Can we talk about the new Disk Utility?

[Shirasaki]

Because it happens automatically now and also "rootless" prevents apps from changing system files and their permissions.

On a side note, I find it quite amusing how people have fallen in love with "repair permissions" over the years and think it makes any significant difference to how OS X runs.

Well, you know, either windows or Mac, includes a complex permission management system. I think providing this feature could help solving many unknown and hard to pinpoint permission issues generated by whatever user or applications. Just like kwokkaron says, we use this to solve problems in a single click.

 

[theSeb]

Well, I repair permissions only when I have problems modifying files and not for the sake of it.

You can do it via the terminal, if you really need to. In theory, this should be a redundant feature. I emphasise "in theory" though.

 

[theSeb]

Well, you know, either windows or Mac, includes a complex permission management system. I think providing this feature could help solving many unknown and hard to pinpoint permission issues generated by whatever user or applications. Just like kwokkaron says, we use this to solve problems in a single click.

The fact the permissions on system files are somehow modified on a regular basis is actually an issue and the repair permissions feature is a bandaid. Like I said earlier, rootless and the automatic repair of permissions should put this problem to bed once and for all.

 

[Shirasaki]

The fact the permissions on system files are somehow modified on a regular basis is actually an issue and the repair permissions feature is a bandaid. Like I said earlier, rootless and the automatic repair of permissions should put this problem to bed once and for all.

So apple hopes to completely seal the OS core in order to deal with various system instability issues once and for all. Now I don't know if apple will do OS core integrity check during booting up process. If they do, I think hacking the system core should become much more difficult.

 

[Erdbeertorte]

I can't activate the debug menu in the new Disk Utility to see the hidden partitions. Does anyone know how that works?

 

[Small White Car]

On a side note, I find it quite amusing how people have fallen in love with "repair permissions" over the years and think it makes any significant difference to how OS X runs.

Apple should have changed it from "Repair Permissions" to "Reset Permissions to Default" years ago. I doubt it would have achieved mythological status if it had been labeled more honestly.

"Repair" suggests some kind of intelligence at play which, of course, there was not.

 

[Erdbeertorte]

Did anyone found a way to get the old Disk Utility working with 10.11? The new one is a piece of crap, I am not able to partition my drives unless I delete them completely. Also there is no debug menu. And the window is too small in height.

I have installed Yosemite on another partition. There it works fine. But if I copy the Disk Utility from Yosemite to El Capitan. It tells me, that it is the wrong version.

 

[kwokaaron]

Did anyone found a way to get the old Disk Utility working with 10.11? The new one is a piece of crap, I am not able to partition my drives unless I delete them completely. Also there is no debug menu. And the window is too small in height.

I have installed Yosemite on another partition. There it works fine. But if I copy the Disk Utility from Yosemite to El Capitan. It tells my, that it is the wrong version.

I highly doubt you're able to just copy an older version over to El Capitan. It's very likely that system changes have been made in addition to the application itself.

 

[AndyK]

From the patch notes.

• System file permissions are automatically protected, and updated during Software Updates. The Repair Permissions function is no longer necessary.

 

[redheeler]

Did anyone found a way to get the old Disk Utility working with 10.11? The new one is a piece of crap, I am not able to partition my drives unless I delete them completely. Also there is no debug menu. And the window is too small in height.

I have installed Yosemite on another partition. There it works fine. But if I copy the Disk Utility from Yosemite to El Capitan. It tells my, that it is the wrong version.

I was able to add a new partition using Disk Utility fine when booted from the 10.11 installer. My MacBook Air now boots 4 versions of OS X, on a 128 GB SSD

The new partition table graph is very sleek compared to the same one we've seen since 10.0.

 

[KoolAid-Drink]

Wait, are people saying they can't resize partitions (even non-core storage partitions)?

 

[redheeler]

Wait, are people saying they can't resize partitions (even non-core storage partitions)?

The new Disk Utility partitioner does seem to be a little buggy in the first beta.

I was able to add the new partition for 10.11 while booted from the installer, but hitting the "+" button now does nothing. The "Modify" button is still grayed out after resizing the partition, and when resizing it past the point that the size appears on the partition, hovering over it indicates that it is 2.18 TB large.

I had not noticed these bugs until now, but hopefully they will be fixed in the next beta.

 

[theSeb]

I am not brave enough to try and mess around with partitions using early beta software. Good luck in your endeavours.

 

[pollaxe]

Over the weekend, I wanted to do a secure erase on a 2.5" drive so I plugged it into my nearby MBA 2011 (which has El Capitan DP1 installed on it) opened up disk utility... and I couldn't find the option..

It might be there (I'm getting over a light touch of Black Death at the moment) but it wasn't immediately obvious.

 

[crjackson2134]

Over the weekend, I wanted to do a secure erase on a 2.5" drive so I plugged it into my nearby MBA 2011 (which has El Capitan DP1 installed on it) opened up disk utility... and I couldn't find the option..

It might be there (I'm getting over a light touch of Black Death at the moment) but it wasn't immediately obvious.

There doesn't seem to be an option for that at the moment.

 

[bladerunner2000]

Apple hope to lock core system files modifying permissions to eliminate any unnecessary checks and repairs.
I think.

LOL, pathetic. And I say this as I'm shopping for PC parts and about to finish building a PC/Hackintosh. Can't believe I'm actually slowly moving back to Windows.

 

[crjackson2134]

This is a development version. I wouldn't get too jumpy just yet, wait for the GM version and then we'll see what's there and what's not. Often times features are missing on early Dev versions, only to be refined and included in the release version. I you are a developer then I would assume you already know this.

 

[bladerunner2000]

This is a development version. I wouldn't get too jumpy just yet, wait for the GM version and then we'll see what's there and what's not. Often times features are missing on early Dev versions, only to be refined and included in the release version. I you are a developer then I would assume you already know this.

See the green button and scroll buttons issue. Apple has had a history of gutting features in OS X. They even locked the API to allow 3rd party developers to modify the green buttons behaviour (see RightZoom).

There's a good chance it won't be in the final release.

 

[chabig]

LOL, pathetic. And I say this as I'm shopping for PC parts and about to finish building a PC/Hackintosh. Can't believe I'm actually slowly moving back to Windows.

So you would prefer the ability to perform unnecessary file system checks?

 

[leman]

This repair permission thing was mostly useless anyway and misunderstood most of the time. For some reason people raise it to some sort of mythical panacea to all OS X issues — which it isn't. Put plainly, its a superstition. OS X 10.11 performs all the necessary permission checks when it performs its maintenance and besides, the new security features make this operation even more useless to the end user. I don't miss it a bit and I think its hilarious that people throw such a tantrum about this.

P.S. Very rarely you might need to run it as a system administrator. Using terminal is more than enough. Don't need UI for every obscure option. OS X offers some truly amazing administrative and power-user features. But a normal user doesn't need to care about it.

 

[bladerunner2000]

So you would prefer the ability to perform unnecessary file system checks?

I prefer the choice to do them when I want.

 

[leman]

I prefer the choice to do them when I want.

And you have that choice. Via the terminal. Disk Utility is not meant to provide UI for every operation you can perform with your disks (of which there is a gazzilion then then one on OS X). Its a convenient shortcut for most common and useful operations.

 

[crjackson2134]

I prefer the choice to do them when I want.

Open a terminal and past the following:

sudo diskutil repairPermissions /

You can also run the disk permission repair on another disk by specifying the other volume rather than / at the command line.

The feature was not removed from Disk Utility, it was only removed from the GUI.

 

[throttlemeister]

See the green button and scroll buttons issue. Apple has had a history of gutting features in OS X. They even locked the API to allow 3rd party developers to modify the green buttons behaviour (see RightZoom).

There's a good chance it won't be in the final release.

Moom still works so seems more like an issue with rightzoom than Apple to me.

 

[bladerunner2000]

Moom still works so seems more like an issue with rightzoom than Apple to me.

It doesnt work the same way. I contacted the developers at Moom and they said Apple closed the API with Yosemite. Their workaround is to display options below the green button.

So, yeah, if it wasnt closed, RightZoom would still work. Apple does these things purposely; LESS CHOICE. Essentially, Apple's way or the highway. But we all know Apple's way doesn't apply to everyone.