Permissions problem with Lion

F

fpayne

Registered
Being the proud owners of two new MB Airs, when installing the software I have come across a problem with the installation of a small game. When it is transferred to any folder under the current users home directory it will not open, saying I do not have sufficient privileges and it needs to be opened from an administrators account. The user account has administrator privileges, I have repaired the permissions and even changed the permissions on the file to read, write and execute for everyone. Whatever I do, it still will not open. I have had no problems with any other file or folder and the problem is the same on both MB Airs with the same game file. Anyone have any ideas please?

Thanks
 
By going into the root user account and running the program from there it started. Then switching back to the normal user account it will run as normal. Problem solved? Well sort of.

When the normal user account has admin privileges, surely the program should run? It would appear the same things happens to all the games which have been downloaded from Gamehouse.

There was no problem with OSX 10.6, it is only the new regime with permissions in Lion which seems to be causing the problem.

Any advice will be gratefully received.
 
Would be helpful to know which 'small game' is giving you a problem.
Maybe it's just not really compatible with Lion, and needs to be updated. Have you checked at the game publisher or developer site for info about updates for Lion?
 
Thanks for your reply.

aking this in reverse order, yes I have checked and it would appear there is no update.

It is more than one game. The two games so far have been Bejewelled 3 and Collapse 3. It could well be they are not compatible with Lion, but they now work fine having started them from the root directory and then changed to the normal user account.

This is just one of the issues I have had with Lion permissions. Not to mention Mail and compatability issues. For me, this is the worst update yet from Apple.

Kind regards
 
I can tell you something about Bejeweled 3 - as I started playing that with 10.6, and continue to play with 10.7
I was bewildered at first, because it changed the location for the support files, from the main Library, to my user Library folder, with no other change, except for the upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion. I have not seen ANY other app need to be reset in that same way. The license for that game had to be re-entered. I'll pin that little issue on the game itself, but it works fine once I got that sorted. I know that Bejeweled recommends installation in the main Applications folder, and not in a user folder. That may have helped me, too - thanks for prodding me to look at the developer's site.
The other game you mentioned is a Java game, which would have its own issues with Java versions, etc.

Now that those games are working - are you having other problems?
Just as a hint - try to avoid messing with permissions in OS X, unless it's for some specific issue, and you know exactly how to proceed. Lion seems to have changed how the system deals with permissions, and in my experience, seems to be a good change. It's still a bad idea to try to out-think your OS X system. My experience is that it takes care of itself fairly well.
There's plenty of info by now at various sites about compatibility issues with Lion. Some are simple, others may need to wait for system updates. The issues that I have had mostly settled down to "not much to talk about" after using Lion for a few weeks, except to mention that I have found Lion to be significantly faster than previous version of OS X (if you give it enough RAM), and in my experience, very solid and stable.
I don't use Mac Mail for a variety of reasons, none of them are about compatibility. I haven't tried the Lion version of Mail, and prefer Thunderbird.

After thinking for a while, I think my worst experience with an Apple update was one that ended up formatting the hard drive without my knowledge (and in my dumb days before I started backing up the hard drive). I think it was going from OS 8.0 to 8.1!
None of these little details that I occasionally deal with in OS X are even close to that debacle...
 
Thanks again for your reply.
Other than regularly repairing the permissions, I try not to mess with them. I had to manually change the permissions on some personal files and documents (not program files).
Mail is a big improvement on the previous version but like you I prefer Thunderbird. Mail still strips out or fails to display some attachments. I have an ongoing issue where it keeps telling me there is a missing plug in. Recipients have replied saying there was no attachment even though it was clearly there in the reply. There are no such issues in Thunderbird.
The clean install on the MacBook Airs is definitely better than the upgrade route on the iMacs with far fewer issues of compatibility. I guess this is because as you say, that the files are put in a different location than they were before.
Overall though, 10.7 is significantly faster than 10.6 and on the Airs, with the SSD drives it flies.
 
There's no need for "regularly repairing the permissions", and even that does not touch your own files and documents. Repairing permissions is a troubleshooting technique, not a maintenance requirement.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top