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: 426 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?
I won't trust the 10.6-app version, I'd rather go for the usual (terminal) version.
Student doesn't have any parental controls on computer; also doesn't have computer in class this morning (we're not doing Sage all together until it's working for everyone for whom it will work) but I will check file creation abilities, permissions for Users/username/, and ls -l /Users/ this afternoon.
Well! Good call, folks. It appears that student doesn't own her own user directory, and thus doesn't have write permissions there. (She does have write permissions in the Documents folder...) She is an admin user. At least now we know what the problem is. If anyone has a suggestion... It looks like '501' is the owner of the 'username' directory.
...aaaaand it turns out the home directory didn't *have* an owner! One of my Apprentice Instructors figured out how to fix that and now all is good. Thanks for all your help!