FIRST:
These instructions can cause data loss. I take no responsibility for you following them or their accuracy. If something horrible happens all I can say is that really stinks, better luck next time. If you have anything that is REALLY important, it should be backed up multiple times. Save them to CDRs, DVD-Rs, external drives, USB flash drives, all of these, whatever it takes to be sure. Don't take this lightly. A wrong move can erase a lot of stuff quickly.
Daniel I. wrote:
--snip-- I got to the terminal, typed in "echo $DISPLAY" to which I received the response "/tmp/launch-ksucTH/:0" and my question is: what specifically do I do next?
Well this is good news, it means you are not setting the $DISPLAY environment variable by default. In Tiger this would have broken X11, but in Leopard it automatically sets the display variable, so trying to set it to something by default doesn't work. In short DO NOTHING. This is exactly what you want to see when you type "echo $DISPLAY".
Of note, when typing in the "cd ~" then "ls -al" I note that I have two files that are close to the one you describe, named ".xinitrc.old" and ".xinitrc.old.1", so my question is, what then?
Well now that is interesting. It seems as though you had some program that created a .xinitrc, but it appears that Leopard may have renamed it so they don't get called. It seems Leopard was trying to protect you like I said it should. I suppose .xinitrc could have been put into another folder somewhere. If I was sitting there maybe we could find it, but I bet it is what is causing trouble, or something similar. Since there seems to be more interest in doing reinstalls let's just do that.
Let's just go the easy, albeit, LONG way around to getting this fixed. If others are having trouble and don't want to do the following we can go into it in a future post--let me know.
As to the person who did a complete archive and install with great success (about two posts down), how what that done, specifically, with detailed steps that can be followed relatively straightforwardly?
Also: I do happen to have an external drive and a lot of time. How, specifically, could I perform the clean install that Michael Thorn mentions without losing files?
The *archive and install* method is the least painful way to do things, and will most likely work fine. To do this follow these instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120
These are pretty long, but really it is pretty easy, just put the install DVD in, after agreeing to license and choosing the volume to install to, there will be a button labelled 'options'. Click this button and choose 'archive and install'. You will be presented with choices on what to preserve, you could preserve it all to start with, see if it works, and if not do another archive and install without preserving settings. Basically preserving these settings just makes it so your desktop picture is still there, your internet settings are still there, your dock is in the same place, etc. Each time you run this process you will get a new archive and they will be labelled /Previous Systems/Previous System 1/ or 2 or 3 or whichever archive install you are on. To get the stuff in the archive look at these instructions:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107297
Most of your stuff will be in /Users/
yourusername. You will have to reinstall extra software again. I would start with the X11 programs you want to run first to see if it worked so you don't lose too much time if it didn't.
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If you want to do a *clean install*, the first thing you want to do is save your previous data. Here lies an issue. *+_TAKE NOTE!!!_+* There seems to be a bug in Leopard, a real one.
http://www.macintouch.com/leopard/movebug.html
It has been filed but you need to be careful. When copying a file to an external drive, if the copy doesn't work (lost connection for example), leopard 'may' erase the original copy. I had no problems, but I didn't know this happened until I already did it. I would be much more careful now. Anyway, to do this the steps are pretty nasty as far as preserving things like emails and bookmarks, and such....
1) Save all of you documents/pictures/music/movies/downloads/sites to the external drive. If you are on Tiger, just drag and drop to your external drive. If you are on leopard, because of the bug, you MUST, repeat MUST, HOLD DOWN THE APPLE KEY while dragging from one place to the next. This will force Leopard to use the "mv" command rather than the "cp" command. It will
move the files to the external drive.
2) Now there are other settings and documents (most notably all your mail, and mail downloads) in /Users/yourname/Library. If you have the room, just take the whole folder. I might duplicate and then move, as the computer may not let you move these files. Just select the folder Library, and choose File>Duplicate, or apple-D. It will create a new folder called Library copy and you can move this folder. That gets all your mail, your mail downloads, your bookmarks, you preferences, and so on.
your mail is in /Users/yourname/Library/Mail
your mail downloads in /Users/yourname/Library/Mail Downloads
your safari bookmarks in /Users/yourname/Library/Safari
and so on.
3) When you are confident you have everything you want, you can do an install, but this time when you get to the point when you can click the 'options' button, choose 'erase and install' for a brand spanking new OS. Keep in mind, there is no return from this step. You will lose everything on the drive that is not backed up.
4) When the install is complete, set up your new computer. I would start by coping my mail and bookmarks back to the appropriate location from the external drive. Then start these applications. You should see your mail and bookmarks come right up, although there may be some reindexing. It shouldn't be too bad though. Then go right for the X11.app. It should work absolutely fine at this point.
If you have trouble with these instructions, tell me what is confusing and I will try to help.
-mike
