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Wireshark won’t start on OSX Lion

0

I am running OSX Lion and both Wireshark 1.6.5 and Wireshark 1.7 and neither of them will open.

The install looks like it works, and when I launch wireshark from the /Applications folder, the icon appears and a window pops up saying that it may take a few minutes for the window to appear. I click the button to continue, the immediately wireshark closes.

I have tried waiting 10 minutes and a window doesn't appear. I have tried launching X11 first, and that launches fine. Even it I leave X11 running, Wireshark will not start.

I also have Little Snitch installed and I am running Mac OSX Lion 10.7.3. I have also tried restarting after installation and it still doesn't work. Out of ideas.

asked 19 Mar '12, 13:24

steddyman's gravatar image

steddyman
1112
accept rate: 0%

This question is asked so often, it should be in the FAQ. You'll likely find your answer by viewing all the questions tagged with osx.

(20 Mar '12, 11:52) bstn

It isn't I have already looked at the FAQ and searched the forum. Others are reporting it won't install, I am reporting it will install but won't launch. I found one other question asking this many months ago with a different release of OSX and it also wasn't answered.

(20 Mar '12, 12:08) steddyman

Thanks but....

First link: No answer stated, I am using latest versions and I do not have a wireshark crash report present.

(20 Mar '12, 12:23) steddyman

Second link: I am installing the 64bit version and I have OSX LIon running on a 64 bit Mac Pro. The All messages display in console shows the follow:

20/03/2012 19:21:30.423 Wireshark: Initializer-based scripting additions are no longer supported. "/Library/ScriptingAdditions/QXPScriptingAdditions.osax" not loaded. 20/03/2012 19:21:32.727 [0x0-0x15d15d].org.wireshark.Wireshark: mkdir: /Users/stepheneddy/.wireshark: Permission denied 20/03/2012 19:21:32.728 [0x0-0x15d15d].org.wireshark.Wireshark: touch: /Users/stepheneddy/.wireshark/.fccache-new: No such file or directory

(20 Mar '12, 12:23) steddyman

Third Link: X11 is installed as stated above

(20 Mar '12, 12:24) steddyman

Fourth link: I am on OSX Lion and have tried both the latest stable and development releases

(20 Mar '12, 12:29) steddyman

Fifth link: Looks promising given the above log, but CHOWN reports no such file or directory for .wireshark (and I am substituting my user name)

(20 Mar '12, 12:32) steddyman

As your paste shows from the second link, the ~/.wireshark directory couldn't be created. Try mkdir-ing yourself (or as root and then changing ownership to your normal user).

(20 Mar '12, 12:38) bstn

Thanks... seem to have major issues here. I can create the directory using sudo (denied otherwise), but when when I then use CHOWN to change the permissions to my user I get 'Operation not permitted' :( IT still fails to launch, this time with the same error as link 5.

(20 Mar '12, 13:41) steddyman

Did you use sudo chown?

(20 Mar '12, 13:48) bstn

Stupidly, no I didn't and that fixed the CHOWN error. Thanks for that.

Still doesn't work now... does launch but the window never appears... after about 5 minutes the icon disappears. This is generating a crash log, and some errors in the console, including:

20/03/2012 21:15:44.749 org.x.startx: xauth: timeout in locking authority file /Users/stepheneddy/.serverauth.1955 20/03/2012 21:17:08.407 [0x0-0x46046].org.wireshark.Wireshark: PangoFc will not work correctly. 20/03/2012 21:17:08.407 [0x0-0x46046].org.wireshark.Wireshark: This probably means there was an error in the creation of:

(20 Mar '12, 14:22) steddyman
1

Check the permissions on /Users/stepheneddy. It's apparent that wireshark is not allowed to write there. Where did you get the Wireshark installer? I don't have any problems running my Wireshark installation (from wireshark.org installer), and I also have 64-bit OSX Lion (but on an iMac).

(20 Mar '12, 15:20) bstn

Both installers were downloaded from the main download link on this website.

I have had no other problems with any other permissions and as a developer I have loads of complex apps on this machine all of which work correctly.

I have tried to repair permissions, but it cannot be done on Lion for the home directory. That requires you to boot the Recovery Partition which cannot be installed on a Mac with RAID volumes :(

(21 Mar '12, 09:57) steddyman

Hmm, interesting. What is it about RAID volumes that prevents you from chmod-ing your home directory? I can change permissions of ~ in Lion without jumping through any hoops.

(21 Mar '12, 16:42) bstn

My statement was that the resetpassword command which now reset user permissions on LION cannot be started without the recovery partition which cannot be installed on RAID. The button in Disk Utility no longer works.

What are the correct permissions on the User home directory under Lion? Can you tell me what yours are if you are running Lion?

thanks

(22 Mar '12, 01:04) steddyman

Works fine for me. Lion with Wireshark 1.6.2

(19 Apr '12, 01:43) Scuzzu

I had the same problem. What's interesting is that I can launch Wireshark from the command line and it works fine. Running OS X 10.7.4, iMAc 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5.

Hope this helps.

Dave

(30 May '12, 11:16) drlove105

How do I get this to run properly? I tried to manually create as admin the mkdir: /Users/Sidewinder/.wireshark-etc and it wouldn't let me. I am new to apple, where do I change the permissions?

bash-3.2$ wireshark 2012-07-23 06:08:36.205 defaults[1865:707]

The domain/default pair of (kCFPreferencesAnyApplication, AppleHighlightColor) does not exist

mkdir: /Users/Sidewinder/.wireshark-etc: Permission denied

Can the program be modified to allow me to select installation location to /Users/Shared there I can mkdir .wireshark

(23 Jul '12, 06:33) Papadaddio

I tried to select where to install the program but it only let me select the hard drive and not any specific director. I think that is the problem the other people are having. If I could install it under /Users/Shared it would probably work. Mac would not let me within /Users/Sidewinder/mkdir .wireshark-etc when I tried manually. Using Finder to create a folder it noted that when I tired to rename it .wireshark-etc it said that the "." is only allowed for system use. I am not sure why it let me create the .wireshark-etc in the /Users/Shared folder Thanks for your assistance.

(23 Jul '12, 07:02) Papadaddio

What gets printed if you type

ls -ld ~

at the Bash prompt?

(23 Jul '12, 14:09) Guy Harris ♦♦
showing 5 of 21 show 16 more comments

2 Answers:

0

Install XCode and then see if it works.

answered 18 Apr '12, 08:56

Abhishek's gravatar image

Abhishek
1
accept rate: 0%

0

I had the same problem. What's interesting is that I can launch Wireshark from the command line and it works fine. Running OS X 10.7.4, iMAc 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5.

Hope this helps.

Dave

answered 30 May '12, 11:23

drlove105's gravatar image

drlove105
1
accept rate: 0%