Removing stubborn files using Terminal not permitted

Threading here is a disaster...

How did you track down all the Wacom files in the first place - or are you just responding to an error message you get on install or did you use a cleaner app to find and remove them. Asking because some cleaner apps can mess up the file system.

I raised a ticket with Wacom and they pointed me at a help page to manually uninstall.

If I were you the things I'd try would be:

1 - rename the folders to zzzanoyingfolder or something unlikely to mess with other apps and try the re-install again. It will be interesting to see if you're allowed to rename them.

Can't rename them :-)

2 is your tablet connected while you are doing this? Have you tried deleting with the tablet connected/disconnected?

It's disconnected...

3 get a good search app and search your HD for files with Wacom and delete them (carefully, of course). They might be preventing the deletion of the the folders. This would be an act of desperation, admittedly, cos sudo rmdir is usually more guilty of deleting useable stuff than not being able to delete useless stuff. Spotlight won't find anything useful. I use easyfind, but other search apps are available.

It's just these three directories that are left, according to Wacom at least...

Zurarczurx wrote:

There's no threading. You can use the quotes button below to add text (clumsily) so people know what you're responding to.

Try connecting the tablet and deleting them.

What happens when you try to rename them? It should ask for an admin password. It should also ask for an admin password when you try to delete them and the fact that it didn't is very odd

1) Thanks :-)

2) It's a thought but makes no difference sadly...

3) Doesn't ask for password, just doesn't respond at all in the usual way. Can't select the name to change it.

Barney-15E wrote:

smartin2021 wrote:

Barney,

There's no sound and it doesn't really move at all when I drag it to the trash, not as you'd expect it to move. Same if I do Command+Backspace. No sound, nothing.

It's as if it never gets to the Trash.

That doesn’t indicate a permission problem. There is something else going on. My thoughts are you have wasted more time than it is worth. They will have no effect on your Mac unless you need to reinstall the tablet software.

I *do* need to reinstall the software :-) At the moment the new installation fails with no useful error message. The only thing we can think of is to completely clean up the old files...

Zurarczurx wrote:

Disc doctor - repair disc. I know that Safe Mode should have done this, but the fact that Finder isn't responding correctly (passwords, drag and drop, etc.) points to something else and it's way above my pay grade now. Have you got good backups of everything?

Disk Doctor...? Is that still a thing? I've tried the Drive Utility and even Onyx...

I do have backups but it's more of an issue of getting rid of files :-)

Barney-15E wrote:

smartin2021 wrote:

Barney-15E wrote:

smartin2021 wrote:

Barney,

There's no sound and it doesn't really move at all when I drag it to the trash, not as you'd expect it to move. Same if I do Command+Backspace. No sound, nothing.

It's as if it never gets to the Trash.

That doesn’t indicate a permission problem. There is something else going on. My thoughts are you have wasted more time than it is worth. They will have no effect on your Mac unless you need to reinstall the tablet software.

I *do* need to reinstall the software :-) At the moment the new installation fails with no useful error message. The only thing we can think of is to completely clean up the old files...

It is likely failing because it cannot write to those files. You may be able to remove them in Terminal in Recovery. You would need to mount the Data volume if it is encrypted, otherwise it will auto mount. The third-party folders are stored in the Data volume. It should have a similar structure to what you see in Finder where it is combined with the System Volume.

I just tried "Find any File" app and it's giving permissions errors and "access" errors... Found a load more files which I did get rid of...

If all else fails I'll take my courage in both hands and try Terminal in recovery mode. Sounds a bit above me though...

Barney-15E wrote:

smartin2021 wrote:

Barney-15E wrote:

smartin2021 wrote:

Barney,

There's no sound and it doesn't really move at all when I drag it to the trash, not as you'd expect it to move. Same if I do Command+Backspace. No sound, nothing.

It's as if it never gets to the Trash.

That doesn’t indicate a permission problem. There is something else going on. My thoughts are you have wasted more time than it is worth. They will have no effect on your Mac unless you need to reinstall the tablet software.

I *do* need to reinstall the software :-) At the moment the new installation fails with no useful error message. The only thing we can think of is to completely clean up the old files...

It is likely failing because it cannot write to those files. You may be able to remove them in Terminal in Recovery. You would need to mount the Data volume if it is encrypted, otherwise it will auto mount. The third-party folders are stored in the Data volume. It should have a similar structure to what you see in Finder where it is combined with the System Volume.

I discovered that there's such a thing as "Directory Utility" How to enable the root user or change the root password on Mac – Apple Support (UK)

*Still* doesn't do the trick...

Zurarczurx wrote:

I talked to a couple of ex-colleagues about this and they are also stumped. When you fix it please could you come back and tell us how. Good luck.

Thanks! I'm very grateful for your time and suggestions. It really is weird... I'll report back if it ever gets resolved.

Zurarczurx wrote:

I talked to a couple of ex-colleagues about this and they are also stumped. When you fix it please could you come back and tell us how. Good luck.

I found a solution, if not a reason...

The command:

ls -lO@d /Library/Preferences/Tablet

Gives me:

drwxrwxr-x@ 2 root admin restricted 64 7 Jan 20:37 /Library/Preferences/Tablet

The trailing "@" after the permissions indicate "Extended attributes".

This seems to mean that they are particularly protected by the system. I guess this is due to a slightly borked migration from the TimeMachine.

The solution was to: 

Boot into Recovery mode. This seems to give additional rights to the Terminal...

Use the < csrutil disable > command in Terminal

Reboot to a normal account

Remove the directories by conventional means. I just used the Finder…

Reboot to Recovery and use < csrutil enable > in Terminal

Reboot as normal.

I haven't tried reinstalling the Wacom driver as I've decided to replace it with a Huion but at least I managed to delete those stubborn files...

Thanks for your help! :-)