Mac os x 10.4.11: Error installing Python 2.5.1

[James Stroud]

David wrote:
> On Nov 17, 8:36 pm, James Stroud <jstr... at mbi.ucla.edu> wrote:
>> David wrote:
>>> On Nov 17, 7:27 pm, James Stroud <jstr... at mbi.ucla.edu> wrote:
>>>> David wrote:
>>>>> Running OS X 10.4.11 PPC. No Intel.
>>>>> I downloaded:
>>>>> http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.5.1/python-2.5.1-macosx.dmg
>>>>> I started the install, accepted the license, selected easy install,
>>>>> then upgrade, entered my password for the mac,  but the installation
>>>>> process finished with:
>>>>> There were errors installing the software. Please try installing
>>>>> again.
>>>> Usually this happens when you are not an administrator. If you aren't
>>>> log out and log in again as one. If that doesn't do it, what does your
>>>> /Applications/Utilities/Console say?
>>> Rebooted. I am admin. Tried installing again. Same result. console.log
>>> has this:
>>> Mac OS X Version 10.4.11 (Build 8S165)
>>> 2007-11-17 19:59:32 -0800
>>> 2007-11-17 19:59:40.718 SystemUIServer[334] lang is:en
>>> Nov 17 19:59:45 darnold diskarbitrationd[44]: SystemUIServer [334]:
>>> 27139 not responding.
>> My best guess is that you have a problem with your account. Try creating
>> a new administrative user and log in as that user, then try the install.
>>   Also, some external storage devices can cause this problem. If you
>> have this problem after you create the new user and log in as that user,
>> then log out and remove all external storage devices and log in again as
>> the new user. It will not be sufficient simply to authenticate as said
>> user from your preexisting account.
>>
> 
> Logged out. Made a new administrator user. Logged in as that user. No
> external devices attached to my machine.
> 
> Same error.
> 
> The installation finishes with "There were errors installing the
> software. Please try installing
> again."
> 
> I should say that Python appears to be working:
> 
> darnold $ python
> Python 2.5.1 (r251:54869, Apr 18 2007, 22:08:04)
> [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Computer, Inc. build 5367)] on darwin
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
> 
> But the installation finishes with that error message.

Well, I'm stumped. There is a whole series of things to try to 
troubleshoot this. The question is whether you really want to spend the 
time to track down the problem, especially if you think the software is 
working anyway. Your next test would be to power down, boot into single 
user mode, and rename /Library/Preferences and "rm -rf /Library/Caches". 
Then try again. If that doesn't work, then think about an archive 
install. But I think this would all be overkill. I've been admining OS X 
boxes since they were invented and my advice is to just keep trucking 
until you really crash (make sure you have a good data backup going). 
You'll probably stumble onto the real cause while you are debugging 
something else.

James


-- 
James Stroud
UCLA-DOE Institute for Genomics and Proteomics
Box 951570
Los Angeles, CA  90095

http://www.jamesstroud.com