Need constant re-installation on OS X

[HLCTech]

I don't know if anyone has run across this one. I'm running ZD 1.0 on Mac OS X 10.5.6. I use ZD as my primary mail program, and generally it works fine. However, I have to uninstall and reinstall it at least once or twice a week.

It seems that if I run Software Update (especially one that requires me to restart my computer), the next time I run Zimbra Desktop I get the "Couldn't access Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop server" message. The only way to fix it is to uninstall and reinstall Zimbra Desktop. Then it runs fine again--until I have to restart.

I can't tell if just a simple restart triggers the problem (it's inconsistent), but a software update ALWAYS does it.

Luckily I'm an admin user on my machine, so the reinstall is somewhat less painful; it's more involved for a non-admin user (see my post in the Installations thread).

[jmhe]

If it fails again, can you attach the following files ?

log/zdesktop.out
log/zdesktop.log
.install4j/installation.log

[HLCTech]

I attached the files you requested (edited for privacy--changed user and domain names only). Had to zip the installation.log to get it to upload, etc.

When trying to start up Zimbra Desktop after restart, got this in console log:

====================================
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateService: canUpdate? testing /Applications/Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/update.test
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateService: canUpdate? testing /Applications/Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/updates/0/update.test
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateService: can update
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** General: Reading Status File: /Applications/Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/updates/0/update.status
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateService: _postUpdateProcessing: No Status, No Update
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateManager: _loadXMLFileIntoArray: XML File does not exist
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop Testing continuous integration1** YAHOO ** loading from pref xml file
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop ** YAHOO ** Pref file empty not found
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop ** YAHOO ** Getting config from url:http://us.data.toolbar.yahoo.com/inq..._Mac_OS_X_10.5
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop TypeError: editSearch is null
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop ** YAHOO ** [object Object]
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop TypeError: editSearch is null
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop launchctl start error: No such process
====================================

Earlier, when the system was starting up after a reboot, this message appeared:

====================================
3/4/09 9:47:59 AM com.apple.launchctl.Aqua[277] launchctl: Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /Users/myusername/Library/LaunchAgents
====================================

There are two files at ~/Library/LaunchAgents; one of them is com.zimbra.zdesktop.plist and looks like this:

====================================
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.zimbra.zdesktop</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/myusername/zimbra/zdesktop/zdesktop</string>
<string>start</string>
</array>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
<string>/Users/myusername/zimbra/zdesktop/log</string>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/Users/myusername/zimbra/zdesktop/log/zdesktop.out</string>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/Users/myusername/zimbra/zdesktop/log/zdesktop.out</string>
</dict>
</plist>
====================================

Both files there have my user name and group and the following permissions: -rw-r--r--

Could there be some kind of permissions issue that's keeping the background process from starting, thus causing the connection to fail initially? I wonder if Software Update is messing with this stuff...

[HLCTech]

On startup after Software Update, this from the console log:

================================
3/4/09 9:47:59 AM com.apple.launchctl.Aqua[277] launchctl: Dubious permissions on file (skipping): /Users/myusername/Library/LaunchAgents
================================

And later, when trying to start up Zimbra Desktop:

================================
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateService: canUpdate? testing /Applications/Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/update.test
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateService: canUpdate? testing /Applications/Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/updates/0/update.test
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateService: can update
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** General: Reading Status File: /Applications/Yahoo! Zimbra Desktop.app/Contents/Resources/updates/0/update.status
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateService: _postUpdateProcessing: No Status, No Update
3/4/09 9:49:04 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop *** UpdateManager: _loadXMLFileIntoArray: XML File does not exist
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop Testing continuous integration1** YAHOO ** loading from pref xml file
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop ** YAHOO ** Pref file empty not found
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop ** YAHOO ** Getting config from url:http://us.data.toolbar.yahoo.com/inq..._Mac_OS_X_10.5
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop TypeError: editSearch is null
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop ** YAHOO ** [object Object]
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop TypeError: editSearch is null
3/4/09 9:49:07 AM [0x0-0x21021].com.zimbra.zdesktop launchctl start error: No such process
================================

I'm wondering if there is some kind of permissions issue with the ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.zimbra.zdesktop.plist file. If it's not getting loaded at startup, the background process wouldn't start and thus couldn't connect to the server. That file (along with another in the same folder) is owned by me and has permissions -rw-r--r-- (chmod 644).

Any ideas?

[HLCTech]

Sorry for the duplicated info in the posts...I didn't think the first one got posted.

[jmhe]

Looks like there is some permission issue for your LaunchAgents directory. That prevents zd backend server from auto-start after restarting your mac.

Can you run these from Terminal and paste the output here?

cd /Users/<your user name>/Library
ls -ld LaunchAgents/
ls -l LaunchAgents/

[HLCTech]

> cd /Users/myusername/Library

> ls -ld LaunchAgents
drwxrwxrwx 4 myusername staff 136 Mar 4 08:25 LaunchAgents

> ls -l LaunchAgents
-rw-r--r-- 1 myusername staff 815 Dec 17 08:21 com.apple.SafariBookmarksSyncer.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 myusername staff 811 Mar 4 08:25 com.zimbra.zdesktop.plist

The SafariBookmarksSyncer is something used by Apple's MobileMe service to sync bookmarks between multiple computers, but I'm not using that feature, so I wouldn't know if it had started up or not.

I wonder if the LaunchAgents directory permissions need to be more restrictive in order to run the enclosed files as launch items? I think system LaunchAgents have to be owned by root, etc.

[jmhe]

can you make it

drwxr-xr-x 4 myusername staff 136 Mar 4 08:25 LaunchAgents

, then restart your mac?

Originally Posted by HLCTech

> cd /Users/myusername/Library

> ls -ld LaunchAgents
drwxrwxrwx 4 myusername staff 136 Mar 4 08:25 LaunchAgents

> ls -l LaunchAgents
-rw-r--r-- 1 myusername staff 815 Dec 17 08:21 com.apple.SafariBookmarksSyncer.plist
-rw-r--r-- 1 myusername staff 811 Mar 4 08:25 com.zimbra.zdesktop.plist

The SafariBookmarksSyncer is something used by Apple's MobileMe service to sync bookmarks between multiple computers, but I'm not using that feature, so I wouldn't know if it had started up or not.

I wonder if the LaunchAgents directory permissions need to be more restrictive in order to run the enclosed files as launch items? I think system LaunchAgents have to be owned by root, etc.

[HLCTech]

Thank you VERY, VERY much! I changed the permissions on that folder (using "chmod 0755 /Users/myusername/Library/LaunchAgents") and it fixed the problem. It also fixed another big problem for me--I couldn't get non-admin users to run Zimbra Desktop, and after applying that change, it worked for them, too. So you solved both of my biggest problems this week with a single suggestion.

Thanks again!

[jmhe]

You are welcome. Thanks for your feedback. We too learned something here that will help us to improve mac installer.