davidc

Q: application won't start, probable privilege problem

I have several PromiseR6 RAID arrays that I recently moved from a Mac Mini to the new Mac Pro.  There is a Promise utility to configure the arrays and do various maintenance. The Promise utility won't start...the application icon bounces in the dock for a few seconds and then exits.

 

Key information:

The utility will run if I sign on as root.

I created a test ID with admin privileges, signed on with it, and it will run.

My regular ID has admin privileges.

I've deleted and installed the most recent version of the app multiple times, same results.

My current, regular ID was created as new on the Mac Pro, but the Home directory was moved from an older Mac Pro to the new Mac Pro, and this home directory exists on the RAID array.

All system files are on the Mac Pro internal SSD boot drive.

 

Clearly there's something different about my ID.  What could it be and how can I resolve it?

 

Thanks!

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.4)

Posted on Jul 17, 2014 1:36 AM

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Q: application won't start, probable privilege problem

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  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 17, 2014 8:46 AM in response to davidc
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jul 17, 2014 8:46 AM in response to davidc

    Back up all data.

    This procedure will unlock all your user files (not system files) and reset their ownership, permissions, and access controls to the default. If you've intentionally set special values for those attributes on any of your files, they will be reverted. In that case, either stop here, or be prepared to recreate the settings if necessary. Do so only after verifying that those settings didn't cause the problem. If none of this is meaningful to you, you don't need to worry about it, but you do need to follow the instructions below.

    Step 1

    If you have more than one user, and the one in question is not an administrator, then go to Step 2.

    Triple-click anywhere in the following line on this page to select it:

    sudo find ~ $TMPDIR.. -exec chflags nouchg,nouappnd {} + -exec chown $UID {} + -exec chmod +rw {} + -exec chmod -N {} + -type d -exec chmod +x {} + 2>&-

    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

    Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

    Paste into the Terminal window by pressing command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

    You'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. Type carefully and then press return. You may get a one-time warning to be careful. If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before you can run the command. If you see a message that your username "is not in the sudoers file," then you're not logged in as an administrator.

    The command may take several minutes to run, depending on how many files you have. Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear, then quit Terminal.

    Step 2 (optional)

    Take this step only if you have trouble with Step 1, if you prefer not to take it, or if it doesn't solve the problem.

    Start up in Recovery mode. When the OS X Utilities screen appears, select

              Utilities Terminal

    from the menu bar. A Terminal window will open. In that window, type this:

    res

    Press the tab key. The partial command you typed will automatically be completed to this:

    resetpassword

    Press return. A Reset Password window will open. You’re not going to reset a password.

    Select your startup volume ("Macintosh HD," unless you gave it a different name) if not already selected.

    Select your username from the menu labeled Select the user account if not already selected.

    Under Reset Home Directory Permissions and ACLs, click the Reset button.

    Select

               Restart

    from the menu bar.

  • by davidc,

    davidc davidc Jul 17, 2014 3:14 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 17, 2014 3:14 PM in response to Linc Davis

    This didn't work.  I've done permission reset stuff similar to the first option before, but I did exactly as described here in case it would pick up something I was missing.  I've never done the option 2, this was new to me.  However, neither option fixes this problem. 

    An additional thing that just occurred to me to try...remove the administrator privilege from the ID, reboot, then add the privilege, and reboot again.  Somehow I feel it's tied to the administrator privilege.  But alas, this didn't work either.

    Is there some log or tool I can use to see any additional error messages or what state the application is starting in?

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 17, 2014 3:25 PM in response to davidc
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jul 17, 2014 3:25 PM in response to davidc

    Launch the Console application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Console in the icon grid.

    The title of the Console window should be All Messages. If it isn't, select

              SYSTEM LOG QUERIES ▹ All Messages

    from the log list on the left. If you don't see that list, select

              View ▹ Show Log List

    from the menu bar at the top of the screen.Click the Clear Display icon in the toolbar. Then try the action that you're having trouble with again. Select any messages that appear in the Console window. Copy them to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C. Paste into a reply to this message by pressing command-V.

    The log contains a vast amount of information, almost all of which is irrelevant to solving any particular problem. When posting a log extract, be selective. A few dozen lines are almost always more than enough.

    Please don't indiscriminately dump thousands of lines from the log into this discussion.

    Please don't post screenshots of log messages—post the text.

    Some private information, such as your name, may appear in the log. Anonymize before posting.

  • by davidc,

    davidc davidc Jul 17, 2014 7:43 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 17, 2014 7:43 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Sorry, thought I posted this in the original problem description.  This is what it looks like from my regular ID when it fails:

     

    7/17/14 7:41:48.444 PM Promise Utility[501]: Stsrt find product

    7/17/14 7:41:54.077 PM com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[255]: (com.promise.PromiseUtility.304512[501]) Exited with code: 1

     

    This is what it looks like when I sign on as root and runs successfully:

     

    7/17/14 7:28:30.077 PM Promise Utility[707]: Stsrt find product

    7/17/14 7:28:30.443 PM Promise Utility[707]: jsonString: {"params":[0,0],"method":"getSubsystemList","id":0}

    7/17/14 7:28:31.552 PM Promise Utility[707]: device url:http://127.0.0.1:8080/promise/screen.php?deviceWWN=2000-0001-5553-32d4

    7/17/14 7:28:31.552 PM Promise Utility[707]: model name:Pegasus R6

    7/17/14 7:28:31.553 PM filecoordinationd[308]: NSFileCoordinator only handles URLs that use the file: scheme. This one does not:

    http://127.0.0.1:8080/promise/screen.php?deviceWWN=2000-0001-5553-32d4

    7/17/14 7:28:31.587 PM Promise Utility[707]: device url:http://127.0.0.1:8080/promise/screen.php?deviceWWN=2000-0001-5554-59b6

    7/17/14 7:28:31.587 PM Promise Utility[707]: model name:Pegasus R6

    7/17/14 7:28:31.587 PM filecoordinationd[308]: NSFileCoordinator only handles URLs that use the file: scheme. This one does not:

    http://127.0.0.1:8080/promise/screen.php?deviceWWN=2000-0001-5554-59b6

    7/17/14 7:28:31.601 PM Promise Utility[707]: device url:http://127.0.0.1:8080/promise/screen.php?deviceWWN=2000-0001-5557-c863

    7/17/14 7:28:31.601 PM Promise Utility[707]: model name:Pegasus2 R6

    7/17/14 7:28:31.601 PM filecoordinationd[308]: NSFileCoordinator only handles URLs that use the file: scheme. This one does not:

    http://127.0.0.1:8080/promise/screen.php?deviceWWN=2000-0001-5557-c863

    7/17/14 7:28:31.615 PM Promise Utility[707]: Stsrt find product

    7/17/14 7:28:31.624 PM Promise Utility[707]: device url:http://127.0.0.1:8080/promise/screen.php?deviceWWN=2000-0001-5553-32d4

    7/17/14 7:28:31.624 PM Promise Utility[707]: model name:Pegasus R6

    7/17/14 7:28:34.458 PM Promise Utility[707]: continue

    7/17/14 7:28:36.950 PM Promise Utility[707]: continue

    7/17/14 7:28:38.425 PM Promise Utility[707]: continue

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 17, 2014 8:06 PM in response to davidc
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jul 17, 2014 8:06 PM in response to davidc

    This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data.

    Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    find L* -name *com.promise* -prune | egrep -v 'Diag|Safari|helpd' | pbcopy

    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

    Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

    Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

    Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.

    The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.

    The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.

    If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 17, 2014 8:07 PM in response to davidc
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jul 17, 2014 8:07 PM in response to davidc

    This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data.

    Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

    find L* -name *com.promise* -prune | egrep -v 'Dia|Safari|helpd' | pbcopy

    Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

    Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

    ☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

    ☞ In the Finder, select Go Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

    ☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.

    Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

    Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.

    The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.

    The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.

    If any personal information appears in the output, anonymize before posting, but don’t remove the context.

  • by davidc,

    davidc davidc Jul 17, 2014 8:57 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 17, 2014 8:57 PM in response to Linc Davis

    Thanks for your assistance.  I guess there's no output, nothing in the clipboard.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 17, 2014 9:07 PM in response to davidc
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jul 17, 2014 9:07 PM in response to davidc

    Please run the command in the account where the application works. Any output then?

  • by davidc,

    davidc davidc Jul 17, 2014 9:23 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 17, 2014 9:23 PM in response to Linc Davis

    here it is:

     

    Library/Caches/com.promise.PromiseUtility

    Library/Preferences/com.promise.PromiseUtility.plist

  • by davidc,

    davidc davidc Jul 17, 2014 9:28 PM in response to davidc
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 17, 2014 9:28 PM in response to davidc

    if the app was failing to create this in my regular userid Library, wouldn't there be a failure message in the syslog?

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 17, 2014 9:33 PM in response to davidc
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jul 17, 2014 9:33 PM in response to davidc

    So it has never managed to launch in the other account. Please post the output of this command:

     

    mdfind 'kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier=com.promise.*' | pbcopy
    
  • by davidc,

    davidc davidc Jul 17, 2014 9:39 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 17, 2014 9:39 PM in response to Linc Davis

    from root:

    /Applications/Promise Utility.app

     

    from problem user id:

    /Applications/Promise Utility.app

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Jul 17, 2014 9:58 PM in response to davidc
    Level 10 (207,963 points)
    Applications
    Jul 17, 2014 9:58 PM in response to davidc

    You only have to do this in one account:

     

    ls -@Oaen /A*/Promise Utility.app/*/MacOS | pbcopy
    
  • by davidc,

    davidc davidc Jul 17, 2014 10:03 PM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 17, 2014 10:03 PM in response to Linc Davis

    There's nothing in the clipboard, but here's the command response, not the response from the previous command too:

     

    Last login: Thu Jul 17 21:23:39 on console

    Mac-Pro:~ david$ mdfind 'kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier=com.promise.*' | pbcopy 

    Mac-Pro:~ david$ /Applications/Promise Utility.app

    -bash: /Applications/Promise: No such file or directory

    Mac-Pro:~ david$ mdfind 'kMDItemCFBundleIdentifier=com.promise.*' | pbcopy 

    Mac-Pro:~ david$ ls -@Oaen /A*/Promise Utility.app/*/MacOS | pbcopy 

    ls: /A*/Promise: No such file or directory

    ls: Utility.app/*/MacOS: No such file or directory

    Mac-Pro:~ david$ ls -@Oaen /A*/Promise Utility.app/*/MacOS | pbcopy 

    ls: /A*/Promise: No such file or directory

    ls: Utility.app/*/MacOS: No such file or directory

    Mac-Pro:~ david$

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