Permissions problem in displaypolicyd

Have similar issue on my Mac.

But find better and easy solution for this issue rather than batch file from second post.

Open Terminal app.

And type this:

sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a root -t user _displaypolicyd

This will add root user to the _displaypolicyd group that the owner of the /private/var/db/displaypolicyd dir.

Just adding root user to _displaypolicyd group.

/private/var/db/displaypolicyd dir always set owner _displaypolicyd:_displaypolicyd with permission write only for owner user or owner groups.

So in my situation no "blackscreen" with root in _displaypolicyd group. And i don't need repare permission to root:wheel (0:0) via console of via Disk Utility every time.

Can you check in console did _displaypolicyd exist in output from this command?

sudo groups

Hi, glad to see some people experience the same problem. Its pretty frustrating and solving it (using repair permissions) costs 20 minutes.

i posted yesterday my problem to stackexchange: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/169740/mouse-and-keyboard-on-macbook-ai r-mid-2009-dont-work-partially/169871#169871

also uploaded the error log from the time when it happened (during copying from a usb stick) OSX ejected all USB devices and stopped to read input from my internal keyboard and mouse. (Not during sleep!)

error log: http://pastebin.com/b0zDwzL4

After the first shutdown, i tried to boot the mac, but got a black screen. Nothing happened. The second time i was able to enter recovery menu via cmd+r

then solved the permissions:

User differs on "private/var/db/displaypolicyd"; should be 0; user is 244.

Group differs on "private/var/db/displaypolicyd"; should be 0; user is 244.

then rebooted, stuck in black screen (altough fan went crazy). Had to hard shutdown. Then booted into OSX, and mouse and keyboard are working again.

Got a mid 2009 Macbook Air with Yosemite 10.10.2 and the latest updates. Of course it expired service help from Apple, so maybe someone with active support license could ask for help, it would be helpfully for most of us (i think).

I tried your solution and will hopefully not encounter anymore problems. Thats pretty frustrating, but as an Windows user frustration is my motivation.

Doing a repair on permissions didn't fix your problem. It was just a coincidence for the two times you repaired your permissions. Rebooting your mac made the mouse and keyboard work again. Your fan going crazy is from the SMC reset you did from your other post. The root cause is something else. You need to look for another solution.

You where right, ran into the same Problem. rebooting the machine unfortunatelly does not change the unresponsive Keyboard problem. Only booting into recovery (where everything works) repairing the permissions let the mouse and Keyboard (and usb devices) work again. Sadly i dont have Apple care or warranty left, neither an Apple supporter in/near my City. could you suggest me a solution based on your experience? Else, i will downgrade to Snow Leopard at work on monday.

UPDATE:

I wanted to share the past few weeks in the hopes that it helps.

The Mac expert at work said when he took my MBP apart that "the cable was not seated properly", and his utilities don't even detect the display (which sounds very odd considering you CAN SEE graphics - it's just a backlight issue. If you hold a flashlight to the little apple on the back, u can see the screen is displaying something, and an external monitor works fine (as long as I have logged into the laptop already.. apparently, you have to have an external kbd connected to get output to an external monitor during post. I noticed if I completely power down, I have to use a flashlight to see when it's prompting for login to decrypt the disk, and after I do that it starts outputting. I have learned a **** of a lot about mac troubleshooting in the past couple months...).

The laptop works for roughly a week, then goes black and stays that way for a week or so... I am convinced at this point that it's just a hardware problem, and I need to replace the unit. I believe I DID get lucky with all the resets and permissions fiddling, and it's solely subject to luck if it's going to work on a given day...

I plan to just connect external kbd/mouse/display and use it l like a PC. It's got decent speed, and plenty of RAM. I looked at the MBP docking stations, and they all seem to have some at least one serious draw back. Maybe a USB or thunderbolt port rep is the way to go. I need to do more research.

Disappointing... Glad it's my work laptop. Would not want to drop another $2500 on another MBP. Now worried about the iMac I bought back in Nov... I sure hope it lasts more than 2 years before I start having serious issues.

i reinstalled OS X Mountain Lion and am happy now.

No overheating (which caused the macbook to not boot) No displaypolicyd Errors, no unresponsive keyboards and mouse. Just great OS X experience. Macbook running the whole day like a charm.

Yosemite seems to me like Windows Vista.

Do any of you have Duet installed? http://www.duetdisplay.comI am convinced that this app forcing itself to launch on boot is causing these ownership issues for me. I've had all of the private/var/db/displaypolicyd issues with Yosemite but when I remove this app I can suddenly repair permissions correctly.

I get these permission issues too and have had two automatic shut downs (panic dump) on my mac mini bought in 2014 I don't know if they are connected to this and or hardware. But they have happened since yosemite, which has slowed the computer. Asus monitor and lacie back up and lacie external HD for FCPx & Logic.

Any tips are welcome.

Similar permission issues with my MBP mid 2012 (no retina) and Yosemite 10.10.2. 😟

Group differs on “Library/Printers/InstalledPrinters.plist”; should be 80; group is 0.

Permissions differ on “Library/Printers/InstalledPrinters.plist”; should be -rw-rw-rw- ; they are -rw-r--r-- .

Repaired “Library/Printers/InstalledPrinters.plist”

User differs on “private/var/db/displaypolicyd”; should be 0; user is 244.

Group differs on “private/var/db/displaypolicyd”; should be 0; group is 244.

Repaired “private/var/db/displaypolicyd”

Is this problem solved?

so Mountain Lion was just a temporäre Solution. for 3 days i stuck at the loginscreen and cant use neither Keyboard nor trackpad. Also Post Login things wont work, so booting from usb wont work (altough usb hub gets Some voltage) the ribbon cable is not the problem, because the keyboard backlight works. To me it Seems still like a Firmware Problem. (Usb Keyboard neither recognized, but gets its voltage) will take a Look to the next Apple authrized reseller.

This has been annoying me for a while now. I did a clean install on an external drive and everything appeared to work properly. While I was doing that I decided to try and repair permissions on the internal drive when booted under the external drive and for some reason a whole bunch of new errors were found that didn't appear to come up when doing the same in recovery mode. The problem seems to have resolved itself for now but only time will tell if it sticks.

I had the same problem yesterday on a 2014 Retina Macbook Pro: black screen on boot (boot progress bar would move to about 25% and then I would get the black screen), permissions problem in displaypolicyd even after repairing permissions multiple times, I even reinstalled Yosemite on top of my current system, but nothing helped.

Then I called Apple Care and they gave me the following procedure:

- Boot in single-user mode (cmd+S at boot)

- At the prompt, type the following commands:

mount -uw /

(press the return key)

cd /Library/Preferences

(press the return key)

mv com.apple.loginwindow.plist com.apple.loginwindow.plist.old

(press the return key)

reboot

(press the return key)

Voilà. If all goes well, your computer should reboot and take you to the login window. The problem seems to come from a corrupted com.apple.loginwindow.plist preference file. The above procedure will help you create a new one the next time your computer starts up.

Hope it helps someone!

Thank you so much for this tip!

After trying tons and tons of suggestions from other people having this problem and having no luck, doing what you suggested finally worked! It seems to have solved the problem. Hopefully it won't keep happening, but at least my computer's working for now. 🙂

brandonfisherman wrote:

I had the same problem yesterday on a 2014 Retina Macbook Pro: black screen on boot (boot progress bar would move to about 25% and then I would get the black screen), permissions problem in displaypolicyd even after repairing permissions multiple times, I even reinstalled Yosemite on top of my current system, but nothing helped.

Then I called Apple Care and they gave me the following procedure:

- Boot in single-user mode (cmd+S at boot)

- At the prompt, type the following commands:

mount -uw /

(press the return key)

cd /Library/Preferences

(press the return key)

mv com.apple.loginwindow.plist com.apple.loginwindow.plist.old

(press the return key)

reboot

(press the return key)

Voilà. If all goes well, your computer should reboot and take you to the login window. The problem seems to come from a corrupted com.apple.loginwindow.plist preference file. The above procedure will help you create a new one the next time your computer starts up.

Hope it helps someone!

Did this solve your display policy d permission issue by any chance ? Im desperate to fix it because I have a few "minor" display issues which Im sure are related to it.

Thank you