[megasad]

- Fresh install of 10.2.4.

- Remove all extraneous languages using DeLocalizer (even though I didn't install any extra languages when I installed, there were still 300MB freed up!).

- Try to run Repair Permissions.

- No go.

The partition in question, iBook, appears as greyed out when I open Disk Utility and go to the Emergency tab. It also does this when I start up from a pure 10.2.4 on a FireWire drive. I even tried cloning the OS X install on one partition to the other (data) partition on my iBook's drive; no go. However, when I booted up from the pure 10.2.4 on the FireWire drive, I was able to repair the permissions on that drive, and now that I think on it, I can do the same when booting from the iBook; I can repair the FireWire install, just not the one on my iBook.

The reason I mention DeLocalizer? Apart from the removal of extra language files, the OS X install on my iBook and the install on my FireWire drive are near identical. Might the removal of languages, maybe from Disk Utility itself, somehow disabled my ability to fix permissions on this partition?

Also, I downloaded an app called Cocktail, that offers the option to repair permissions. I ran it, and it said that it had completed, but usually it takes Disk Utility 15 minutes or so to do this, whereas Cocktail took only about 30 seconds. Is there any logs I can look at to see if it actually succeeded?

Is there any way I can get Disk Utility to let me Repair Permissions on my main system partition?

Thanks,
Simon

[malvolio]

Try this: Open a Terminal window and type:
sudo diskutil repairPermissions /
Authenticate with your admin password when prompted. This performs the same routine as Disk Utility.
If this command results in an error message, at least that should point you to what's causing the problem.

[megasad]

Tried it, got the informative response:

Code:
This disk cannot have it's permissions updated

Is there somewhere I can find out why?

[Kate]

Originally posted by megasad:
Tried it, got the informative response:

Code:
This disk cannot have it's permissions updated

Is there somewhere I can find out why?

Maybe the entire disk is now owned by "root", so you will not be able to even repair permissions.

You should start up from your FireWire disk, log in as Root and repair permissions of the internal disk. This way it should work at least.

[megasad]

Originally posted by Kate:
Maybe the entire disk is now owned by "root", so you will not be able to even repair permissions.

You should start up from your FireWire disk, log in as Root and repair permissions of the internal disk. This way it should work at least.

Nope, boot partition is Owned by "megasad", of Group "staff". Owner and Group have Read & Write access, Others have Read Only.

However, I'll try logging in as root and see if that works. I used to use Root all the time, for applying various system hacks, but I've been using sudo so long I forgot all about it.

Shall report back soon.

[malvolio]

I suspect something besides non-English .lproj files got deleted. When I ran DeLocalizer, it freed up something around 68 MB or so, IIRC.
Best advice I can offer is to reinstall 10.2.4.

[megasad]

Originally posted by malvolio:
I suspect something besides non-English .lproj files got deleted. When I ran DeLocalizer, it freed up something around 68 MB or so, IIRC.
Best advice I can offer is to reinstall 10.2.4.

You're probably right... Logging in as root both on my iBook and from an external drive did not help. For what it's worth, it probably wasn't DeLocalizer's fault; before I remembered said app, downloaded and ran it, I was removing the localizations from iMovie 3 and iPhoto 2 by hand, after reading that doing so would make them go faster. I then moved onto the other apps that come preinstalled with OS X, but, before moving onto all the apps I had installed myself (960MB, and that's now, after the removal of extraneous localisations) I decided to use a dedicated tool. So I probably deleted something by accident. Pah.

Also, I used DeLocalizer on my pure install of 10.2.4, to see what would happen. Freed up just under 60MB and I could still repair permissions on that volume. Double pah.

I have to reinstall OS X again after just getting it the way I like it, after three days? Tripple pah.

[megasad]

For those who care, an update:

- Did reinstall of Mac OS X 10.2.

- Removed localized files using DeLocalizer; freed up 256MB. Freed up another ~50MB by deleting documentation installed by iMovie that was not English, located in /Library/Documentation/iMovie.

- Repaired Permissions successfully.

Huzzah.

[megasad]

I spoke too fecking soon. This install is less than a week old, I've been careful to leave everything as is, only running DeLocalizer twice to remove extra languages... All was going well, I had the ability to repair permissions... and now, for no apparent reason, it is gone. I give up; I'll just reinstall in a few months time, when a few more point updates have appeared and I can be arsed to spend a day reinstalling everything.

Though... This is a shot in the dark, but does anyone know if not installing OS 9 drivers when I reformatted my drive might have anything to do with this? I realise I'm clutching at straws, but I can't think of any other reason that it's not working... Though surely, if that was the reason, it would not have worked from the outset? I don't know. Any ideas? Anyone else had this happen to them?

[jgift]

Like you I removed languages by hand than ran DeLocalizer. No problems with permissions afterwards. Also removed 80MB after I had done my own cleaning.

Also ran Drive 10, Disk Utilities, everything is Ok.