What does "General Installation Error" mean?

[OrbitalMechanic]

I was attempting to install Flash Player  ver. 11.9.900.117 on a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X v. 10.8.5. The installation fails with the message "General Installation Error." What is the cause of this error and how do I fix it?

[C_F_McBlob]

How to perform a "clean install" of Flash Player in Mac OS X

[OrbitalMechanic]

I attempted a clean install and I get the same result, "General Installation Error."

Now I was successful in re-installing the previous version of Flash Player, ver. 11.8.800.168. Does anyone know if Flash Player ver. 11.9.900.117 is really compatible with Mac OS X 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion) and that it is 64-bit application?

[C_F_McBlob]

Let me ask you something you may find odd.

After the 10.8.5 update, did you delete the Mach Kernel file that was suddenly visible in your Mac HD directory?

A LOT of people apparently did, not knowing what it was.

[OrbitalMechanic]

I'm not sure if I deleted it or not, but having read several of the messages posted on this thread I did the on-line re-installation of the OS just in case I did unwittingly. After re-installing the OS, I'm now able to install the latest version of Flash Player.

The upshot is don't delete that mach_kernel file!

Mystery solved!

P.S. - Has anyone posted or passed this onto Apple?

[C_F_McBlob]

They're aware of it.

Meantime,you can just copy and paste this command into Terminal, then hit return

sudo chflags hidden /mach_kernel 

THAT will "hide it" again.

[egon1984]

Super helpful hint, thank you!