You can't open the application "..." because it is not supported on this type of Mac.

softwater wrote:

And both are on the same startup disk, right? Because, to be honest, it's hard to figure out how you could have this problem with both accounts on the same startup disk, so I just want to check that before we get too involved.

Assuming that's the case, the first thing I'd do is remove all those except Dropbox from the list, then restart the mac and test for the problem. If that doesn't solve it, run this free analytical tool and post the results back here so we can see if anything stands out:

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

I have removed these login items. But I can not restart my mac now and I will have to restart it later.

Here is the output of etrecheck. Would you please take a look if there is anything wrong?

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,1

1 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4 cores

16 GB RAM

Startup Items:

CUDA - Path: /System/Library/StartupItems/CUDA

System Software:

OS X 10.8.2 (12C3006) - Uptime: 3 days 2:52

Disk Information:

APPLE HDD HTS727575A9E362 disk0 : (750.16 GB)

disk0s1 (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 749.3 GB (311.8 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-8A8

USB Information:

Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)

Apple, Inc. Keyboard Hub

Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse

Apple, Inc Apple Keyboard

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

FireWire Information:

Kernel Extensions:

com.eltima.ElmediaPlayer.kext Version: 1.0

com.bresink.driver.BRESINKx86Monitoring Version: 8.0

com.nvidia.CUDA Version: 1.1.0

Problem System Launch Daemons:

[failed] com.apple.emond.aslmanager.plist

[failed] com.apple.xprotectupdater.plist

Problem System Launch Agents:

[failed] com.apple.afpstat.plist

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagentd.plist

[loaded] com.eltima.ElmediaPlayer.daemon.plist

[loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

[loaded] com.timesoftware.timemachineeditor.backupd-auto.plist

[loaded] io.redis.server.plist

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.privileged_startx.plist

Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist

[loaded] com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist

[loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

[loaded] com.Logitech.Control Center.Daemon.plist

[loaded] com.nvidia.CUDASoftwareUpdate.plist

[loaded] org.macosforge.xquartz.startx.plist

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.adobe.ARM.930da3ce175de4e82bd3cdf1dd8571f74bd3b6a7236bc94bfc00f6e9.plist

[loaded] com.akamai.single-user-client.plist

[failed] com.apple.CSConfigDotMacCert-@me.com-SharedServices.Agent.plist

[loaded] org.apache.couchdb.plist

User Login Items:

Citations

Dropbox

Xmarks for Safari

VNC Viewer

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Akamai NetSession Preferences

CUDA Preferences

DivX

Flash Player

FunctionFlip

Logitech Control Center

NuFile

SwitchResX

TeXDistPrefPane

Xmarks for Safari

Internet Plug-ins:

AdobePDFViewer.plugin

DivXBrowserPlugin.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin

googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin

iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

JavaAppletPlugin.plugin

NPDjVu.plugin

PrintDialogExt.plugin

npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin

OfficeLiveBrowserPlugin.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

RealPlayer Plugin.plugin

Silverlight.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

Bad Fonts:

None

Top Processes:

11.1 % WindowServer

1.4 % EtreCheck

0.3 % vncviewer

0.1 % beam.smp

0.1 % ps

0.1 % JavaApplicationStub

0.0 % Cisco

0.0 % CoreServicesUIAgent

0.0 % Dictionary

0.0 % AdobeAcrobat

softwater wrote:

Click on Finder, hold down the 'option' key and at the same time hit the 'Go' menu at the top of the screen. With 'option' still held down, choose 'Library' from the 'Go' menu.

From the window that opens up, navigate to Library/Launch Agents folder

(note, you must make sure you got to this through the 'go' menu as described, not some way else).

Move the entire contents of that folder (not the folder itself) to your desktop. Restart the mac and try to install a .pkg and see if the problem is solved. If not, move those files back from the desktop to Launch Agents. If yes, move each item back one at a time, restarting and testing .pkg installation after each one, till you find the culprit.

I have moved all the files in ~/Library/LaunchAgents. The problem still exists.

For example, I see the following error, when I try to open the following pkg file.

~$ open MacPorts-2.1.2-10.8-MountainLion.pkg

The application cannot be opened because it has an incorrect executable format.

Barney-15E wrote:

If you don't have the option for starting an app in 32-bit, my guess would be you are somehow running in 32-bit. I didn't know that was possible on Mountain Lion. A Mac in 32-bit can see 8 GB of memory (It ain't Windows).

In the Terminal, copy and paste this command and post the results:

uname -a

Just running the command posted by softwater will not switch your Mac to 64-bit mode. You must restart after setting that preference. However, I didn't think it was possible to run ML in 32-bit mode.

Here is what I have.

~$ uname -a

Darwin helium.local 12.2.1 Darwin Kernel Version 12.2.1: Thu Oct 18 16:32:48 PDT 2012; root:xnu-2050.20.9~2/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64 i386 MacBookPro9,1 Darwin

Barney-15E wrote:

That sounds like the installer didn't get updated, but you said it worked in another account? Is that right?

Yes.