A l'il mac help por favor?

My kid has an ibook G4. Something happened that changed some setting, now whenever he tries to downloacd something, or open an email attachment, or drag something from the desktop to the trash, a message pops up that says he can't do it because he has "insufficient privileges".

Apple Help says contact the system adminstrator, which isn't much help since there isn't one. Does anybody know how to work around this? He could just start all over, there isn't that much on the computer, but I don't even know how to do that.

He needs this thing for school, any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Open up the Disk Utility (it's in Applications -> Utilities), select the main hard drive, and click on "Repair Privileges."

Get a PC

:D

Thanks Arty.

DJ, he's required by the school to have a mac, but I call your emoticon and raise you one:

:the_finge

Speaking of Macs, does anybody know where OSX hides cookies, temporary internet files, and the like?

Iceman,

If the "repair permissions" trick doesn't work, post back. He might have made his account a user account, rather than an administrator account.

Sidenote: it's actually good to make your main user profile (i.e. what you use day to day) a "user" account. One of the prime security benefits of a Mac is obliterated when you use the administrator account for day to day use. Using the administrator account like that allows root level access that you might not want, and then you might as well be running Windows.

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Originally Posted by Pierre LeCouloir

Using the administrator account like that allows root level access that you might not want, and then you might as well be running Windows.

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Not true. Root and Admin on Mac OS X are not the same. Root and Admin on Windows are. That said, running as a user instead of an admin is generally a good idea.

DJ, he said he wanted a computer that works.

Okay, that didn't work.

I left a piece of information out, though: when he goes to do something with files (trash them, whatever) a box with a locked padlock symbol comes up and it says "Finder Requires that you type your Password". We type his apssword and that'[s when the "insufficient permission" deal comes up.

My guess is that he somehow set himself up as a user, and now he doesn't remember the Admin password. I went through Help again and tried to re-set the admin password with the OS-X startup disk but everything just froze, couldn't even move the cursor to get anywhere, I had to power it off and on just to get the disk out. So, um....hmmm.

resetting from the install CD is the only way (that i know of) to reset the admin password. you can either try to google the terminal command for resetting it (if that's even possible in user mode), or, really worst case, backup your data, then format and reinstall, but seeing as your reinstall CD doesn't seem to be working that may prove to be troublesome.

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Originally Posted by Sphinx

Speaking of Macs, does anybody know where OSX hides cookies, temporary internet files, and the like?

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there's a program called onyx that can point you to where these are, i think. you can also just clear the cache in safari to get rid of the temp files, not sure about cookies.

Never heard of the problem with anyone that uses a Mac and had never happened to me. Id suggest one of the only and probably easiest solutions is just to reinstall OSX all over again using the disks, but I believe you said that hasnt worked and all it does it freeze up. I cant personally help you cause Im not that tech savy with computers and dont know how to fix problems like this one. My friend on the other had is an expert, Ill give him a shout I can almost guarantee that he'll have an answer to your problem.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pierre LeCouloir

Iceman,

If the "repair permissions" trick doesn't work, post back. He might have made his account a user account, rather than an administrator account.

Sidenote: it's actually good to make your main user profile (i.e. what you use day to day) a "user" account. One of the prime security benefits of a Mac is obliterated when you use the administrator account for day to day use. Using the administrator account like that allows root level access that you might not want, and then you might as well be running Windows.

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As Arty has said that is not true for OSX. An administrator in OSX has the same privileges as a normal user. When a program is run that needs root privileges OSX runs it with sudo and sudo prompts the user for his password.

It's no different then a normal UNIX user who has sudo all.

Iceman, Ive got a bit of info now, but re-reading your posts I think youve aleady tried it. My friend says that first just try reseting the password with OSX Install Disk 1, restarting the computer with it inside and hold C as it starts. Choose Installer then Reset Password from the menu. Im guessing thats what youve already tried and it froze? Just curious, what part of the whole, restart, hold C, and then it loading up, where did it freeze and how long did you give it before you restarted?

Some bad news man. My friend has also informed me that if that isnt working too well, the whole reseting the password deal, that you should back all your important stuff up and just re-install the whole shebang. Itll be the easiest thing to do and also the least expensive, cause you could give it to a professional, but theres no guarantee that it'll work. Best of luck man.

Fuck that.

If you have an apple store nearby, take it in and go up to the genius bar. They should be able to help you.

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Originally Posted by jed peters

Fuck that.

If you have an apple store nearby, take it in and go up to the genius bar. They should be able to help you.

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Yeah I'm gonna do that tomorrow.

Duderino, I did the whole bit with restarting it with installl disk 1 in it while holding down the "c" key, what it came to was a diagram of a mouse that showed how the batteries go in the mouse. He doesn't even have a mouse. Also, the cursor wouldn't move. I couldn't get it to do a damn thing so I just powered it off and back on without the disk in it and he can at least use Word for now.

post back the solution the apple geeks come up with.

Iceman, not sure if this is what you tried, but Apple is pretty good at explaining how to do things: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106156 Check out "Resetting the original administrator account password."

Arty and Lurch: thanks for the 411. I only know enough about UNIX to create trouble. In any case, here's the article that gave rise to my inartfully worded warning: http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/secur...crack_mac_os_x

heh, well the Apple geniuses couldn't fix it either. It wasn't the Admin password business that I originally thought it was, they tried going that route and it didn't help anything. Comments ranged from "that's odd" to "what the heck did the kid do to this thing?" and beyond.

Finally they just set up another user ID and that one works fine. Now all I have to do is figure out how to move folders (like itunes) from one user to another.

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Originally Posted by iceman

Now all I have to do is figure out how to move folders (like itunes) from one user to another.

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that's actually really really easy, moreso than you'd think it'd be. just simply copy over the entire itunes folder from the old "Music" folder to the new one, open up itunes and it works just fine. the key is in the files called "itunes music libary" which is labeled as a 'data' file, and the itunes music library XML file. these two files store everything about your library - play count, volume adjustments, date added, last played date, etc. hopefully you opted to have itunes manage where the files were stored (as opposed to having them in your own folders).

when i had to reformat, i thought i'd lose all my itunes settings, but just porting the whole shebang over kept all my settings intact.

why does"Jr" need itunes for school?
hmmmm?
sounds like a DINS and DINMS type adventure here....

Iceman, sorry I took so long to reply. I believe I know whats causing you trouble and how you can fix it. I believe it will just take a reseting of some settings and your first, original, user account will be okay to use again and you wont need that second account.

Ok, heres what you do.
1. Turn your computer on. Go into your first, original, account. The one that was giving you shit in the beginning. Let it load fully until its done.

2. Go to Apple menu > Restart to reboot your machine.

3. As you hear it restart press and hold the Command (The one next to the space bar) and the S Keys together. Hold these keys for a few seconds, let them go and press them again. When you see the first white screen with the Apple logo let go of these keys and press them again to make sure you get into Single-User Mode.

4. Now you should see a black screen with white writing, and a bunch of codes written down. This is Single-User Mode (It looks like dos or whatever its called on PC). From here you will put in codes that should fix everything.

5. Now, type these commands in order. Press return after each one and wait until they finish. For the third one, you can press enter if it gets stuck on acquiring network address.

6. The codes are

1."fsck -fy"
2."mount -uw/"
3."sh /etc/rc"
4."reboot"

Note: Dont actually put the "" in the command. On the first one there is a space between the "k" and "-", same with the "t" and "-" in the second, and "h" and "/" in the third.

Remember, give these commands time to process. Some take several minutes to finish.

This set of commands checks your disk, mounts it as read-write which is where your main problem might have been, loads some startup things, and reboots.

Now, once youve rebooted your system go to your first, original, account again. Once its loaded open your Finder and just click on the Documents. Once its selected press Command and I key to get info. Look at the bottom should be a "Ownership & Permissions" tab, click it and make sure it is set to Read & Write.

If it is, put in the OSX Install CD 1, reboot, hold the "C" and if it starts as it should, then change the password from there.

Tell me if this works. Im nearly 100% sure of it except for the password thing. If changing the pasword through CD1 doesnt work, like if it freezes again as before, Ill figure how to change that some other way.

Hope it helps.

Cool, thanks...hey, wait a minute...how do I know that you don't hate me and these commands will turn the computer into a mass of molten silicon?

hmmmm.

If you're worried about the commands, ice, open up a Terminal (/Application/Utilities/Terminal.app) and type in 'man [command name]'. Here are the results, in case you don't trust me, either :

fsck -- filesystem consistency check and interactive repair
mount -- mount file systems
bash - GNU Bourne-Again SHell
reboot, halt -- stopping and restarting the system

If you want futher elaboration on what that means, you'll have to run the man commands yourself. They have lengthy descriptions.

edg

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Originally Posted by iceman

Cool, thanks...hey, wait a minute...how do I know that you don't hate me and these commands will turn the computer into a mass of molten silicon?

hmmmm.

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I never said it wont man. Just give it a shot and well, what happens happens. Dont worry though, I ran those same ones on my Powerbook so they are legit. Besides I would never fuck over a fellow maggot.

Going with the f-suck! This is why OSX is so superior to Windoze, you can whip out your bag of *nix tricks for saving a filesystem.

Iceman, did the codes work for you?

Didn't have a chance to deal with it yet, El D., I should have time later on today and I'll post back about it, thanks.