Q: Why does BuildDisk.app indicate ªpermission deniedº and die?  Doesn't it run as root?

A: One possible cause of this situation is related to running BuildDisk.app while your system is connected to a network.  BuildDisk.app tries to ensure that what it's building will fit on the target disk.  To do this, it calculates the size of each directory to be loaded.  If, for example, you have /NextDeveloper/Examples imported from an NFS server, and, if there's a .NextTrash directory in that directory, the root user might not be able to see what's inside in order to determine the size.

Whenever possible, run BuildDisk.app on a system that's disconnected from the network.

If you must be connected to the network (e.g., if you're running BuildDisk.app on a NeXTstation that's NetBooted), and if you get a message like the above, go to the machine that's serving the flagged directory and remove the .NextTrash directory and its subdirectories (or whatever other directory is giving you problems).  If removing the directory is inappropriate, either grant everyone read permission, or export the file system (via exportfs and the /etc/exports file; see the UNIX Manual Pages or the NeXT Network and System Administration manual) to grant root access as necessary to the NetBoot client.

It's also possible that you'll run out of space on the target machine if you're importing large directories from an NFS server.

QA724

Valid for 2.0, 3.0