574060 - See 'Unable to Update', yet I am admin user, fully authorized

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 394984

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Description

[Ray Kiddy]

Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2) Gecko/20100115 Firefox/3.6

When I select the Help->'Check for Updates...' menu, I get a dialog box saying:

  Unable to Update

  A recommended security and stability update is available,
  but you do not have the system permissions required to install
  it. Please contact your system administrator, or try again from
  an account that permission to install software on this computer.

Yet, this is the only account I use on this machine and it is fully authorized to "sudo" and to install any software.

from this Mac:

Hardware Overview:

  Model Name:	iMac
  Model Identifier:	iMac9,1
  Processor Name:	Intel Core 2 Duo
  Processor Speed:	2.66 GHz
  Number Of Processors:	1
  Total Number Of Cores:	2
  L2 Cache:	6 MB
  Memory:	4 GB
  Bus Speed:	1.07 GHz
  Boot ROM Version:	IM91.008D.B08
  SMC Version (system):	1.45f0
  Serial Number (system):	QP9381D80TJ
  Hardware UUID:	783FC06B-538E-54A7-BBA4-638AE52842D7

System Software Overview:

  System Version:	Mac OS X 10.6.4 (10F569)
  Kernel Version:	Darwin 10.4.0
  Boot Volume:	MacintoshHD
  Boot Mode:	Normal
  Computer Name:	bigfoot
  User Name:	Ray Kiddy (ray)
  Secure Virtual Memory:	Not Enabled
  64-bit Kernel and Extensions:	No
  Time since boot:	7 days 1:29


from "Troubleshooting Information":



  Application Basics



        Name

        Firefox



        Version

        3.6



        Profile Directory



          Show in Finder



        Installed Plugins



          about:plugins



        Build Configuration



          about:buildconfig



  Extensions



        Name



        Version



        Enabled



        ID



        Adblock Plus

        1.2

        true

        {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}



        Flashblock

        1.5.13

        true

        {3d7eb24f-2740-49df-8937-200b1cc08f8a}



  Modified Preferences



      Name



      Value



        accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar

        0



        browser.history_expire_days.mirror

        180



        browser.places.importBookmarksHTML

        false



        browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion

        2



        browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone

        rv:1.9.2



        browser.tabs.autoHide

        true



        browser.tabs.loadInBackground

        false



        browser.tabs.warnOnClose

        false



        browser.tabs.warnOnOpen

        false



        extensions.lastAppVersion

        3.6



        network.cookie.prefsMigrated

        true



        places.last_vacuum

        1276744924



        print.macosx.pagesetup-2

        PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIiBlbmNvZGluZz0iVVRGLTgiPz4KPCFET0NUWVBFIHBsaXN0IFBVQkxJQyAiLS8vQXBwbGUvL0RURCBQTElTVCAxLjAvL0VO…



        print.print_bgcolor

        false



        print.print_bgimages

        false



        print.print_command



        print.print_downloadfonts

        false



        print.print_evenpages

        true



        print.print_in_color

        true



        print.print_margin_bottom

        0.5



        print.print_margin_left

        0.5



        print.print_margin_right

        0.5



        print.print_margin_top

        0.5



        print.print_oddpages

        true



        print.print_orientation

        0



        print.print_pagedelay

        500



        print.print_paper_data

        0



        print.print_paper_height

        11.00



        print.print_paper_size_type

        1



        print.print_paper_size_unit

        0



        print.print_paper_width

        8.50



        print.print_printer



        print.print_reversed

        false



        print.print_scaling

        1.00



        print.print_shrink_to_fit

        true



        print.print_to_file

        false



        print.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom

        26



        print.print_unwriteable_margin_left

        23



        print.print_unwriteable_margin_right

        23



        print.print_unwriteable_margin_top

        26



        privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs

        true



        security.warn_viewing_mixed

        false

Comment 1

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

There is a very good chance that this is a duplicate of bug 394984. Try the following:

1. Download Firefox 3.6.2 from http://releases.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.6.2/mac/en-US/
2. Delete Firefox.
3. Install Firefox from the dmg you just downloaded.
4. Launch Firefox and try checking for updates.

Thanks

Comment 2

[Ray Kiddy]

Yep, the owner of the Firefox.app was something strange and not my current user.