Cannot repair permissions

Pierre,

Try a Safe Boot.

;~)

Hi, Pierre.

I presume you are trying to repair permissions on your normal startup disk. The Verify/Repair Disk Permissions buttons are only available if you have selected a volume in the left column of Disk Utility that contains Mac OS X, e.g. the volume Macintosh HD.

1. Is your Macintosh HD > Library > Receipts folder (/Library/Receipts directory) extant?

2. Try the following:

2.1. Startup from your normal startup disk.

2.2. Launch Terminal, which is in the Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities folder.

2.3. At the Terminal prompt, type the following command exactly as written:

sudo diskutil repairPermissions /

then press Return.

2.4. When prompted, type your Admin password and press Return.

2.5. If the command fails, copy and paste the output from such into a reply here.

3. Before attempting to repair permissions, try Steps 1 and 2 of my "Resolving Disk, Permission, and Cache Corruption" FAQ. Let's make sure you hard drive and its directory are AOK.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

You wrote:

"Now, I have 'Activity Monitor' running but no process is listed at all."

1. Have you tried restarting your Mac since you repaired permissions?

2. What's selected in the pop-up menu in the Activity Monitor toolbar? What if you select "All processes"?

3. Quit Activity Monitor if it is open. Then trash the com.apple.ActivityMonitor.plist file in your Home > Library > Preferences folder. Then relaunch Activity Monitor.

4. If none of the above help, immediately after launching Activity Monitor, check these Console logs for clues.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

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Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

After Update to 10.4.6 the disk utility on my system quits unexpectly after selecting any volume.

I´ve copied the old disk utility (from 10.4.5) to help it. Repairing disk permission is working with this one...

Anyway, does somebody have any suggestions what could be the problem with "not working disk utility" under 10.4.6?

Best regards

Mike

Mikinho:

Please start a new topic for your question. This topic was originated by Pierre to discuss his problem. You have a different problem, which means it should be posted in a new topic of its own.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

4. Re: Checking Console logs. What about messages related to pmTool? This is the helper process for Activity Monitor.

5. Have you disabled any fonts?

6. Does System Profiler work OK?

7. You could try reinstalling Activity Monitor from your Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger Install disc using the shareware application Pacifist. Pacifist has excellent documentation, so you should have no problems with it.

Since Activity Monitor has been updated since it was first shipped on the Install discs, you would then also need to reapply the most recent Mac OS X Combo Update corresponding to the version of Mac OS X you have installed in order to pick up all other changes made to Activity Monitor since it was first released.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

---
Note: The information provided in the link(s) above is freely available. However, because I own The X Lab™, a commercial Web site to which some of these links point, the Apple Discussions Terms of Use require I include the following disclosure statement with this post:

I may receive some form of compensation, financial or otherwise, from my recommendation or link.

You're welcome.

You wrote:

"It seems that this application can only run from the startup disk. My Applications folder is on another drive."

That was a very critical piece of information you omitted. Next time you report a problem, you need to note that as part of the information. We wasted a lot of time...

It is also not the recommended way to run Mac OS X. You may run into significant problems with Software Updates if the Apple-provided applications are not in their expected places in /Applications or /Applications/Utilities.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

You wrote:

"It is always easier to say that after the problem as been solved. I did not know this in the first place. If I had known, I would not have written about the subject at all."

Well, had I known you had moved /Applications from the start, I would have immediately suggested moving it, or at least Activity Monitor, back. You've hacked your system and that needs to be stated before you request help you with a problem. All we can assume here when answering questions is that people are using the system as shipped. We're not clairvoyant. If you've made changes from standard, then you need to state that up front.

You wrote:

"I consider that I'm right to do so and that Apple is wrong. I wrote about this so Apple can improve Mac OS X. If an operating system is not flexible enough, it is wort-less."

Then you should consider it worthless because Apple has been standardizing many aspects of the OS, e.g. Home folders, /Applications, /Applications/Utilities and is not going to change those. Software Update expects the /Applications and /Applications/Utilities folders to be on the startup disk and to contain the associated Apple apps.

See these KB documents for various warnings against the practice you're employing.

Good luck!

😉 Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X