Mac says software is already installed (not from App Store), although I deleted all files already?

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Level 1

17 points

Mac says software is already installed (not from App Store), although I deleted all files already?

Hey guys

I have this game that I have bought back in march from an online store, and I often mess with the game files to modify stuff in game. Unfortunately sometimes it crashes so I have to reinstall.

I did this a lot of times and never had a problem until now.

The game comes with an uninstall script, but I'm not sure if I used it this time. I know this was a mistake. Usually it doesn't matter because I would reinstall it so I want all the stuff to stay there.

But anyway... when I try to run the installer, it gives me this message here:

Driver® San Francisco is already installed on your system. Please run uninstall script and launch installer again to reinstall the game.

So I ran the uninstaller again and it tells me this in the terminal:

/Volumes/Driver\ San\ Francisco/UninstallDSF ; exit;

-bash: /Volumes/Driver San Francisco/UninstallDSF: /bin/sh: bad interpreter: Operation not permitted

logout

I've done some research about this whole bad interpreter stuff, but I just don't get it, I guess I'm not so good at this stuff.

I opened the uninstall script in TextEdit and checked the links.

Now comes the strange part.

Last time I wanted to reinstall the game, I already had this problem. However I deleted the files in Library/Preferences (sometimes like com.apple.ubisoft and com.apple.driversanfrancisco) and then it worked fine — I was able to reinstall the game without any problems.

Now I've searched my whole computer for any related files, I've tried running CCleaner, I've basically done everything I could think of.

I've even run through random files where I would never have thought they have anything to do with the game, basically I checked the content of each of them, and deleted them if they had something to do with the game.

But still nothing works 😟

I've contacted support but no response yet... and they're known for not responding or never having any solution.

I was hoping you guys could help me out!

All help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!

Greetings 🙂

iMac, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Oct 26, 2012 4:12 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 9, 2014 6:11 AM in response to Anon M

All I had to do was go to Macintosh HD/Library/Preferences/ in there delete com.ubisoft.DriverSanFrancisco.GameUpdate

Alternatively, you may edit the installer itself!

Open the Driver San Francisco.dmg
Locate the Driver San Francisco.pkg
Right-Click / Show Package Contents / Contents / Resources /
Now things are very easy. Right-Click onto AlreadyInstalledCheck.sh
Open With > TextEdit
Change "return 1" to "return 0"

Good Luck everybody!

Also note, some unexperienced users may not know this, but there are two Library folders. One in your personal folder "Macintosh HD/Users/<YourName>/Library" and another one that is for all users "Macintosh HD/Library/"

Always check for both, some Applications are available for all users, and since games sometimes let you create multiple user profiles, they put their settings in the global Library folder, so that the user profiles are available for every user on your computer, who might want to play the game.

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Answer 2

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,051 points

Oct 27, 2012 4:23 AM in response to Anon M

Unfortunately, this problem is specific to the game's installer and uninstall script. There's not much anyone here can say about that, unless you happen to get lucky and find someone else who is familiar with this particular game. It looks like there's a forum specifically for this game, though, where you might have better luck:

http://forums.ubi.com/forumdisplay.php/137-Driver-General-Discussion

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Answer 3

Anon M Author

Level 1

17 points

Oct 27, 2012 6:06 AM in response to thomas_r.

Thanks!

Yes I know this forum, I'm there quite often and also asked the question there already, but unfortunately no answer. I also contacted their support, but members on the forum are always writing how support never answers and ignores their questions, so yeah, their support is not exactly the best.

I've downloaded the uninstall script from macupdate where I bought it, and this time the uninstaller seemed to work correctly. It didn't find the files it had to delete because they simply weren't there but at least it didn't get this bad interpreter error, or whatever it is.

Is there not another way how I could install it, by bypassing their installer?

I've tried right-clicking the package > showing content and then I found a file called deploy.pkg. I tried installing it and somehow it went right but at the end it told me the installtion failed. However the game icon (and probably other files) were installed.

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Answer 4

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,051 points

Oct 27, 2012 7:27 AM in response to Anon M

Well, if it's an installer package that opens with Apple's installer, you could try extracting the contents with Pacifist and putting them all wherever they are supposed to go. That may or may not work, depending on why the install fails and whether there's any pre- or post-flight setup script that needs to be run.

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Answer 5

Anon M Author

Level 1

17 points

Nov 4, 2012 9:48 AM in response to thomas_r.

Thanks I tried this out but I had no luck unfortuantely! But it's a cool software, I discovered some new stuff. Thanks for showing.

Anyway, I talked to their support and I forgot to mention that... this game does not support Moutain Lion.

I didn't think it was important because when I got Mountain Lion the game kept running as always and I had reinstalled it several times.

So do you think this could be a factor?

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Answer 6

Anon M Author

Level 1

17 points

Nov 4, 2012 10:11 AM in response to thomas_r.

Alright, then I might have to go back to Lion and then once the game is installed I could upgrade to Mountain Lion again.

I said I had reinstalled it several times when I had Mountain Lion, but actually it was only once now that I remember, and I had some problems too. So maybe the installation is the problem here, and I need to avoid installing it on Mountain Lion.

I suppose now that I have Mountain Lion, I can not revert back to Lion right? I would need a disc or something... and probably if I would, then my copy of Mountain Lion would get lost, no?

I'm very scared of doing this... I bought this Mac refurbished, and once I already had to call Apple support. They told me that a Lion CD should have come with it, but there was none.

I didn't bother any further, but it might have been a mistake...

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Answer 7

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,051 points

Nov 4, 2012 1:24 PM in response to Anon M

Lion does not come on a disc, but if the machine shipped with Lion, you can hold down command-option-R to boot into Internet recovery mode and reinstall Lion. Doing so will require that you erase the hard drive first... You cannot install Lion on top of Mountain Lion.

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Answer 8

Anon M Author

Level 1

17 points

Nov 6, 2012 9:13 AM in response to thomas_r.

D@mn, then I won't do it because I can't loose all my stuff. Although I've always wanted to make a clean install, and delete all the cr@p on my Mac. But I would need a hard drive to put all the important stuff on there first...

Maybe I'll find another solution 😟

Actually now I remember that I only reinstalled the game once since I got Mountain Lion, and not several times like I said. I had the same problem as now, the installer told me the game is already installed.

I googled the problem and found out that I should delete some files in Library/Preferences. After this, it worked.

I still think it's just some file blocking all the process somewhere. 😐

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Answer 9

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,051 points

Nov 6, 2012 9:20 AM in response to Anon M

If you don't already have your data backed up, you're going to lose all your stuff... it's just a matter of when, not if. You need to start backing up ASAP, before the hard drive dies, the computer gets stolen, the hard drive gets irrevocably corrupted, etc.

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Answer 10

Anon M Author

Level 1

17 points

Nov 6, 2012 9:28 AM in response to thomas_r.

I thought about it several times already, but then again, my hard drive never ever died since I had my first computer and getting stolen is pretty much impossible here 😝 I mean some day I will anyway, I have only 300 GB left... perhaps I'll get some really big external hard drives, so I can use time machine as well.

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Answer 11

Csound1

Level 9

60,083 points

Nov 6, 2012 10:26 AM in response to Anon M

Anon M wrote:

I thought about it several times already, but then again, my hard drive never ever died since I had my first computer and getting stolen is pretty much impossible here 😝

Hard drives fail, they don't send you a warning first, users make mistakes. also without warning, get a drive and back up before it happens to you.

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Answer 12

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,051 points

Nov 6, 2012 12:21 PM in response to Anon M

my hard drive never ever died since I had my first computer

That's like saying "I've walked across the street with my eyes closed every day this year and haven't gotten hit by a car yet." Just because something has not happened in the past does not mean that trend will continue. All hard drives fail at some point. It may take a decade or two, or it may take 1 hour. But the fact that it will fail is a certainty. You cannot predict when your hard drive will fail, or when some other unfortunate and unforeseen circumstance will destroy your data. Don't learn this lesson the hard way!

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Answer 13

Ares101

Level 1

0 points

Jul 10, 2013 9:56 PM in response to Anon M

Hi,

You need to make sure that in both libraries folders the ubisoft program has not left any script or document. You can search those documents in:

- /HD/Library/Application Support

- /HD/Library/Preferences

- /HD/Library/PreferencesPanes

- /Users/ComputerName/Library

- /Users/ComputerName/Library/Application Support

- /Users/ComputerName/Library/Preferences

- /Users/ComputerName/Library/Preferences Panes

I did it and it works great, I installed again the game. Please reply if this was helpful or if you got any question.

PS: Your HD could be named diferent

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Answer 14

Anon M Author

Level 1

17 points

Jul 11, 2013 2:04 AM in response to Ares101

Thanks. I had done this before already but it didn't work! I'm not sure why. It's a bug in the installer I believe, and also it's not really meant to be working on Mountain Lion.

I'll be doing a fresh install soon anyway, then it should be alright. 🙂

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Answer 15

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,051 points

Nov 4, 2012 10:06 AM in response to Anon M

So do you think this could be a factor?

Absolutely! Compatibility is not an all-or-nothing thing. Incompatibilities come in all kinds, and are not always consistent.

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