Unable to repair premissions anymore

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Level 1

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Unable to repair premissions anymore

After a few weeks unable to update from 10.5.4 to 10.5.5 I could finally do it after repairing disk permissions. Now !0.5.5 seems to run without problem, so I did'nt repair permissions again.

Then, I installed security update 2008-007 but it failed. I tought I had to repair permissions to resume the update, but Disk Utility is unable to repair permissions. Disk Warrior 4.1 does not open...

Thanks in advance for your precious advice!

imac 20" 2,4ghz

Posted on Oct 13, 2008 5:22 AM

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Answer 1

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Oct 13, 2008 5:56 AM in response to petitcoune

It sounds as though you have a persistent problem in your installation - possibly even a hardware problem. Do you have a current backup?

What sort of errors do you get when you attempt to repair permissions or start Disk Warrior?

Cheers,

Rodney

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Answer 2

petitcoune Author

Level 1

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Oct 13, 2008 6:11 AM in response to RodneyW

I have a fresh backup (TMachine) but I doubt it is a hardware problem. I worked just seconds before I tried to install 2008-007 security update. I have this iMac since july 2008 and did'nt have any problem until 10.5.5!

Disk utility says:
"Erreur : La tâche sous-jacente a signalé un échec à la fermeture."
which could be translated to:
"Error: Underlying task encontered a failure while closing." - I guess.

Disk Warrior simply does'nt open (beach ball rolls for minutes ans force quit says DW does'nt respond.

I did reset the PRAM, with no visible difference except my screen luminosity was back to the manufacturer's setting.

Everything works fine - I'm burning a DVD and downloading while I am writing this - but I cannot install security update...

Any idea ?

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Answer 3

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Oct 13, 2008 6:48 AM in response to petitcoune

Fair enough.

There may be other oracles of wisdom with something better - but an inability to install updates does imply that something pretty fundamental is going wrong. It is very unusual to have a machine "balk" at two updates in the way that yours has. The inability to run DW is also very bad.

Troubleshooting suggestions:

Safe Boot? Pray? Archive and Install? Call AppleCare (you should still be covered)?

Good luck...

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Answer 4

petitcoune Author

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Oct 13, 2008 6:57 AM in response to RodneyW

Thank's Rodney but you are scaring me!

Jacques

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Answer 5

Oct 13, 2008 8:07 AM in response to petitcoune

Hi Jacques;

No need to be frightened. Just take it into Apple and they will fix your iMac and make you feel much more comfortable.

Allan

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Answer 6

Samsara

Level 4

1,321 points

Oct 13, 2008 10:28 AM in response to petitcoune

Petitcoune,

When you're trying to use DiskWarrior you're starting up from the DiskWarrior disc aren't you? Can you start up from your OS disc?

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Answer 7

petitcoune Author

Level 1

0 points

Oct 13, 2008 5:18 PM in response to Samsara

I boot from my original Leopard DVD and I can use Disk Warrior but when I try to repair permissions I get a message: ""an unexpected error occured while attempting to perform the file operation"

Otherwise, I get messages from DW and Disk Utility that my hard drive is OK S.M.A.R.T. says disk is functioning normaly.

QUESTION: Does the fact that beeing unables to repair permissions while booting from DVD mean the problem is not a software issue but a hardwaire issue ?

I just discovered that I see a "ghost" drive besides my internal drive (I don't remember seeing it before) It is an unmounted 200mb disk named "disk0s1" and it contains a file named EFI/APPLE/EXTENSIONS/Firmware.scap

It has a read only status.

Still scared to get the mac back to the repairman (1 hour away from home).

Jacques

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Answer 8

Samsara

Level 4

1,321 points

Oct 13, 2008 7:50 PM in response to petitcoune

I know DiskWarrior will refuse to repair permissions on the disk it starts up from, but you shouldn't have that problem starting up from the OS disk and running Disk Utility.

To me it doesn't sound like a hardware problem, but I've been wrong before. Sounds more to me that the update itself screwed something up software-wise. That "ghost" drive is pretty unusual though. Can you, "optimize", rebuild, your disk via DiskWarrior? Does it allow you to?

Well, taking it in to be looked at would put your mind at ease. You do though, wisely, have a TM backup. I'd like to know what others think but I'm wondering if you could just use that to go back before you installed the update. It would mean starting up from your OS disc and using Disk Utility to install the TM back up over your current system, but isn't that what TMs are for?

But if you want to play it 100% safe, taking it in to an Apple Store would be the way to go. And in that vein, you might want to try something else. I've had great success just recently getting through to and getting advice from Apples Tech Support. That hasn't always been the case. Try giving them a call and asking their advice before doing anything you consider drastic. They just might have the answers you need.

Bon chance, Jacques. I wish you success.

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Answer 9

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Oct 13, 2008 11:53 PM in response to petitcoune

The "Ghost" drive is the EFI partition, it is supposed to be there.

Disk Warrior will not repair permissions on 10.5.5 volumes. It is a known issue.

Kj

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Answer 10

Samsara

Level 4

1,321 points

Oct 13, 2008 11:59 PM in response to KJK555

Didn't know that about DiskWarrior. Must have missed it on their website.

Why do you think he's seeing the "ghost" drive?

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Answer 11

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Oct 14, 2008 12:34 AM in response to Samsara

DW doesn't publicize it, I contacted Alsoft tech support with the problem and they did confirm
it was an issue.

I don't know why the EFI partition is visible in DU GUI. The invisible bit got reset somehow.
It does however, always show up as partition 1 on the command line in terminal.app
To see it type the following at the terminal.app prompt:
diskutil list
(press return)

output looks something like this:

My Mac Pro:~ Kj$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID partitionscheme *465.8 Gi disk0
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 151.1 Gi disk0s2
3: Apple_HFS Mac Data2 314.3 Gi disk0s3

I suggest that The OP restore the Time Machine backup to get the machine back to where it was
before the update.

Kj

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Answer 12

RodneyW

Level 4

3,035 points

Oct 14, 2008 12:41 AM in response to KJK555

A Time Machine restore will bring you back to where you were before the 10.5.5 update - but that does not really solve the problem - because the original poster was having problems before he applied that update.

Thus - my recommendation is a complete archive and install. If he talks with AppleCare, I suspect that this is also what they would recommend.

Regards,

Rodney

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Answer 13

KJK555

Level 4

2,900 points

Oct 14, 2008 1:02 AM in response to RodneyW

Since he has a Time Machine backup handy, an even better solution may be to do a repartition,
format and fresh install with all updates.

Then use Migration assistant to recover programs, settings and data from the TM backup.

Kj

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Answer 14

Samsara

Level 4

1,321 points

Oct 14, 2008 1:15 AM in response to RodneyW

He had a problem updating from 10.5.4 to 5.5. Maybe that's where things went downhill. Could he go that far back to undo that? Sounds messy, especially if there is some underlying problem that's not being addressed. I guess an archive and install would be a cleaner option. Calling an Apple Tech is still a good idea I think.

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Answer 15

Samsara

Level 4

1,321 points

Oct 14, 2008 1:22 AM in response to KJK555

Actually I wondered why DiskWarrior couldn't repair permissions on my main drive. I seem to remember some message coming up, but maybe not. Something made me think is was a natural thing and not a defect.

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