I'm Having Trouble With Admin Settings For El Capitan

[amcliz]

Hi all.....

I'm having trouble with the Administrator Settings in El Capitan... I have the beta installed on a partition on my main computer that's running Yosemite 10.10.4

I want to test out my core desktop publishing applications under the new OS... but every time I try and change an OS setting or install a new app onto that partition... it keeps asking me for my username and password. I have given the one that I use for Yosemite.... but it keeps rejecting it.

Is there a way around this... or what am I doing wrong...?

Any comments or suggestions very much welcome.

Regards,
Anthony

 

[Cheryl]

Your El Capitan partition should have a separate user/admin. On a new install, it should have asked you to create one at your first boot or start up. Check the System Preferences>Users & Groups after you start up in El Capitan.

 

[DeltaMac]

Your screen shot does not show a user name (your account name). Did you blank that out for the screen shot?
If not, then have you tried entering your admin account user name in that blank line, then the password for that account?

As Cheryl suggests, the account is for an admin account on your El Capitan install. If you imported files and settings from your Yosemite installation, then it should be the same. If you made new accounts (as a new user) on your El Capitan install, then you would use those for authentication.

If you don't remember what you did for user name and password during the setup as a new user (or nothing works, even by entering your complete user account name and password), you may need to reset those for El Capitan. That's still a simple task, booting to the Recovery system.

 

[Satcomer]

Is there a Security pane in System Preference? There might be a setting to ask you every time for third party software checked.

 

[amcliz]

Your screen shot does not show a user name (your account name). Did you blank that out for the screen shot?
If not, then have you tried entering your admin account user name in that blank line, then the password for that account?

As Cheryl suggests, the account is for an admin account on your El Capitan install. If you imported files and settings from your Yosemite installation, then it should be the same. If you made new accounts (as a new user) on your El Capitan install, then you would use those for authentication.

If you don't remember what you did for user name and password during the setup as a new user (or nothing works, even by entering your complete user account name and password), you may need to reset those for El Capitan. That's still a simple task, booting to the Recovery system.

Hi Delta Mac.... Actually when I installed this beta version onto my partition it never asked for a new username account... it asked for my iCloud & iTunes account setting during the setup sequence... I know my username and password for my main Yosemite system off by heart as it's the same combination I have used now for over a decade... I have tried using that but I still get the wobbling rejected dialog box.

And when I go to the new Users & Groups section in the new El Capitan install OS... I see all the options greyed out... but I see my account photo from Yosemite and I'm listed as a guest user... not Admin.... but when I go to unlock the lock icon to make new settings... I get asked for my Admin Username and Password which I enter as from my Yosemite account and nothing works. So frustrating.

The other part of this partition has lots of very important information on it... about 2TB's worth... I have a complete Drobo backup.... but I would be too nervous and inexperienced to start messing around with re-boot Recovery modes... I just wanted to see how El Capitan worked with QuarkXpress / Creative Cloud / Suitcase Fusion / Account Edge Plus 2014.

So far... I launched Quark with a few alerts and errors from my old Yosemite Apps folder and all looks and performs excellently.... but I need to test out all my other apps before I take the plunge... but so far from what I can see I like the new update for sure.


Regards,
Anthony
Irish MacUser and MacAddict

 

[amcliz]

Your El Capitan partition should have a separate user/admin. On a new install, it should have asked you to create one at your first boot or start up. Check the System Preferences>Users & Groups after you start up in El Capitan.

Thank you Cheryl for your reply and comments. Very much appreciated.

 

[DeltaMac]

You need to change your user account on the El Cap system to an admin -- a guest user doesn't need an admin authentication, but then you also don't get access to much of anything (It's a guest user, similar to a standard (non-admin) account)
Restart, while holding Cmd+R.
That will boot to your Recovery system.
From the menus, choose Terminal.
Type resetpassword. - you will see the Reset Password app appear.
Choose your partition, then the system administrator from the user accounts dropdown.
enter some password that you want to use, then click Save.
Then, restart your Mac, booting to your El Cap partition.
This boot, you will see the login window with a new user, called Other... Choose that user.
Username will be root. Password will be whatever you just saved. That will log you in as the root user, which gives you superuser access to do a lot of things.
Now, you can add a admin user account, you shouldn't even need to unlock any preference panes (because you are a "superuser" ) Just remember that while you are logged in as the root user, your security is at risk.
Create your user account, make it the same login as your older system, if you prefer. Then, log out of root, and log back in to your new user account. It will let you install apps, and you will be able to do things that the "guest" user refused to do.
Important last step - DISABLE the root user. Even if you are not logged in to root, it still is a security risk, due to the level of access that the root user allows.
You can follow the steps in this article - https://support.apple.com/kb/PH14281?locale=en_US
I know it is for Mavericks, but same for later OS X systems. You couldn't enable the easy way, because you had no access at that time, But you can use the easy steps to disable the Root User account.