MacOSX: Xpra GUI does not show up, if Xpra was installed from UserSpace

[Jens H. Goebbert]

Hello,

on MacOSX Xpra-GUI does not show up, if Xpra was installed by a user and not by an admin.
Even though, Xpra does not fail to start completely, but it only runs in the background and uses CPU time.

What part of Xpra makes it necessary to install Xpra from an admin account?
Is there a chance to allow Xpra to be installed to a MacOSX system by a standard user?
If not, is it possible to show an error message, if Xpra is missing some privileges and cannot start?

Best,
Jens Henrik

[Antoine Martin]

Please specify what version your have tried to install and what format (DMG? PKG?), and what OS version you are running.

What command did you try to run? What is the command of the process using CPU?

Are you trying to run the xpra server or the client on macosx?

[Jens H. Goebbert]

Hello,

we installed Xpra version 1.0.1 as a client on three different MacOSX 10.12.2 systems.
The installation file was in DMG format from ​http://xpra.org/dists/osx/x86/Xpra.dmg

success - a)

Xpra is installed into the Application folder from an admin account:
=> After installation Xpra can be started as expected.

success - b)

Xpra is installed into the Application folder from a user account without admin permissions.
User is asked for admin permissions.
=> After installation Xpra can be started as expected.

FAILURE - c)

Xpra is started directly from the install window (clicking the Xpra Icon instead of dragging the icon to the application folder icon) from a user account without admin permissions.
User is NOT asked for admin permissions.
=> Nothing shows up and no feedback is given by the Xpra process to the user, even though Xpra runs in background and uses 10% CPU time (shown in the activity monitor). It seems to be stuck in the launching phase forever.

FAILURE - d)

Drag Xpra from the mounted dmg into a folder in my home folder add double-klicked it.
User is NOT asked for admin permissions.
=> Nothing shows up and no feedback is given by the Xpra process to the user, even though Xpra runs in background and uses 10% CPU time (shown in the activity monitor). It seems to be stuck in the launching phase forever.

Best,
Jens Henrik

[Antoine Martin]

It must be one of the new security features in 10.12.x - breaking our stuff once again.

Note: if you're going to install into the Applications folder, the PKG installer has some advantages: double-click to install, file association with ".xpra" session files, support for remote ssh shadow (though that does not work on 10.12.x I believe)

[Jens H. Goebbert]

Thanks for the info.
Best would be, if Xpra does not need admin permissions at all.

If PKG is the better format it might be a good idea to add a link to ​http://xpra.org/dists/osx/x86/Xpra.pkg on ​http://xpra.org in the 'Download' section.

[Antoine Martin]

Xpra does not need admin permissions at all. Never has done.
This new problem was created by Apple.

As for the download links, that's already the case: I had updated the home page and the download page just yesterday.

[Antoine Martin]

Just tried this on a 10.12.x VM, with both 1.0.2 LTS and 2.0 from the ​beta area.
In both cases the launcher GUI came up, even when double clicking on the xpra icon directly from the DMG or after copying to the user's desktop.

I will probably close this as "needinfo" - maybe there are messages on the console, or maybe you can get more information by running the command line version instead:

/Volumes/Xpra/Xpra.app/Contents/MacOS/Xpra attach ...

[Antoine Martin]

Not heard back, closing.