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Final Cut Crashes on network users
I’m running into some strange problems with Final Cut 7 crashing on network users, but not local users. I am a teacher at a highschool. We have a 30 Imacs running OSX 10.5.8 We authenticate users through an Active Directory and I also have a Open Directory OSX workgroup server running 10.5.8. Students Logon through the active directory but their home folder is stored locally. Final Cut is installed locally as well
When Logged in as a Local user final Cut works fine. When logged in as a network user final cut will crash upon launch. This problem is solved by deleting the “Final Cut Pro 7.0 Prefs” File located in User/Library/Preferences/Final cut pro user data/ . However at next launch this file is rewritten and final cut pro will crash again.
So I’m thinking there must be a permissions problem with where Final Cut is setting the scratch disk. So I look at the scratch disk settings to find that nothing in selected or checked. Final Cut usually sets its default location for scratch disk in Users/Documents/Final Cut Pro Documents. The students have read/write access to this folder. So I set the scratch disk to their Documents, save a Project, and Quit. On relaunch Final Cut crashes.
I have tried setting a scratch disk as an administrator allowing full access to it, reinstalling Final Cut, verifying disk permissions, and shutting down the Open Directory Server. Nothing has worked.
So I opened the Final Cut Pro 7.0 prefs file with text edit and did as search for scratch. I found one paragraph that listed scratch a few times, but I did not find the name of any stored locations. With some trial and error I found that I can delete the word undoedit at the end of this paragraph. Lock the file and Final Cut will no logger crash. A scratch disk can be set inside Final Cut, however the location of the scratch disk is no logger saved and needs to reconfirmed upon relaunch. This is of course a temporary solution to my problem. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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7 Replies
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What are the UID’s of the network users? Are they the same? Are their usernames different? What are you using OpenDirectory for if they connect to ActiveDirectory, or is your OpenDirectory attached to the ActiveDirectory?
Michael Gossen
Helium Digital Media -
I assume the UIDs are the same. How can I check?
We authenticate to an active directory, my open directory is currently down, but the problem has persisted regardless of the open directory server. -
User names are all different. Also an Administrative user does not have the same issue.
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Usernames are one thing. When you bind to Active Directory, one of the things you are asking for is a UID to define that user to the MacOSX kernel. This is a number that OSX uses to define your permissions for the ensuing session. In terminal, when logged in, you should be able to get the UID by typing “id”. We should try basic steps first though before dealing with AD.
First things first then, sorry I jumped ahead a little bit. Where are you trying to set your scratch disk? On a local volume or a network one? Have you followed and unlocked permissions along this path in a finder level?
Michael Gossen
Helium Digital Media -
I am experiencing the same issue. Could use directions for terminal and any other directions to solve the problem.
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I over looked on thing that has partially solved my problem. When starting Final Cut you can select a scratch disk location on the preset window before Final Cut really opens. I have overlooked this is the past because I am used to controlling the scratch disk from with in the program. Final Cut is supposed to set the scratch disk to the local users documents by default, however it looks as though it is going to a folder called students. The path of this folder is not listed (I assume it is some sort of network user folder). If I change the location of the local documents folder at this time before Final Cut is fully launched, the error is avoided, and the preference file is written correctly.
I feel kinda stupid for going through all that trouble when the solution was very simple. It still does not explain why Final Cut is setting the scratch disk to the students folder. This is not a local folder. My students that are using Final Cut for the first time or switching to a new computer will need to be reminded to change the scratch disk or the preference file will need to be deleted. It would be nice if the scratch disk would set locally like it should.
Where is this student folder? No drives are mounted, and no folders can be found locally by this name. Is it some sort of mobile home folder? I have chosen to force a local home folder for all network users so this is strange. I will investigate the UID. I noticed I can remap the UID in the Directory Utility. Could this be a solutio?
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In my opinion, it is good practice to have them set/check their scratch disk when they start up anyway. That will only help you keep track of all those files later when you start running out of disk space because 5 months worth of render files are piling up.
Don’t know about the “students” directory, but let’s think it through. When you trash your preferences and open FCP again for the first time, the “Choose Setup” dialog appears and one of the things it asks for is the “Primary Scratch Disk”.
I think this is always a Volume as opposed to a directory. Is this where “students” is showing up? If that is the case, then I would tend to think it is a network volume. Again, I think it should be the system volume by default, like you would think. That is unless the the student accounts aren’t actually set correctly via AD to direct network user system folders locally. Then OSX would think the network volume is the system volume. The students wouldn’t have write access to create the necessary folder structure for scratch disks, crashing their FCP. When you log in as a network user Administrator, you do have access to make a directory structure on the “students” volume, i.e. FCP launches. Make sense?
You can check the /Volumes directory and see if there is a mount. Use Apple+Shift+g in Finder to get the go to folder dialog and type “/Volumes”. Are there other drives/directories listed? Triple check your AD setup.
Michael Gossen
Helium Digital Media
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