Lion 10.7.3 and SPSS 20

Thank you for finding out you can start SPSS using terminal/sudo!

I was having the same trouble and that **** IBM ain't much help either!

Right now I have just created an automator application that on starting just runs that terminal command.

Thanks for the (partial) solution!

I would indicate to SPSS that this solution poses a security risk, and they need to find a way to work on Macs without running Sudo.

nvm

morechicken, thank you very much.

I really don't understand why I can start it as root but not as a normal user.

It fails for a normal user because it is trying to write preferences at a location the normal user doesn't have access to.

The program isn't written well in that it just crashes when it can't write a preference. It should just tell you it couldn't write whatever preference it needed and move on. I don't know why it wants to write a preference where it is trying, either.

I don't know. Wherever it is trying to save the preferences.

The base name for java preferences is supposed to be java.util.preferences., but they may have altered that.

Robert Hi- Could you share with us how you created the automator app..... I thought I knew how to do this!!!!

Best

I experience the same problem trying to use SPSS 20 on my MacBook Pro. I use a University Site License version. I can launch the SPSS 20 om this computer af a diefferent user (Guest user), but cannot launch it on my own user account. It tries to loadup, nothing happens, and then I get an erroe message. Just as described:

"I have no problems to install and register the program. But when I try to open the program, SPSS won't open correctly. The program shows up at the dock but it hangs after some seconds.

I tried a lot, check permissions (everything was fine as fare as i can see) and found out.

I can also start it correctly with the sudo command: "sudo /Applications/IBM/SPSS/Statistics/20/SPSSStatistics.app/Contents/MacOS/stats".

This solution works for me, but I would prefer to find the problem and solve it.

I have the newest version of Java and the newest version of Lion (10.7.4) and had just installed patch 1 for SPSS 20 (20.0.0.1), all in vain, it won't open on my user account.

Thanks for the command-- I had the same problem upon just purchasing the student version of SPSS 20.

THANK YOU morechicken. I am another person running the academic version of SPSS 20 and Max OS 10.7.4. I installed the proper version of JAVA and ran the disk utility to no avail. I ran the code in terminal and it worked. Since it has been a few months since your post I'd like to know if you have any updates. Do we have to continue using this code? Has anyone uploaded the newest version of Mac OS with success in resolving this problem? This issue is ridiculous so I'd like to know that the next steps are to get a formal resolution to this problem. Thanks!

Truly ridiculous....

I am running MacOS 10.8 on a new MacBook Pro and SPSS 20 will STILL NOT WORK!!!!. Believe it or not SPSS 19 does a reasonable job... freezes every now and then but works. I have tried everything possible with Apple experts, JAVA experts, Linux know hows.... nothing!

If you haven't already, try upgrading to Java 1.7 version 7 from Oracle.

http://www.java.com/en/download/mac_download.jsp?locale=en