Permissions problems in Leopard: Crashes when adding new user rights, more

Crashes when adding new user privileges Several readers have reported an issue where the Finder crashes when attempting to add a user to a file's permissions set via the " " button in the Get Info window. Some reports:

"Having problem with 'get info' and changing permissions settings. If I try to change access privileges Finder crashes and there is a 'unknown' user there as well. Also setting "no access" to a drive over the network doesn't seem to work either."

"The Finder of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) crashes in every case when you try to edit permission as follows: Open a Finder info window, choose the 'Sharing & Permissions' pane, click the lock icon, type your user name and password, and then click on the plus button on the left." -- Christian Buerli

This problem appears to be due to a bad group setting. You can alleviate the issue by putting afflicted users back into the "Staff" group (GID 20) via the following Terminal command:

• sudo dscl . append /Groups/staff GroupMembership username

(where "username" is replaced by the afflicted user's name).

ACL issues A number of readers are reporting issues with Access Control List (ACL) permissions after updating to Leopard. It appears that Mac OS X 10.5 is applying two ACL attributes to some folders, causing some files to be locked out and others not to be. This can result in, among other things, non-launching applications where some components are updated by software updaters and others aren't. Other symptoms can include (based on reader reports):

• constant password validations to move files
• delete attempts that request passwords
• files that wont move but instead duplicate if moved to another folder

MacFixIt reader Elliot Roth provides the following permissions modifying commands (applied using the Terminal, located in /Applications/Utilities) that will, at leat temporarily, resolve this issue.

In the aforementioned commmands, permissions are being recursivey applied to the Applications and root Library folder. If you are experiencing issues with other folders, use the same prefix (sudo chmod -a# 0) and the appropriate paths.

For instance, the following reader had problems with ACLs in his home directory:

"I can't rename half of the files/folders in my home directory without root privs. Let alone move/delete them. Oddly, the permissions should be correct. [...] Using ls -le on my home directory, I noticed a lot of files and folders (non-OS default) had an ACL set for: "0: group:everyone deny delete" that wasn't supposed to be there."

Failing the above fix, you can run the following command:

• sudo fsaclctl -d -p /

to disable Access Control Lists.

Remember to apply Login and Keychain update Failure to apply the Login and Keychain 1.0 update, which is recommended for all Leopard users, can result in situations like the following:

"When trying to switch users I find I cannot open hard drive after switching users. Doesn't matter if I quick switch or log out and log back on. Restart does not seem to help. I removed one user to test and found that my Safari defaults and desktop ended up as default when I logged back on to my own user name. I am admin. Other users are not."

This user's problem was immediately solved by applying the update.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

For further coverage, see the Leopard Hot Topic page.

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