Mavericks unable to apply software updates

Question

Level 1

26 points

Mavericks unable to apply software updates

Hello,

since updating to 10.9 my mac is unable to download and apply software updates ... console log shows these messages

Dec 17 19:56:03 dagobah.lan softwareupdated (200)[213]: SoftwareUpdate: could not create parent path for partial download: /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068/C/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate/swcdn .apple.com/content/downloads/34/24/091-8710/n381wzjyaxg9x2v10k6ppv99x5hfcfv222 (Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513 "You don’t have permission to save the file “n381wzjyaxg9x2v10k6ppv99x5hfcfv222” in the folder “091-8710”." UserInfo=0x7fd642521350 {NSFilePath=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068/C/com.apple.Software Update/swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/34/24/091-8710/n381wzjyaxg9x2v10k6ppv99 x5hfcfv222, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fd6425211e0 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Permission denied"})

Dec 17 19:56:03 dagobah.lan softwareupdated (200)[213]: Failed to write state: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513 "You don’t have permission to save the file “com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.SUUpdateServiceDaemon.state”." UserInfo=0x7fd640c6fd70 {NSURL=file:///var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068/C/com.apple.Softwa reUpdate.SUUpdateServiceDaemon.state, NSUserStringVariant=Folder, NSUnderlyingError=0x7fd640dd9140 "The operation couldn’t be completed. Operation not permitted"}

appreciate any help

regards

OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Dec 17, 2013 11:03 AM

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Answer 1

griff w

Level 4

3,622 points

Dec 19, 2013 7:20 AM in response to oswjim

Hi there oswjim,

I would recommend running a disk permissions repair as an initial troubleshooting step. Take a look at the article below for more information.

Disk Utility 12.x: Repair disk permissions

http://support.apple.com/kb/ph5821

-Griff W.

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Answer 2

oswjim Author

Level 1

26 points

Dec 19, 2013 7:35 AM in response to griff w

Hi Griff

sadly, repair disk permission I did tried before posting here w/o luck ... however I did finally solved the issue ... I had the /var/folders/zz ownership all mixed up ... specially the one used for SU

ls -la /var/folders/zz/

drwxr-xr-x+ 4 root wheel 136 Nov 8 01:46 zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068

when should be somethig like this

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 _softwareupdate _softwareupdate 170 Dec 18 14:11 zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068

Thx anyway for answring

Rgds

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Answer 3

msegt

Level 1

0 points

Dec 27, 2013 2:42 PM in response to oswjim

Same happened to me and changing the group and the ownership of /var/folders/zz/ solved my problem.

Thank you for sharing your solution!

Reply

Answer 4

MhmoodZ

Level 1

16 points

Feb 4, 2014 9:15 AM in response to oswjim

Hi there,

I am not a programmer and I understand nothing of the solution you offered. Can you please explain what you did? I'd really appreciate it 🙂

Thanks in advance.

Reply

Answer 5

oswjim Author

Level 1

26 points

Feb 4, 2014 9:44 AM in response to MhmoodZ

Hi,

you need to open the terminal an go to /var/folders/zz/

once there list the content (ls -la) and check the ownership for folder zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068

should be something like

drwxr-xr-x+ 5 _softwareupdate _softwareupdate 170 Feb 1 16:15 zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068

if the onwer & group is something different to _softwareupdate you will need to change them using the command below

sudo chown -R _softwareupdate:_softwareupdate zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068

Rgds

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Answer 6

MhmoodZ

Level 1

16 points

Feb 4, 2014 9:56 AM in response to oswjim

This is what I get when I list the content of /var/folders/zz/

drwxr-xr-x@ 47 MhmoodZ staff 1598 Feb 3 09:34 .

drwxr-xr-x+ 6 root admin 204 Jan 5 11:40 ..

-rw-r--r--@ 1 MhmoodZ staff 16 Dec 3 2012 .:F89AA64

-rw-r--r-- 1 MhmoodZ staff 3 Dec 31 22:28 .CFUserTextEncoding

-rw-r--r--@ 1 MhmoodZ staff 39940 Feb 4 19:39 .DS_Store

drwxr-xr-x@ 3 MhmoodZ staff 102 Dec 27 2012 .DownloadManager

drwxr-xr-x 3 MhmoodZ staff 102 Aug 13 19:54 .LuminanceHDR

drwx------ 41 MhmoodZ staff 1394 Feb 4 17:50 .Trash

-rw-r--r-- 1 MhmoodZ staff 0 Jun 16 2013 .Xauthority

drwxr-xr-x 4 MhmoodZ staff 136 Aug 2 2012 .adobe

drwxr-xr-x 4 MhmoodZ staff 136 Feb 4 19:39 .appwork

-rw-r--r-- 1 MhmoodZ staff 2194 Feb 4 19:46 .bash_history

-rw-r--r-- 1 MhmoodZ staff 147 Jul 26 2012 .bi_li3

drwxr-xr-x 4 MhmoodZ staff 136 Feb 4 19:39 .cache

drwxr-xr-x 8 MhmoodZ staff 272 Feb 4 19:39 .config

drwxr-xr-x 3 MhmoodZ staff 102 Jul 28 2012 .cups

drwx------ 21 MhmoodZ staff 714 Feb 4 19:51 .dropbox

drwxr-xr-x 17 MhmoodZ staff 578 Dec 25 2012 .fontconfig

-rw-r--r-- 1 MhmoodZ staff 55 Jan 9 2013 .gitconfig

drwxr-xr-x 2 MhmoodZ staff 68 Dec 25 2012 .gnome2

drwxr-xr-x 9 MhmoodZ staff 306 Dec 25 2012 .inkscape-etc

drwxr-xr-x 9 MhmoodZ staff 306 Feb 4 19:39 .jagex_cache_32

drwxr-xr-x 4 MhmoodZ staff 136 Feb 4 19:39 .local

drwxr-xr-x 4 MhmoodZ staff 136 Feb 4 19:39 .mono

drwxr-xr-x 8 MhmoodZ staff 272 Feb 4 19:39 .mypaint

-rw-r--r-- 1 MhmoodZ staff 2217 Oct 13 21:10 .recently-used

-rw-r--r-- 1 MhmoodZ staff 1024 Dec 2 2012 .rnd

drwxr-xr-x 6 MhmoodZ staff 204 Feb 4 19:39 .rs

drwxr-xr-x 16 MhmoodZ staff 544 Feb 4 19:39 .spotflux

drwxr-xr-x 5 MhmoodZ staff 170 Jan 9 2013 .ssh

drwxr-xr-x 7 MhmoodZ staff 238 Feb 4 19:39 .subversion

drwxr-xr-x 4 MhmoodZ staff 136 Feb 4 19:39 .swt

drwxr-xr-x 5 MhmoodZ staff 170 Feb 4 19:39 .thumbnails

drwxr-xr-x 2 MhmoodZ staff 68 Aug 27 2012 .wapi

drwxr-xr-x 4 MhmoodZ staff 136 Feb 4 19:39 Applications

drwx------ 113 MhmoodZ staff 3842 Feb 4 06:44 Desktop

drwxr-xr-x 14 MhmoodZ staff 476 Jan 24 11:00 Documents

drwxrwxrwx 319 MhmoodZ staff 10846 Feb 4 19:45 Downloads

drwx------@ 7 MhmoodZ staff 238 Feb 4 19:51 Dropbox

drwxr-xr-x@ 8 MhmoodZ staff 272 Dec 22 23:17 Google Drive

drwxr-xr-x 77 MhmoodZ staff 2618 Nov 21 05:21 Library

drwxr-xr-x+ 13 MhmoodZ staff 442 Oct 28 18:04 Movies

drwxr-xr-x+ 8 MhmoodZ staff 272 Nov 5 02:30 Music

drwxr-xr-x+ 13 MhmoodZ staff 442 Feb 1 11:59 Pictures

drwxr-xr-x+ 6 MhmoodZ staff 204 Nov 11 2012 Public

drwxr-xr-x+ 7 MhmoodZ staff 238 Nov 8 2012 Sites

drwxr-xr-x@ 7 MhmoodZ staff 238 Nov 14 00:03 SkyDrive

I don't find folder you've mentioned.

Thanks for the fast reply.

Reply

Answer 7

msegt

Level 1

0 points

Feb 4, 2014 10:05 AM in response to MhmoodZ

It seems that you have just written: "ls -la" in the terminal, but you need to write "ls -la /var/folders/zz/", writting just "ls -la" you will get the data of your home folder 😉 (because when you open a new "terminal" this is the "inicial" folder)

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Answer 8

oswjim Author

Level 1

26 points

Feb 4, 2014 10:07 AM in response to MhmoodZ

that looks more like your home folder -- in terminal go:

cd /var/folders/zz

ls -la

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Answer 9

MhmoodZ

Level 1

16 points

Feb 4, 2014 10:14 AM in response to oswjim

Thank you a lot msget and oswjim, It is downloading normally right now. I will tell you if I had further problems 🙂 You made my day <3.

If anyone want to know what I did it's exactly as they mentioned, I found out that:

if the onwer & group is something different to _softwareupdate you will need to change them using the command below

sudo chown -R _softwareupdate:_softwareupdate zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n00000s0000068

I didn't need to restart, I directly opened the app store and clicked on the update button which worked normal.

Thanks for the help.

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Answer 10

oswjim Author

Level 1

26 points

Feb 4, 2014 10:26 AM in response to MhmoodZ

🙂 glad your problem is solved ... I'd suggest checking the rest of folders whitin /var/folders/zz .. in my case bunch of them were owned by the wrong user ... here's the correct list (you may not have exactly the same list, but you get the idea)