: /dev/disk1 on /Volumes/DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER: No such file or directory

BTW, if I remount it with disktool -m disk1 it's just the same as before. Empty directory.

[Graymalkin]

I was pecking around this morning and if you go into /System/Library/FileSystems/udf.fs/Contents there is an Info.plist that lets you add command line arguments to the mount_udf comment that autodiskmount runs. If you log in as root and add -o nosuid to the string all UDF will mount with the equivilent of what you're doing with disktool.

The mount argument is in Root/FSPersonalities/ and is the FSMountArguments String. You can edit the plist file in either Property List Editor or pico or whatever your favorite command line editor is. The only caveat is root needs to modify the file so the changes can be made. Make a backup of the plist just in case anything goes wrong.

Try this and see if it helps. I think it might solve your problems. Maybe some kind person with a 10.1.5 partition can dump the contents of that plist file to see what argument it was using to mount UDF disks.

You might also want to try mounting the disk read only by adding a -r argument to the plist instead of nosuid. When you mount something with the nosuid flag mount merely ignores any permissions present on the disk to allow read, write and execute privilages. Mounting a disk read only ignores the set permissions but it not as flagrant with the disk as nosuid. Mounting a disk with nosuid is for when you've got a system you lost the root password to or need to get at the root password by evil means. Try nosuid first and make sure/see if that works then go for read only.

[Eug]

Originally posted by Graymalkin:
I was pecking around this morning and if you go into /System/Library/FileSystems/udf.fs/Contents there is an Info.plist that lets you add command line arguments to the mount_udf comment that autodiskmount runs. If you log in as root and add -o nosuid to the string all UDF will mount with the equivilent of what you're doing with disktool.

The mount argument is in Root/FSPersonalities/ and is the FSMountArguments String. You can edit the plist file in either Property List Editor or pico or whatever your favorite command line editor is. The only caveat is root needs to modify the file so the changes can be made. Make a backup of the plist just in case anything goes wrong.

Try this and see if it helps. I think it might solve your problems. Maybe some kind person with a 10.1.5 partition can dump the contents of that plist file to see what argument it was using to mount UDF disks.

You might also want to try mounting the disk read only by adding a -r argument to the plist instead of nosuid.

Thanks. Being a complete Unix n00b I'm still just learning the basic commands, so I'm not going to mess around too much... yet.

[Eug]

So, just another confirmation of these discs working in OS X.1...

Some guy in the Apple forums burned one of these discs with a Panasonic recorder like mine, and then walked into some stores with Macs.

EVERY X.1 machine (4 of them) played the disc, and EVERY X.2 machine did not, with the X.2 machines showing a mounted but empty disc. So that's pretty definitive.

[Millennium]

About access control lists:

People often confuse the "traditional" Unix permissions with access control lists. This isn't correct, but they are related.

Traditional Unix permissions basically only control access for three entities: the user who owns the file, the group associated with the file, and everyone else. Likewise, there are only three things one is said to be able to do with the file: read it, write to it, and execute its contents (the OSX GUI largely ignores this last permission, but the Terminal does not).

Access control lists give you finer-grained ability to control access, because you can specify permissions for specific users and specific groups, rather than just those which own the file. It is theoretically possible to do anything ACL's can do with traditional permissions, but this can get very cumbersome, so ACL's are a more convenient way of securing files in complicated situations.

Some Unix filesystems support ACL's. I don't know about UFS or HFS+, to be honest. NTFS also supports ACL's, but it uses a different permissions scheme than Unix does.

That shouldn't be causing this problem, though.

[2far]

A more convenient way of running DVD Player app with root permissions is to use Rooter http://macmagna.free.fr/, then you don't have to log out.

[Eug]

Originally posted by 2far:
A more convenient way of running DVD Player app with root permissions is to use Rooter http://macmagna.free.fr/, then you don't have to log out.

Kewl. Works like a charm.

Weird being able to play the DVDs, but not being able to see what's on them in the Finder.

[Eug]

Hmmm... Been checking some more...

It seems that with rooter or logging in as root, the menu doesn't always work properly. Works well enough to navigate but sometimes the button labels don't appear in the right spot or the labels don't appear at all. Weird.

[parkds]

I found that also to be the case with my menus with DVD's from my panasonic set-top recorder. It is odd...but the menus do seem to work well enough, and the discs play and can be copied in Toast, so no complaints! Rooter is a wonderful short-term (hopefully) solution!

[Eug]

Kinda irritating, but this is what I have to do to make compatible discs.

1) Take disc recorded on DMR-E30.
2) Stick disc in Mac and log in as root.
3) Copy VIDEO_TS folder over to hard drive and change the permissions so that everyone will have access to the folder.
4) Reburn DVD with Toast.

After this OS X has full access to the disc with a non-root account, although there are still some menu formatting problems. (The menu formatting is correct in Windows and on set top DVD players.)

I also did this once using OS 9 to transfer the files over, and if I remember correctly I don't have to muck with the permissions then like I did when I did this using the root account.