Disc Image wranglin on a Mac

[alex matson]

When I got my Mini a couple of weeks ago, the previous owner had things configured in a way that i grew to dislike, so I backed up my stuff and initialized the computer and did a reinstall of the OS. Now I no longer have to log on to "Will's computer", which is nice, but I lost the latest OS and am now on 10.3.9. But that's not my point!

When I downloaded firefox, it was a dmg file, which I learned is a disc image file.
I put it in my applications folder, but there remains a disc icon on my desktop. If I 'eject' this disc image (put it in the trash), firefox no longer works. Now, it worked before without having a disc image icon on my desktop, which I prefer to keep nice and clear. Is there a way to do this?

[RoyMatthews]

Open up the image. Drag ff from the disk image to your applications folder. Eject the disk image.Now you should be able to open FF from the applications folder.

A disk image is Apple's way of compressing the file (I think).

Does that help?

Roy

[alex matson]

Did just that! When I reopen Firefox, another disc image icon shows up on the desktop.
It seems to be saying, "Oh yeah? Well I say you DO want this!"

[RoyMatthews]

Does the icon in the Application folder look like Firefox? Or does it look like a hard drive on a dog-eared paper?

Also do you have Admin access?

[alex matson]

The icon in the App folder looks like a disc drive with the Firefox icon on it.
Do I have admin access? Well, I guess. When I initialized the drive, I got to name the computer Alex and set my own password. The drive is still partitioned into one and two though like the previous owner had it, which I guess I'll keep.

[RoyMatthews]

I think this is how it works. There's 3 parts to a downloaded disk image. The .dmg file is a compressed file. Essentially like a .zip.
That will open a disk image. The disk image is treated like a disk by the Mac. Just like a CD or Hard Drive. Just like a drive it's contents can be dragged from the image to the computer.
In this instance there's a file you download called "Firefox 2.0.0.1.dmg.
(The version #'s may be different). That's one icon
When you open that a license agreement should open (there may also be a verification process). That will open the disk image. That's icon 2.
A window will open with a large FF icon. Drag that icon to the applications folder. Then eject the disk image and try opening FF from the Applications folder.

I hope this makes sense. I'd include pictures but I don't know how to do that.

[space_ryerson]

To check if you have admin rights on your mac, go to system preferences: accounts. in that column on the left (at least that's how it looks in 10.4), under your username, does is say 'Admin'?

[alex matson]

Yay! I AM the admin!
Koo koo ka...never mind.

[alex matson]

I think this is how it works. There's 3 parts to a downloaded disk image. The .dmg file is a compressed file. Essentially like a .zip.
That will open a disk image. The disk image is treated like a disk by the Mac. Just like a CD or Hard Drive. Just like a drive it's contents can be dragged from the image to the computer.
In this instance there's a file you download called "Firefox 2.0.0.1.dmg.
(The version #'s may be different). That's one icon
When you open that a license agreement should open (there may also be a verification process). That will open the disk image. That's icon 2.
A window will open with a large FF icon. Drag that icon to the applications folder. Then eject the disk image and try opening FF from the Applications folder.

I hope this makes sense. I'd include pictures but I don't know how to do that.

'Preciate it! Did all that before I wrote this fascinating post. There's currently a FF icon in my dock, in my applications folder...and two on my desktop(one has a little arrow on the lower left)...so I guess I'm covered! (I mean really, can you have too many FF icons?) So, it would seem that a .dmg is like a .sit file, only instead of it unstuffing into an application that you can then put in your applications folder, make an alias of, etc., it turns into a disc image that you can never take off your desktop if you want it to function. I'm kidding, I think, but that's really what it seems. I've done it over three times. And Mac help...isn't. (But make no mistake, this computer is amazing...I'll deal.) I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually...thanks for trying guys.

[space_ryerson]

I've seen some odd things like this with Firefox before, but here's something you might want to try:

First, take the firefox icon off of your dock, and put the copy of the app in your applications folder in the trash. Next, re-open the .dmg, and copy the application from the virtual disk to your applications folder. Then, eject the .dmg, and put it in your trash, hopefully preventing it from re-mounting. Next, go into your applications folder, and launch firefox, but don't add that one into your dock. On the first launch, firefox does something in which it needs to launch a second firefox icon in the dock. Once it is all finish setting up (and hopefully not trying to re-open that .dmg), quit firefox, and try re-launching. If it seems to have worked, control-click/right-click on the firefox icon in your dock, and select 'keep in dock'.

Some apps are really odd about what will and won't work in the dock. I know it has nothing to do with the audio world, but Quark's Licensing Agent (on a server) is really aggravating like that.