Permission problems and Core Storage questions

[sfphoto]

On an older MBA there are three partitions.
Initially one held the original OS (Mavericks MBA1), another was used for Data (MBA3) and the third reserved. Mavericks does and has always been trouble free.

We recently installed El Capitan in the empty partition (MBA2). Terminal reveals that such partition is Core Storage unlike the other two partitions. We do not know if this has always been the case. All are HFS+, drive is Apple PCIe.

While Capitan runs fine there are some quirks:
Finder window sidebar display
Guest folders not accessible
System library can not be written to
GUI computer name differs from Terminal

So... is using the 'Core Storage' partition to boot from the issue? And why is this not the same as the other partitions?
Thanks in advance for your comments!

Below from Mavericks DU & Sharing

below from El Capitan, note sidebar

 

[Bigwaff]

CoreStorage is a volume manager which operates between partitions and the file system. It is what makes Fusion Drives possible. While you don't have a Fusion Drive, El Crapitan uses CoreStorage for the boot volume. The El Crapitan partition disk0s3 is CoreStorage and the logical volume group is virtual disk1. Mavericks does not use CoreStorage for boot volume. Your output of `diskutil list` command is normal and expected. Your listed issues are not related to CoreStorage.

 

[sfphoto]

Thank you Bigwaff.
We did not want to take the time for a re-install if that partition being 'Core Storage' was the issue.
Thought to repair permissions via Terminal or an app but the issues noted do not seem solely related to permissions.

Perhaps we need to re-install of Capitan to see if the issues go away.

 

[Bigwaff]

While Capitan runs fine there are some quirks:
Finder window sidebar display
Guest folders not accessible
System library can not be written to
GUI computer name differs from Terminal

• Post screenshot of "Finder window sidebar display"
• What are "Guest" folders? Do you mean Guest User home folder?
• Explicit path to "System library"? What is attempting to write to this path?
• "GUI computer name"? From where in "GUI" are you looking at computer name? What command are you using in Terminal to see "computer name"?

 

[DeltaMac]

The main problem that you have with MBA2, is that there is no free space. (18.9 MB free space is literally nothing on a 70 GB volume!) A good goal right now would be at least 10% space free (>7 GB), and 25% available (>17.5 GB) would be even better. If you have no space free, that would easily keep you from writing to any folder and result in some of the issues that you see.

 

[sfphoto]

The main problem that you have with MBA2, is that there is no free space.

Finder shows 1/2 full ?

Of more concern is the permission. I ran Cocktail ElCap edition, repair permissions, no changes.

Output from:
sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs /
ACL found but not expected on 'Library/Contextual Menu Items'.
ACL found but not expected on 'Library/ScriptingAdditions'.
ACL found but not expected on 'Users/Shared'.

However should a specific volume be referenced rather than "/" and if so exactly what syntax

 

[sfphoto]

• Post screenshot of "Finder window sidebar display"
• What are "Guest" folders? Do you mean Guest User home folder?
• Explicit path to "System library"? What is attempting to write to this path?
• "GUI computer name"? From where in "GUI" are you looking at computer name? What command are you using in Terminal to see "computer name"?

-Sidebar image inserted in above post
-Guest user home folder - I found no access seems normal for El Cap and Sierra, unlike Mavericks
-I attempted to insert a file into the system>library, did not realize it was read only which I assume is normal
-GUI screenshot from Mavericks has been inserted above

Thanks for all this input!

 

[Bigwaff]

-Sidebar image inserted in above post
-Guest user home folder - I found no access seems normal for El Cap and Sierra, unlike Mavericks
-I attempted to insert a file into the system>library, did not realize it was read only which I assume is normal
-GUI screenshot from Mavericks has been inserted above

Thanks for all this input!

• El Crapitan Finder sidebar. Glide your mouse to the right of either "Favorites" or "Devices", almost to the edge of the sidebar panel. A "Hide / Show" will appear. Click.
• Still not following regarding Guest user home folder. Are you trying to access the Guest user home folder while logged into a different account?
• System is read-only. Why are you trying to write files to System > Library ?
• Please post picture of Mavericks Disk Utility w/out Sharing pref pane in front. I'm a little surprised the top most node in the tree in the sidebar doesn't have what bus the disk is connected to. Select the top most node and select File > Get Info. Take screenshot of Disk Utility and the Get Info window. Post screenshot(s).

 

[sfphoto]

1) never knew there was a hide<>show - Thanks!
2) did not realize guest folder would not have access :-(
3) see above
4) Mavericks DU below:

 

[sfphoto]

"Please post picture of Mavericks Disk Utility w/out Sharing pref pane in front. I'm a little surprised the top most node in the tree in the sidebar doesn't have what bus the disk is connected to. Select the top most node and select File > Get Info. Take screenshot of Disk Utility and the Get Info window. Post screenshot(s)."

Screenshot is in the above post, thanks for looking!

 

[Bigwaff]

Your disks are fine. Mavericks Disk Utility doesn't know how to represent CoreStorage; didn't exist in Mavericks. Launch Terminal and execute "diskutil list" and you will see everything is fine. If you boot into Catalina and look in Disk Utility, you'll see either Logical or Physical volumes, depending on whether it's a Catalina volume or a Mavericks volume, respectively.

Take away .. if you are going to dual boot Mavericks and Catalina, use the appropriate Disk Utility if you need to work with disks. For example, if you need to repair your Mavericks boot volume, boot in Mavericks Recovery (Command+R while booting) and use Disk Utility. Unfortunately, if you need to do the same with your Catalina boot volume (or any CoreStorage volume), you will need to boot from Catalina USB install media, as the Catalina Recovery partition, while visible with "diskutil list", is not accessible to the macOS boot manager (Option while booting).

 

[sfphoto]

Thanks again Bigwaf, much appreiated