Changing file/dir permissions on OSX XAMPP

[hellomoto]

After a full day of failed attempts at setting up a pro, Vagrant-based development environment on my Macbook, I settled for good old XAMPP. Some sites were migrated over successfully, as well as a fresh PW project installed (dev branch). However, for some reason now, as I try installing another fresh copy (dev or stable), I get this error: File system is not writable by this installer.

So I rename the site profile manually, but then I need to fix the permissions for site/config.php and site/assets/. How exactly do I do this? I've tried chmod in Terminal, and messing around in the file/directory Get Info window, although I'm not sure which user or group to edit. Either way, I'm not getting anywhere. Please help. Thanks.

[hellomoto]

I'm doing this because I lost my backups and am trying to copy a site from its live server online onto my localhost. But when I copy over the files, import the db and change the connection settings in the site config, then try to access it, it just downloads a blank file called "download" (no extension). That's it, that's all. What could be the problem?

[pwired]

Quote

am trying to copy a site from its live server online onto my localhost

Exact same case here in a thread with some good reads and solution:

https://processwire.com/talk/topic/13781-problems-after-installing-remote-copy-to-local/

 

[hellomoto]

Thanks, but it's not the same. 

Also worthy of note is that if I try to go to /admin or /xxx, /*, the filename of the empty download matches whatever that is.

[hellomoto]

I got the site to load finally, by replacing the htaccess with a fresh copy -- but now none of the assets/styles are being loaded, as $config->urls->root points to localhost instead of localhost/mysite, where PW is installed. How do I fix this? 

And why is all this only happening now... I've never run into these permissions or migrations problems before, despite the setup being relatively new, I've managed both so far, up until now. I can't think of anything I did that might have had this effect. Maybe I'll switch to AMPPS or MAMP or something.

[szabesz]

3 hours ago, hellomoto said:

Maybe I'll switch to AMPPS or MAMP or something.

I haven't used XAMPP not AMPPS for ages, however I've been using MAMP Pro for a while without any serious issues. Something worth mentioning is that MAMP Pro's PHP Mode called "Individual PHP version for every host (CGI)" does not work in the case of "some sort of AJAX responses", which I have not yet tried to figure out why, but most of the time it works and when it does not, I just switch to the other option temporarily ("no CGI" i.e. module).