How to reset the OS X Installer

In Snow Leopard if you try to install a program while another is installing you get an error message saying “Waiting for other installations to complete.” But what do you do if the message stays there after the program has finished installing?

Today I was stuck with this message even though there was no installation in progress. The computer won’t’ restart as it wants’ to wait for the update to finish first!

The first option around this is to ‘force quit’ the installer. Press Apple-option-esc then select ‘Software Update’ and ‘Force Quit’.

If that doesn’t work try deleting the following 2 files from your Library/LaunchDaemons.

com.apple.RemoteDesktop.PrivilegeProxy.plist
com.apple.RFBRegisterMDNS_RemoteManagement.plist

 

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Comments

18 responses to “How to reset the OS X Installer”

  1. MW

    I have this problem. These files do not exist!

    Reply
  2. ES

    Same here. None of the files exists but still hangs

    Reply
  3. stephan

    Didn’t work (files are in the /System/Library folder, btw); “sudo killall installd” did. Restart should also resolve it.

    Reply
  4. JB

    Worked well for me, was needed after a crash during Snow Leopard update process. After this trick the installer sailed through very smoothly.

    Reply
  5. Carlos

    Removing files from “Library/LaunchDaemons” worked for me, thank you very much!

    Reply
  6. mook

    “sudo killall installd” worked

    Reply
    1. Bryn

      how do I run this command?

      Reply
      1. SloaneS

        Open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities and type “sudo killall installd” with no quotes. It will then prompt you for your password. Type it in and it should do it.

  7. Frustrated

    ‘sudo killall installd’ worked for me!

    Reply
  8. Lion Sucks Sometimes

    I just held the power down and restarted, then relaunched the update and it’s working fine :-)

    Reply
  9. Pasha Souvorin

    Force quitting and then restarting and then checking for updates again worked for me, too. I didn’t need to go into Terminal. This hang for me happened at the same time that I was doing an update using the App Store App. Both updates stopped working at the same time. This solution fixed both of my problems. BTW I got a “hard disk almost full” message right after the fix. This could have been a definite factor in updates hanging.

    Reply
  10. Gagandeep Singh

    sudo killall installd worked, thanks for the tip :)

    Reply
  11. KC

    I tried “sudo killall installd” and the first time it asked for my password but stopped responding, and after that it never prompted me for my password.

    Reply
  12. Strauss

    i did force quite it and update then again open the installer, and now they stuck on waiting for other installation to complete.
    any ideas?

    Reply
  13. SL

    THANKS SOOOO MUCH!!! “sudo killall installd” worked great. After almost paying the exorbitant fee apple charges for their terrible customer support and lugging a 24″ iMac into the genius bar where they were too incredibly stupid to fix it, not to mention they thought the only solution would be to wipe the entire computer and then MAYBE it would work after we reinstalled everything, I was glad to find this.

    Reply
  14. Dave

    sudo killall installd worked for me too!

    Reply
  15. Per Johansson

    Restart of my iMac solved the problem. Did not try ‘sudo killall installd’ first though.

    Reply
  16. Cosmina Gherghe

    ‘sudo killall installd’ doesn’t work and the process will restart every time i kill it no matter how i do it. Couldn’t find the 2 files so I don’t know what to do now. Suggestions?

    Reply

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