I have a student, Mac OS X 10.7.5, installed the 10.6-app, startup takes her to Terminal, whence the server tries to start and give the error IPython parent 'Users/username/.sage' is not a writable location, using a temp directory. then a bunch of alarms and stuff, and OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: 'Users/username/.sage'
I tried reinstalling Sage, and got the same problem. How can I help this student?
Personally, I think it is a serious mistake to install Sage locally on a personal computer. The Sage Cloud interface is far easier to use, requires no installation (it works through the web browser), and it brings you all the advantages of cloud computing---for example, your data lives forever on a server even if your laptop suffers some grave mishap. There are many features for sharing your work with others, and so forth. There's just no reason to bother with a local install.
Even simpler is the Sage Single-Cell Server which is great for small Sage tasks.
unless you have a very fast network always available (and this is not so if you sit at home on a ADSL via a phone line, as it will slow down at busy times, when your neighbours go online), a local install of Sage beats a remote one with one hand. And data loss can be beaten by backups (it's a bit unwise to fully rely on a free service like Sage Cloud for your crucial data; if you ask me it's unwise to fully trust just one remote service with your crucial data, even if you pay for it!).
Asked: 2014-07-04 02:40:25 +0100
Seen: 438 times
Last updated: Jul 04 '14
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Oh, and I went to look at the directory Users/username/.sage and it didn't exist on the student's machine.
Looks like permission problem. Is "username" the login name on that computer?
Indeed, the error indicates it's a permission problem. That doesn't indicate how to *solve* the problem. I'm substituting "username" to keep the student's anonymity. The student is a minor.
Does the student have permission to create files in his/her own directory? As a test, can you see whether the student can create *any* files in Terminal in Users/username/? Certainly the file won't exist if the permissions aren't correct to create files. One could try to see what the user and group permissions are for Users/username/, but it's possible that e.g. parental controls might cause this to happen. For Sage to work, one does need that permission at least, I believe.
And what does "$ ls -l /Users/" says?