Retrospect Client 6.0.110 still disabled under Tiger?

[ericmurphy]

I was under the impression that Retrospect Client 6.0.110 resolved the issue of being turned off after a restart, based on this statement from Dantz:

 

"An update is available at http://www.dantz.com/updates for the following issues:

 

Retrospect Mac OS X Client is Turned Off After Restart

For security reasons, Mac OS X Tiger requires that permissions for Startup Items have more limited UNIX permissions than previous versions of Mac OS X. Prior versions of the Retrospect for Mac OS X Client use permissions that are no longer allowed with Mac OS X Tiger, so Tiger disables the Retrospect Client on restart."

 

That sounds to me like 6.0.110 fixes this problem. Nevertheless, the problem persists on all three clients I have 6.0.110 installed on. Every time I restart them, I have to go to each machine and manually turn the client back on.

 

Is this something Dantz has already fixed, in which case I'm doing something wrong? Or is this something Dantz is planning to fix, but hasn't so far?

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

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Is this something Dantz has already fixed, in which case I'm doing something wrong?

 

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Yes, it is something that Dantz has fixed, and is probably something that you are doing wrong.

 

What Apple changed in Tiger is how it handles permissions on the /Library/StartupItems/ folder. This folder was a bit of a security hole, as any item inside could be executed with root permissions on system startup time.

 

I don't think Dantz actually changed the client software, only the client installer, to be sure that items placed in /Library/StartupItems/ had the proper permissions.

 

The most common cause for the client software (the unix process "pitond") to fail to launch on system startup time is that the user has moved "Retrospect Client.app" from its default location to another location.

 

This has been addressed many, many times here on the Forum. In short, the shell script:

/Library/StartupItems/RetroClient/RetroClient

contains a path to the pitond binary file, which lives inside the Retrospect Client application package. So if you move the application, you've changed the path and broken the script.

 

Dave

[bjryan]

So where In the FAQ is it? and how do we fix it.

[CallMeDave]

Where in what FAQ is what?

 

If you move the Retrosect Client application to another location on your drive, the easiest way to fix it is to move it back where the installer put it.

 

If you really want the Retrospect Client application to stay where you put it, open the shell script in a text editor and type in the new path. Because Tiger now locks the folder down more then it use to, you may need to jump through a few hoops to edit the file. But that's beyond the scope of my reply; try downloading "Pseudo" and use it to launch TextEdit; that should give you the ability to modify /Library/StartupItems/RetroClient/RetroClient

 

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/9608

[ericmurphy]

Well, that's a good guess, but in my case, at least, it doesn't work. I've never moved the client application; it's in /Applications/Retrospect Client/. I installed it by clicking on the "update" button in the Client Configuration window. I certainly didn't move the client in all three installations of the client on three different computers. pitond is in fact inside the Retrospect client app. Is /Applications/Retrospect Client not the default location? If not, what is the correct location?

 

So, since I didn't move the installation, how did it get moved? Is there supposed to be an application called "retroclient" in /Library/StartupItems/RetroClient/? Because there isn't; not on any of the three computers the client is installed on. The only thing there having anything to do with Retrospect is RetroRun. There isn't even a folder called /retroclient in Startup items. In fact, there's no file called RetroClient installed anywhere on the system. If this is the case, how can the client software run at all? Because it certainly does; I just have to manually start it using the Retrospect Client application after a restart.

[CallMeDave]

Quote:

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I 've never moved the client application

 

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I never said that you did. I only said that _if_ you moved it, returning it to its default location would be the best fix for an otherwise correct install.

 

> I installed it by clicking on the "update" button in the Client Configuration window.

 

You cannot install the Retrospect OS X Client software across the network, you can only update an existing install. If the base install is faulty, the update isn't going to correct it. (as an aside, Timbuktu 8 now provides an easy way for administrators to install Timbuktu on remote Macs that have never seen the software before; a very cool capability that would be quite handy for Retrospect)

 

>So, since I didn't move the installation, how did it get moved?

 

As you have now made clear, it didn't. It's right where it's supposed to be. Which proves that while "the most common cause for the client software (the unix process "pitond") to fail to launch on system startup time is that the user has moved "Retrospect Client.app" from its default location to another location," this does not appear to be the cause of your problem.

 

> Is there supposed to be an application called "retroclient" in /Library/StartupItems/RetroClient/

 

No. There is supposed to be a shell script in that folder named "RetroClient".

 

> Because there isn't; not on any of the three computers the client is installed on.

 

And that's your problem.

 

> The only thing there having anything to do with Retrospect is RetroRun

 

RetroRun is part of the Retrospect application and is not related to the Client software.

 

> There isn't even a folder called /retroclient in Startup items.

 

It's actually called "/RetroClient/" (some system installs are case sensitive)

 

> In fact, there's no file called RetroClient installed anywhere on the system.

 

Which confirms your problem. If you don't have the file in the StartupItems folder that starts up the item, then the item won't start up at system startup.

 

> If this is the case, how can the client software run at all?

 

One way would be for the user to double click on the Retrospect Client application, and from there click the "on" radio button.

 

But I remember reading that this was an undesirable method for your situation.

 

Since the Retrospect OS X Client software is not properly installed on your computers, you could either A) use the Retrospect OS X Client installer to re-install the software (which would possibly/probably require updating the configuration on the machine running Retrospect) or do some research to see what a correct install looks like in regards to the startup script in the StartupItems folder, and then populate the machines with the correct files manually (which would be the *nix geek method).

 

Dave

[ericmurphy]

Running the client installer on each machine fixed the problem. Then I updated from 6.0.109 to 6.0.110 from the client updater.