Dir 10 projector - sudden errors on MacBook Pro

Question

Yesterday a coupe of users had script errors after installing
an interactive on both a MacBook and MacBookPro, when starting an
application that I've been distributing for several years now. It
is a 10.1.1 projector (all the latest updates), using a quick start
stub movie. All Xtras are distributed inside my installer and
placed in an appropriate Xtras folder. I've probably had over a
1000 Mac users install various versions successfully over the last
few years, and then every student runs the application for an hour
a week over the academic year. It's been running successfully on
all flavors of Mac machines - G4, G5 and Intel boxes.
After the reports of problems came in, today I began
retesting this year's installer (which had all worked great on 7 or
8 test Macs) to try to track down the sudden problem. Had no errors
on a G4 iBook, a G5 iMac, or my Quad-core Mac Pro. But sure enough,
I also got a script error on my MacBook Pro that I had not seen
before! And to complicate matters even more, a second program (that
uses an identical configuration) that was installed successfully on
my MBP in July now also gives the same script error at startup.
Note that this laptop is not my main machine, and sees light use
these days.
After extensive testing (at first thinking this might be an
issue with my new installer), I noticed that a tiny dialogue box
appeared on the screen for a split second, then disappeared. A
portion of my projector (1024 x 768) then appeared within the same
dimensions as that dialogue, then the script error came up. I used
a screen capture program to record the sequence at 30 fps, and
after a couple of tries was able to get the following screen shot:
http://www.aufgehts.com/images/AG_SW_error.jpg
I am completely puzzled because there is no need to download
Xtras - after 8 hours of investigation I still have no idea what's
going on. Both my MBP and MP have 10.5.4 with all the latest
updates, and another team member with a MBP and 10.5.4 is able to
run the program successfully. I've tried resetting Permissions for
the application's folder, but with no success.
The Projector has no need to download any Xtras (this option
is NOT turned on in my projector / Xtra settings window). I thought
it might be a problem with a Shockwave 11 player so I uninstalled
just in case. Further, we tested the MBP that has no errors by
uninstalled Shockwave 10 and installing SW 11, and this other MBP
had no problem. The projector is a normal one that doesn't need to
download a SW player (plus it is set to run with SW 10), so it
should just start up with Rosetta, look for the Xtras folder, and
run as normal.
Anyone had similar issues or have a guess as to what might be
going on? All ideas will be appreciated!

Answer 1

quote:
Originally posted by:
fazstp
What sort of installer are you using? Was it created under
Leopard? I haven't had this particular issue but have had other
problems with permissions not being set properly in Leopard by a
pkg created under Tiger.
I'm using the latest version of Firestorm (from Vise),
created on my MacPro with 10.5. At first I assumed it was my
installer, but the problem persists even if I manually install my
uncompressed gold master files via my internal network. Further,
all my old, previously installed and working versions of various
Director 10 project run-time applications are now "broken" on this
one MBP.
Like you, my best guess is that it is a permissions issue. My
theory is that all Xtra folders have now somehow become locked and
the projector can not access them (this would explain the errors on
the exisitng programs). Tried numerous solutions to this therory:
resetting permissions in the app folder so all users have
Read/Write access to all enclosed folders, repairing permissions in
Disk Utilties, etc. The fact that this only appears to occur on the
MacBook Pro and MacBook (so far) makes me wonder if there is some
conflict with the Intel laptops. Or it could just be coincidence
due to the majority of my users' (students) having laptops ...
Any ideas will be entertained ... Is it possible to get more
effective permissions repairs via terminal (which I am not too
familiar with)?