General Installation Error

[Guest]

I have repeatedly tried to install Flash Player but I get an error message at the end..."Error: General installation error". I have uninstalled and reinstalled numerous times with the same results. I'm on Mac OS 10.8.5. Ideas?

[C_F_McBlob]

keep getting "general installation error" message Mac OSX 10.8.5/Safari 6.0.5

If you need more help with that or if you DON'T have a time machine.. post back and I'll walk you through "Plan B".

[Guest]

I clearly need help. What is plan B? I have searched everywhere and can't find this specific question answered. What does time machine have to do with it? I don't happen to have my drive plugged in at the moment.

[C_F_McBlob]

Back in early October, Mac released the 10.8.5 update.

It was a beauty. It "unhid" the mach_kernel file. It was right in your Mac HD directory. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people saw it, not knowing that it's a base file for OS X and they deleted it. That led to the "General Installation Error" that you now see.

Having a Time Machine will allow you to replace it from the original location, using the "Secrets" pereference pane to show hidden files on your system.

Plan B is as follows:

Not having a Time Machine backup of it, means you STILL need to install the "Secrets" pereference pane so you can reveal hidden files.

Then you need to download a "fresh" mach_kernel file from a folder on my website: mach_kernel.zip (I took it from a clean install of OS 10.8.5).

Save it to your Downloads folder and THEN move it to the Mac HD directory - DON'T unzip it yet.

Install the preference pane by double clicking it. Then open your System Preferences. You'll see it at the bottom. Open it and check "Show Hidden Files". You'll need to Quit Finder using the button in the Pref pane, and relaunch it by right clicking the Finder icon in your dock and choosing "Open".

Open your Mac HD directory and unzip the mach_kernel.

Once you can see it in the directory, then go back to System Preferences and "rehide" your files. You'llneed to relaunch Finder agaun, and you can delete the zip file.

After that you can install Flash Player (and other software) again.

[Guest]

Thanks so much for the help Mike. I think it's greatly possible I would have deleted a file like that thinking it some malicious download or something, LOL, sounds ominous! I have been avoiding updating to Mavericks for a few reasons but if I were to do that, may I assume that doing so would also solve the problem??

[C_F_McBlob]

Yes, upgrading to Mavericks will install a new mach_kernel. Although, a few (very limited few) have not been able to do the upgrade because of it missing.

I was one of the first 10,000 to install it and i've only had one problem, being any time I go to open or save a file, it takes about 30 seconds for OS X to show the folder I'm looking for, but I'm learning to live with that.

Otherwise it was smooth sailing to transition.