Forums » MacOS X
Updater Problems
I just download Vandetta for my eMac and when I try to get the updater to work, it says "can't open 'Contents/MacOS/Vendetta! aborting!' What's wrong and how can I fix it?
Be sure you copied the application in the disk image you downloaded into the applications folder, and launch it from there.
What Mac OS version are you using?
This may be a stale thread, but I forsee this problem re-occurring.
VO requires write access to the program package. If your Mac has been set up for multi-user usage, then a player will be using a "Standard" account, which does not by default (& should not) have write access to /Applications.
The most obvious symptom of this would be that the updater will open, but cannot write to "/Applications/Vendetta/Contents/MacOS/VendettaClient" and so cannot update & will crash almost immediately. This is not a bug. It is correct behaviour and serves to protect your Mac from unauthorised installation of mal-ware.
To avoid this restriction, the program should be placed in
/Users/{user}/Applications
with a separate instance of the program for each user who plays the game.
If you want several people in your household to share a single Vendetta account then you should, instead, install it in:
/Users/Shared/Applications
and remember to change the permissions (in the Get-Info panel) to make it readable to everyone. If you are using 10.5.x, then you can make the application readable to specific users, individually.
VO requires write access to the program package. If your Mac has been set up for multi-user usage, then a player will be using a "Standard" account, which does not by default (& should not) have write access to /Applications.
The most obvious symptom of this would be that the updater will open, but cannot write to "/Applications/Vendetta/Contents/MacOS/VendettaClient" and so cannot update & will crash almost immediately. This is not a bug. It is correct behaviour and serves to protect your Mac from unauthorised installation of mal-ware.
To avoid this restriction, the program should be placed in
/Users/{user}/Applications
with a separate instance of the program for each user who plays the game.
If you want several people in your household to share a single Vendetta account then you should, instead, install it in:
/Users/Shared/Applications
and remember to change the permissions (in the Get-Info panel) to make it readable to everyone. If you are using 10.5.x, then you can make the application readable to specific users, individually.
Wouldn't that require the program to be installed anew for each user who wants to play it? With 3 users that is already just short of .5GB, I think.
Instead, it makes more sense, in my opinion, to have the resident administrator give specific write permissions to <user> when it comes to VO. And if it's a company computer, you shouldn't be playing VO on company time, anyway ;)
Instead, it makes more sense, in my opinion, to have the resident administrator give specific write permissions to <user> when it comes to VO. And if it's a company computer, you shouldn't be playing VO on company time, anyway ;)
The correct way to do it would be to make a new group, add the users to that group, and give that group write permissions on the bundle. However, there's no groupadd at the command-line, and NetInfo utility is no longer part of OS X, so I'm not sure entirely how you're supposed to do this. Editing /etc/group itself seems... somewhat un-Mac-like. Plus the top of /etc/group says to use NetInfo to set up groups...
[edit]
Ah, groups are in the Users prefpane in System Preferences
[edit]
Ah, groups are in the Users prefpane in System Preferences
The need for admin access privileges still remains, though, does it not?
True, but presumably he has/can get that. Just because somebody's doing the correct thing and not using an Administrator account for their day-to-day business doesn't mean that they don't have access to one...
Toshiro writes:
Wouldn't that require the program to be instaklled anew for each user who wants to play it? With 3 users that is already just short of .5GB, I think.
***
Yes.
The canonical solution for the write-access issue would be for VO to install in "/Applications/" & to keep all state information in "~/Library/Preferences/" & "~/Library/Application Support/Vendetta/"
However, the program is in development & requires regular updates; sometimes more than once/week. It does not make sense to install a program in "/Applications/" where there is this much volatility in the code as, no matter how well meaning the developers are, they are likely to introduce new bugs from time to time; let alone the possibility of undiscovered security vulnerabilities.
Further, VO never has any need to acccess "root" or "admin" resources or frameworks. As it never needs admin privilege, even for installation, why ever invoke it ?
Accordingly, I believe that the correct location to install the program is "~/Applications/", even if you have a single user system.
---
BUT, let us return to the issue of wastefulness.
1) Disk space is cheap -- 1/2 GB is not much compared to what Apple ships in even their smallest machines, let alone what people might add later.
2) Any users who share a single installation of VO must also share their characters, as the character data is also stored inside the application package (and this really SHOULD be in "~/Library/Preferences").
3) I do not know what happens if you try to open two instances of VO at once, but I suspect it will not be pretty -- especially if both attempt to open the same character.
*** edit ***
If you login a second client it disconnects the older one. This could be very bad if the older client is not in a station at the time.
Now that I see that it is not permissible to simultaneously open two clients at once, I would strongly advise against EVER installing VO in "/Applications/". Rather, to protect against this, I would again advise always to install in the user directory; one entire & distinct copy for each user.
Wouldn't that require the program to be instaklled anew for each user who wants to play it? With 3 users that is already just short of .5GB, I think.
***
Yes.
The canonical solution for the write-access issue would be for VO to install in "/Applications/" & to keep all state information in "~/Library/Preferences/" & "~/Library/Application Support/Vendetta/"
However, the program is in development & requires regular updates; sometimes more than once/week. It does not make sense to install a program in "/Applications/" where there is this much volatility in the code as, no matter how well meaning the developers are, they are likely to introduce new bugs from time to time; let alone the possibility of undiscovered security vulnerabilities.
Further, VO never has any need to acccess "root" or "admin" resources or frameworks. As it never needs admin privilege, even for installation, why ever invoke it ?
Accordingly, I believe that the correct location to install the program is "~/Applications/", even if you have a single user system.
---
BUT, let us return to the issue of wastefulness.
1) Disk space is cheap -- 1/2 GB is not much compared to what Apple ships in even their smallest machines, let alone what people might add later.
2) Any users who share a single installation of VO must also share their characters, as the character data is also stored inside the application package (and this really SHOULD be in "~/Library/Preferences").
3) I do not know what happens if you try to open two instances of VO at once, but I suspect it will not be pretty -- especially if both attempt to open the same character.
*** edit ***
If you login a second client it disconnects the older one. This could be very bad if the older client is not in a station at the time.
Now that I see that it is not permissible to simultaneously open two clients at once, I would strongly advise against EVER installing VO in "/Applications/". Rather, to protect against this, I would again advise always to install in the user directory; one entire & distinct copy for each user.
Good points, but your point 2 is not correct. Certain character info is stored in the app bundle, but you can log in using any account and the correct characters will appear and the correct info will be stored client-side.