PT9 Installation Odyssey--Insecure Startup Item Disabled

[Peter Baird]

Just thought I would share this if anyone has a similar issue.

I've had LE forever, and I wanted to run Pro Tools with some non-Digi interfaces, so I bought the crossgrade. I downloaded the Mac complete 9.0.2 installation, then ran the installer. After the restart I got a finder warning that the DigidesignLoader folder was unsecure. I then installed the driver for my 002 anyways and restarted but got the same startup warning. Pro Tools gave a fatal error (executable not found) and died. Also the Pro Tools icon was a generic Application icon and not the usual Pro Tools icon.

I did a Clean Uninstall, repaired permissions, restarted, and this time I installed the driver first. After Pro Tools finished installing, same problem. Another Clean Uninstall, and I downloaded another copy of the full 9.0.2 installer again and went through the whole process, same result. I opened another admin user account and installed into that, same problem.

I spent all day Saturday researching and trying various things. The spirits that watch over idiot mixers smiled, and I managed to complete the install largely by accident, and now have a functional Pro Tools laptop system again.

I think the problem started last March when my hard drive crashed. I installed a new one and did a restore from my Time Machine drive. Apparently the Time Machine drive was in the process of failing because on restore a number of applications were corrupted on the new drive. One of the files that got corrupted was the sudoers file, a permissions crossroads deep in the hidden files of the root. I only happened on this after searching the web for insecure startup folders and came across this thread:

https://discussions.apple.com/messag...ageID=11297209

I followed exactly the steps they described including logging in at the root level and searching for and editing the sudoers file. My file was exactly as described: it had a name but was empty--zero k. After I edited the file (IT WAS TERRIFYING) I restarted but still got the same finder alert.

Here's the important part: if you need to repair the sudoers file, afterwards you must run permissions repair. After I did that and restarted, Pro Tools opened and behaved just as it should.

I can't stress enough how much that thread helped me, but I'm also aware that most people will not and should not have anything to do with Sudo, Terminal, and Root level shenanigans. I think I was probably really lucky I didn't permanently damage the OS, so I discourage anyone who isn't a Unix programmer from trying this--but it might give you somewhere to start looking when you visit the Genius Bar. YMMV.

ONCE AGAIN, DON'T TRY THIS UNLESS YOU ARE A CODING GOD. I was just insanely lucky.

Peter

MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.6 Ghz, 2G
Pro Tools 9.0.2
Digi002 Black Lion