Can't run installers on Panther

Have you tried using sudo?

sudo sh myfile.sh

Or whatever the script is that you're running.

It will prompt you for your user name and pw.

You can also try

chmod 777

Raydot.

I've tried that - same result.

Can you tell me the name of one of the applications specifically?

Dreamweaver MX Installer

Oh, regular OS X apps, not UNIX apps.  Why are you trying to install from the terminal?

Here's the deal - this app installed fine on OS X 10.2 by double clicking on it.  In Panther, it's icon is a back window with the word "exec" on it.  So all I'm wondering is - what changed between Jaguar and Panther, and why can't I install this app (that was installable just fine on Jaguar) on Panther?

Nothing that would cause this.  

How did you store the applications while you were doing the clean install?  Did you leave them on the hard drive or did you store them to something like a CD-ROM or Firewire Drive?  Also, it probably doesn't matter, but what kind of box are you running?

Sorry for all the Q and A but the more info, the better...

I stored the files gzipped on another PowerBook.  I'm running a 17" PowerBook (1.33 GHz).

So you pushed them over via Firewire?  This may sound silly, but can you open these files with a text editor?  I'm wondering if you didn't accidentally convert them from binaries to text in the process, or otherwise corrupt them.

I moved from Jaguar -> Panther w/o the clean install, I've had no problems with anything.

Yeah, I pushed them over with Firewire.  What is opening them with a text editor going to get me?  I would think that because they were gzipped and then transferred over and back, that corruption wouldn't take place *inside* the .tar.gz file.

If they open with a text editor, and you see a lot of junky text, you'll know that they've been corrupted by a change from their binary mode into text mode, probably during the gzip process.

Did you gzip them from the Terminal or did you do it using something like Stuffit on the OSX side?

Is there a reason you aren't using the CD the software came on to install the files?

I've since installed them from the CD - I was just trying to figure out why this happened...

There are some ways a file can be copied under OS X that does not properly copy all of the file, or that copy it in ways that the system forgets what kind of file it is. I've seen those same "Unix Executable" icons showing up at times, and the files can be perfectly fine! For instance, I have had Word files show up that way. If I drag the file onto Word's icon, it opens fine, and I can save it as a Word file and it gets the right icon again. Same with files for other apps. In a sense, "Unix Executable" is similar to the generic document icon on OS 9. The file is most likely simply mis-typed.

Try dragging the funky installer file onto the Installer program (in Utilities) and see if it opens it as an installer. If it works, that may also fix the icon.

Some installers for 3rd party apps that worked in 10.2.x do not work in 10.3.x
I know Office is one.
I thought I saw where people were having trouble w DW - but could not find specific references.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/service/ts/documents/mac_archive_install.htm
At Macromedia, covers a similar problem.  Not sure if it will you. Might be worth a look. Or not. ;-)