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Can't launch Apple Remote Desktop anymore

Hi All,


All the sudden, I can't launch ARD 3.8 (380A95) in El Capitan 11.11.4 anymore.

Every time I try to launch it on one of my Mac, I get a warning telling me that it failed to start "due to an unexpected error" (The Remote Desktop software may not be installed correctly or the computer may require a restart).

User uploaded file

It affects all user accounts (so it's not a corrupted user pref) and reinstalling the entire system through the full installer doesn't help.

I can use the Screen Sharing app though…

After reading an old thread with similar problem (Remote desktop administrator software failed to start) I tried deleting all preferences and support files following the instructions on the Apple kb page but it didn't help.


I also checked the Console, and it reports:

3/22/16 10:02:46.888 AM Remote Desktop[5905]: OpenConnectionToAgent - unable to connect 2

3/22/16 10:16:36.035 AM ARDAgent[6057]: libcoreservices: _dirhelper: 400: mkdir: path=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/ modes[2]=0700: Permission denied

3/22/16 10:16:36.035 AM ARDAgent[6057]: confstr on _CS_DARWIN_USER_CACHE_DIR returned an error.


Which could indicate a problem with sandboxing, but again, I see warning similar to this one with different apps on different computers without any consequences (I suspect sandboxing makes the logging fairly chatty nowadays). I checked the cache folder it was referring to and didn't notice anything out of place or missing (comparing to another computer where ARD is working).


If anyone has a suggestion… I'd be forever grateful 🙂


Corentin

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.4)

Posted on Mar 22, 2016 7:21 AM

Reply
25 replies

Jun 6, 2017 6:50 AM in response to andersch

I am using El Capitan 10.11.6 on a 27-inch, Late 2012 iMac. I recently cloned my internal drive to an SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner and had this same issue with Apple Remote Desktop admin. Using andrersch worked for me. I enabled root access by using the Apple Directory Utility, assigned the root user a password, switched to root and ran the above chmod command in Terminal. When I switched back to my normal admin user, the app launched without errors. Thanks to andersch for posting this solution.

Mar 22, 2016 7:32 AM in response to Cortig

Of note… I had to replace the drive on this Mac recently and I'm wondering whether it could be some sort of hardware registration mismatch. Not sure where that would be stored though and the proper uninstallation of the app following the instructions in the kb should have taken care of that.



Corentin

Mar 22, 2016 10:02 AM in response to Cortig

Hi,


Same problem as you, Remote Desktop administrator refuses to start and displays the same message "The Remote Desktop administrator software failed to start due to an unexpected error.". Except this problem is only affecting computers which ran the developper beta. Everything is fine with my production Macs upgraded from 10.11.3 to 10.11.4 (classic channel).


So far I tested / tried:

- authorisations have been repaired

- the problem is not session related

- safe boot is not helping

- deinstallation (following https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201766), reboot and reinstall from App Store

- System reinstall from combo update 10.11.4

- System reinstall from App Store installer



If someone has better ideas.


Tom.

Mar 22, 2016 10:10 AM in response to Tobit

The "permission denied" error implies that ARDAgent may have lost its setuid bit.

To find out if that's the problem, check in Terminal:

"ls -l /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent"

The permissions should be: "-r-sr-xr-x 1 root wheel"

If there's no 's', then run this command:

"chmod 4555 /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent"

Note: ARDAgent is one word. The site is adding the unwanted space.

Mar 22, 2016 10:36 AM in response to Tobit

In a way, I'm glad I'm not the only one… It makes it less likely it's a crazy corruption on my drive that I might never manage to identify…

I also reinstalled from the full installer (which, I hoped, would have also cleared out any bad install or bad permission on the OS itself) without any better luck.


Corentin

Mar 22, 2016 10:45 AM in response to Cortig

I forgot to mention SIP. For anyone who needs the instructions to disable/enable:

  1. Reboot the Mac and hold down Command + R to get the recovery partition
  2. Open Terminal
  3. csrutil disable; reboot


You can try enabling debug logging for more information:

  1. sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.RemoteManagement ARDCollectLogs -bool YES
  2. sudo killall ARDAgent

Logs are written to /tmp. Remember to turn it back off when done for security.

Mar 22, 2016 5:52 PM in response to Cortig

DISCLAIMER: my affected Mac is a crash test machine, I don't care to lose data on it


Finally I solved it by trashing the folder "/var/folders/zz/" indicated in console (as described by Cortig).

To delete (empty the trash) the content, you must first deactivate the System Integrity Protection.


Good luck,

CU

Jul 3, 2016 9:52 PM in response to Cortig

After disamble the apple remote app, finally I got the reason. The reason is that UI App can't establish a unix domain socket to the backend ARD agent application which is located in /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement

So my soulution is copy the folder /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement from another mac and replace the files in it

which works for me

Jul 28, 2016 11:39 PM in response to Cortig

Same problem here after restoring from a Carbon Copy backup.


Could you tell me if you trashed the whole /var/folders/zz/ folder or only the folder within there called something like /zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/ ?

I trashed the whole /zz folder in Recovery mode through the Terminal and afterwards couldn't reboot my Mac again.


Thank you for clarifying on your exact steps on this.


Andy

Can't launch Apple Remote Desktop anymore

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