Trouble installing Firefox 2.0.0.3

[WoodMaven]

Hi,

I just downloaded Firefox 2.0.0.3, when I try to update it ( I am currently running FF 1.5.0.11), by dragging the icon from the disk image, first it says that an older item already exists in this location ( the apps. folder.) do I want to replace it, I click yes and then it tells me that I do not have enough privileges for some of the items. I tried repairing disk permissions as someone on the mozilla zine board suggested, but that did not work. Can anyone here help? I would really appreciate it.
Thanks,

WoodMaven

 

[MacHeadCase]

Welcome to Mac-Forums, WoodMaven!

Do you use an Admin account on your Mac? You are running Panther and Panther did exhibit some permissions problems...

If you are using an Admin account, maybe you could click on the Applications folder once, then do Command (or Apple key) + i to get to the Get Info window. In that window you will see a section where you can change permissions. Simply change all the permissions to Read and Write and that ought to allow you to install the new Firefox version. Don't forget to repair disk permissions again after this install.

If you are not using an Admin account, you will need to log into an Admin account to perform the above procedure.

Let us know if that works.

 

[WoodMaven]

I just tried that, when the info window opens all the little bars under ownership and permissions are grayed out, but they do read "read and write" and yes I am logged in as the administrator, I think..... what now?

 

[MacHeadCase]

Which version of Panther are you running? You did not specify.

This is highly unusual. Do you let the cron jobs run at night on your Mac? Sounds like your system is clogged up to the gills.

And you might want to run the Get Info/change permissions procedure on the .dmg file instead of the Applications folder to see if this would change something.

 

[WoodMaven]

I am running 10.3.9 on a 1 GHZ G4 laptop with 640 MB of SDRAM

 

[WoodMaven]

Question what do you mean by cron jobs? I do shut my Mac down every night, so nothing is running.

 

[MacHeadCase]

Cron jobs are the FreeBSD maintenance tasks Panther runs on itself at night, between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m. If they cannot run because the Mac is either in sleep mode or is shut down, some problems in the long run can occur.

You'll need to download OnyX for Panther and perform various cleaning and maintenance tasks to solve your problem.

 

[WoodMaven]

Thank you, but where do I find ONyx?

 

[MacHeadCase]

Look up "OnyX Titanium Software" in google. When you are about to download, make sure you choose the right version i.e. the one for Mac OS X 10.3.x Panther NOT the one for Mac OS X 10.4.x Tiger.

Good luck and let us know if all goes well or not.

 

[Brown Study]

Hello, WoodMaven Click on this link to download Onyx. The version for your system is the fifth one down the list.

 

[WoodMaven]

Thank you everyone for the help, I downloaded OnyX, installed it, ran it and I still can't install Firefox 2.0.0.3, I am ready to shoot this machine!! One would think that this is a Windows machine the way it is behaving. any more suggestions?

 

[MacHeadCase]

Shooting the machine? Besides the machine is set to maintain itself every day, you didn't let it so...

Did you run all the cleaning tasks? I don't have the old Panther version of OnyX so cannot post a screenshot of what I mean.

 

[WoodMaven]

I ran the maintenance tasks, I looked at the cleaning tasks, started to cheeck all the boxes and then thought that I might end up deleting passwords and what not and then be in even more troble than I already am...

 

[MacHeadCase]

Simple wherever there seems to be password erasure involved, uncheck it. The Locate Database, LaunchServices, WhatIs Database do not involve password erasure.

The cleaning tasks are more import to run here. Including getting rid of all the cache data.

 

[WoodMaven]

I will try again and let y'all know
Thanks

 

[WoodMaven]

OK,

I realized that I have all my passwords stored on disk, so I went for the "gusto", so to speak, checked all the boxes in the cleaning tasks window, including securely empty the trash and I still can't install that Firefox update.
By the way, I never knew that I should let the Mac do certain things at night, any suggestions as to what I should do for the operating health of my Mac would be appreciated, I can't believe that after 15 years of owning Macs I was doing something wrong.
Thanks

 

[Brown Study]

Hi, WoodMaven

I don't know whether Onyx ran a disk check before doing the other stuff. Disk Utility's First Aid runs the following, if you start the machine with the Mac OS DVD and run First Aid from it. This is the same thing:

Restart the machine but hold down the Command/Apple key and the S key until type flows up the screen. This puts the machine in "single-user mode" — it starts up but halts loading the system before the GUI comes on, allowing the GUI to be fixed.

When the type stops flowing, the cursor will be at the bottom.

Type in "fsck -fy" (without the quotes, but WITH the space) and hit return.

fsck means file check. -fy means force check because the system might be journaled (another subject) and y means yes, check it without asking me again.

After it finishes, and if it says the system was fixed or modified, even if it also says the system is OK now, run it again, because some errors cover up other ones. Keep running fsck -fy until it says the system is OK but without saying it was also modified.

After it says OK, type "reboot" or "exit" (without the quotes) and hit return. The system will start normally.

Then try loading Firefox again.

 

[MacHeadCase]

This maintenance task thing is new to OS X because OS X is based on FreeBSD, a Unix flavour. Unix based systems all have that capability built into them to auto-heal themselves.

I am part of those who do not let my iMac run at night, 24-hours a day for ecological and economical reasons: besides I have no BackUPS system to protect it against an electrical outage so shutting it down is safer in that aspect as well.

I simply run the tasks manually every day, takes about 5 seconds. I have chosen Saturdays for its daily task but for the weekly tasks as well: and every 4th Saturday I run the daily, weekly and monthly tasks. It really isn't hassle for me to do so.

Try what Brown suggests it ought to work too. You will need to restart after doing all these tasks though.

 

[WoodMaven]

Thanks, I will try it in a couple of hours, I have to run to WalMart now, I will let you know how it goes
Thanks

 

[WoodMaven]

Hi, WoodMaven

I don't know whether Onyx ran a disk check before doing the other stuff. Disk Utility's First Aid runs the following, if you start the machine with the Mac OS DVD and run First Aid from it. This is the same thing:

Restart the machine but hold down the Command/Apple key and the S key until type flows up the screen. This puts the machine in "single-user mode" — it starts up but halts loading the system before the GUI comes on, allowing the GUI to be fixed.

When the type stops flowing, the cursor will be at the bottom.

Type in "fsck -fy" (without the quotes, but WITH the space) and hit return.

fsck means file check. -fy means force check because the system might be journaled (another subject) and y means yes, check it without asking me again.

After it finishes, and if it says the system was fixed or modified, even if it also says the system is OK now, run it again, because some errors cover up other ones. Keep running fsck -fy until it says the system is OK but without saying it was also modified.

After it says OK, type "reboot" or "exit" (without the quotes) and hit return. The system will start normally.

Then try loading Firefox again.

Well I tried exactly as instructed but no joy, my only other option is to save all my important info to disk, wipe the drive and start from scratch, what do you think?