permissions issue?

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permissions issue?

After troubleshooting an issue this afternoon with Apple Support I was told to boot the install disks and run Repair Permissions and Repair Disk.

My copy program reports the following now:

rsync: error getting creation date from "/Volumes/SuperDuper/System/Library/User Template/Italian.lproj/Library": Result too large (34) (51)

Using Get Info on that folder I see that system as read & write and everyone has no access. There's no entry for my user.

Could the repair actually have done damage?

iMac 20/2.0/2G/250/SD/BT/AP, Mac OS X (10.5.1), Black MacBook 13/2.0/2G/80G/SD/BT/AP

Posted on Nov 23, 2007 10:19 PM

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Answer 1

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Scott Radloff

Level 6

14,496 points

Nov 23, 2007 10:33 PM in response to rdlsmith

RWSmith,

The permissions you report are correct; all of the user templates should be "no access" for everyone but root (aka system). It does appear from the error message that there is some problem with the creation date for at least this one item.

But, there's no reason why running any repair routine on your startup volume would have any effect on what is obviously a secondary or external volume. Is it possible that you attempted to "clone" a startup volume with an existing disk error?

Scott

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Answer 2

rdlsmith Author

Level 1

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Nov 23, 2007 10:46 PM in response to Scott Radloff

It was a Super Duper volume I was using SD with even though it doesn't work well with Leopard. I downloaded CCC3 to give it a try and it worked well but for that one error. I was able to boot from it. I even let it "smart update" the SD volume and it did well.

I ran the copy again and this time it ran with no errors. Maybe the first time corrected whatever was wrong?

I should do an erase and copy and will soon but I just wanted to know if CCC3 would work at all. So far I have to wonder why I was waiting on SD to come out with a Leopard version.

By the way, the Apple Tech today told me to boot the install disks and run repair on permissions and disk every two weeks or at least once a month. He also told me to do that BEFORE running any updates.

Really??? Do you agree with that? I haven't been doing that and have had no issues. It seems a bit much. This is a Unix based system after all and that equates to a reboot. Yuk. Really? Must I? Is there another way?

Also, is there a way to create a startup disk that contains just what I need to run these utilities so I don't have to keep booting off my one and only copy of the OS disks?

Thanks much for the reply.

Randall

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Answer 3

Nov 23, 2007 10:53 PM in response to rdlsmith

What the tech said is a good precautionary measure to take. It wont hurt anything and can only help prevent problems from cropping up due to use.

You can create a disk image of your installation DVD and restore it to a partition on a drive somewhere (using disk utility). You can then boot off that partition to use the utilities on it, and it will be much faster than booting off the DVD.

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Answer 4

rdlsmith Author

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Nov 23, 2007 11:27 PM in response to Topher Kessler

Thank you for your help.

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Answer 5

Nov 23, 2007 11:34 PM in response to rdlsmith

RWSmith,

Glad to hear that this was a transitory issue. Well, why are you bothering with SD?? :-D

Seriously, I have never felt the need for "cloning" utilities, and I see even less need now that we have Time Machine. I like to keep things as simple as possible, and maintaining clones is by no means simple. Prior to TM, I maintained backups of my user data only, using rsync. If I ever encountered a problem, I was very quick to simply (there's that word again) format, reinstall everything, then restore my user data from backup. Yes, it took 2 or 3 hours, but I never, ever spent additional time troubleshooting this or that, trying to figure out how to "fix" something that probably couldn't be fixed, ever.

One can repair permissions while booted normally, but there is no need to do so at any time other than before and after running an installer or updater. Anyone who tells you differently is misguided and/or misinformed. Repairing, or at least verifying, the file system on a regular basis is a very good thing, but this happens by default every time your machine starts or restarts. Unless you are experiencing problems, there is absolutely no need to boot to your install disk.

And, when you do experience problems, there is still no need for that precious disk. Simply (he, he) start up in Single-User mode (Command-S at the startup chime). When the "barely alive" version of UNIX that is SIngle-User mode has completed booting, and you see a prompt, type:

<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">fsck -fy</pre>

then press <RETURN>. This will perform the same routine as the "Repair Disk" function in Disk Utility. When it has "done its thing," type:

<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">reboot</pre>

and press <RETURN> to start up normally. No disks required.

Scott

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