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Posted By: jaybass pixelating - 05/17/21 07:02 PM
OS 10.13.6

I did a back-up and after that, some words in my favourites sidebar and mail sidebar are pixelated. I checked the internet but didn't find any solution.

Any ideas? I was informed that repairing permissions may solve the problem using terminal. I filled out the necessary words and now terminal says 'Ownership of the affected disk' is required.

I typed in my email, then my name and then my admin. none of those were accepted. Does anyone know what I need to do?

jaybass
Posted By: artie505 Re: pixelating - 05/17/21 09:44 PM
Have you tried shutting down and restarting?
Posted By: jaybass Re: pixelating - 05/17/21 10:31 PM
artie, I guess terminal must have repaired permissions because the pixelations have gone.

This is what happened in terminal;.

Last login: Mon May 17 14:16:21 on console
abcs-MacBook-Pro:~ abc$ diskutil resetUserPermissions / ~id -u~
Incorrect number of parameters
Usage: diskutil resetUserPermissions MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode UID
Reset the permissions of a user home directory.
Ownership of the affected disk is required.
abcs-MacBook-Pro:~ abc$ john daniell
-bash: john: command not found
abcs-MacBook-Pro:~ abc$ raymond
-bash: raymond: command not found
abcs-MacBook-Pro:~ abc$ j.daniell@bell.net
-bash: j.daniell@bell.net: command not found
abcs-MacBook-Pro:~ abc$ abc
-bash: abc: command not found
abcs-MacBook-Pro:~ abc$
[Restored May 17, 2021 at 6:03:16 PM]
Last login: Mon May 17 18:03:13 on console
Restored session: Mon 17 May 2021 18:02:00 EDT
abcs-MacBook-Pro:~ abc$

Where it says Restored May 17, 2021 at 6.03: 16 PM...does that mean that "Ownership etc" is not required? Q: What could have caused the pixels in the first place?
All's well that ends well. Thanks artie,

jaybass
Posted By: artie505 Re: pixelating - 05/17/21 11:03 PM
Originally Posted by jaybass
artie, I guess terminal must have repaired permissions because the pixelations have gone.
And that's without restarting, I assume?

I'm happy to hear that your problem has been solved, but I can't make heads or tails out of that Terminal output.

Honestly, I can't even read anything into it that indicates that it did anything, nor have I got the foggiest idea what "Restored" means in this context.

More: For what it's worth, I just tried running your command in Catalina, and Terminal's response was
Code
diskutil resetUserPermissions / ~id -u~
zsh: no such user or named directory: id
(I think "bash" changed to "zsh" after High Sierra.)
Posted By: jaybass Re: pixelating - 05/17/21 11:16 PM
I did restart as a matter of fact. I think that where it says "restored" it means that they (Whomever they are) have foregone the ownership etc requirements.

Thanks artie

jaybass
Posted By: artie505 Re: pixelating - 05/17/21 11:18 PM
I'm inclined to guess that restarting was the cure (See my edit to my previous post.), not anything to do with Terminal.

More: By the way, any time you run into a weird issue, the first thing you should do is shut down your Mac and restart it.

And I'll suggest that you don't get into running Terminal commands that you find...somewhere. An incorrect command can do untold damage, and as a matter of fact, the only line in your Terminal output that means anything to me is
Code
Incorrect number of parameters
which suggests that the command you ran is NOT a correct command.
Posted By: jaybass Re: pixelating - 05/18/21 12:17 PM
What exactly is expected when you are asked 'Ownership is required'

jaybass
Posted By: joemikeb Re: pixelating - 05/18/21 04:58 PM
Originally Posted by artie505
(I think "bash" changed to "zsh" after High Sierra.)
Yes the default shell was changed and the command to repair system permissions was completely removed in Catalina. I don't know when repairing user permissions was removed from diskutil but I suspect it was around then also. Maintaining the permissions has been placed completely in the control of SIP (System Integrity Protection).

Originally Posted by jaybass
What exactly is expected when you are asked 'Ownership is required'
You are logged on to an account that has administrative permissions, you have entered the correct password for that account in response to the sudo prompt (which is simply a blank line that appears after entering any terminal command beginning with sudo), if your computer has an Intel processor and a T2 chip you have previously disabled SIP, and you are running a macOS 10.10 or earlier. Theoretically SIP prevents permission problems but there is one guaranteed way to fix the system permission in any version of macOS which is to re-install the OS.

NOTE: the command you used
Code
diskutil resetUserPermissions / ~id -u~
only resets permissions in the logged on user's folder and does not change the system permissions. If your problem was caused by a permissions error, it is far more likely to have been in the Systems area.

As to the cause of the error, I concur with Artie it was most probably a temporary glitch in your system that was cured by the universal computer panacea — a reboot.
Posted By: jaybass Re: pixelating - 05/18/21 09:02 PM
I have to wonder why apple would make it so difficult ( for me anyway) to repair permissions.

I notice in super duper the box to repair permissions cannot be ticked.

As usual, you clarified the situation.

jaybass
Posted By: joemikeb Re: pixelating - 05/18/21 11:40 PM
Originally Posted by jaybass
I have to wonder why apple would make it so difficult ( for me anyway) to repair permissions.
Actually Apple has worked hard to make Permission Repair unnecessary. It has probably been over a decade since I repaired permissions and longer than that since I found it really necessary.
Posted By: jchuzi Re: pixelating - 05/18/21 11:46 PM
The latest version of TechToolPro has an option to repair user permissions. I have never tried it so I can't say more.
Posted By: jchuzi Re: pixelating - 05/18/21 11:49 PM
Originally Posted by joemikeb
As to the cause of the error, I concur with Artie it was most probably a temporary glitch in your system that was cured by the universal computer panacea — a reboot.
I don't know if this works all the time, but logging out/in can solve problems as well. I have done this a few times rather than restart, and it takes less time.
Posted By: artie505 Re: pixelating - 05/19/21 12:02 AM
Originally Posted by jchuzi
Originally Posted by joemikeb
As to the cause of the error, I concur with Artie it was most probably a temporary glitch in your system that was cured by the universal computer panacea — a reboot.
I don't know if this works all the time, but logging out/in can solve problems as well. I have done this a few times rather than restart, and it takes less time.
The problem with logging out/in - which has historically been the go-to troubleshooting step - is that if it doesn't work, you've got to restart, and if that doesn't work, you've got to shut down/start up, because each option gets deeper into the system than the previous one.

I find it easiest to skip the preliminaries and go right to shut down, and its now taking only a minimal amount of time, as opposed to the 1-2 minutes it used to take, is a plus.
Posted By: artie505 Re: pixelating - 05/19/21 09:15 AM
Originally Posted by joemikeb
NOTE: the command you used
Code
diskutil resetUserPermissions / ~id -u~
only resets permissions in the logged on user's folder and does not change the system permissions. If your problem was caused by a permissions error, it is far more likely to have been in the Systems area.
What does
Code
Incorrect number of parameters
in that command's output (as posted by jaybass) mean?

My original output from running that command was
Code
diskutil resetUserPermissions / ~id -u~
zsh: no such user or named directory: id
so I substituted "~artie" for "~id" and got
Code
diskutil resetUserPermissions / ~artie -u~
Incorrect number of parameters
Usage:  diskutil resetUserPermissions MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode UID
Reset the permissions of a user home directory.
Ownership of the affected disk is required.
same as jaybass.

That sounds like a readout from a man page.

Am I correct in thinking that running that command actually accomplished absolutely nothing because of the "incorrect number of parameters?"
Posted By: joemikeb Re: pixelating - 05/19/21 02:40 PM
Originally Posted by artie505
Am I correct in thinking that running that command actually accomplished absolutely nothing because of the "incorrect number of parameters?"
Yes.

FWIW I just spent nearly a quarter of an hour digging through man diskutil and discovered a whole lot of things diskutil can do that I was unaware of including..
  • realizing Disk Utility is a GUI offering access to a subset of diskutil of the diskutil verbs
  • diskutil can add/change/remove ownership
  • the diskutil verb resetUserPermissions has apparently been removed along with any other verb relating to permissions (or at least no longer listed in man diskutil)
Posted By: artie505 Re: pixelating - 05/19/21 04:38 PM
Thanks for confirming that.

I looked through the Catalina diskutil man page before I posed my question, and I guessed that the missing "resetUserPermissions" verb was responsible for the command's apparent failure to run, but Terminal's output confused me, because it looks like the command is still a good one.

I didn't get into diskutil's many remaining capabilities. UNIX still spooks me enough that I don't get too deeply involved in it.

Originally Posted by joemike
diskutil can add/change/remove ownership
Isn't that what "chown" is for?
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