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Admin mode [CLOSED]

Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:03 am
by pomJ
Hi

New user here.
I can not activate admin mode. trying to do so gives the following error:
"Failed to access a privileged helper"

Using El Cap 10.11.2 on a macbook pro

grateful for help

Re: Admin mode

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 3:42 am
by don
Welcome!

Not an expert in anyway, so we probably need to wait for the author to jump in.

I have tried to enable the admin mode through menu -> Files->Enable Admin Mode.

Got a password prompt, entered the password. All good.

When I do not enter the password - I get the same message as you do. Not sure if it is relevant.
But, on my machine the sandbox has been disabled - i.e. I can su to root and all that.

it might be related?

Re: Admin mode

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 5:27 am
by mike
Hello pomJ and welcome to forum!

To activate Admin Mode you have to enter login and password of user with administrator rights.

Installation of a privileged helper is generally smooth and should "just work", but the process itself is quite opaque.
In case you're entering the right credentials and still getting an error you can try the clean start:
1) delete /Library/LaunchDaemons/info.filesmanager.Files.PrivilegedIOHelper.plist
2) delete /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/info.filesmanager.Files.PrivilegedIOHelper
(this requires super user rights of course, like entering "sudo su" in terminal)

Also, some useful information should be printed in Console app, please check messages from info.filesmanager.Files.PrivilegedIOHelper.

Mike.

Re: Admin mode

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 5:33 am
by mike
don,

Not sure if you can disable sandbox in OSX nowadays.
Anyway - OSX sandboxing mechanism is not related with UNIX-level super-user rights IMHO.
Privileged I/O helper is started by launchd service and runs on behalf of "root" user:
Name: info.filesmanager.Files.PrivilegedIOHelper
Process id: 57421
Process group id: 57421
Process parent id: 1 (launchd)
Process user id: 0 (root)
Process priority: 17
Process "nice" value: 0
Started at: 26/12/15 16:42
Status: SRUN (currently runnable)
Architecture: x86-64
Sandboxed: no
Image file: /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/info.filesmanager.Files.PrivilegedIOHelper
Arguments: N/A

Mike.

Re: Admin mode

Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 11:05 am
by pomJ
Hi again,

Thanks for the suggestions.
When I tried to delete i got the error:
su: sorry

However I installed the 1437 preview and admin mode functioned perfectly with that version

Re: Admin mode

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:55 pm
by mike
pomJ,

su says "sorry" when it can't became a super-user (maybe if current user hasn't these rights or if password is wrong).
Anyway, glad that admin mode now works for you.

Mike.