Privileges

[george]

I am being informed that I do not have sufficient privileges to delete an application (Mozilla Firebird) that I installed, how do I let this machine know that I am the boss around here?
George

[Paddy]

George, you can either log in as root and remove it that way (do you know how to enable root user/log in as root?) or you can start up in OS 9, assuming you have a separate partition for 9, and delete it from there.

From the Help menu:

To enable the root user:

1. Open NetInfo Manager, located in Applications > Utilities.
2. Choose Security > Enable Root User and type a password for the root account. You may need to type an administrator password to make these changes.
3. Choose Apple menu > Log Out.
4. Choose Other in the Login window, type root in the Name field, and the root password in the Password field.

If you've already enabled root, then you simply need to log out and then log back in as root, using the password you've already established. Then, delete Mozilla and log out as root and back in as you usually do. That should work. Let us know.

[mooregr]

George,

Below are a few things I would try.

Make sure you are an admin user
First I would make sure you have administrative privledges. Go to the Apple menu and select"System Preferences"
Click on Users or Accounts depending on what version of the OS you have. You should see a list of accounts click on yours and look for an Admin check box if you don't see one highlight the "Security" tab and see if you are set as admin. I know in Panther it shows if you are an administrative user in the list of users, no need to click on tabs.
If your account is not an admin account look to see which one is an admin account. Login as that account and try deleting the porgram. While you are in as the admin user you might want to make yourself an admin.

Repair Privledges
I would boot from your installation CD bby holding the "C" button down while it is starting up. Once you see the spinning Cog/Gear and when the installer loads go up to the menus and run the 'Disk Utility'. Once the diaks utility is up click on the first aid tab. Highlight the hard disk icon on the left hand side of the window. Now you should be able to run "Repair Privledges". It may take a while and it will give you feedback when it is done. You may also want to run the"Repair Disk" utility too, once again it may take a while and it will give you feedback. Once that is done quit the disk utility and you will go back to the installation program. Quit the installation program, choose the reboot option when you are asked. Once the machine reboots try deleting the file again.

Changing Privledges for the program
If you are an administrator highlight the progarm in question and choose "Get Info" from the file menu. In the window that pops up click on the triangle beside "Ownership & Permissions". Now look to see who is the owner and what privledges you have. You may have to click a padlock icon to make privledge changes. Make sure you have read and write. Also make sure that the "Locked" check box is not checked. Now try deleting is again
Hope one of them works!
Thanks Guy

[kps]

If it's the application itself and you installed it, then you should have no trouble deleting it.

However, if you ran a search on "Mozilla" and tried to delete (trash) everything with that name...then you may run into problems.

There is atleast one item under the name "mozilla" that is installed by the OS X install CD. It's a folder which contains a shared library used by applications which require this code. It is found in MacHD /Library/Application Support/Mozilla/pkcs11.shlb. All the directories mentioned, including the file are owned by the system and should not be deleted.

If this is the file you're having difficulty with, return it to it's original location.

[george]

Paddy,
Went into Classic and deleted it from there.
Mooregr, not having to use your suggestion leaves me to say that I appreciate the the time and effort you put in to help me.
Kps, thanks to you also, all of you keep proving to me just what TS is about.
Mucho Mucho thanks.
George.