A couple of questions: 1 - password reset (not the FAQ)

[nplima]

Hi,

I just got my first Mac on Ebay (powermac G4@400mhz AGP) and while I've been happilly experimenting with it for the first few days, I've already messed things up a bit. It's called Windas touch, when a Windows user touches a computer... you know...

1) due to licencing terms, the computer came with no install CD/DVD and with Tiger preinstalled. I'm supposed to get my own copy, but I'd rather do that after I'm done with the experimenting;

2) auto-login was enabled and there was only one user profile on the computer. That user had admin privileges. I used Keychain app to create my own password and successfully changed all sorts of configurations and installed applications using that password when prompted;

3) as I was getting used to OS X and was ready to settle down I created a new user, without admin privileges. I created a password for it, disabled auto-login... and the following time I logged on, both passwords I knew were invalid. ooops.

4) I searched around for solutions that did not include using the install CD/DVD and followed an advice found here at the forum, which is the same as this one here: http://www.rit.edu/~wwwits/services/desktop_support/mac/xforcenewadminacccount.html
(ie: boot up in single user mode, erase the .applesetupdone file, reboot)

4.1) silly me, I should have backed up that file to some place instead of erasing it. If it's an empty file or just some text, anyone could tell me what should be there, so I can put things back (and try to guess the password)?

5) The computer boots up as if it were new (I suppose, never seen one), asks me to register, and then tries to create a new user account (yay!!!). It fails. Here's the error:

Local account creation failed
[this exception originated in the server.

-[NSPathstore2 rangeOfstringptions:range:]:nil argument



Only 2 results about this on Google, 1 of them irrelevant, the other is for some guy who's as stuck as I am

Thanks for any help.

Nuno

 

[mad jew]

1) due to licencing terms, the computer came with no install CD/DVD and with Tiger preinstalled. I'm supposed to get my own copy, but I'd rather do that after I'm done with the experimenting;

All your problems will go away once you buy OSX. Legally, you're not meant to be running the computer without your own licensed version of OSX anyway.

 

[gekko513]

If it helps, this is the content of that file on my Mac

<?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>Address</key>
        <dict>
                <key>AreaCode</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>City</key>
                <string>Oslo</string>
                <key>Company</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>CountryName</key>
                <string>Norge</string>
                <key>ExistingEmailAddress</key>
                <string>...</string>
                <key>FirstName</key>
                <string>...</string>
                <key>LastName</key>
                <string>...</string>
                <key>LocalPhoneNumber</key>
                <string>...</string>
                <key>StreetAddr1</key>
                <string>...</string>
                <key>StreetAddr2</key>
                <string></string>
                <key>ZipPostal</key>
                <string>...</string>
        </dict>
        <key>RegistrationInfo</key>
        <dict>
                <key>AppleSpam</key>
                <string>YES</string>
                <key>Location</key>
                <string>C</string>
                <key>Occupation</key>
                <string>13</string>
                <key>OthersSpam</key>
                <string>YES</string>
        </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

The keys with ... were removed by me just to not post my registered info to the whole world.

I love how they actually label receiving info mails from apple as "AppleSpam" YES.

 

[nplima]

All your problems will go away once you buy OSX. Legally, you're not meant to be running the computer without your own licensed version of OSX anyway.

Fair point. I'm not supposed to run OS X while I don't get a normal copy of it. So I have Ubuntu Linux running on the other partition. You can think of this as a test drive of OS X.

It's a complicated affair, really. I read great things about Macs and OS X and want to know more. I go to a local Mac shop and all they know about is design/graphics software.

However, I'm not spending €1000 on a new computer with OS X before I give it a proper try, and the same applies to the software itself - for some reason I got this 5 year old powermac on Ebay UK, right?

On the other hand, if designers and artists remain to be the only people who actually buy and use Macs around here, the people at the shop will carry on knowing a lot about graphics software and telling me to look for help on other subjects in internet forums...

hey, at least Ubuntu Linux works perfectly

Nuno Lima