Where are preference files?

[Jeanne Clelland]

I think I have a corrupted Internet preference file: in the preference
pane, I have Safari selected as my default browser, but other
applications (such as MT-Newswatcher) have suddenly started behaving
badly when I click on an URL:

a) yesterday when I cliked on an URL, Classic started up (!), and then I
got an error message about the application <null> not being able to run.

b) after I tried selecting something else and then re-selecting Safari
in the Internet preference pane, it started booting up IE (yuck!)
instead of Safari when I click on an URL.


Does this sound like a corrupted preference file, or something else?
(Safari works just fine, BTW.) If it's a bad preference file, could
someone let me know where is that file located so I can trash it?
Thanks much!


Jeanne

[Larry Fransson]

In article
<Jeanne.Clelland-8D03DC.12572421072003@peabody.colorado.edu>,
Jeanne Clelland <Jeanne.Clelland@NOSPAM.colorado.edu> wrote:

> could
> someone let me know where is that file located so I can trash it?

Preferences are generally found in /Library/Application Support.

--
Larry Fransson
Aviation software for Mac OS X!
[url]http://www.subcritical.com[/url]

[Henry]

Jeanne Clelland:

Thanks for your post:

in article [email]Jeanne.Clelland-8D03DC.12572421072003@peabody.colorado.edu[/email],
Jeanne Clelland at [email]Jeanne.Clelland@NOSPAM.colorado.edu[/email] wrote on 7/21/03
11:57 AM:

> I think I have a corrupted Internet preference file: in the preference
> pane, I have Safari selected as my default browser, but other
> applications (such as MT-Newswatcher) have suddenly started behaving
> badly when I click on an URL:
>
> a) yesterday when I cliked on an URL, Classic started up (!), and then I
> got an error message about the application <null> not being able to run.
>
> b) after I tried selecting something else and then re-selecting Safari
> in the Internet preference pane, it started booting up IE (yuck!)
> instead of Safari when I click on an URL.
>
>
> Does this sound like a corrupted preference file, or something else?
> (Safari works just fine, BTW.) If it's a bad preference file, could
> someone let me know where is that file located so I can trash it?
> Thanks much!

Maybe try setting your preference back to IE, try operating with that for a
bit, then try returning to Safari

>

You might want to try this: invent a new user (using system
preferences-->accounts) at the same privilege level as you. If things get
better, yes, I would strong suspect a corrupt preference file. If not,
maybe something more serious is wrong.

I recently had a problem with file associations, in particular, what icon
was associated with what file. The Finder would crash when it attempted to
display certain file types. I'm pretty sure this was a corruption in a
preference file somewhere, but it wasn't practical to locate it
specifically. I finally spent the hour or so to re-invent myself as a new
user -- not fun, to be sure, but a pragmatic solution.

There's one other area to look at: search out a .HTML file on your disk
drive somewhere -- there should be plenty lying around, for documentation
purposes, etc. Make a copy of it, and see if the weirdness you've described
occurs when you try to open it. Now look at the "File-->Get Info-->Open
With" information for this file. It's hard to say what to do now. You can
change the setting for just this one file, for for all documents "like this"
one. The latter sounds a bit daunting!

Recently I had an app that uses a browser for its help files. I recently
changed from IE to Safari, and I was frustrated by seeing it bring up IE as
usual -- nothing I could do about it in preferences that I could find.
Ultimately, I hit the "change all" button and haven't had a problem since.
I think "like this" is done a bit more selectively than what might first
appear.

Good luck!

Henry

[email]henryn@zzzspacebbs.com[/email]

> Jeanne

[Sandman]

In article <newsgroups-940156.13065121072003@netnews.attbi.com>,
Larry Fransson <newsgroups@larryandjenny.net> wrote:

> In article
> <Jeanne.Clelland-8D03DC.12572421072003@peabody.colorado.edu>,
> Jeanne Clelland <Jeanne.Clelland@NOSPAM.colorado.edu> wrote:
>

> > could
> > someone let me know where is that file located so I can trash it?

>
> Preferences are generally found in /Library/Application Support.

Preferences are actually found in /Library/Preferences/

Application Support is meant for things like plugins and the likes.

--
Sandman[.net]

[Henry]

Jeanne Clelland:

Thanks for your response:

in article [email]Jeanne.Clelland-C44B42.14592221072003@peabody.colorado.edu[/email],
Jeanne Clelland at [email]Jeanne.Clelland@NOSPAM.colorado.edu[/email] wrote on 7/21/03 1:59
PM:

> In article <BB4195D7.DC3E%henryn@zzzspacebbs.com>,
> Henry <henryn@zzzspacebbs.com> wrote:
>

>> There's one other area to look at: search out a .HTML file on your disk
>> drive somewhere -- there should be plenty lying around, for documentation
>> purposes, etc. Make a copy of it, and see if the weirdness you've described
>> occurs when you try to open it. Now look at the "File-->Get Info-->Open
>> With" information for this file. It's hard to say what to do now. You can
>> change the setting for just this one file, for for all documents "like this"
>> one. The latter sounds a bit daunting!
>>

>
> See, here's some more weird behavior. I tried doing this for Retrospect
> Express, but no matter WHAT I set the "Open With" info to, when I try to
> open the help file, it tries to bring up
> Lord-only-knows-what-except-that-it's-something-in-Classic and then
> says:
>
> The application (null) has unexpectedly quit.

What this means is that some software process threw up its hands and gave up
trying to continue doing its work because it encountered something
unfixable. The "(null)" means that the process never left its calling card.
Most applications you and I use wouldn't be so impolite, so I expect the
failing software is something that operates behind the scenes.

>>> OTUtilityLib<<(-2880)

>
> So what the &*%# does THAT mean, and how am I ever going to look at
> Retrospect's help again???

"OT" generally means "Open Transport" --in simple terms, the
behind-the-scenes details of how you communicate with other computers-- is
broken somehow. That's an OS9 thingie, if I'm not mistaken. I don't have a
clue why this would happen.

Obviously your email/newsgroup connection is still working. Can you access
the Internet via Safari without incident?

>
>
> Jeanne, wondering if I should give up and do a clean install of Jaguar...

Others may differ with me, but I wouldn't go that far, not without
exhausting other alternatives. This is a very stable operating system.
(Note: that's not a troll, just my observation!) In rare cases of
problems, I've generally found that very alarming symptoms can often be
explained by rather strictly circumscribed issues. I've never re-loaded
the OS as a trouble-shooting measure.

Oh, you didn't say: which version of the system do you have installed now?
In the old days of 10.1, OS X seemed to scramble preference files
indiscriminately, but I haven't seen anything like this is some time.

Did you try creating a new user and logging in as that user? If the
problems go away, you'll have a lots more confidence in your system. This
isn't very difficult to do.

This may be as simple as a file association problem similar to the one I
had. I've got a brief set of notes collected from the net about which
preference files to delete to maybe fix these. If you want, I'll post the
notes and discuss how to apply them -- but, well, sorry, you're on your own
if something goes worse wrong.

Thanks,

Henry

[email]henryn@zzzspacebbs.com[/email] remove 'zzz' antispam

[Jeanne Clelland]

In article <BB41B126.DC56%henryn@zzzspacebbs.com>,
Henry <henryn@zzzspacebbs.com> wrote:

> "OT" generally means "Open Transport" --in simple terms, the
> behind-the-scenes details of how you communicate with other computers-- is
> broken somehow. That's an OS9 thingie, if I'm not mistaken. I don't have a
> clue why this would happen.

Yeah, I have no clue either, and if I don't already have Classic
running, it starts it up before I get this message. What on earth could
it be trying to do that requires OS 9?

> Obviously your email/newsgroup connection is still working. Can you access
> the Internet via Safari without incident?

Yup. And it gets weirder: after switching things around in the Internet
preference pane for awhile, I logged out and logged back in, and now
clicking on URLs in MT-Newswatcher starts up Safari as expected. (Which
actually makes me feel better about my system.) But trying to launch
Retrospect Express'shelp still gives me this Classic startup/null
application weirdness. I suppose I can live without Retrospect's help
if that's the only thing that's broken - I still have the pdf file for
the manual, after all - but it just seems WEIRD!

> Oh, you didn't say: which version of the system do you have installed now?
> In the old days of 10.1, OS X seemed to scramble preference files
> indiscriminately, but I haven't seen anything like this is some time.

Currently 10.2.6, upgraded from 10.1.5 about a week ago.

> Did you try creating a new user and logging in as that user? If the
> problems go away, you'll have a lots more confidence in your system. This
> isn't very difficult to do.

I didn't try this yet; maybe I'll try that tomorrow and see if it fixes
the Retrospect problem.

> This may be as simple as a file association problem similar to the one I
> had. I've got a brief set of notes collected from the net about which
> preference files to delete to maybe fix these. If you want, I'll post the
> notes and discuss how to apply them -- but, well, sorry, you're on your own
> if something goes worse wrong.

I appreciate the offer, but if Retrospect help continues to be the only
thing that's broken, I probably don't want to risk mucking around with
my system too much to try to fix it.

Thanks for your help!


Jeanne

[Sandman]

In article <newsgroups-2EEB65.15363721072003@netnews.attbi.com>,
Larry Fransson <newsgroups@larryandjenny.net> wrote:

> In article <mr-087820.22161221072003@news.fu-berlin.de>,
> Sandman <mr@sandman.net> wrote:
>

> > > Preferences are generally found in /Library/Application Support.

> >
> > Preferences are actually found in /Library/Preferences/
> >
> > Application Support is meant for things like plugins and the likes.

>
> Duh. Never try to post an intelligent answer after working all night on
> no sleep!

I'll remember that. :)

--
Sandman[.net]

[Henry]

Jeanne Clelland:

Thanks for your response to my post:

in article [email]Jeanne.Clelland-9CF257.17251721072003@peabody.colorado.edu[/email],
Jeanne Clelland at [email]Jeanne.Clelland@NOSPAM.colorado.edu[/email] wrote on 7/21/03 4:25
PM:

> In article <BB41B126.DC56%henryn@zzzspacebbs.com>,
> Henry <henryn@zzzspacebbs.com> wrote:
>

<snip>

> Yeah, I have no clue either, and if I don't already have Classic
> running, it starts it up before I get this message. What on earth could
> it be trying to do that requires OS 9?

My advice on this is: don't take this symptom too seriously. It seems that
file--applications associations are vulnerable for some reason. Once a
piece of this mechanism is broken, you don't always get a clear-cut
symptom.

This is sort of like Freudian dream analysis.

>

>> Obviously your email/newsgroup connection is still working. Can you access
>> the Internet via Safari without incident?

>
>
> Yup. And it gets weirder: after switching things around in the Internet
> preference pane for awhile, I logged out and logged back in, and now
> clicking on URLs in MT-Newswatcher starts up Safari as expected. (Which
> actually makes me feel better about my system.)

Right, good. Confidence building is ... good. So again, I would not reload
your OS quite yet.

> But trying to launch Retrospect Express'shelp still gives me this Classic
> startup/null application weirdness. I suppose I can live without Retrospect's
> help if that's the only thing that's broken - I still have the pdf file for
> the manual, after all - but it just seems WEIRD!
>

Here's a wild guess of what's going on: You're asking Retrospect to access
a different kind of data file to access help. Retrospect hands the problem
over to the operating system. MacOS uses its usual method of associating
an application with that data file. The association file is corrupted, so
when MacOS looks in the "slot" where the application reference is stored, it
gets garbage. Well, relative garbage -- maybe it sees the application
associated with the _next_ data file type.

It's quite possible that the application reference information obtained is
passed around to various mechanisms in the system, some of which can
decipher it better than others. The <null> string message you got is
consistent with this.

I'm guessing that there's also a portion of that record which contains a
mention that "this application is a Classic program" so that the system can
anticipate what needs to be done to launch it. That portion also contains
garbage. As a result, you get inappropriate Classic startup.

>

>> Oh, you didn't say: which version of the system do you have installed now?
>> In the old days of 10.1, OS X seemed to scramble preference files
>> indiscriminately, but I haven't seen anything like this is some time.

>
>
> Currently 10.2.6, upgraded from 10.1.5 about a week ago.

Good choice. 10.1.5 was quite a bit less stable, in my experience.

>
>

>> Did you try creating a new user and logging in as that user? If the
>> problems go away, you'll have a lots more confidence in your system. This
>> isn't very difficult to do.

>
> I didn't try this yet; maybe I'll try that tomorrow and see if it fixes
> the Retrospect problem.

Really, it's easy. Post back the results, please.

>
>

>> This may be as simple as a file association problem similar to the one I
>> had. I've got a brief set of notes collected from the net about which
>> preference files to delete to maybe fix these. If you want, I'll post the
>> notes and discuss how to apply them -- but, well, sorry, you're on your own
>> if something goes worse wrong.

>
>
> I appreciate the offer, but if Retrospect help continues to be the only
> thing that's broken, I probably don't want to risk mucking around with
> my system too much to try to fix it.

Good idea to heed my "don't try this at home" warning. However, may I
point out that corruption in your associations file --if that's the
problem-- may extend to other applications you use less often. You might
want to take a cruise through your system, double-clicking documents and
seeing what happens.

Thanks,

Henry

[email]henryn@zzzspacebbs.com[/email] remove 'zzz' antispam

>
> Thanks for your help!
>
>
> Jeanne

[Fred Moore]

Jeanne,

Another thing you can do to check if it really is a Prefs issue is to make
a Stuffed copy of the entire /Library/Preferences/ folder (gives you a
backup as well as making the folder 'inert'), trash and flush the original
Prefs folder, then restart. If the problem goes away, it was definitely a
prefs file somewhere.

Warning: Trashing the entire Prefs folder may require a LOT of work to
reconfigure everything, but you can try reinstalling prefs a few at a time
from your Stuffed backup. (Ah, just like the good old days of rersolving
INIT conflicts <sigh and a tear>).

hth,

--Fred

[Jeanne Clelland]

In article <BB429EF2.DEF3%henryn@zzzspacebbs.com>,
Henry <henryn@zzzspacebbs.com> wrote:

> >> Did you try creating a new user and logging in as that user? If the
> >> problems go away, you'll have a lots more confidence in your system. This
> >> isn't very difficult to do.

> >
> > I didn't try this yet; maybe I'll try that tomorrow and see if it fixes
> > the Retrospect problem.

>
> Really, it's easy. Post back the results, please.

Oooh, now THIS is interesting!

I got the same symptom with a new user, and I noticed (because I didn't
bother to hide the dock for the new user like I do for myself) that the
Classic program that it was trying to start up was Netscape
Communicator. So I tried just starting up Netscape by itself, and I
got the same message about the application (null) quitting. So I
figured that my Netscape application had somehow gotten corrupted, and
since I never use it anymore anyway, I trashed it. And NOW Retrospect
help comes up in Safari! Woo-hoo!

Thanks *very* much for your help; I really appreciate it!


Jeanne

[Jeanne Clelland]

In article <BB431A1E.E063%henryn@zzzspacebbs.com>,
Henry <henryn@zzzspacebbs.com> wrote:

> Thinking out loud...did you restart after trashing Netscape? If you did,
> you forced the associations file to be rebuilt, maybe.

I restarted Retrospect, but I didn't reboot the computer.


Jeanne

[Henry]

Jeanne Clelland:

Thanks for your response to my post:

in article [email]Jeanne.Clelland-C24DB3.21094222072003@peabody.colorado.edu[/email],
Jeanne Clelland at [email]Jeanne.Clelland@NOSPAM.colorado.edu[/email] wrote on 7/22/03 8:09
PM:

> In article <BB431A1E.E063%henryn@zzzspacebbs.com>,
> Henry <henryn@zzzspacebbs.com> wrote:
>

>> Thinking out loud...did you restart after trashing Netscape? If you did,
>> you forced the associations file to be rebuilt, maybe.

>
>
> I restarted Retrospect, but I didn't reboot the computer.

Hmmm...

There's clearly more to know about how MacOS X does all this.

I think it is VERY unlikely you had a corrupt application, per se. Maybe an
app preference or a system preference.

That said...

At this point, I think it's time to quote the last line of the movie
"Chinatown": "Forget it Jake, you'll never get to the bottom of it], it's
Chinatown."

Glad to help.

Henry

[email]henryn@zzzspacebbs.com[/email] remove 'zzz' antispam

>
>
> Jeanne