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My admin password is NOT accepted at launch.


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Hi,

 

I've done a fresh/clean install of Mac OS X 10.4 then i reinstalled RE-FR_6_1.126 plus Driver update 61111101 but when i launch the app and give my admin password, it is NOT accepted (invalid). The app was bundled with my external hard drive.

 

I had some issue when i upgraded to Tiger, this time i don't know what to do. Installed, uninstalled, re-installed with no luck. Because i'm asked to give my admin password to launch the installer i'm getting confused why then it is NOT accepted when i try to launch the app. All my previous backups done with RE are unfortunately unreachable if i can't open the software.

 

Some enlightments would be greatly appreciated, really.

Regards.

S_

 

Horsepower : iBook G4 + Mac OS X 10.4.10

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Quote:

Because i'm asked to give my admin password to launch the installer

 


This is so that the installer can install to your /Applications folder, and is (somewhat) unrelated to the password requested at launch.

 

It's a bit unclear from your post, but are you running Retrospect Express? I'm only familiar with Retrospect (non-express). But there is a preference (on by default, I believe), Special > Preferences, Security, to ask for the admin password when launching Retrospect. Once you succeed in launching Retrospect, you should be able to disable this preference setting.

 

Are you sure that you are entering the admin password on launch? No issues like caps lock, etc., interfering?

 

The following command in Terminal will tell you the name of the Administrator user whose password is expected (but I assume that you know the Admin password):

Code:


nidump passwd . | fgrep :501:

That's a "pipe" symbol before the fgrep (shift "\"). I suggest you copy that line and paste into terminal.

Here is an example:

Code:


rhwimac:~ rhwalker$ nidump passwd . | fgrep :501:

admin:********:501:20::0:0:Administrator:/Users/admin:/bin/bash

rhwimac:~ rhwalker$


The first entry (before the colon - here, "admin") is the username whose password is wanted.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Russ

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Hi Russ and thanks for helping.

 

I'm trying to open Retrospect Express v. 6.1.126.

So i gathered it is my one and only one admin password i need to enter.

Code:


nidump passwd . | fgrep :501:

confirmed it.

 

Quote:

Are you sure that you are entering the admin password on launch? No issues like caps lock, etc., interfering?

 


Yes I am and nothing like that interfering. Just re-installed it and the pop-up window keeps telling me my admin password is invalid. No reboot is suggested after install so for now i'm still locked out. I suppose that Retrospect and Retrospect Express would behave the same when entering admin password.

 

Has anyone be aware of this/my issue ? What should i do ?

 

Regards.

S_

 

Horsepower : iBook G4 + Mac OS X 10.4

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Quote:

I suppose that Retrospect and Retrospect Express would behave the same when entering admin password.

 


I believe so.

 

I assume that you used the appropriate incantations when doing the uninstall:

Uninstalling Retrospect on Mac OS X

 

When you uninstalled and then re-installed, did you have to enter the license code on the re-install? If not, perhaps not all of the flotsam and jetsam got deleted by the uninstall. Hate to ask you to try this, but try another uninstall, then trash /Library/Preferences/Retrospect (the entire folder, if it's still there) and reinstall. That's where everything is kept. Or, better yet, drag it to the Desktop in case it's got some valuable stuff like the license code info, etc., so you could go back to that stuff. Retrospect won't find it on the Desktop.

 

Sounds like you are doing everything right, though.

 

Russ

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Hi Russ,

 

I did everything you suggested but unfortunately nothing worked out. After re-install, i'm still locked out at launch, my admin user account password is still NOT recognized as it was to proceed with the installer. Hoping my Mac is not suffering from rare cause of Alzheimer*.

 

What should i do ? Drink a caïpirinha (too early), enjoy a Land'O Smile thing (thanks to P.K Dick — hhmm too late), invoke some voodoo tricks (too scary).

 

You guys providing collaborative free help is invaluable for newbies like me and needless to say very good for your karma. Not beeing able to perform backups is really anxiogenous.

 

*Crossing my fingers.

Thanks and regards.

S_

 

Horsepower : iBook G4 + Mac OS X 10.4.10

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Again, from my previous post:

 

Quote:

When you uninstalled and then re-installed, did you have to enter the license code on the re-install?

 


That would provide some valuable information as to whether there is stuff still floating around.

 

One more thing to try to see if there is anything floating around. After uninstalling (sorry, I don't know any other way), do this command in Terminal:

Code:


sudo find / | fgrep etro

(you will be prompted for the admin password). It should come up dry. If not, perhaps there is something floating around that isn't being uninstalled. (yes, I intended to type "etro" to catch both cases).

 

But I am at a complete loss.

 

Russ

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Hi Russ,

 

I tried a few tricks and things seem to work better though some questions arise :

 

I created another user account with administrator privileges. Let's name it EXTRA + EXTRA_PASSWORD.

 

On this new account, I installed Retrospect Express, my new user account password (EXTRA + EXTRA_PASSWORD) is requested and accepted so the installation went fine + reboot; then i launched Retrospect Express, this time a licence number is requested — hhhmmm that's very good and never happened during previous installs — this n° is provided then a pop-up window appeared and asked for my admin password. I entered my new user account password (EXTRA + EXTRA_PASSWORD), the app launched normaly.

 

At this step, i'm quite happy but a question came to my mind : will it work on my user account ?

 

I switched user to my normal account, let's name it (ORIGINAL + ORIGINAL_PASSWORD) then reopened Retrospect Express, my user password is requested but unfortunately this one is NOT accepted but when i entered in the fields EXTRA + EXTRA_PASSWORD, the password is accepted and the app launches perfectly.

Isn't life strange : as a normal user : how was i supposed to know this password ?

 

OK then ? I decided to delete my EXTRA user account. When i reopened Retrospect Express on my ORIGINAL user account, still my password is NOT accepted. Just for the sake of it i entered EXTRA + EXTRA_PASSWORD but no chance.

Now i'm deep into serious problems, shall i have to unistall/reinstall/reboot/recreate another account ?

 

Then i entered my ROOT + ROOT_PASSWORD (don't ask me why i did that !!) and MIRACLE (remember i'm an average user) the app launches perfectly. « Qu'est ce que c'est que ce cirque ? » There must be some kind of explanation because I've never installed or launched the app from the ROOT account.

 

Code:


In Terminal i could see this :

 

/Retrospect 6.1/Retrospect Express ORIGINAL$ ls -la

total 8

drwxr-xr-x 4 ORIGINAL admin 136 Jul 30 10:37 .

drwxrwxrwx 8 502 502 272 Jul 30 11:24 ..

drwxrwxr-x 8 502 502 272 Jul 31 10:15 Contents

-rwxrwxr-x 1 502 502 0 Sep 21 2005 Retrospect Express

 

 

Using Batchmod i changed authorizations to this :

 

/Retrospect 6.1/Retrospect Express ORIGINAL$ ls -la

total 8

drwxr-xr-x 4 ORIGINAL admin 136 Jul 30 10:37 .

drwxr-xr-x 8 ORIGINAL admin 272 Jul 30 11:24 ..

drwxr-xr-x 8 ORIGINAL admin 272 Jul 31 10:15 Contents

-rwxr-xr-x 1 ORIGINAL admin 0 Sep 21 2005 Retrospect Express


 

Is it right ? I guessed that after checking other apps into Batchmod.

 

Still, i cannot launch the app with ORIGINAL + ORIGINAL_PASSWORD but it's ok with ROOT + ROOT_PASSWORD.

So i disabled the "request password at launch" feature in preferences.

 

This is not a normal situation, don't you think ?

 

But RE seems to work now on — and that's the point — what else can i ask ? Oh Yes ! Stability. ;^)

 

Thank you for all the help you kindly provided. In case you might think of any modifications to put things in order if need be, please let me know.

 

Regards.

S_

 

Horsepower : iBook G4 + Mac OS X 10.4.10

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Well, a couple of things have happened here.

 

First, good troubleshooting. You've fixed things very well. Congratulations. All that was needed was to be able to launch Retrospect once as root so that you could change that preference.

 

Second, for whatever reason, it appears that something is messed up about your "ORIGINAL" user account that might have caused it to lose admin privileges. Perhaps something has happened to the keychain. You might poke around a bit there and investigate, perhaps repair the keychain, etc. You might want to check the "Accounts" pane in System Preferences, to see whether you still have the admin privileges box checked. You seem to be very knowledgeable with Terminal, so go to it. Good troubleshooting, though, on a way to get around this problem.

 

Third, there's a possibility that the Batchmod changes are incomplete. Check the filesystem tree down below the Contents directory to see that you've got ORIGINAL:admin as user:group.

 

Fourth, the way Retrospect gets its ability to do things is because it runs setuid root. That happens through /Library/Preferences/Retrospect/LaunchRetroHlper

which launches Retrospect with UID 0 (root). Make sure that this program has the appropriate permissions as follows:

Code:


ls -al /Library/Preferences/Retrospect/LaunchRetroHlper

It may be that Retrospect wasn't able to run as root until you launched it as root. You should see:

Code:


mail:~ admin$ ls -al /Library/Preferences/Retrospect/LaunchRetroHlper

-rwsrwxr-x 1 root admin 65800 Sep 19 2005 /Library/Preferences/Retrospect/LaunchRetroHlper

mail:~ admin$


Note especially that root owns this file and that the setuid bit (the "s") is set.

 

russ

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  • 2 weeks later...

Quote:

I decided to delete my EXTRA user account

 


 

What I would have suggested, is that before deleting your working Extra account, to toggle the "Allow user to administer..." checkbox on your Original account. It's likely that there is something mucked up with your account settings, and perhaps giving OS X the chance to re-write the appropriate settings might have helped.

 

Note that the preference to not require authentication will be reset if the application is moved or updated. So you're likely going to need a valid authentication account sometime in the future.

 

Note also that I'm pretty certain that Retrospect is blind to the Keychain and all it's wonderfulness.

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