Corrupt (locked) preference

Rhisiart

Rhisiart

Registered
By Mac Mini is behaving oddly. It slows down occasionally, with the spinning wheel of "time to make a cup of coffee" appearing frequently.

DiskWarrior and Tech Tool Pro has failed to resolve the issue. Disc utility repair using the original installation disc hasn't helped either.

Using Preferential Treatment, it appears that ./com.apple.SystemLogin.Items.plist is corrupt (Cannot parse a NULL or zero-length data).

If this is relevant, how can I delete/repair it?
 
http://www.macshadows.com/kb/index.php?title=Com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist_Exploit

The file does not exist by default. A member of the admin group may create the file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist
Click to expand...

I could only find the above as I'm in the middle of making a cuppa for the missus so I'll check back later, Rhisiart ;)

PS, I don't have this plist file on my mac ...

EDIT​

oh, wait on ... it should be com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist and I do have that in /Library/Preferences.





.
 
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I also don't have this file. Maybe you can just eliminate it? Btw.: In which Library folder is it exactly? Good link, btw., VT. According to it, I'd certainly remove the file. Simply go to Terminal.app and do "sudo rm -rf FILE'S_COMPLETE_PATH". It should ask you for your admin password and remove it.

The question remains how the file was created. Do other users login as admin accounts on that computer? Do any of the antivirus packages we've been talking about lately see anything?
 
/Library/Preferences

(i.e. not the Home Library).

I am trying to delete it without success.

I wonder how it got there and what is it doing?
 
I've edited my previous post with instructions on how to remove the file. Doesn't that work?
 
@ fryke: did you search for the plist file as per Rhisiarts first post where he put a . (dot) between SystemLogin & Items.plist ... try searching again without the dot there.

@ Rhisiart:

I found this at your Preferential Treatment link:

You must have administrative permission to open many system preferences—even to use this application to scan them for corruption. For instance, the files in the folder “/Library/Preferences/DirectoryServices/” (“ContactsNodeConfig.plist”, “DirectoryService.plist”, “DSLDAPv3PlugInConfig.plist”, & “SearchNodeConfig.plist”) may be listed as corrupt when using the application.
Click to expand...

I wonder if there is any connection to this particular plist showing up as being 'corrupt' and the above quote?

I just found this snippet:

For future reference, plist files can be preference files that can be safely deleted because they can be recreated by the program, but not all of them are. A plist file is a property list file, and is not guaranteed to be simply a preferences file. Some properties are essential.
Click to expand...

Taken from here:

Plist errors using Preferential Treatment



.
 
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I'm perfectly capable of recognising the first dot as "search in _this_ location". I've searched all Library folders, of course.
 
fryke said:
Simply go to Terminal.app and do "sudo rm -rf FILE'S_COMPLETE_PATH". It should ask you for your admin password and remove it.
Click to expand...
I have opened terminus.app and typed in:

sudo rm -rf ./com/apple/SystemLoginItems.plist

However, nothing happens.
 
np. :) ... Rhisiart: That path looks wrong. It probably should be

sudo rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist if the file's in /Library/Preferences. You can also, instead of writing the path, just drag the file to the Terminal.app window after you've written "sudo rm -rf " (with the space after the rf).
 
I use to use Preferential Treatment until I realized it is not--or was not when I had it--a maintenance program: you do not need to routinely repair permissions.

Disk Warrior will repair permissions, check files, and optimize your volume. Similarly, TechTools will check your files, check your volume, optimize your volume, and defragment your HD--along with running hardware tests and giving you a copy of Disk Utility. Whether or not you need to defragment your HD with OS X is a subject of debate I will defer to the Gurus, but to my understanding it will not significantly affect your speed.

None of those do maintenance scripts. For that, you should consider the freeware Onyx--very nice--or the shareware Cocktail. It may be worth it for you to try Onyx--since it is free--and see if that solves your speed problem.

--J.D.
 
fryke said:
np. :) ... Rhisiart: That path looks wrong. It probably should be

sudo rm -rf /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist if the file's in /Library/Preferences. You can also, instead of writing the path, just drag the file to the Terminal.app window after you've written "sudo rm -rf " (with the space after the rf).
Click to expand...
Well its gone. Thanks Fryke. I am still puzzled as to how it got there in the first place and what it has been doing whilst it was there?

DoctorX: I shall do some maintenance with Onyx.
 
Code: 
cat /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>Path</key>
<string>/Library/Application Support/SmithMicro/FAXstf X/FAXstfFrontEnd.app</string>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>



Looks like messing with the fax program generated mine.
 
Open System Preferences->Network, thew Advanced button, the DNS tab. I thought you were an OS X expert?
 
Satcomer said:
I thought you were an OS X expert?
Click to expand...
Not at all (LOL). Besides, anything to do with networking is still a mystery to me. :eek:

Thanks Satcomer, but it doesn't show anything I can make any sense of (just two IP addresses under Airport DNS).

However, /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist is back again after I had deleted it successfully earlier today! It's also blank (no script).

Bah.
 
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Rhisiart said:
However, /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SystemLoginItems.plist is back again after I had deleted it successfully earlier today! It's also blank (no script).
Click to expand...

Well it is going to be there whenever you reboot. This is the flat file when you put something in your System Preferences->Accounts, your account, "Login Options" (10.5.x). So are you seeing when some preference file in the main Library folder is for the whole machine. The one you your account is in the /Users/YourAccount/Library/Preferences are for the current User (you). I hope you understand.

So the file will come back because OS X is looking for it and will re-create it when it disappears because it needs the file (it is a Unix thing).
 
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