Rebuilding or repairing problematic Leopard Server

[ElgertS]

We have an Intel Mac mini which we loaded 10.5.0 server on and migrated data from a 10.4.11 G4 Server. Since 10.5.1 we have had problems with this machine not correctly applying updates, namely it hangs on writing package receipt. I found that I was able to apply the 10.5.5 update in the terminal with softwareupdate, but this did not working with 10.5.6. Additionally, I cannot run permissions repair, I get “The underlying task reported failure on exit”. The system runs fine, but I obviously want to get these issues resolved. Disk Warrior fixes any issues it finds, but this does not help. This server runs Open Directory, web hosting, email hosting, and has a certificate loaded.

Thanks for any ideas

[bodhisattva]

The problems you are describing seem to be related to two directories:

/Library/Receipts
/Library/Updates

I would ensure both of those directories are owner=root, group=admin, and that both owner/group have full read/write/execute access.

(DiskUtility needs to read /Library/Receipts in order to Repair Permissions, and SW Update needs to be able to read /Library/Receipts, and write to /Library/Updates).

[ElgertS]

I was really hoping you had it there, but those look to be fine as far as ownership.

[ElgertS]

I wonder if another directory might have bad permissions. I found .Trashes had group ownership of “_unknown”. I am going to explore further in hopes of finding the culprit.

[ElgertS]

I believe my problem is that I am missing receipts so I can’t run permissions repair and I have failures with these software updates. Where can I get the correct receipt files so I can hopefully rectify this? I have run the delta updates up to 10.5.5, can I drop in the combo updater for 10.5.5 from another server?

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