I had a problem updating my wife’s Mac recently using Software Update. I wanted to update it from OS X 10.3.8 to 10.3.9 but every time I tried I received the following error message:
“make sure you have permission to write to /tmp/501/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate, then try again”
I was logged in as administrator and giving the admin password when prompted, so I was a little stumped until I came accross an article which gave me the answer.
What I did was:
- Opened up the Terminal app – Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
- logged on as Root using the command “sudo su” (without the “”)
- typed in “CD /” to get to the root folder
- entered “ls -l” to see all the files and symlinks in the root folder
- the path to the tmp folder was incorrect so I keyed in “rm tmp” to delete the file
- I then created the correct symbolic link by entering the command “ln -s /private/tmp tmp”
Having created the correct path to the tmp folder, I went back to Software update, and this time the update downloaded and installed without any problems.
Comments
6 responses to “make sure you have permission to write to /tmp/501/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate”
Did not work for me?
Could not even remove tmp.
Obviosly I have none?
Hi!, I have this problem updating the OS X 10.3.9, a window with the following error apeared: “make sure you have permission to write to /tmp/501/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate, then try again”…I also erased the “/501” folder but nothing happened .Then I looked up for the “Terminal” program in the applications folder but I can´t find it, it’s not even in the Finder, What can I do?
Luis – the Terminal app is in the Utilities folder (which is at the bottom of the Applications folder).
Hope this helps,
Tom
hi,
i am having the same problem about writing in tmp/501/…. file.
i am also a newbie in Terminal.
i have followed the above suggestion but the same error appeared when i tried to install uodates.
i am wondering if perhaps i am not closing my terminal session properly or something of that nature.
if you have any suggestions i would be very grateful.
e.
Hi,
I’m facing the same problem when doing updates (“make sure you have permission to write to /tmp/501/TemporaryItems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate, then try again)
I’ve try to complete the 6 steps that Tom recomended but when I enter the root
“CD /” it doesn’t work.
Any suggestions please?
Thanks,
Caro
The CD / command needs to be cd / (all lowercase)