Im admin user but it says Access Denied

osxosx
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
I just bought a PowerBook about a month ago and set it up with a new admin account. I haven't had any problems until yesterday when I tried to synce up my Palm Treo to it. I have to install Palm Mac Hotsync software for it to pick up the device so I downloaded that and went through the instructions and then it says "Can not install - Access Denied" , this happens with my two other iMacs to sometimes when I try to delete old folders and such. How do it get it so that I am for sure the admin and root user and so that I will not be denied? Any help would be greatly appreciated



thanks, Connor

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Admin is not the same as root... it is a privileged user that can control the resources of the machine, and other user accounts, but it does not give you all out control of every file on the machine, without question. This is a safety net, keeping you from accidentally screwing something critical up so that, say, you can no longer boot the machine.



    That being said, let the flame war begin...



    The rational, conservative argument:

    You don't want to be running in root mode all the time, instead you just want to have *ocassional* access as root level. Deleting other people's files falls into this category of root access, as does mucking with /System.



    The eXtreeeeeeeme l33t h@x0r argument:

    Screw that, the computer should never get between me and any bit on the hard drive, it's my computer. I can screw it up however I want, right?



    The fix:

    First, we need more info - what installer are you running that's causing this?



    Second, have you fixed permissions in Disk Utility? Anytime you run into a situation where a permissions issue seems weird, try this first. The installation issue is definitely strange. It should just ask you for your password, and continue.



    Third, there are ways to promote yourself to root temporarily, such as running su or sudo in Terminal, which gives you a five minute window as root. Also, I *thought* that with 10.3.x, an attempted Finder action that required higher permissions would simply ask you for an admin password, and you could do it (again with the five minute window). What OS version are you running?
  • Reply 2 of 5
    talksense101talksense101 Posts: 1,738member
    In today's networked world, enabling the root user is suicidal. I don't think a flame war will start on the topic.



    You get access denied if the file/resource is being used by another process. Shutdown all suspect processes and try it.
  • Reply 3 of 5
    osxosx Posts: 34member
    I am running 10.3.5 and the installer is for a Palm Hotsynce Desktop which was made by Stuffit InstallerMaker. I repaired the disk permissions but it still says "Sorry, the operation could not be completed due to a System error: (Access Denied). Any idea?
  • Reply 4 of 5
    osxosx Posts: 34member
    anyone?
  • Reply 5 of 5
    maccrazymaccrazy Posts: 2,658member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by OSx

    anyone?



    Is it the latest one from Palm. I recently installed my Palm (T3) on my iMac and I had no problems!
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