Q: airport utility install fails

i installed the combo update 10.7.3 again and still this ugly failing error with installing 6.0 airport utility......

I also have this same problem on my late 2011 MBA with native Lion.  I had both Airtport Utility 6.0 and Lion 10.7.3 in my updates list.  When I tried installing both together, I got the installation failed popup, so I tried Airport Utility only (I knew 10.7.3 was causing issues for some).  I got the same error again. 

I have also been having issuing updating apps from Mac App Store (Evernote and the Hash Mismatch - since fixed I hear), so I suspected a permissions issue.  Went and repaired permissions; there were a few problems (not sure how they got there as I almost never mess with anything behind the scenes).  Again, the same error with Airport Utility 6.0 install. 

Went ahead and tried Installing the 10.7.3 update, and that worked fine. But I still get the same error on the Airport Utility 6.0 install with the addition that my current Airport Utility 5.5.3 now no longer runs.  I have no idea if 5.5.3 worked just before the 10.7.3 install because I haven't needed to open Airport Utility since the firmware update a few months back (it worked then).

I wonder if we will ever get a fix for this problem? Right now my Airport Utility does not work at all after a few failed attempts to update it.

Are you kidding me?

I'm certainly not going to backup & reinstall Lion only to have to reinstall my audio & video apps, load all media again and configure settings (would take a day at least).

Apple needs to find a solution that involves either a new installer or instructions to delete whatever bad files are causing the problem.

Ridiculous.

Ok I'm on MacMini/Lion Server. I've noticed when I boot using comman-R I can boot into recovery mode. Is this the same thing? Am I going to have to make some sort of recovery USB drive now? I don't have a copy of Lion anywhere. It just comes installed.

Loki001 your solutions

"Apple engineers finally offered a solution to my service rep ( who was very pleasant to work with).  Airport utility 6.0 works for me now.  Here's what they had me do:

Firstly, make sure you have a good back-up of your essential data

1. Reboot from recovery partition (or as in my case USB recovery drive)

2. Select Re-install Mac OS X

3. Allow the process to run through multiple restarts

4. When reinstall process is complete run software update (side note, my software update would not launch as long as my USB recovery stick was plugged in, weird)

5. Run all updates saving the Airport Utility 6.0 until last.

6. Install the airport utility from software update.

Set aside an hour and a half plus for the whole process.

Apple engineers chose this fix because they saw some non-third party induced oddities in Data Capture data file that they had me generate and send to them.

Good luck all!"

Works good for me, i´m up and running after about 1,5 hours of reinstall of Lion. A big THANKS from south Sweden!

I can confirm that the answer given here works:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/17541330#17541330

What I did:

• Reinstall Lion over my existing Lion installation (I have the installer saved as a separate file)
• Reinstall the 10.7.3 combo update (which was downloaded as a separate file)
• Install the 5.6 Airport Utility update (which was downloaded as a separate file) - no errors thrown
• Install the 6.0 Airport Utility update (which was downloaded as a separate file) - no errors thrown
• Run software update to install anything not covered by the 10.7.3 combo update (e.g. iTunes, Java)

Both 5.6 and 6.0 Airport Utilities, installed side by side, launch without errors.

It worked for me as well, but since over six hour to complete all steppes.

Where on the Apple web site does it say install the Apple Combo update?

This worked for me, also.  Took about an hour and a half, but it probably depends on the speed of your internet connection.

OS X 10.7.3 Combo Update here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1484

But downloading through software update worked for me. 

Yup...can confirm by doing the above namely unplugging all external drives then 1) reinstalling Lion OVER the current install you have (using the Lion OS X install ESD (10.7) that you can burn from the original install), then 2) software updating to Lion 10.7.3 via the combo updater, then 3) updating iTunes/Java/finally Airport utility (5.6 and/or 6.0) via software update, everything suddenly works fine.

This is clearly an Apple Installer issue probably based around Snow Leopard to Lion installs having some errors, methinks. Bit shoddy and in total about 10 hours of my life (including the initial problem investigating) that I'll never see again!