Hi,
I left the detail of what crashes the beast out of the heading so know-one would try it without knowing the potential disaster they would be walking into.
READ THE WHOLE THREAD BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANYTHING.
All I did was try customizing a Finder toolbar. Instead of sliding down as a sheet as expected, the customize area rendered into the finder window. Has this changed intentionally?
The whole story from the top is as follows...
I applied the Safari Milk skin from http://homepage.mac.com/max_08/ to my iBook using SafarIcon. Then I previewed the system wide theme using Theme Changer. When I saw that was cool, I moved to my iMac and applied it with Theme Changer.
I used, and enjoyed, the theme for a full day. Then things got ugly. It started when I tried customizing a finder toolbar. Instead of sliding down as a sheet, the customize area rendered into the Finder window. NOTE: this has not changed even after recovering. Must be a 10.2.8 issue.
So I am like, not a big one, I guess you take a hit here and there with themes. But then I realized that my icons were locked. Couldn't drag, or even select, any icons. Oh Dear...
Remembering my options, I immediately launch Theme Changer and revert to Aqua. Then a permissions fix in Disk First Aid... Nope. Same problem. So I decide to launch Safari and check out these forums for some help. Click the Safari icon in the Dock. It bounces, then rests. No window. So I click it again... BOOM! The dock slides down, the Finder Menu Bar slides up, and every icon on my desktop vaporizes... Crap... Nothing but a blue screen.
A reboot brings the login window as expected, but the login stalls. A force reboot, and no login window at all. So I go single user mode, run tcfix and a fsck -y. No dice.
At this point a sickening feeling sets in as I realize I had in fact read and acknowledged that things could go screwy from themeing. I just assumed the warning was for people uncomfortable with OS X.
Now I move to the iBook, not thinking and in a panic I click Safari. You guessed it... Same deal.
To make a long story short I had no choice but to boot from an OS 9 CD, network all my data over firewire to a good Mac, initialize the drives and rebuild from scratch. Took 2 days.
I realize this scenario very closely resembles the troubles had by other users with the pulled 10.2.8 but THIS WAS NOT THE PULLED VERSION. I also realize that the haxies could be to blame, but the customize Finder window thing was the start of my problems. That leads me to believe that customize toolbar may be the only culprit.
If anyone has any comments on how this could have been avoided, or what the cause was, or what some alternate recovery methods may have been, or how to effectively let Apple know about the customize problem and potential disaster it carries, please post.
It would also be good to know if this lines up with the scenarios mentioned by other users.
And, for the love of Pete, do not attempt any troubleshooting on a crucial system... It is not very much fun when things go down.
Mark.
I left the detail of what crashes the beast out of the heading so know-one would try it without knowing the potential disaster they would be walking into.
READ THE WHOLE THREAD BEFORE ATTEMPTING ANYTHING.
All I did was try customizing a Finder toolbar. Instead of sliding down as a sheet as expected, the customize area rendered into the finder window. Has this changed intentionally?
The whole story from the top is as follows...
I applied the Safari Milk skin from http://homepage.mac.com/max_08/ to my iBook using SafarIcon. Then I previewed the system wide theme using Theme Changer. When I saw that was cool, I moved to my iMac and applied it with Theme Changer.
I used, and enjoyed, the theme for a full day. Then things got ugly. It started when I tried customizing a finder toolbar. Instead of sliding down as a sheet, the customize area rendered into the Finder window. NOTE: this has not changed even after recovering. Must be a 10.2.8 issue.
So I am like, not a big one, I guess you take a hit here and there with themes. But then I realized that my icons were locked. Couldn't drag, or even select, any icons. Oh Dear...
Remembering my options, I immediately launch Theme Changer and revert to Aqua. Then a permissions fix in Disk First Aid... Nope. Same problem. So I decide to launch Safari and check out these forums for some help. Click the Safari icon in the Dock. It bounces, then rests. No window. So I click it again... BOOM! The dock slides down, the Finder Menu Bar slides up, and every icon on my desktop vaporizes... Crap... Nothing but a blue screen.
A reboot brings the login window as expected, but the login stalls. A force reboot, and no login window at all. So I go single user mode, run tcfix and a fsck -y. No dice.
At this point a sickening feeling sets in as I realize I had in fact read and acknowledged that things could go screwy from themeing. I just assumed the warning was for people uncomfortable with OS X.
Now I move to the iBook, not thinking and in a panic I click Safari. You guessed it... Same deal.
To make a long story short I had no choice but to boot from an OS 9 CD, network all my data over firewire to a good Mac, initialize the drives and rebuild from scratch. Took 2 days.
I realize this scenario very closely resembles the troubles had by other users with the pulled 10.2.8 but THIS WAS NOT THE PULLED VERSION. I also realize that the haxies could be to blame, but the customize Finder window thing was the start of my problems. That leads me to believe that customize toolbar may be the only culprit.
If anyone has any comments on how this could have been avoided, or what the cause was, or what some alternate recovery methods may have been, or how to effectively let Apple know about the customize problem and potential disaster it carries, please post.
It would also be good to know if this lines up with the scenarios mentioned by other users.
And, for the love of Pete, do not attempt any troubleshooting on a crucial system... It is not very much fun when things go down.
Mark.
