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ATTN: macintrash gurus

By nathan (Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 04:37:45 PM EST) (all tags)

I downloaded a security update today. Bad idea.

I get the Spinning Wheel of EEVIIL under an apple on a gray background when I try to boot my PowerBook G3 (OSX 10.3.) I tried something interesting:

Try resetting a couple preference files by doing the following:

1. Shut down your computer. 2. Press the power button and immediately press and hold the Command and S keys to start up in Single-User mode. 3. When you see white text appear on the screen, let go of the keys. 4. At the prompt, type mount -uw / 5. Press Return. 6. Then type mv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist preferences2.old 7. Press Return. 8. Type mv /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist preferences3.old 9. Press Return 10. Type reboot 11. Press Return. Your Mac should start up normally.

I love how they always tell me to press return. Anyhow.

The computer will boot in single-user mode. It can't find /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist or the same for *.windowserver.*, and ls confirms that the contents of /Library/Preferences doesn't include any such thing (it does include com.apple.preferences.accounts.plist, but that doesn't quite seem relevant.)

Anyway, any help or suggestions about where to go from here would be mucho appreciado. Even suggestions on where to post this help request are quite welcome.

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ATTN: macintrash gurus | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

On my computer (10.4).. by Driusan (4.00 / 1) #1 Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 06:18:12 PM EST

com.apple.loginwindow.plist seems to be in Users[username]/Library/Preferences and I don't have any windowserver.plist (that spotlight can find, at least)

Try checking there. If they aren't there, try looking in /System/Library/Preferences.

If they aren't there, I guess there's always the possibility of /Network/Library/Preferences.

If they aren't in any of the above, I'm out of ideas.
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Step 1. by ObviousTroll (4.00 / 1) #2 Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 07:57:13 PM EST

Boot the install CD and do a disk repair, including permissions. Reboot.

If that doesn't work...

Step 2: mkdir Library/Prefsbak; mv /Library/Preferences* /Library/Prefsbak; reboot

Your Preferences directory is definitely missing files. Driusan is whack - those files should definitely be in /Library/Preferences. Maybe he has autologin enabled?

Warning: I had this problem a couple of years ago, ultimately it was a corrupted disk that caused system files to become dain bramaged. A backup, re-install and restore of only my personal files was needed to completely resolve the problem.

I do. by Driusan (4.00 / 1) #3 Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 08:12:19 PM EST

.. they're still in the home directory's Library and not the root directory's.
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[ Parent ]

: Must be an effect of autologin. by ObviousTroll (4.00 / 1) #5 Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 08:40:11 PM EST

It's still very weird - why would the login process put it's preference files in your account?
You're not logging in as root, are you?
;-)

[ Parent ]

ugh by martingale (4.00 / 2) #4 Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 08:23:43 PM EST

capital letters after a mkdir is fundamentally wrong. Plsfxkthx
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$E(X_t|F_s) = X_s,\quad t > s$
[ Parent ]

One mouse button by DesiredUsername (1.00 / 1) #6 Sun Jan 01, 2006 at 09:06:15 PM EST

and single user mode. HOW TYPICAL

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ATTN: macintrash gurus | 6 comments (6 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback