software Update permission denied

[yellow]

Quote: Originally Posted by mikehkg Hayne, tks a lot for your detailed post. My terminal said that items starting with "." or ".." could not be deleted (there were also 2 directories inside the temp folder which i had no clue how to delete them)

"." is the OS indicator for the "current directory", ".." is the OS indicator for the "parent directory". So if you're in /Users/yellow and do and ls -a, "." mean /Users/yellow and ".." means /Users. They aren't "deleteable" in the classic sense.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by mikehkg In my opinion, OS X installation should offer the whole permissions and multi-users functions stuff as an optional install as this functions may probably not be used elsewhere than in schools etc.

Actually, multiple users and permissions etc are fundamental to the Unix system on which OS X is based. It's not an option.

[macXter]

I received this same message when trying to update behind a firewall that did not allow the domains where computer downloads the files. I changed the IP on the server for one allowed to go outside world.

Problem fixed.

[Cyber]

Hello Folks,
Thanks for this complete guide, I came here with this problem, and with the information above, fixed everything. Thanks you again.
Now, the dock is not loading. Tryied to move, unhide, etc, but nothing happens. Any clue?
Thanks a lot for your support!

Cyber.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cyber Now, the dock is not loading. Tryied to move, unhide, etc, but nothing happens.

This sounds like a different problem. Please start a new thread giving full details about:
- your Mac model
- version of OS X
- what you see, what you expected to see
- what you have done to try to fix it

But before all this, go through the standard troubleshooting steps:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...04011205473937
http://forums.osxfaq.com/viewtopic.php?t=7269

[Pierrelong]

Quote: Originally Posted by hayne One of those files is the symbolic link that we were trying to create earlier. But it's in the wrong place, so let's start by deleting it. Execute the following command in a Terminal window: sudo rm /tmp/tmp Now if you redo the 'ls -la /tmp' command, you should see that the last entry (the symbolic link) is gone. Since there are several other files in that /tmp folder, and some of them might be in use at the moment, I would recommend restarting your Mac and then doing the following before connecting to Internet. (Some of the files seem to be related to Internet connections.) 1) Check again what files are in the /tmp directory by doing: ls -la /tmp 2) Assuming there doesn't seem to be anything important there (i.e. at least nothing more than showed up earlier), let's go ahead and remove all the files that are in the /tmp directory by doing the following commands: cd /tmp [edit](important! I had forgotten to write this the first time)[/edit] sudo rm -i * sudo rm -i .* The "-i" option in the above will make it ask you to confirm deletion of each file as it comes to it (we're being extra careful here) - reply with y (as it tells you to). 3) Now the /tmp directory should be empty, so we can remove it with the following command: sudo rmdir /tmp 4) Finally, we can recreate the symbolic link by doing the following command: sudo ln -s /private/tmp /tmp 5) Check that the symbolic link is there by doing the following command: ls -la / | grep tmp 6) If it shows up properly (something like: lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 3 Dec 04:26 tmp -> private/tmp ) then you should restart your Mac and then all should be well. NB: Since I'm recommending that you do the above without connecting to Internet, you will obviously need to copy those instructions down on paper (or print them).

Hi Hayne !! I have the same problem. I followed exactly what you were saying, but when I entry ; " sudo rm -i .* "
The answer is :
rm: "." and ".." may not be removed

Any ideas on what I should do next?
Thanks a lot !
Pierre

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pierrelong when I entry ; " sudo rm -i .* " The answer is : rm: "." and ".." may not be removed

That's okay - that message is expected. I think the command will have done its work anyway, so just proceed with the next step.

[Las_Vegas]

Quote: Originally Posted by hayne Quote: Originally Posted by Pierrelong when I entry ; " sudo rm -i .* " The answer is : rm: "." and ".." may not be removed That's okay - that message is expected. I think the command will have done its work anyway, so just proceed with the next step.

Actually it wouldn't have deleted anything. Most update files in the /tmp directory would be in the form of packages and appear to UNIX as folders. the command to remove them would then be:

sudo rm -ir /tmp

…which would remove the tmp directory and all contents throughout the hierarchy with confirmation on each file/folder.

[Pierrelong]

Unfortunatly I'm still stuck with this problem. Even when I try to download manually from the Apple website.
The downloading goes fine but the computer refuses to install it. My HD icon appaer with a red exclamation mark on it.
HELP !!!
Thanks
Pierre

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pierrelong Unfortunatly I'm still stuck with this problem. Even when I try to download manually from the Apple website. The downloading goes fine but the computer refuses to install it. My HD icon appaer with a red exclamation mark on it.

We need to know more details. Please don't just say "it's the same" - you need to spell out exactly what you see (error messages etc) and what you have been trying.
For a start, are you seeing the same error message (about /tmp permissions) that you reported before?
I'm not sure what the red exclamation mark (is this in Disk Utility?) means.
Try repairing the filesystem (not permissions) as explained in this Apple doc:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106214

[Pierrelong]

Hi !!!!

I tryed everything. I open the Disk Utility using the CD provided with my computer (Powerbook G4, 12in).
I did:
Repair permissions
Repair Disk
and finally i did the fsck thing. Nothing was wrong it looks like.
Then I tryed again Software Update. As always, it's dowloading normally, and then, I get this message:
"Make sure you have permission to write to /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate, then try again."

[Pierrelong]

Sorry to bother you again with that Hayne, but you seem to be my last hope!

[MSutton]

After spending 5+ hours today I think I finally have a resolution (scroll past the initial rant here for the meat).

It started when Lotus Notes bombed out this morning for a user and could not be restarted without crashing. While troubleshooting that, I decided to grab system updates and received similar problems to those listed in this thread. That's when I knew there was a bigger problem. Opening the install log for one of the updates, I found it could not write to the /private/tmp folder for some reason. I had it really bad: the /etc/sudoers had the wrong security so I couldn't use the su/sudo command, I couldn't delete/recreate /private/tmp because security was wrong on it, and after fixing that I got stuck with the dreaded "folder not empty" even though it looked empty as far as i could tell.

Anyway....after much ado, here was my solution:
- Download TinkerTools (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11967)
- User TinkerTools to view hidden folders in the finder.
- Browse to /private/tmp and delete everything in folder
- Delete /tmp folder, and create new one
- Do a "get info" on the new /tmp folder to verify security. For my users, I just made sure the admin group had R/W access. If the group is set to read only (which it was for me) then use the trusty command:
"sudo chmod -R g+wrx /private/tmp"
- hide files again, restart, and test. Everything was fine for me after this.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pierrelong Then I tryed again Software Update. As always, it's dowloading normally, and then, I get this message: "Make sure you have permission to write to /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate, then try again."

Please re-read the posts in this thread, starting at the beginning. If the symptoms described by others seem to fit your situation, then follow the instructions given above for fixing it.
Basically you want to end up with there being a symbolic link at /tmp that points to /private/tmp
You will have arrived at that desirable end when the following command:
ls -l /tmp
gives a result like this:
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 21 Sep 01:19 /tmp -> private/tmp

If you still have trouble after carefully following the instructions,please do it again, this time step by step and show us what you did at each stage and the results of that stage.
You could start by running the commands listed in post #2 of this thread and showing us what you get.

[MSutton]

Quote: Originally Posted by hayne Basically you want to end up with there being a symbolic link at /tmp that points to /private/tmp You will have arrived at that desirable end when the following command: ls -l /tmp gives a result like this: lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 21 Sep 01:19 /tmp -> private/tmp

Note that this *was* my status from early in the process -- and it still bombed out. A suggestion from another thread was simply to delete the symbolic link *and* the actual /tmp folder and recreate both (which was easier said then done). Anyway, that finally worked for me, see my previous post.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by MSutton Note that this *was* my status from early in the process -- and it still bombed out. A suggestion from another thread was simply to delete the symbolic link *and* the actual /tmp folder and recreate both (which was easier said then done). Anyway, that finally worked for me, see my previous post.

Before deleting anything, I would prefer to understand what the problem is. If you have the symbolic link pointing to /private/tmp and you still get that error message about permissions, then I guess it is a problem with the permissions of /private/tmp (and sub-folders).
And I wouldn't trust Finder's File/Get Info when dealing with folders like /private/tmp - I would always use the command line:
ls -l /private/tmp

[Pierrelong]

I tryied what MSutton did for himself. I downloaded Tinkertools (great little software!) and did all the things you said and....it works! everything is back to normal now.
Thanks a lot !!!
As Hayne said, it would have been interesting to know the reason why everything ****ed up in the first place. Its a real mystery;

Thanks again guys for all the good advice.
Pierre

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pierrelong As Hayne said, it would have been interesting to know the reason why everything ****ed up in the first place.

Actually, what I said was that I would have liked to understand what the problem was. I.e. to see exactly what files and folders existed and what their ownership & permissions were - before they got deleted in order to solve the problem!
If we understood what the bad situation is, then maybe we would have a chance of guessing how it got that way.
Note that the Finder hides some info from you - it is not a good tool for use when trying to diagnose a problem.

[Sulphonate]

Hi there,

I found these two threads thanks to some helpful people on the Macworld forums, although they are almost a year old I am having the same problem. I have tried all of the suggestions, including using disk utiliy and tinkertools, and nothing seems to work. When i entered the following commands in the terminal (like Haynes suggested):

id
ls -ld /private/tmp
ls -ld /private/tmp/502
ls -ld /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItems
ls -ld /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate

I get this:

Richard-Schneiders-Computer:~ sulphonate$ id
uid=501(sulphonate) gid=501(sulphonate) groups=501(sulphonate), 79(appserverusr), 80(admin), 81(appserveradm)
Richard-Schneiders-Computer:~ sulphonate$ ls -ld /private/tmp
drwxrwxrwt 3 root wheel 102 30 Apr 19:47 /private/tmp
Richard-Schneiders-Computer:~ sulphonate$ ls -ld /private/tmp/502
ls: /private/tmp/502: No such file or directory
Richard-Schneiders-Computer:~ sulphonate$ ls -ld /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItemsls: /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItems: No such file or directory
Richard-Schneiders-Computer:~ sulphonate$ ls -ld /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate
ls: /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate: No such file or directory
Richard-Schneiders-Computer:~ sulphonate$

As I am just getting my feet wet with OSX, I previously had a G3/233/MT running OS 9.2, any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't complete software update, error message below:

Make sure you have permission to write to /private/tmp/502/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate, then try again

and when I try to run it as download only I get the packages message:

Make sure you have permission to write to /Library/Packages, then try again

Any help would be awesome.

best regards,

Rich Schneider

[yellow]

Silly question: Have you tried repairing permissions?

Though as far as I can tell, it only touches /private/tmp and corrects it's permissions, but it's worth a shot.