(no subject)

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

I recently switched jobs because I graduated college and had to quit my on-campus job. So now I'm doing tech support for a popular graphics editing program, and have my serious doubts about the abilities of the trainers and techs.

Trainer: Apple is very good about stable system updates. You are safe installing the updates as soon as they come out.
(uh, not in my experience they're not perfect. But if the update borks a setup, it'll be Apple's problem, right? Augh.)

During call observations:

Tech: You keep getting fatal errors when trying to run [the app] in your regular accounts (even newly created admin accts). But you can always just log in as root whenever you want to run [the app].
(The tech didn't even have the user run Console to see what errors she was getting. Running Console was two steps down on the list from "install in safe mode," and before "log in as root.")

Level 2 tech: Yeah, just have [the user from above] reinstall her OS if running fix permissions on the startup disk and manually modifying permissions on the appropriate folders (through the GUI) didn't work.
(reinstall her OS? They didn't even finish walking through the troubleshooting document!)

I have always been taught to never enable root on a Mac, but here they seem to walk people through the task for any issue that stumps them. So I ask you: for what circumstance would you tell a user to enable root?

I miss my old job so much. Too bad I'm no longer a college student and therefore ineligible for employment.

Comments

No need in most cases...

[(Anonymous)]

So I ask you: for what circumstance would you tell a user to enable root?

There is no need to enable root in most cases. Just use "sudo -s" to drop the person in a root shell.

Oh and as for repairing permissions, you should be able to just run Disk Utility and repair the permissions from there. If that doesn't work, the system is too hosed. You only need to run disk utility from optical media (CD/DVD) if you need to repair the startup disk.

Re: No need in most cases...

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

They dismiss Terminal because it is too complicated. Actually, they won't even walk someone through setting up a new user in XP because it is too complicated. But yeah, I've always used sudo.

The tech already repaired permissions once from Disk Util, but didn't run it twice to ascertain that the errors had actually been fixed. I thought fixing permissions off of optical media may fix the hosed permissions better than the previous attempt did, but what do I know, I'm a trainee.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

It doesn't work?
Well, give them admin rights, that'll fix it.

-------------

I hear this all the time from our in house developers. My reply is always "No. Go fix your app/installer to run under the campus default system configuration."

Yeah, we have to go in and make improper changes here and there, like fixing user rights on folders the installer creates or giving admin to certain people on certain machines, but it is good to be able to push back.

[jecook]

Heh. We are _required_ by the four regulatory agencies (three of which are goverments!) that allow us to operate to not give people admin privledges unless it's deemed abaolutely required by whatever.

And here I thought HIPPA and SOX was bad...

[jecook]

::eyes boggle::

I only use root if I absolutely have to, or if I'm installing software that requires it.

an Administrator-level account _should_ be ok for just about everything else.


and reinstalling the OS is like hitting a fly with a bazooka.

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

Agreed! But they are so concerned with fixing her immediate problem and getting her off the line that trying to fix underlying issues is very low priority.

Stupid call time requirements.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

Don't even get me into call time metrics vs problem solving.....

[gilmoure.livejournal.com]

I'm an Apple certified tech as well as a graphic designer and trainer. I have yet to run across any graphic app that requires root. In fact, aside from my playing around with OS X, I've never had to run root for any commercial software. That being said, I have run across some weird permission errors. If the techs are scared of the console, they can download a copy of BatChmod (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/12057) and have a GUI permission setter. It can fix things that the Get Info pane won't set, though you may have to log out/restart to have changes register.

Another thing that may cause some problems is if this set up is using networked user accounts, with the user's home directories on the server. A lot of times, you have to log on to each machine in admin mode, install the software, log on with user's profile and then adjust permissions for Application's folder and /Library>Application Support folder.

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

oooh, BatChmod sounds excellent.

These techs are wuss-tastic, with the exception of a few *NIX fans. Thanks for the suggestions!

[annamaryse.livejournal.com]

I don't know about YOUR software, but new Mac updates frequently borked the software program I used to support so my advice to everyone was wait a week...

[knittinggoddess.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't know what the trainer is pulling out of his ass.