# Using Terminal



## Madelin (Mar 11, 2008)

Trying to enter some commands found on http://www.macworld.com/article/132447/2008/03/leopardsurvival2.html into Terminal but to no avail.

I open terminal but after typing the commands correctly nothing happens, its like im writing in Textedit. On opening of terminal there is not text present. I imagine there is atleast meant to be a prompt for a command?

Any help appreciated, thankyou.

Using OS 10.5.2


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## Satcomer (Mar 11, 2008)

Well did you type the command into Terminal on one line? Plus when you copy/paste the command in TextEdit make sure TextEdit is set to PLAIN Text first.


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## ra3ndy (Mar 11, 2008)

What you SHOULD see when you open Terminal is a window where the title bar says something like *Terminal -- Bash -- 80x24* and the window's content ends in a line of text similar to 

```
your-computers-name:~ your username$
```

Making no assumptions, and meaning no insult, I just want to make sure you are talking about the program called Terminal that you found in your Applications/Utilities folder.

If you see nothing, like it seems you are saying, then I'd suggest resetting Terminal to default settings by quitting Terminal, then deleting the file called *com.apple.Terminal.plist* from *YourHomeFolder/Library/Preferences* and restarting Terminal.  That SHOULD do it.  

If not, search this forum for one of the many many tutorials on using a program called Pacifist to install individual programs (like Terminal) from the OS X Install DVD.

Good Luck!


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## Madelin (Mar 12, 2008)

I tried trashing the preference file, did not fix the problem. I think i confused Satcomer a bit so im including a screenshot. The screenie shows terminal just after opening, i copies and pasted a command into it and pressed enter.


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## Satcomer (Mar 12, 2008)

The way the article read you are open Terminal and type:

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean YES

Then after hitting return type:

killall Dock


Now by you screen shot I don't see the correct prompt to type in. When you startup Terminal do you get a automatic message saying something like "Welcome to Darwin ....." and then get a prompt to type at  like ra3ndy showed. So are you getting this prompt?


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## Madelin (Mar 12, 2008)

No, its completely blank when i open it.
I have tried doing the whole command but was just showing the first line to show theres no prompt or anything.


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## Mikuro (Mar 12, 2008)

Yeah, there's definitely something wrong there. You should see a command prompt about half a second after the window opens. Until the command prompt appears, you can't expect anything to work.

The first thing I can suggest is the typical troubleshooting routine: repair permissions, and try a different user account to see if the problem is system-wide or user-specific.

Also, in the Finder, select "Go To Folder" from the Go menu and enter "/bin". Make sure "bash" is present in that folder.


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## Satcomer (Mar 12, 2008)

Strange! If you deleted the preference file launch Terminal again then go into it's Preferences and check them out for the Startup and Settings tab. Plus go into System Preferences->Sharing and give you Mac a name.

Plus run a maintenance program like Yasu or Onyx and run the maintenance tasks. Once you run the cleaning tasks let the Mac restart twice. This will build up the startup/shutdown cache.

Plus by ra3ndy's suggestion by deleting the preference file should have reset the Terminal preferences.


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## Madelin (Mar 12, 2008)

[delete Me]


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## Madelin (Mar 12, 2008)

Repairing permissions as i type and downloading Onyx.

Mikuro : The 'bash' file is present in that directory.
Satcomer : Startup and settings tabs are present. Checked the SP and my mac DOES have a name.

Thanks for the help guys, ill let you know in ~15 mins if its working or not after onyx and permissions repair.

EDIT>>> Onyx startup took up the 15 minutes, but its repairing permissions and stuff now.


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## Madelin (Mar 12, 2008)

Looks like Onyx may have solved the problem. Thanks very much guys youve been a big help.


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## Satcomer (Mar 12, 2008)

Madelin said:


> Looks like Onyx may have solved the problem. Thanks very much guys youve been a big help.



Good to know. It is smart to run the cleaning routines in Onyx once about every 4 weeks. Once running any cache cleaning processes reboot the Mac two times to rebuild the startup/shutdown caches.

Plus let us know if the Macworld command helped you at all. One more thing, if you get more comfortable with using the Terminal then take a look at MacOSXHints.


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## shavital (Apr 6, 2008)

Hi. Those commands shown in the Macworld page about Stacks are all command lines that start with default. This kind of command line is meant to introduce changes or add options to the application or utility mentioned in that line.
There is no printed output in Terminal, and there's not supposed to be any output, except for the fact that Terminal, after you hit 'Return' at the end of the line, returns to the prompt 'yourshortname[or]thenameofyourcomputer' and the character $ (in 10.5.2 where the Terminal shell is bash).
The result of that line (the change or addition of options to a certain application or utility) should be checked through the use of said application or utility, whether it has acquired the option described by the author of the line. In the web page you mentioned, I believe it's Dan Frakes. Hope this helps.
Charly


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## Mikuro (May 14, 2008)

The same problem happened to me today. I remembered this thread, and after repairing permission and using Onyx, it worked again. In Onyx, I ran the daily, weekly and monthly scripts and then cleared the font cache (which required a restart). I'm not sure exactly which part solved the problem, but anyway, thanks, Madelin, Satcomer.


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