Folder permissions question

Kay C Lan lan.kc.macmail at gmail.com
Sun Sep 17 22:27:20 EDT 2006


On 9/15/06, Shari <shari at gypsyware.com> wrote:
>
> 99% of the time, the game folder installs properly.  Every so often
> however, the folder permissions are set to Read Only, and the game
> cannot update its own files, causing problemos.  I have no clue as to
> why this happens to some folks.
>
> Has anyone else experienced this?  And is there a solution?  At one
> time I had the following set during install, but later took it out:


As a user I come across this often, unfortunately I can't offer a solution
only areas to troubleshoot and my theory as to a solution.

(Please excuse but all of this is from memory as I'm not at home so I can't
check on my kid's computers - and my laptop does not have multiple users so
many preferences are not enabled)

First MAJOR culprit will be 'Parental Control'. Has the parent ticket the
box to allow the user to run the program. If so, have they also ticket the
box 'allow supporting files'. This last one came with X.4 and helped with
quite a few games that would not run - because of access permission problems
- for anyone other than the administrator.

If they are on X.3 or less, or the game will still not run in X.4, will it
run if Parental Control is turned off, or for the Administrator? Obviously
this only confirms that it is a permissions problem and is not really a
solution - ie if I can't get the game to run with Parental Control ON, then
the kids just don't get the game.

If Parental Control is not being used, or as a work around if it is, try
unstuffing AND running the game from the 'Shared' folder, which should be
found in the User folder along with all the users own named folders. If
Parental Control is being used, the Administrator is going to have to
manually add the program to the 'Other' list by 'Browse...' to the program
and tick it off - plus 'Allow supporting files' (if available).

My theory is that for Parental Control to work properly, the program MUST
save it's per user data OUTSIDE the program package, ie in
username/library/preferences. Whilst 10.4 does a much better job at allowing
more of the progamme package to be accessed, Parental Control still
maintains a very tight grip and can only change permissions for folder/files
that already exist. If a new user comes along and a new user data file needs
to be CREATED, Parental Control will not allow it inside the programme
package. Again just my theory.

I've come to this conslusion because I've gone and manually changed the
package contents permissions, using Terminal, to be exactly like those of a
game that works, yet still I'll get a dialog telling me that my child
doesn't have permission to do something - most often when they go to save a
game, some times when the go to start a game. So I assume something is being
created in a place where they're not allowed to be.

HTH



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