Installing a .pkg/Repair permissions?

[Stef]

Hi All!

As a newbie I crash into several things I do not understand! What happened? Me, I'm running Panther on a B&W 350 mHz and bis jetzt no problems ( to be honest, still no problems, just really curious!) I wanted to download a Java 3D update and all worked fine, the installerwindow showed a neat cardboard box.pkg thing, the installer did it's job and at the end it optimized the system... Which takes a bit longer then the download... But 2 icons remained on the desktop, a 'drive-icon' and a 'filepaper-icon+.dmg'... I thought to trash it, I did just that... But, I wanted to know where the Java file went, so I found it in HD Panther/Library/receipts... With all the same cardboardbox .pkg's!!!! Why is it not in the Java app??? What are those .pkg's doing there, what is the 'receipts-folder'?

And, last but not least, though there are no problems.(brace for.... I read in the forum that is quite importante to 'Repair permissions' after a download... How to Do that?

Regards and Greetz, Stef

[kps]

The .dmg file is a disk image file. When double clicked it mounts a disk image on your desktop...the drive icon. This should be ejected like an external drive or a CD after use.

The receipts folder contains a list of .pkgs you downloaded. They are not the FULL package you used to install an update with. Rather, they are there to tell Software Update what has been installed, so when you run Software Update again, it does not list those items.

To repair permissions, launch /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility, select your OS X partition and click on the Repair Permissions button.

[Stef]

Thanx KPS....

Understandable now, those .pkg-files, it seems quite logical that Software Update needs to know whats 'in' or not! And so the 'drive-icon' is the result of an 'activated .dmg-file'...Aah! But now there rises another question, damn! I work with MSN Messenger 4 Mac and everytime I start it up (from the dock) the same 'drive-icon' appears... Should I then say that Mssngr 4 Mac is not installed properly? I mean, no other apps. behave like that, like, starting iTunes from the dock doesn't give a drive-icon on the desktop... But, Mssngr behaves normally I would say...What do you think?
And....Repair permissions was funny , all kinds of messages and I didn't understand... But I got the remark: "permissions repaired", so, all is well! But I never noticed something was wrong!!!! ! Hmm, a lot to learn! BUT, thanx for the directions, I'll use that one after the next download! Oh, by the way, when repairing permissions, is it very important to quit all other applications? I ran iTunes, nice melodies from The Clash!

Greetz, Stef

[kelly]

You can Repair Permissions while doing other things.

Don't know about your MSN question.

http://www.macattorney.com/tutorial.html