macintosh has ruined my life

M

matthewstokeley

Registered
sorry for the melo-dramatic title, but ...

just three days ago i was telling my friend to go with cubase and a mac because of how nice compatibility with drivers is etc etc etc and how i use my cheap little emac running photoshop and flash without much lag and how cool wire tap and draw bot are and how useful all the unix scripts like "when" are when my mac decided to call me out. serious burn.

so it's satuday night and i'm not taking any calls until i get it fixed. my girlfriend will probably leave me. whiine whine whine.

specs:
emac fake g4 factory
os x 10.2.8

problem:
-the computer crashed, randomly. at the time i was running safari and itunes.
-after reboot, some of my desktop preferences had been changed. the desktop wallpaper had not, but the size of the icons on the desktop had. it was mostly little things that i could deal with.
-i then ran disk utility's disk repair as a precaution. utility froze about a third of the way through and none of the force quit and the like shortcuts were even registering, so i had to manual shut down.
-now i am not able to write files. i can't download anything, i can't even save a text file much less an svg.
-the program mac janitor crashes everytime i try to perform some functions.
-i either don't understand fsck (most likely) or it is not functioning.
-my internet connection works every other time after a restart.

and unfortunately i don't have the start up cd, nor 50 dollars to buy disk warrior, but i do have a friend with a powerbook g3 running the same version of 10.2

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. i've combed these forums and google to no avail, so sorry if this is a re-post but the search feature is disabled.

matthew
http://www.dorisdelay.com
indie pop goodness
 
Sounds like an extreme case of permission corruption to me.

You need a boot CD/DVD. If your friend has his, borrow it and run Disk Utility from it. Do a general repair and then repair permissions.

If you can't borrow a CD, then...hmm. What model is your friend's PowerBook G3? If it has FireWire, you could hook it up to your eMac and start up the eMac in FireWire Target Disk mode, which will let you mount its hard disk on the PowerBook just like an external FireWire HD. Then you can run Disk Utility from the PowerBook to run repairs.

If none of this is an option, then you might be able to do something by starting up in single user mode. Hopefully someone else can give you some details on that, because I've never done it myself and don't know what you'd need to do off the top of my head.
 
To get firewire disk mode hold T on startup, you should get the fire wire logo on the screen. Your Mac is then exactly the same as an external drive and you should be able to connect to another mac and run disk utility. Let us know if that doesnt work!
 
To run fsck, you first need to start up your Mac in single-user mode. Here's how:

1. Restart your Mac.

2. Immediately press and hold the Command and "S" keys.

You'll see a bunch of text begin scrolling on your screen. In a few more seconds, you'll see the Unix command line prompt (#).

You're now in single-user mode.

Now that you're at the # prompt, here's how to run fsck:

1. Type: "fsck -y" (that's fsck-space-minus-y) (without the quotes)

2. Press Return.

The fsck utility will blast some text onto your screen. If there's damage to your disk, you'll see a message that says:

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

If you see this message--and this is extremely important-- repeat running fsck. It is normal to have to run fsck more than once -- the first run's repairs often uncover additional problems..

When fsck finally reports that no problems were found, and the # prompt reappears:

3. Type: "reboot" to restart,

or type "exit" to start up without rebooting.

4. Press Return.

Your Mac should proceed to start up normally to the login window or the Finder.
 
thanks everyone for your advice. however,

i ran both fsck in single user mode and first aid disk utility disk repair from the system installation disc and both methods gave me this error

"incorrect block count for file system.log
(it should be 165 instead of 166)"

both repair methods kept acknowledging this error and not fixing it.

any ideas?

thanks so much,
matthew
 
Any way to see whether the harddisk is simply full? It sounds to me like the system is on some serious border... what do you mean by "emac fake g4 factory"?

if you haven't already, i'd get a firewire harddrive larger than the internal drive. then install OS X on that drive and try to back things up from the internal drive. After you've done that, i'd clean-install os x on the internal (i.e. erasing the internal drive before installing). then you can get things back from the backup and when everything's running fine again, start clean with a good backup.
 
Get Onyx and use that to clear all logs, caches, run scripts, etc, and then run FSCK and Disk Utility and see what errors you get.
 
Any way to see whether the harddisk is simply full? It sounds to me like the system is on some serious border... what do you mean by "emac fake g4 factory"?
Click to expand...
i've got a 40 gb harddrive and apparently my computer is telling me that i have about 16 or so free gigs. i try to run a very minimal machine. i am not sure how reliable this is though becuase i am using the free space option reading in the folder, if that makes any sense. by fake g4 i just mean the processor speed really doesn't deliver g4 ability, at least according to my whatever hope or expectation and by factory i mean it's just how the factory shipped it, i haven't changed any hardware or os.

if you haven't already, i'd get a firewire harddrive larger than the internal drive. then install OS X on that drive and try to back things up from the internal drive. After you've done that, i'd clean-install os x on the internal (i.e. erasing the internal drive before installing). then you can get things back from the backup and when everything's running fine again, start clean with a good backup.
Click to expand...

right now i am a very poor college student ... i hope my computer is not going to be a paper weight until i graduate. i would really like to try this option though. the same friend who lent me the installation cd does have a firewire hardrive. how would i need to configure it for my computer?

Get Onyx and use that to clear all logs, caches, run scripts, etc, and then run FSCK and Disk Utility and see what errors you get.
Click to expand...

unfortunately, i still can't download any file, get on the internet or create any new files so i can not get onyx. i do have a copy of cachexout or something like that and will try that and then run the disk checks again.

thanks so os soso much,

matthew
 
... and even after running cache out x and deleting all the old system files etc. i am still getting the same error logs running fsck and disk utility.

is it safe to manually alter the system.log file?

i guess i wouldn't even be able to save ...
 
Do this...

Boot into the firewire mode as described above. The "T"Boot.

When your drive mounts, find the system.log file:
/var/log

You can remove it... then restart.
 
can i do this in single user mode using rm or what not or does it have to be in the fire wire mode. and sorry for my confusion, but i need another computer for firewire mode, correct?

thanks so much,
matthew
 
To use firewire disk mode (target disk mode), you need
another computer - pressing T on startup puts the hdd in
target disk mode and makes the hdd act as an external
firewire drive.

Connect it to another mac via firewire and you can veiw
and/or edit the files on the "target" computer.

If this does not work, single user mode is another option.
 
In single user mode, type fsck -yf at the prompt
and press the return key, then type mount -uaw
and press return again.

Using this method mounts the boot volume with root
priviledges.

Type cd /var/log at the prompt and press return, then
type ls -la and press return to veiw all the log files.

example:
/Users/j $cd /var/log
/var/log $ls -la
total 704
drwxr-xr-x 44 root wheel 1496 Nov 29 07:15 .
drwxr-xr-x 24 root wheel 816 Nov 24 09:47 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2 Nov 24 09:00 AppleJack.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 12 Sep 7 22:16 CDIS.custom
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 52 Sep 7 22:16 OSInstall.custom
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 20621 Nov 29 07:15 asl.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2 Oct 26 00:02 asl.log.45
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 316 Nov 25 10:22 crashreporter.log
drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136 Sep 7 22:18 cups
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 117743 Nov 29 07:15 daily.out
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 68 Mar 20 2005 fax
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 0 Nov 25 09:06 ftp.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 30 Nov 18 10:35 ftp.log.0.gz
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 68 Mar 27 2005 httpd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 28978 Nov 29 06:48 install.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 51456 Nov 29 07:24 ipfw.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 739 Nov 25 08:53 ipfw.log.0.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 14056 Nov 24 09:54 lastlog
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 0 Nov 25 09:06 lpr.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 30 Nov 18 10:35 lpr.log.0.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 211 Nov 29 07:15 mail.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 145 Nov 25 09:00 mail.log.0.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root wheel 3087 Sep 7 22:50 mb.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 645 Nov 15 07:20 monthly.out
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 0 Nov 25 09:06 netinfo.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 36 Nov 24 09:11 netinfo.log.0.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2 Nov 24 08:59 osxvnc.log
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 68 Mar 26 2005 ppp
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 0 Nov 25 09:06 ppp.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 30 Nov 18 10:35 ppp.log.0.gz
drwxr-xr-x 2 root wheel 68 Mar 20 2005 sa
drwxr-xr-x 4 root wheel 136 Sep 25 14:28 samba
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 2826 Nov 29 06:48 secure.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 547 Nov 25 08:32 secure.log.0.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 221 Nov 29 07:15 system.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 944 Nov 29 07:15 system.log.0.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 1352 Nov 28 09:56 system.log.1.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 2656 Nov 25 09:00 system.log.2.gz
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 251 Nov 24 09:22 system.log.3.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2668 Nov 25 09:06 weekly.out
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 2 Nov 24 09:10 windowserver,log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 7339 Nov 29 06:48 windowserver.log
-rw-r----- 1 root admin 2 Nov 24 09:09 windowserver_last.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 218 Nov 24 09:54 wtmp
/var/log $

To clear system.log files:

echo 0 > system.log

rm -R system.log.[0-3].gz

type reboot, press return......
 
The logs with .gz at the end can be deleted.

The regular .log files (ex: system.log) will normally be regenerated after reboot, but use the "echo 0 > filename.log" to clear and leave them in place just to be safe.

*The logs are probably not the cause of the problems you are
having - it is most likely a severe case of corrupted permissions,
as Mikuro mentioned previously.

You may be able to repair permissions in single user mode:
type diskutil repairPermissions /
at the prompt and press return.

It may take several minutes, if it works at all - i gave up after
about 5 minutes and rebooted.
 
in single user mode i was never able to get by the first step fsck -yf. mount -uaw did nothing. i deleted all the system.log."".gz but was never able to clear the system.log

however when i ran fsck and disk utility, the error message about the system log did not show up. for disk utility disk repair, no error message showed up but every time i verify the disk it says that the disk needs repair. repairing disk permissions crashes whether i use the cd or the disk. fsck simply says it fails.

and before, my internet was working about every other time i would restart it and now it does not work at all.

i never thought i'd say this but ... here i come pc. or ubuntu....

this is probably not nearly enough information. i will try to post with exactness tonight.
 
Hmm, could be a failing drive. The whole issue may have been precipitated by faulty or poorly seated RAM. I recommend you copy off your critical files using another Mac and booting in Target mode, then re-install the system. Probably be a good time to upgrade to Tiger, which in its latest incarnation is generally faster and more stable than 10.2.8 or 10.3.9.

Or you could get a PC, I guess. They never have any problems. ;-)
 
ha yea i could never leave mac, i was only speaking out of anger cry cry cry.

so i've got a hold a of a friends mac firewire drive and am planning to reload the os. can i back up applications by moving the entire folder or will it not work upon installation?

also, if it is a failing drive or poorly seated ram, will installing a new os just be a temporary fix?
 
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