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NotAgain!

Q: Desktop folder has become a "package"

Hello:

I have three concurrent problems on a MacBook Pro < 3 months old, which I think I can trace to an "Arrange by" command in the Finder when I had an external (back-up) hard drive connected. I was running Aperture at the time.

First: I cannot access the Desktop folder from the Finder sidebar. I get this message: There is no default application specified to open the document “Desktop”. There is no arrow beside the Desktop folder in the sidebar to allow it to toggle open. Apparently, the Desktop folder has become a "package." If I show the package contents, everything that should be there is there. How do I turn this package back into a normal Desktop folder? I have searched the discussion forums and have run the various Terminal scripts suggested, and have trashed Finder and sidebar .plists and relaunched the Finder, to no avail.

Second: This is probably related to the first problem. When I click on the Desktop, the New Folder command in the Finder is dimmed. I can create a new folder when I access the Finder through the sidebar, but then I cannot drag that folder to the Desktop itself. I get the "no smoking" symbol when I drag over the Desktop. I can, however, drag such a folder to the Trash.

Third: This one really baffles me. My HD on the MacBook Pro has become an amalgamation of that computer and a back-up of my iBook G4 that was on the external hard drive. The MacBook Pro HD includes System 9 stuff that won't even run on the newer computer. I know that I did not physically drag the older computer's back-up onto the newer one's HD icon. I have no idea how this happened – maybe it was during that "Arrange by" command? - but perhaps it is contributing to the other two points, noted above.

I would appreciate any suggested solutions. At the moment I am saving all my work to an external drive in case more folders become inaccessible. Thanks!

MacBook Pro, 2.8 GHz, Mac OS X (10.6.2), iBook G4, 933 MHz, OS 10.4.11

Posted on Dec 21, 2009 9:00 PM

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Q: Desktop folder has become a "package"

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  • by NotAgain!,

    NotAgain! NotAgain! Dec 21, 2009 10:17 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 10:17 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Hi Dave:

    I ran that script with the following result:

    -ls: ~/Desktop: No such file or directory

    [Process completed]
  • by dbsneddon,

    dbsneddon dbsneddon Dec 21, 2009 10:21 PM in response to NotAgain!
    Level 4 (1,525 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 10:21 PM in response to NotAgain!
    Which is telling you that "Desktop" is not where it should be.
    Did you call the new one "Desktop" or "desktop" or something else?
    Try the following
    ls -ale@ ~/


    Dave
  • by NotAgain!,

    NotAgain! NotAgain! Dec 21, 2009 10:27 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 10:27 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Hi Dave:

    Here is what displayed after the script:

    -ls: ~/Desktop: No such file or directory

    [Process completed]


    Graeme
  • by dbsneddon,

    dbsneddon dbsneddon Dec 21, 2009 10:30 PM in response to NotAgain!
    Level 4 (1,525 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 10:30 PM in response to NotAgain!
    Use the following command, just cut and paste into Terminal

    ls -ale@ ~/


    Note there is no mention of desktop in the command.
    I am trying to determine where the Desktop folder has gone.
    Also, the output you are posting back does not look correct.
    Are you editing the output? If so, please don't. If you don't
    wish to post the output to the forum, my email address is in
    my profile.

    Dave
  • by NotAgain!,

    NotAgain! NotAgain! Dec 21, 2009 10:43 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 10:43 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Hi Dave:

    Thanks. This is the output in the terminal window after I ran that script:

    Graeme-Poles-MacBook-Pro:~ graemepole$


    Graeme
  • by dbsneddon,

    dbsneddon dbsneddon Dec 21, 2009 10:53 PM in response to NotAgain!
    Level 4 (1,525 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 10:53 PM in response to NotAgain!
    If I do that command I get about 80 lines of output. It should give
    you a complete listing of the contents of your Home folder.
    If you are saying that you get no output then there is something
    else happening here.
    Back to my earlier question, did you call the new folder "Desktop"
    or "desktop"?

    Dave
  • by dbsneddon,

    dbsneddon dbsneddon Dec 21, 2009 10:56 PM in response to NotAgain!
    Level 4 (1,525 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 10:56 PM in response to NotAgain!
    How are you invoking Terminal?
    You should start the Terminal app from /Applications/Utilities and
    it should present you with a window into which you can type/paste
    commands.

    Dave
  • by NotAgain!,

    NotAgain! NotAgain! Dec 21, 2009 11:05 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 11:05 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Hi Dave:

    Thanks for staying with this. The folder is named Desktop.

    I wasn't using Terminal properly. Here is the output for your latest script.

    Graeme


    Last login: Mon Dec 21 23:00:59 on ttys000
    Graeme-Poles-MacBook-Pro:~ graemepole$ ls -ale@ ~/
    total 64
    drwxr-xr-x+ 17 graemepole staff 578 21 Dec 21:12 .
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwxr-xr-x 6 root admin 204 24 Oct 12:35 ..
    -rw------- 1 graemepole staff 3 15 Oct 22:14 .CFUserTextEncoding
    -rw-r--r--@ 1 graemepole staff 21508 21 Dec 22:04 .DS_Store
    com.apple.FinderInfo 32
    drwx------ 244 graemepole staff 8296 21 Dec 21:12 .Trash
    -rw------- 1 graemepole staff 1146 21 Dec 23:01 .bash_history
    drwx------ 3 graemepole staff 102 27 Nov 13:41 .cups
    -rw-r--r-- 1 graemepole staff 98 6 Dec 22:03 .vuescanrc
    drwxr-xr-x 44 graemepole staff 1496 21 Dec 21:12 Desktop
    drwx------+ 11 graemepole staff 374 17 Dec 11:30 Documents
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+ 102 graemepole staff 3468 18 Dec 09:15 Downloads
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+ 34 graemepole staff 1156 30 Nov 23:16 Library
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+ 5 graemepole staff 170 5 Dec 14:58 Movies
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+ 6 graemepole staff 204 25 Oct 20:12 Music
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwx------+ 13 graemepole staff 442 18 Dec 00:06 Pictures
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwxr-xr-x+ 5 graemepole staff 170 15 Oct 22:14 Public
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    drwxr-xr-x+ 5 graemepole staff 170 15 Oct 22:14 Sites
    0: group:everyone deny delete
    Graeme-Poles-MacBook-Pro:~ graemepole$
  • by dbsneddon,

    dbsneddon dbsneddon Dec 21, 2009 11:11 PM in response to NotAgain!
    Level 4 (1,525 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 11:11 PM in response to NotAgain!
    What I am going to do now is rename the Desktop folder, have you
    logout then login again, which should create a new one with correct
    attributes. If that works we will move the contents of the renamed
    one into the new one.
    Paste the following into a Terminal session
    mv ~/Desktop ~/Desktop2

    Then logout and login again.
    In a Terminal session try the following
    ls -ale@d ~/Desktop

    and post back the results.

    Dave
  • by NotAgain!,

    NotAgain! NotAgain! Dec 21, 2009 11:16 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 11:16 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Hi Dave:

    Here is the result after following your instructions with the two scripts:

    Last login: Mon Dec 21 23:13:59 on console
    Graeme-Poles-MacBook-Pro:~ graemepole$ ls -ale@d ~/Desktop
    ls: /Users/graemepole/Desktop: No such file or directory
    Graeme-Poles-MacBook-Pro:~ graemepole$


    Graeme
  • by dbsneddon,

    dbsneddon dbsneddon Dec 21, 2009 11:25 PM in response to NotAgain!
    Level 4 (1,525 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 11:25 PM in response to NotAgain!
    One last attempt
    mv ~/Desktop2 ~/Desktop
    chmod 700 ~/Desktop


    Logout and login again. Does it look any different.
    I am about to head home so will not be back to this topic
    for a few hours, maybe V.K. will jump in again.

    Dave
  • by NotAgain!,

    NotAgain! NotAgain! Dec 21, 2009 11:29 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 21, 2009 11:29 PM in response to dbsneddon
    Hi Dave:

    Nothing looks different. The New Folder command is still dimmed. Like me. I am going to call it a night, too. Thanks for your help so far. I will check in again tomorrow.

    Graeme
  • by dbsneddon,Helpful

    dbsneddon dbsneddon Dec 22, 2009 2:26 AM in response to NotAgain!
    Level 4 (1,525 points)
    Dec 22, 2009 2:26 AM in response to NotAgain!
    I assume that the old desktop is still in the Trash? If so, empty the Trash
    then logout and login again...

    Dave
  • by NotAgain!,

    NotAgain! NotAgain! Dec 22, 2009 7:11 AM in response to dbsneddon
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Dec 22, 2009 7:11 AM in response to dbsneddon
    Hi Dave:

    After shutting down the computer for a few hours and then restarting, I am happy to report that I have a working Desktop folder, a working Desktop, and a working Finder sidebar. Dragging and dropping folders works, as does the New Folder command in the Finder. This is without having emptied the Trash. Do you have any idea what causes a folder to become a package? This has happened twice now (once with the iPhoto app), without me knowingly having done anything.

    Thanks so much for your help. This has fixed the first two aspects of my posting. I will mark it as "answered" and try to tinker a fix for the cluttered hard drive. Take care.

    Graeme
  • by V.K.,

    V.K. V.K. Dec 22, 2009 8:15 AM in response to NotAgain!
    Level 9 (56,110 points)
    Dec 22, 2009 8:15 AM in response to NotAgain!
    MedicOne wrote:
    Hi Dave:

    After shutting down the computer for a few hours and then restarting, I am happy to report that I have a working Desktop folder, a working Desktop, and a working Finder sidebar. Dragging and dropping folders works, as does the New Folder command in the Finder. This is without having emptied the Trash. Do you have any idea what causes a folder to become a package?

    very hard to say and nearly impossible to trace. if it happens use the terminal command I gave you to srtip off the bundle bit.
    This has happened twice now (once with the iPhoto app), without me knowingly having done anything.

    what do you mean about the iphoto app? what exactly became a package? the iphoto library should be a package.

    Thanks so much for your help. This has fixed the first two aspects of my posting. I will mark it as "answered" and try to tinker a fix for the cluttered hard drive. Take care.

    Graeme
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