[superblue]

I'm trying to repair permissions on a buggy crash-prone MDD G4 running 10.2 in my office, and once started, the repair flies through a huge list of permissions that need repairing, yet each one goes unchanged with the message "operation not permited".

Why is this, and how can I get around it?

I'm pretty sure it has a stick of slightly dodgy RAM in it, though that doesn't seem to cause a lot of problems, and that wouldn't be affecting the permissions, would it?

[Chris Grande]

Can you say what files it is trying to correct? Are they personal files or system files?

[electropura]

Had this happen to me once a few months ago....I could not even enable root and repair permissions as the root user...in desperation II used carbon copy cloner to copy my drive to a firewire drive (setting it to repair permissions prior to copying)...It worked...I then copied the data back using CCC...and voila, my permissions were fixed.

[Mastrap]

Go to versiontracker and do a search for an app called 'cocktail'.

It might be able to repair your permissions even if the build in system doesn't.

[superblue]

Originally posted by Chris Grande:
Can you say what files it is trying to correct? Are they personal files or system files?

Well I just rtan it briefly again and these are the first few lines:

Permissions differ on ./Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/Info.plist, should be -rw-rw-r-- , they are -rwxrwxrwx
Owner and group not corrected on ./Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/Info.plist, reason Operation not permitted
Permissions not corrected on ./Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/Info.plist, reason Operation not permitted
Permissions differ on ./Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk Utility, should be -rwsrwxr-x , they are -rwxrwxrwx
Owner and group not corrected on ./Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk Utility, reason Operation not permitted

In the first minute or so it ran for, all the hundreds of lines referred to Disk Utility.app...

[Mithras]

You can get that error if the files are locked.

Check in the Finder whether they appear to be locked, and use the the SetFile ( I think?) tool from the Developer Tools to unlock them.

[Tsilou B.]

You are trying to repair the permissions with "Disk Utility", but if you look at the output, its own permissions are incorrect, so that it has no longer the authorisation to correct permissions.

It's easy to fix that. Open a Terminal and enter:

sudo chmod a+s "/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk Utility"

it will prompt for your administrator password.

Then enter another command:

sudo chown root "/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/Disk Utility"

when these commands have run, start Disk Utility again, and this time, it will fix the permissions.

[superblue]

Thanks Tsilou B - that seems to have done the trick. It's repairing a bucketload of permissions now. Fingers crossed this should sort the freezes out.

[absmiths]

Originally posted by superblue:
Thanks Tsilou B - that seems to have done the trick. It's repairing a bucketload of permissions now. Fingers crossed this should sort the freezes out.

Another option is just to repair the permissions from the command line:

Code:
sudo diskutil repairPermissions /

By the way, if you do have a "stick of dodgy RAM" you can expect all kinds of odd problems - from filesystem corruption to instability to Word running correctly (a real anomaly). I would replace that ASAP, or at least remove it.

[murk]

I extend my thanks also. I have been unable to correct permissions for months and this has done the trick. My system has been unaffected by the permission problem, but still it was worrying me. I had posted the question here and on various other forums, but no one else helped. Thanks!

[superblue]

Originally posted by absmiths:
By the way, if you do have a "stick of dodgy RAM" you can expect all kinds of odd problems - from filesystem corruption to instability to Word running correctly (a real anomaly). I would replace that ASAP, or at least remove it.

Yes, although the permissions were fixed, I came in this morning, woke the computer and was greeted by a kernel panic screen, so I certainly think removing the RAM is the next step.

[BoulderDash]

Big up, thanks.

BD

[Spheric Harlot]

There's a little program out since day before yesterday called "Fix Disk Utility Permissions" or some such like that will do the same as those lines of code posted up above.

get it at http://www.macupdate.com

-s*