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Re: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
jchuzi #676 08/09/09 12:47 AM
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OMG! then i'll be really really really really behined!

Re: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
PChaterosx #684 08/09/09 01:15 AM
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PChaterosx—

While I know we don't strictly observe the distinction between troubleshooting threads, which are for helping to provide information and advice about various Mac-related issues, and "social" threads, which are meant to be in the Lounge (that's what the Lounge is for!), it's really not appropriate to make comments in a thread like this which offer no useful information regarding the topic under discussion.

Your enthusiasm is admirable smile , but please keep the off-topic comments out of troubleshooting threads.

Thanks, and good luck with everything.



dkmarsh—member, FineTunedMac Co-op Board of Directors
Re: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
dkmarsh #686 08/09/09 01:25 AM
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Sorry smile can you move it to the right place, please?

Re: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
PChaterosx #695 08/09/09 05:18 AM
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> OMG! then i'll be really really really really behined!

Since this hasn't yet been moved to the Lounge I'll respond to it here.

Snow Leopard is *Intel* Mac *only*, so your *PPC* PowerBook will *not* be able to run it, so you will *not* be any further behind than you currently are, i.e. really, really, really.


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: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
macnerd10 #696 08/09/09 05:22 AM
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> After the second application of 10.5.8 combo, the same (or nearly, see Alternaut's post above) huge list of permissions was repaired.

The post immediately (I think) above the one I cited says you've got to rerun the Combo *before* repairing permissions, while the one I cited says the fix worked even *after* repairing them.

I dunno!


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: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
alternaut #703 08/09/09 06:21 AM
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The key is that Apple changed the package structure for applications and neither Disk Utility nor the original installer manifests have any awareness of this change, and so throw out spurious "error" messages.

Let me back off for a moment with some context. Leopard allows for "code signing" with a cryptographic hash to prove that an application has not been altered. The core idea is that malware, upon making unauthorized changes to an application, would be detected. Leopard could -- but does not currently AFAICT -- reduce the affected application's privileges upon detection and so limit any potential harm.

Leopard does recognize and use the signature in the new application firewall. For signed applications, you are NOT asked to approve access to the internet upon updating a signed application. You may notice that unsigned third-party applications however will re-ask for approval upon any update to that applications. As there is no signature, there is no way to prove it is the same application, so the user must manually provide that approval.

I'm not sure how else the signing is used in Leopard, although I expect it to be more integrated in future OS X releases. The iPhone's version of OS X is much stricter, and won't allow installing unsigned applications. In fact, that is the whole idea behind "jailbreak" tools; to allow unsigned applications to be installed and used. And that act increases the attack surface of the iPhone to malware.

Somewhere -- I forgot which point update -- in Leopard's history, Apple restructured the application package (remember that an OS X application is not a single file, but a potentially large collection of files and resources in multiple directories.) There used to a single file with cryptographic fingerprints for every file at the top level of an application's bundle. Newer point version of 10.5.x added a directory just to hold the hashes. For backwards compatibility, Apple added a soft link (alias) in the top level to the new location within a _CodeSignature folder. It would seem Apple is preparing to allow for a more granular set of fingerprints rather than requiring everything being thrown into one large file.

Repairing permissions looks at the original manifest, expects a file called CodeResources, and instead finds the modified structure of a soft link call CodeResources pointing to the file in its new location under the _CodeSignature directory. This change is responsible for the error message (the "l" is the new link) in every application or code-containing bundle (including internet plugins) that has been updated to the new directory structure. It is an error only in the sense that Disk Utility is not aware of the equivalence between the older and newer bundle structure. One can presume that an install of Snow Leopard would include installer manifests reflecting the new structure and hence would not indicate these spurious errors.

To that end, I'm not sure it is even worth worrying about. If one has a problem due to permissions, and repairing permissions fixes it, great. If not, and I believe this business of repairing permissions has been elevated to the point of obsessiveness, also great. In any case, those "error" messages are certainly NOT indications of anything being broken or damaged.

Re: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
David #1285 08/17/09 08:37 PM
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And a miracle occurs: Our very own joemikeb is quoted at MacFixit (aka CNET) in UPDATED: Worried about permissions?. There should have been a link to FTM. wink


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
jchuzi #1290 08/17/09 09:16 PM
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As I've been saying all along: Don't worry about it! laugh

Added a comment to that MFI thread:

Shouldn't it read, former MacFixIt Forums and current FineTunedMac.com moderator "joemikeb"?


Keeper of the Magic Nickel
Re: Repairing Permission Prior to Updating the OS
donikatz #1306 08/17/09 10:11 PM
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Hey at least I got credit for the post. grin


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
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