I just got my new Mac Pro, and installed CS2. When I try and open Photoshop, I get the message " Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is not available".
I called Apple and they told me it was an Adobe problem.
I uninstalled and re-installed CS2 three times, as suggested by Apple, but I cannot get Photoshop to work.
"When it comes to Mac OS X troubleshooting and maintenance, Repairing permissions may be the most frequently recommended course of action. Its also easily the most maligned."
Repair Permissions both immediately BEFORE AND immediately AFTER installing ANY software that uses an Installer not just OSX System and Apple programs.
Folks who do not do that do so at their own peril. Note that repairing permissions is not something you do after the fact. The immediately part above is quite relevant.
Um sorry, I do know my way around OS X having used it since the Public Beta and this forum has a created a local cultural myth about the importance of installers and permissions. To me it is just elephant insurance (you don’t see any around here, do you? See it works!).
Transferring CS2 from one computer to another might have been the cause of your problems because the Activation is tied to the actual CPU of a specific computer.
I have seen software installations go sour because the installer did not find everything as and where it should be.
I have also seen software installations go bad because the installer did not clean up after itself properly and did not leave everything as and where it should be.
In other words, I have seen the elephant. It has never trampled me personally (presumably because of the insurance), but it has wrecked the heck out of installs of several folks I know. I’ve helped them get their applications back mostly by encouraging them to reinstall. 🙂
To give a different spin to your elephant insurance analogy, allow me to offer the seat belt analogy. Wearing a seat belt is probably unnecessary 99% of the time. I’d still advise people to use them.
On the other hand, one gorgeous night some 45 years ago I was driving a sports car on the narrow two-lane road from Metz to Paris. I came upon a very gentle bend, not a real curve, when I had to swerve off the road as I saw a large truck (lorry to you) coming directly at me as it passed another one, and leaving no space for me to maneuver.
The last time I had looked at the speedometer, I was doing over 200 km/hr. There was about a 6 or 7 meter drop, so the car became airborne as it left the road. I was ejected from the car, and that actually saved my life, because witnesses told the authorities the car flipped over several times and then burst into flames. I would have been incinerated on the spot if I had been strapped to my seat.
I don’t remember what happened after I hit the soft ground. I woke up in a French hospital, pretty banged up, but alive. Had I been wearing a seat belt then, that would have been the end of my days.
So, it’s the luck of the draw. Just because you and I have been lucky, that doesn’t mean we should advise others to forego easy precautions.
I have seen software installations go sour because the installer did not find everything as >and where it should be.
I have also seen software installations go bad because the installer did not clean up after >itself properly and did not leave everything as and where it should be.
In other words, I have seen the elephant.
Uh, Ramón, neither of those issues has anything to do with repairing permissions.
The repairing permissions issue is OS X version of zapping the PRAM. I do Mac tech support for thirty or so people locally and in all my time dealing with the early Mac OS from OS6 through OS9, zapping the pram was functional for me exactly once.
One mental lightweight went into his monitors control panel and turned the brightness to zero. He then couldn’t see anything on his monitor and called me in a panic! LOL! Truly, my empathy was eclipsed by the absurdity of the situation and I laughed for a good thirty seconds, not cheering the poor petitioner seeking help. In that one case zapping the pram did work.
In a similar vein, I’ve heard over and over here (but in no other forum) about the vital importance of repairing permissions before and after… yadda yadda. In the years I’ve been studying and performing troubleshooting on a variety of OS X machines (yes I’m paid for it), I’ve only read of one, count ’em, ONE case where repairing permissions as a trouble shooting technique was known to have provided a solution.
Don’t get me wrong, permissions should be dealt with on a regular and ongoing basis. That’s why I suggest Macaroni to people. It repairs them once a week, automatically. SuperDuper is configured to repair them prior to every backup on my computer. However I have installed literally thousands of applications for OS X over the years of it’s existence and never have had an issue where repairing permissions or lack thereof caused any problem. This, statistically, is not luck.
Zap your pram, eat your veggies, repair your permissions! (Pick one.)
In the years I’ve been working with/troubleshooting OSX for me and my circle (since the first Beta), I know of exactly one instance where repairing permissions actually fixed a problem. Just recently, a co-worker mentioned that she couldn’t print to the networked printer and wanted to know if she should run "the DiskWarrior". When I asked what happened when she tried to print, she said, "it says something about permission denied". Naturally, a quick permission repair fixed her up in less than a minute. (This was a 2 yr-old machine that had never experienced a permission repair before that day.)
As for you MUST repair permissions BEFORE and AFTER an install or all hell will break loose, that’s just silly. Beyond the urban myth postings on internet forums, there is nothing published from anyone credible (including Apple), that this procedure is advised, let alone required. Admittedly, sometimes I’ll follow it if I’m in a superstitious mood, but most often I don’t. Never once has it led to my demise.
Like Welles, I’m not saying permissions should be ignored, it’s just that I have to chuckle every time "repair permissions" is suggested as the first course of fixing a problem – no matter what the problem happens to be.
That said, what’s the first thing I do when stumped about a problem? Repair permissions, of course! (and it never works!) 😉
There are a lot of threads over on the Apple forums suggesting why you should not do this on the new Mac Pros. It creates problems. You need clean installs of your OS and all your apps.
Sometimes I repair (if I remember) sometimes I don’t.
I don’t seem to have the problems that many have but then I also follow routine maintenance practices. A well maintained system usually won’t let you down.
If Repairing Permissions is so unnecessary, can you explain why so many people who have come here with problems; been told to Repair Permissions and have done so; have gratefully returned here to thank us for the help and to tell us that all is now working properly?
First thing that I do if anything starts to act-up is to Repair Permissions. The second thing; Run Cocktail. Third thing: check the DiskWarrior Graph.
VERY rarely have I ever needed to dig any deeper such as trashing prefs. or disabling some conflicting plug-in (like TWAIN!).
Well, Phil and Welles, you keep doing it your way and I’ll keep on doing it my way. I don’t buy any of what you say.
[Edit:] We have gone over this before. The opinions you cite have been contradicted by others I have quoted in the past. No need to rehash all of this. None of us appears convinced by what the other side says. I’ll continue to advise people to repair permissions before and after.
All I did was link to a nice series of articles, and with no semantic bias. How could you POSSIBLY read anything into what I posted in THIS thread which would constitute anything but abject neutrality on the subject?
Please look elsewhere for conspiratorial dissention, mmmkay?
Nowhere did I say repairing permissions is unnecessary. In fact, I even cited my own example where the procedure actually fixed a problem (once in almost 6 years, mind you). Obviously, when a wayward permission is causing problems, repairing it is absolutely necessary.
No, what I said is that in the vast, vast majority of times it’s recommended — it’s unnecessary. Repairing permissions is not the cure-all it’s made out to be. And the "you must before and after installing" thing is … as I said, silly. Evidently, even Buko doesn’t buy into it.
And I’d hardly call the Dan Frakes article a "rehash". Dan Frakes is a highly respected Macintosh expert and author. I realize he’s not the queen of Adobe forums but pardon me if I choose to give his advice on this issue just a bit more credence.
Ramón-
you keep doing it your way and I’ll keep on doing it my way. … I’ll continue to advise people to repair permissions before and after.
Of course, Ramón – I didn’t expect anything different. 😉
However, given that you religiously follow your boilerplate permission repair procedures with good results — and my procedure is, lets just say haphazard – with good results, I can only draw one conclusion.
Yes, Ramon…I’m sure it would be in everyone’s best interests to listen to the anecdotal experiences of you and others as opposed to digesting the lunatic ravings of a man who has been researching and writing about this stuff for many years.
I posted links to the rebuttals to all of that by more credible authorities some time ago. I’m not going to look for all of them again, but here’s one:
And here’s a quote by Tom Harringtom submitted in "Permissions Repair: The Full Story"
"Some people wonder why they should bother with all this if they’re the only user of their Mac. But it’s important to keeping the computer running properly. One major reason for keeping track of file permissions is to prevent you from accidentally breaking something that would prevent your computer from working."
And your own Dan Farkes is not quite as cynical as you are:
"That said, if it makes you feel safer to perform the task regularly, its highly unlikely to hurt anything (see below). And if youre in a higher-risk groupfor example, someone who installs lots of softwarerepairing permissions as maintenance or after a software update, as Apple recommends, may avoid a bit of inconvenience by fixing incorrect permissions before they manifest in noticeable symptoms."
Look, there’s all kinds of advice. You follow whatever suits you. Why, some folks are still running Photoshop 7.x despite all the advice from other users. It’s their right.
Incidentally, Phosphor, I can’t fathom why you think I think you should pay attention to me when you know and should know full way that I seldom if ever pay attention to you.
I offer advice to others that they and everybody else is of course free to disregard.
If you and Phil think that’s "silly", that’s really none of my concerns.
Then how is it you’re able to respond? That remains a mystery.
And you, who are a stickler about languageperhaps more than I amyet you stoop to repeatedly misspelling (on purpose, I’m sure) Dan Frakes name, and calling other people names. What sort of juvenalian satisfaction does that give you, I have to wonder? Please, enlighten us.
Listen up, Ramon…Just because somebody disagrees with you, or expresses an opposing point of view, that doesn’t give you license to act like you’ve been mortally wounded.
Of course, you’re certainly free to do all the name-calling you want, and engage in your indignant tantrums. It shines a lovely light upon your character.
It doesn’t hurt or scare, or intimidate so much as it’s good for a good belly laugh, knowing how worked up you get.
Time for another blood pressure pill? Make sure you drink plenty of water, and watch your sodium intake.
It’s also reasonable to have a look at both sides of this bitter argument though 😉 , so us dumb arse users can form our own opinion.
I must say I’d never repaired permissions before or after an installing anything until my 10.4 install problem, (which was my fault for upgrading rather than a clean install) and I’d never had a problem except for the usual early OS X crap, but I’ve done it ever since on OS update stuff (when I remember) but can’t be arsed on program installs.
I wrote this before Phos’ rant, but after Ramons rant.
Where do you come up with the idea that I feel "mortally wounded"? Get over yourself. You’re too unimportant to matter to me, as I’m sure I am to you or should be, anyway.
The fact that you resort to those childish personal attacks shows it’s you who’s getting worked up.
I don’t know this guy "Frakes" from a hot rock. I had never come across such a surname. Farkas and Farkes are good Hungarian surnames I’m familiar with, I thought that was his name. Sorry if I bungled it. It was NOT intentional. If it had been intentional, which I repeat it was NOT, calling someone a "Wolf" is hardly an insult. Wolves have been revered in certain ancient cultures.
Really, I don’t give a rat’s ass whether you or Phil or anyone else repairs permissions or not. Believe me. I give the advice and, for me, that’s the end of it. Whether anyone follows it or not is totally immaterial.
It’s like when I say "good day" or "good night" to anyone, I just offer it for what it is. Simple.
And why would I care about any aspersions you may want to cast upon my "character"? You are suitably anonymous and I don’t know you from Adam. I’m not trying to be your friend or your drinking buddy. I have plenty of family and friends of my own, of a more appropriate age group than a young whippersnapper like you.
It’s amazing to me the hostility I seem to arouse among a certain class of people around these forums, as if I were running for office or trying to get you fired from your jobs.
There’s something I’m unintentionally awakening in your subconscious that you don’t like about yourself, something that makes you feel inadequate or inferior. There’s no other explanation for your viciousness.
Take your stupid "medications, water and sodium" reference. What the hell does that have to do with a simple advice to run a software utility? I could just as groundlessly turn it around and tell you to take some of your mother’s medications to get over your state of irritation.
If all you want is to get the forum bouncers to ban me, just ask them. I already got one to do so while simultaneously getting him to describe himself in public as an s.o.b. 😀 That was easy and fully intentional.
Trust me, I’ve been thrown out of much better and finer places. 😀
Harrington further goes on to say:"Harrington writes, "Specifically, early on it states that ‘Repairing permissions goes through all the Package files (.pkg) in /Library/Receipts/.’ This is not correct. It’s true that the information used in permission repair is found in installer receipts, however it’s not true that all receipts are used. In fact a strictly-defined set of receipts are consulted, and others are ignored…what it comes down to is that only receipts for software installed by Apple are consulted. That has an advantage in that a buggy installer shouldn’t prevent permission repair from getting crucial system files back to their normal state, but also a disadvantage in that third-party software won’t get repaired."To which Gene Steinberg replies:"Now I’m going to avoid some of the technical details that may just bore or befuddle the non-programmer and concentrate on more practical matters. Thus, "As for the comments about repairing permissions both before and after installing a Mac OS X update, I generally agree. That kind of advice has the whiff of snake oil to it. This is especially true in the case of a major upgrade (such as to Tiger)–if you’ve booted your Mac from a CD or DVD, the upgrade process won’t be affected by whether the permissions on your hard drive are correct. I don’t generally bother with this myself, but then since I use Macaroni to run my system maintenance, I always know that permission repair has been run recently, if not necessarily today.
"Despite this, though, I’m surprised that the author says that this advice ‘…really boils my blood.’ The steps might not be necessary, but they’re not harmful either. Anyone who gets this upset over the advice should probably consider switching to decaf, or at least getting out into the sun once in a while.
"Finally, in the original article, the author advises that many Mac problems–including those related to permissions–can be more effectively solved by going to the system console and looking for relevant details. Speaking for myself only, I agree. But then, I’m a longtime Unix geek, so this comes naturally to me. Most Mac users are not Unix geeks, and if you send them to the console, their eyes will quickly glaze over at what they see as impenetrably cryptic text. I don’t mean that as a put-down; we all have our own strengths and weaknesses, and it’s not reasonable to expect everyone to grasp what’s going on there. I’m all for user education, but sending people to the console as a solution is simply not an effective approach in most cases."
So is repairing disk permissions a placebo? No, but it’s not a panacea either. Now let me get back to my morning cup of java.
Ramon….I suggest you might want to switch to decaf and stay out of the high sun.
