Updater 1.8.8 looping

[Davide Manca]

Hi I read about a similar problem someone had years ago and tried to apply those fixes, but it did not work.
I am running the latest version of PI on macOS Catalina
When I try to update, once PI reboots I get this error message47] Begin updater1
[2019-11-16 17:14:47] *******************************************************************************
[2019-11-16 17:14:47] This is PixInsight Updater stage one program version 01.00.12
[2019-11-16 17:14:47] Core application PID         : 6692
[2019-11-16 17:14:47] Target application directory : /Applications/PixInsight
[2019-11-16 17:14:47] Source update directory      : /var/folders/b3/xh11mkk12_bfrdf4kb_p_0v00000gq/T/PixInsight64-update/contents
[2019-11-16 17:14:47] *******************************************************************************
[2019-11-16 17:14:47] Waiting for the PixInsight Core application to terminate...
[2019-11-16 17:14:48] PixInsight Core application terminated.
[2019-11-16 17:14:48] Waiting for things to stabilize...
[2019-11-16 17:14:50] Begin update process.
[2019-11-16 17:14:50] Source updates database loaded: /var/folders/b3/xh11mkk12_bfrdf4kb_p_0v00000gq/T/PixInsight64-update/contents/updates.xri
[2019-11-16 17:14:50] File removed: /var/folders/b3/xh11mkk12_bfrdf4kb_p_0v00000gq/T/PixInsight64-update/contents/updates.xri
[2019-11-16 17:14:50] Begin file removal process.
[2019-11-16 17:14:50] File removed: /var/folders/b3/xh11mkk12_bfrdf4kb_p_0v00000gq/T/PixInsight64-update/contents/remove.lst
[2019-11-16 17:14:50] Begin file transfer process.
[2019-11-16 17:14:50] *** Error: Cannot chmod target file: /Applications/PixInsight/bin/RAW-pxm.dylib
[2019-11-16 17:14:50] End updater1: ERROR

Any suggestions on how to fix it?
I have checked the permissions and it looks they are ok (all folders are read/write)
I have also tried to reinstall PI but no success
Thanks
Davide

[pfile]

do you know how to use Terminal.app? you can try

ls -lt  /Applications/PixInsight/bin/RAW-pxm.dylib

and see what the mode string says about the unix permissions on the file. you will see something like -rwxr-xr-x - can you cut and paste the whole output of ls -lt here in this thread?

rob

[Davide Manca]

Hi I actually took the hard way..
I just bought a new Mac and I used "migration assistant" to transfer the information from the old one. I had already noticed some issues, e.g. with iCloud, and this case seems to be similar.
I have removed all the info from the old Mac and installed Pixinsight on the Mac again, well, it works fine.
The only LITTLE problem I have is that Pixisight is now my only app on the new Mac
Now I will try to transfer the other apps from the old Mac and hopefully that will not mess up things again.
If it does...there will be one more post in this thread I guess
Davide

[Davide Manca]

So, it happened again, with another update, here is the log of the Is-It:

ls -lt  /Applications/PixInsight/bin/ImageIntegration-pxm.dylib
-rwxrwxrwx  1 root  admin  5194080 Nov 18 18:15 /Applications/PixInsight/bin/ImageIntegration-pxm.dylib

Additionally, I have noticed that once Pixinsight restarts after the update to install it, it is not opening the process icons set it normally loads at startup.
This happens only when it restarts after the update.
The message is:No such file: /Applications/PixInsight/PixInsight.app/Contents/MacOS/Applications/Pixinsight/Chronological.xpsm
What I find strange is that the process icons list is actually located in /Applications/Pixinsight I don't understand it apparently looks for it in another place when it restarts after the update, I believe there must be a connection with the install error?

[pfile]

i think juan is going to have to look into this - the permissions on that file indicate that any user should be able to overwrite it, so it's not clear to me why the installer would have problems changing it's mode or overwriting it...

rob

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Davide and Rob,

In the first place,

... the process icons list is actually located in /Applications/Pixinsight

Please never do that. The standard /Applications folder is a system protected directory for good reasons. You should never write anything on it (or, for that matter, on a subdirectory of it) as a regular user. Only root can change data on this folder; otherwise you are creating a security breach in your system. Even a simple text file can be dangerous on the /Applications folder if it lacks the appropriate protection.

That said, something very strange is happening on your computer. I have never seen something like this on any platform, and nothing like this has been reported before.

Apparently, this problem goes beyond UNIX file access permissions. Are you using a virus protection application on this machine? If yes, I would bet a beer that it is the culprit.

[Juan Conejero]

On the other hand,

-rwxrwxrwx  1 root  admin  5194080 Nov 18 18:15 /Applications/PixInsight/bin/ImageIntegration-pxm.dylib

This is incorrect, as well as extremely dangerous. These permissions say that anybody, or anything, can read, write and execute the ImageIntegration-pxm.dylib file.

The permissions must be: "-rwxr-xr-x", which means that only the owner of this file (root) can make changes to it. The rest of users can only read and execute it.

[Davide Manca]

Thanks Juan and Rob, I appreciate your fast reply. Let me try to clean up things based on your indications. The beer...light or dark?

[pfile]

On the other hand,

-rwxrwxrwx  1 root  admin  5194080 Nov 18 18:15 /Applications/PixInsight/bin/ImageIntegration-pxm.dylib

This is incorrect, as well as extremely dangerous. These permissions say that anybody, or anything, can read, write and execute the ImageIntegration-pxm.dylib file.

The permissions must be: "-rwxr-xr-x", which means that only the owner of this file (root) can make changes to it. The rest of users can only read and execute it.

fair enough, however, why would the chmod fail if the mode was 0777? are you explicitly checking that the mode is what you expect it to be?

davide - is there any chance this file mode was caused by the migration assistant? or did you completely start over by erasing the disk before re-installing PI?

rob

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Rob,

I have no idea. No, the updater program does not require or enforce specific access permissions. The updater executable has a SUID/SGID bit set, so it runs as root, assuming that the application has been installed as root, as it always must be.

Davide, when you installed the application package, did it ask you for your root (or admin) password?

[Davide Manca]

I have completely erased the disk and did not import data from the old Mac
I don't remember if I was asked the pwd, I believe yes, but can't say for sure
I have now disabled Avira and even turned off the firewall, no changes, problem is still there.
I have cleaned the Pixinsight folder removing the Process icon list from there.
Now, I still have all users having read and write permission.
I see there is a "system", "admin" and "everybody". I can select read, read and write, but there is no "execute" choice. What are the right settings for each of these users?

[Davide Manca]

The updater executable has a SUID/SGID bit set, so it runs as root, assuming that the application has been installed as root, as it always must be.

Not sure what this means, the Pixinsight folder is in the applications folder, and in the list of users I can't find any "root". This is beyond what I know about Mac, have I installed it the wrong way? Yesterday it has been working fine, I don't understand what has changed today

EDIT, I read about this and so what I understand is that I should enable the root user and then install PI as root user, is that correct?
If so I will uninstall, enable the root user and then reinstall

[pfile]

no i don't think you need to enable the root user - all that does is allow you to log in as the root user which is not necessary, and quite a security risk. when finder asks for administrator privileges it is essentially becoming the root user for the requested operation.

root is always present in one way or another on a unix system. it just refers to the account which has absolute control over every file on the hard disk. having said that OSX has significantly expanded the unix security model, however, the original concepts do still apply.

rob

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Davide,

Your user should have the possibility to acquire administrative privileges (that is, to become root) on a normal macOS installation. When you install PixInsight (the .pkg file) it asks you to enter your password in order to be able to write on /Applications. This is what happens under normal conditions.

The beer, dark, of course. A glass of good single barrel bourbon (no ice, please!) can also work 

[Davide Manca]

I am reinstalling and I had to enter the password.
Bourbon on its way

UPDATE: after reinstall I have been able to download updates, looks like everything is working fine.
Here is the log from the terminal about permissions: /Applications/PixInsight/bin/RAW-pxm.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  admin  2434704 Nov 18 22:01 /Applications/PixInsight/bin/RAW-pxm.dylib