not able to repair permissions -- what?!?

T

tinroots

Registered
Wholey crap -- So I'm in my everything is breaking week + here; but I was simply trying to repair permissions on my Powerbook G4 667, running 10.3.9 ((because Microtwerps Office (10.1.4) won't open files after a while?!!?!) and it says that it’s lost contact and can’t repair them… what is that?!?! What happened:
I booted from the 10.3.7 disk 1, running Disk Utility, I select my (unmounted) hardrive and after about 4 minutes it stops saying: "Disk Utility internal error, Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility."
So I quit and restarted the app and tried again. No go - same error.
So I restarted and tried again; no go - same error. Then I started to silently panic.
I restarted on TechToll Pro 4.0.5 and ran alllll the tests; everything passed except ‘minor errors in the files, so I repaired them.
5 years later, I restarted in single user mode and fsck'd it (what the heck does that do anyway?)
I restarted again, with a different 10.3.7 disk 1 (an original – in case my copy had gone bad?!?) opened Disk Utility, selcted my hardrive and clicked repair permissions and got the same error.
Bitting my lip, I quit the app and restarted it, and tried to simply verify my permissions - now it's sitting with that error...
WHAT do I do?!?
What does that mean - lost it's connection with the Disk Management Tool ?
Is there another way to repair permissions? Do I close my eyes and act like it didn't happen?!?!? ...please help..
 
You don't have to (and probably should not) boot from your install disk to repair permissions using DU. Just launch it right from the Utilities folder. Or use a 3rd party utility like OnyX to repair permissions. And make sure nothing else is running at the same time or it will take forever.
 
FSCK stands for filesystem check(er). It basically does what Disk Utility does but from the command line (and sometimes more than Disk Utility can do). If you followed the directions given to you when you booted into Single User Mode, then everything should have gone as planned.

The other option (and this is a hunch, so hopefully someone can confirm this) is to delete the plist file for Disk Utility. It's possible that maybe it's gotten corrupt. Check in /Library/Preferences or in Library/Preferences that's resident in your home folder.
 
If it's booted from CD, though, it shouldn't read your user's preferences, actually. Maybe something changed between 10.3.7 and 10.3.9 that disables checking permissions with the older DU on the newer system?
 
, Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool
Click to expand...

Move Itunes from the Application folder to your Desktop.
Move the iTunes.pkg from

/library/receipts folder to your Desktop

Then try running Disk Utility from your Utility folder, not while booted off the OS Disc.
 
Thanks so much yall! (I get nervous asking questions when I don't ever reply to peoples... but I don't know the answers and assume it's best to keep quiet, but I allllways appreciate that you guys kick butt and know it all!)

this is a dumb question,
but in order to go back to itunes 6.0.1
do i need to erase all itunes and download only the 6.0.1
or can i go backwards??

have sooo much to learn, so thanks!
 
Hi again Tinroots... To go back to iTunes 6.0.1, make sure you have a copy of it somewhere (not sure Apple still has it on their site), then put version 6.0.2 from your Applications folder into the Trash, and put your 6.0.1 version into the Applications folder - no need to reconfigure anything. It should just work. *

Whenever there is an update available from Apple (for iTunes or iPhoto or whatever), I do make a backup copy of my current version of the application to my external harddrive, and only then update the one in my Applications folder. Has saved me lots of times, since whenever I ran into problems with the latest version of an app, I just trashed it and put the old one back...

Usually works with jumps from say, e.g., iTunes 6.0.1 to 6.0.2 - but maybe one might run into problems if it was a change back from iTunes 6.0.2 to 4 or so... (in the latter case I would also backup all the iTunes Preference files, Library files, plus - just to be on the safe side - the iTunes Music Library (which is by default located in the Music folder of your Home folder).

Has anyone else noticed, btw, that when repairing permissions, Terminal always states something about "iTunes - malformed object (blah blah)"?

patrice
http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/

* if you can't find your 6.0.1 anywhere, let me know, and I'll email you the Installer.
 
You could try my utility, Mac HelpMate, which uses the command line versin of Disk Utility and see if that helps. FWIW, I have seen the error you've spoken of, and ironically, it's because the permissions of Disk Utility itself need to be repaired.

tinroots said:
Wholey crap -- So I'm in my everything is breaking week + here; but I was simply trying to repair permissions on my Powerbook G4 667, running 10.3.9 ((because Microtwerps Office (10.1.4) won't open files after a while?!!?!) and it says that it’s lost contact and can’t repair them… what is that?!?! What happened:
I booted from the 10.3.7 disk 1, running Disk Utility, I select my (unmounted) hardrive and after about 4 minutes it stops saying: "Disk Utility internal error, Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue. Please quit and relaunch Disk Utility."
So I quit and restarted the app and tried again. No go - same error.
So I restarted and tried again; no go - same error. Then I started to silently panic.
I restarted on TechToll Pro 4.0.5 and ran alllll the tests; everything passed except ‘minor errors in the files, so I repaired them.
5 years later, I restarted in single user mode and fsck'd it (what the heck does that do anyway?)
I restarted again, with a different 10.3.7 disk 1 (an original – in case my copy had gone bad?!?) opened Disk Utility, selcted my hardrive and clicked repair permissions and got the same error.
Bitting my lip, I quit the app and restarted it, and tried to simply verify my permissions - now it's sitting with that error...
WHAT do I do?!?
What does that mean - lost it's connection with the Disk Management Tool ?
Is there another way to repair permissions? Do I close my eyes and act like it didn't happen?!?!? ...please help..
Click to expand...
 
sourcehound: are you 100 % positive about this:

"ironically, it's because the permissions of Disk Utility itself need to be repaired."?

if memory serves right, even trying to repair permissions in Single User mode using applejack would not work as long as i had iTunes 6.0.2 installed.

patrice
http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/
 
Thanks for your help. Spent an hour on Apple's web site with no luck. 10 minutes here and Disk Utility was up and running again.Bobw's solution did the trick.
 
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