Mac OS X 64 bit updater no-install loop

[JMc]

Hi all,

I am working to fix this problem as soon as possible. Please be patient and rest assured this will be fixed.

If between 2 and 3 I do some stuff in PI , like opening a few files then the update goes fine

Martin, thanks for the info. It may be important to understand the problem (a precondition to fix it) and perhaps it is a workaround while I publish a bugfix update. Can more Mac OS X users confirm that this prevents the crash on exit?

Juan,

I have tried Martin's suggestion and opened and modified a few files before exiting PI to invoke the updates. On my machine (X.8.6, PI 01.07.00.0697 eng x86_64) there is no action after exiting PI and the updates are not installed. There is also no dialog indicating that PI has crashed, and nothing is logged in the Diagnostic Reports folder in the user library.

Jim M.

[JMc]

Several months have passed and I am still not able to get PI to install pending (now 16 total) updates, I tried reinstalling the application with a fresh download of the June 2011 release for OS X/64bit and the update behavior problem still occurs -- the downloaded and pending updates are never installed.

OS X.6.8
PI 01.07.0697   eng x86_64

[Juan Conejero]

Jim,

I apologize for this problem. Now that Qt 4.8 is available, we are almost ready to release a new version, which hopefully will fix all of these issues. As a temporary solution, I'll try to upload an updated application for Mac OS X tomorrow. In this way you'll get all the updates directly without having to download and install them.

Do you have the same problems with the 32-bit version for Mac OS X?

Sorry again and thanks for your patience (in case you still have patience!)

[martin_magnan]

Hi Jim

can you verify that the permissions on the Pixinsight application allow the user to write in the application structure. see attached picture.

Martin

[JMc]

Juan, Martin,

Thanks for the new base file, and rest assured my patience is intact (31 years of marriage teaches a few things  8) ).

I have not tried the 32-bit OS X release of PI, so the answer to that question is "I don't know".

Regarding the permissions, PI get info shows privileges as:

(user)        Read & Write
staff          Read only
everyone   Read only

[JMc]

Martin,

I changed the permissions for all three categories to "Read & write", but the update process still did not execute when quitting PI. After restarting the program, the update dialog appears, and all of the updates are listed as pending.

[martin_magnan]

Jim

Once you have changed the permissions you must click on the small menu icon next to the minus and plus icons and propagate the permissions to included items.

That should do it...

Martin

[RABaker]

I have for some time been experiencing the same basic problem reported by JMc - a continuous loop of PixInsight not installing updates.  With the most recent update notice a new situation has developed with regard to the bugfix for Core Version 1.7 (core application version 1.7.5.779) - I have not even been able to successfully download the update, let alone install.  I am running Mac OS X 10.6.8 and the 64-bit version of PixInsight [currently at 01.07.04.0759 Starbuck (eng x86_64)]

The most recent sequence of events (with the added issue about the core application download) is as follows:
1.  Upon running PixInsight I receive a message that there are 4 updates available.
2.  I select all 4 of the updates and click "Apply"
3.  The first 3 updates are downloaded and I am asked for a userID and password to download the core application update
4.  After attempting to download the core update I receive the following message: 
     "Unable to open file: /tmp/PixInsight64-update/update.pixinsight.com/20120206-macosx-x86-64-core-c.tar.gz: No such file or directory"
5.  When I click on "OK" I get the following:
     "Packages downloaded:
      3 successful
      1 failed
      Downloaded Packages are now scheduled for installation.
      The updates will be installed when you exit...
I click on "OK" to close this window
6.  When I quit PixInsight a message asks if I want to install the updates and I click on "Yes"
7.  When I restart PixInsight I again receive the same message that there are 4 updates available - none were installed.

As suggested earlier in this thread, I have tried to open and operate on some files before I quit PixInsight but, unfortunately, it makes no difference.  The updates fail every time.  I also looked at the permissions set for PixInsight and they are "Read/Write" for all listed users.

Thank you,
Richard Baker

[JMc]

PI devs,

I just installed the latest OS X 64 bit version (07.04.0759), and I'm getting the same behavior that RABaker describes -- the pending updates are shown at startup, but never install on exit, and the PI app never restarts even though that box is checked. Permissions for PI are read+write for all users and I've tried the open+manipulate a file immediately before applying the updates. This FITS file manipulation does not change the errant behavior for the update process.

I am running OS X.6.8, 6-core Xeon CPU, 32 GB RAM. If it makes any difference, the PI app resides on a SSD.

[james7]

Not that it really helps, but I have been using the trial of the 64-bit version of PixInsight for the last month and have gone through at least 3 update sequences (including the core a few weeks ago) and I have had no problems with the update process. I'm running Mac OS X 10.6.8 on a Mac Pro computer with 6GB DRAM. I think I've always updated immediately, as soon as I get the message at launch time (i.e. I click to install the updates, wait until they've finished download, and then quit PixInsight).

[Juan Conejero]

Hi,

These problems should never happen if the application bundle (PixInsight64.app or PixInsight32.app) has read/write permissions for the user who launches the application.

Could you please make an experiment? Copy your application (PixInsightXX.app) to your Desktop folder, and run it. Let's see if the update process works this way.

[RABaker]

Juan,

Copying the PixInsight application to the desktop and running it from there worked.  The updates downloaded and installed without an issue (although I don't quite know what that means).

Thank you,
Richard Baker

[Juan Conejero]

Glad to know it works. That means your /Applications folder has some limited permissions that prevent the PixInsight updater program from writing the updates to PI's application bundle.

Although the standard location is /Applications, the PixInsight application can be run from any location on your filesystem. In fact, each copy of PixInsightXX.app is a completely independent  and self-sufficient unit.

So far we have been working under the assumption that the user who launches the PixInsight Core application has full read/write permissions on /Applications. This is the default configuration in Mac OS X. However, this seems to be changing so we'll have to think on changing PI's update system on Mac OS X in the next version. Basically, it should work like the Windows version. On Windows, we rely on UAC (User Access Control) technology to request elevated privileges for the updater program. On Mac OS X we can use UNIX's SUID security for the same purpose.

[JMc]

Juan,

I hate to bring bad news, but the updater bug still exists on my system. I tried the following:

1) Reinstalled PI and set all three permissions for the application to read & write
2) Ran Disk Utility and repaired permissions on the boot disk
3) Set all permissions to read & write for the boot volume, applications folder, user folder, and desktop folder
4) Moved PI to the desktop folder (permissions still the same -- all read & write)
5) Rebooted the machine

Same behavior when I launch PI -- updates are applied & downloaded, but on exit PI does not relaunch automatically, and when I manually launch it, the five updates are shown as pending. Moving the PI app to the Desktop or another volume (mechanical HD) does not matter, the updates are not applied.

Jim M.

Glad to know it works. That means your /Applications folder has some limited permissions that prevent the PixInsight updater program from writing the updates to PI's application bundle.

Although the standard location is /Applications, the PixInsight application can be run from any location on your filesystem. In fact, each copy of PixInsightXX.app is a completely independent  and self-sufficient unit.

So far we have been working under the assumption that the user who launches the PixInsight Core application has full read/write permissions on /Applications. This is the default configuration in Mac OS X. However, this seems to be changing so we'll have to think on changing PI's update system on Mac OS X in the next version. Basically, it should work like the Windows version. On Windows, we rely on UAC (User Access Control) technology to request elevated privileges for the updater program. On Mac OS X we can use UNIX's SUID security for the same purpose.

[georg.viehoever]

I wonder if Juan could do a remote login on your machine to better understand the problem....