Mac Launching Problems (check patch above)

[Camillo]

I just bought the Penumbra Collection, and I'm seeing the same problem on my MacBook: Overture won't launch, Finder reports that the executable might be damaged, using open from the CLI reports error -10827.

Chris> the quarantine flag is stored as an extended attribute and is not part of the ACL. You could remove it on a Mac using the xattr command; however, that flag is a red herring. Launch Services reports that the application is broken before even checking the quarantine flag, and if you force it to re-register the application, it shows the quarantine check dialog, after which it runs. I think copying the application to Linux worked for you because when you copied it back Launch Services detected it as a new application and registered it anew.

Urkle> Icculus was referring to problems that can occur when you're developing an application and Launch Services has cached information from an older build of your app, and fails to notice later changes you make. However, that's limited to one's development machine, and should never affect end users. Also, forcing Launch Services to update its cache would fix those problems permanently (unless you change the Info.plist and the cache becomes updated again, but that's not the case here).
I think there is some other problem with Penumbra that causes LS to detect the application as broken.

BTW, there is a built-in tool for working with the LS database, though it's well hidden. You can force LS to reregister Penumbra by running:

Code: (Select All)

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/
LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -v -f /Applications/Penumbra\ Collection/Overture/Penumbra.app

(Put it all on one line; I had to break it since it was breaking the post's width in preview. Needs some CSS with overflowcroll on code blocks.)

Edit: one oddity I noticed is that the disk image contains a file called ".com.apple.timemachine.supported". I think that's used to make Time Machine recognize the volume as a backup target. This might be another red herring, but Launch Services refuses to directly launch applications from Time Machine backups (otherwise it would create a huge mess with twenty registered copies of the same app); although this should only apply to the backupsdb folder, and not the entire volume, it's still worth investigating. Was the disk image built from a TM backup?
At any rate, removing ".com.apple.timemachine.supported" from the disk image would be a good idea.