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Apple is gradually crippling the root user
#28689 04/22/14 04:43 PM
Joined: Aug 2009
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Joined: Aug 2009
As time goes on I see more parts of OS X breaking for the root user. This week I found out that the root user's keychain is buggy in Mavericks. Most passwords do not store/retrieve, and apps that expect the keychain to work will bug also. The only serious problem I've ran into in relation to this is that mail is no longer useable by root.

The skinny of it: when you set up an account, if you enter the password, it tries to store it in the keychain. Or if you don't enter it and it prompts for it, it tries to store it. THEN it gets it from the keychain to check mail. This process fails, silently, and it will either take your email offline or will prompt again. The end result is you cannot do password-authenticated sending, or any form of receiving.

I've reported this issue, but as with several others, I doubt they'll spend any serious time to fix it. They consider the root user to not be a "real user", only to be used for troubleshooting purposes. I know some of you here agree with that, but my service drives at work are all logging in as root because otherise I'd be spending a lot of time typing passwords.

(root also has problems toggling owners on external hard drives, diskwarrior won't run, and I'm having problems recalling the other issues offhand)


I work for the Department of Redundancy Department
Re: Apple is gradually crippling the root user
Virtual1 #28902 05/05/14 02:35 AM
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If the sudo command starts to be badly supported, we will be in real trouble.


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Re: Apple is gradually crippling the root user
MicroMatTech3 #28903 05/05/14 05:22 AM
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It's been quite a while, so welcome back; I hope you've been OK...just not seen anything of interest here. smile


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Apple is gradually crippling the root user
artie505 #28917 05/05/14 04:30 PM
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Thank you.

I have been relatively busy.

You may recall my having had on several occasions a large number of virtual memory swapfiles, at /var/vm. It appears that the maximum number of swapfiles is 60. A dialog box appears informing the user that it is time to close some applications, which is funny when the only application shown in the dialog box is the Finder.

The creation of so many swapfiles appears to be a consequence of a crash of the Flash browser plug-in. If I do not have Flash running, I never get large numbers of swapfiles.


MicroMat Inc
Makers of TechTool
Re: Apple is gradually crippling the root user
MicroMatTech3 #28919 05/05/14 08:13 PM
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Thanks for the update.

I wonder why you're alone in having experienced, posted, anyway, the issue?

Last edited by artie505; 05/05/14 08:14 PM.

The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Apple is gradually crippling the root user
artie505 #28924 05/05/14 09:57 PM
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I have seen other reports of users with too many virtual memory swapfiles, but I can see why little progress is made in this area. The user has a computer that has slowed to a crawl, and even opening Activity Monitor or Terminal to take a look at memory usage takes too long. It is easier to resart or shut down and reboot.


MicroMat Inc
Makers of TechTool
Re: Apple is gradually crippling the root user
MicroMatTech3 #28925 05/05/14 10:11 PM
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That makes sense. Other than inveterate troubleshooters, nobody can even explain what their problem is.


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

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