Q: Where is my /dev folder
Guys, trying to install and use Wireshark on my 1st gen unibody MBP (10.6.6 2.4GHz 4GB) and there are some background processes which involve changing permissions on some files in the /dev folder. There's a script included which should change these permission on startup, which is all fine, but it fails when it runs telling me there's an error on line 35 - now I'm no programmer and I haven't pulled apart the script to find what line 35 is trying to do, but what is clearly part of the problem is that I have no /dev folder. I have unhidden the hidden files and folders, and I have a /dev alias, but no /dev folder. Clicking the alias tells me it can't find the destination. Now all documentation I can find tells me that the /dev folder should be in the root of the drive on all versions of Mac OS incl Snow Leopard. Have they changed it with 10.6.6 or one of the other point releases? Seems to be a pretty fundamental thing to have removed, but I sure as **** haven't removed it, and surely (given that it contains device drivers) if it was meant to be there and wasn't, I'd be running into some pretty severe difficulties running the machine at all. So where on earth is it, and more to the point, does anyone know enough about Wireshark for Mac OS to help me out (I know, I can ask on their forums, and I will - this is more about the apparent lack of this apparently fairly critical directory).
XServe 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Xeon, 2GB RAM, 3TB RAID 0, Mac OS X (10.5.7), MBP Unibody 1st Gen, 2.4 Core 2 Duo, 4 GB RAM.
Posted on Feb 6, 2011 1:57 PM
by Linc Davis,Solvedanswer
Applications
The Wireshark developers tell you to change the permissions of certain device files. That's a bad idea, and unnecessary. What you should do instead is add an ACL to the executable that needs access to those files. For example, if the user named "foo" needs to run Wireshark:
sudo -s
chown 0:0 $( which dumpcap )
chmod 4700 $_
chmod +a "foo allow execute" $_Repeat the last command for each user who needs access.Posted on Feb 7, 2011 7:03 AM



