installing NLTK

[Nige Danton]

Mac OSX python 2.6.1: I'm trying to install the natural language toolkit
and following the instructions here www.NLTK.org/download I've downloaded
the PyYAML package and in a terminal window tried to install it. However
terminal asks for my password - I've tried both my user password and admin
password but neither is accepted. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for any help

 

[Hans Mulder]

Mac OSX python 2.6.1: I'm trying to install the natural language toolkit
and following the instructions here www.NLTK.org/download I've downloaded
the PyYAML package and in a terminal window tried to install it. However
terminal asks for my password - I've tried both my user password and admin
password but neither is accepted. What am I doing wrong?

You're not really giving us enough information, so I'll just guess:

Are you trying a command that begins with "sudo"?

If so, then you user password should work, provided you're a member
of the 'admin' group. To find out, type "groups" in a Terminal
window. If the response does not include "admin" as a separate
word, then you''l have to ask someone to give you admin rights.

Otherwise, you'll have to tell us what command you are trying.
We're too lazy to download the PyYAML package, just to read the
installation instructions.

-- HansM

 

[Nige Danton]

You're not really giving us enough information, so I'll just guess:
Sorry.

Are you trying a command that begins with "sudo"?

Good guess. Yes it's sudo python setup.py install

If so, then you user password should work, provided you're a member
of the 'admin' group. To find out, type "groups" in a Terminal
window. If the response does not include "admin" as a separate

Ok, thanks. Tried that and the response does not include admin nor my user
name

word, then you''l have to ask someone to give you admin rights.

It's a personal computer - there is no one to ask.

When I try my user password the reply is that it's not in the sudoers file
and the admin password it just rejects. Any idea what I should do?

 

[Hans Mulder]

Good guess. Yes it's sudo python setup.py install


Ok, thanks. Tried that and the response does not include admin nor my user
name


It's a personal computer - there is no one to ask.

When I try my user password the reply is that it's not in the sudoers file
and the admin password it just rejects. Any idea what I should do?

If you open the "System Preferences" application, and click "Accounts"
(the icon in the lower left), do you get to see your own account?
If so, is the checkbox "Allow user to administer this computer" checked?

If not, try logging out, log in as "admin" and go back to "Accounts" in
"System Preferences". If the lock in the lower left corner is in the
"locked" state, click it and give the password to open it.
Then select your own account, check the checkbox, log out and log back
in as yourself. That should make you a member of the "admin" group.

-- HansM

 

[Benjamin Kaplan]

Good guess. Yes it's sudo python setup.py install


Ok, thanks. Tried that and the response does not include admin nor my user
name


It's a personal computer - there is no one to ask.

When I try my user password the reply is that it's not in the sudoers file
and the admin password it just rejects. Any idea what I should do?

You need to switch to the admin user. Sudo will only accept your own
password, and only if you're in the "sudoers" file. If you don't want
to log out, you can use the "su admin" command to change to admin
within that shell- that one is expecting your admin password. Then as
the admin, do the sudo python setup.py install and enter your admin
password again.

The point in all this is that your admin isn't actually an admin.
There is only one account on the computer that actually has access to
the core system files and that's "root". "sudo" is a command that lets
you execute a command as another user by entering your own password.
If you don't specify a user, it defaults to using root. An "admin"
account on a Unix system is just an account with permission to use the
sudo command.

 

[Nige Danton]

should make you a member of the "admin" group.

All sorted now - thanks for your help.