Pith Helmet Error Without the Pith Helmet

Question

Level 1

29 points

Pith Helmet Error Without the Pith Helmet

Some time ago I uninstalled the addon Pith Helmet using CleanApp, and it now appears nowhere on my hard drive, including the Home/Library/Internet directories indicated in the Knowledge Base. Nevertheless, I get a persistent error message whenever I open Safari 5, advising me that because the release has not tested PH, it has been disabled. Not only had it been disabled, I no longer have a home page, only a blank page. I am using Firefox or Chrome as my browser now, but there are times when I want to use Safari and this message just bugs me. Suggestions?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.4), running Safari, Firefox and Chrome

Posted on Jul 6, 2010 1:22 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 6, 2010 1:24 PM in response to JustJoan R.

Hi,

Could just be a corrupted Safari .plist file.

Go to the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari/Preferences. Make note of all the preferences under each tab. Quit Safari. Now go to ~/Library/Preferences and move this file com.apple.safari.plist to the Desktop.

Relaunch Safari and see if that makes a difference. If not, move the .plist file back to the Preferences folder. If Safari functions as it should, move that .plist file to the Trash.

If that doesn't help, go to ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari and move the "cache.db" file to the Trash.

Relaunch Safari.

Carolyn 🙂

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Answer 2

JustJoan R. Author

Level 1

29 points

Jul 6, 2010 1:48 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Carolyn, thanks so much for the quick response. I don't see the dreaded error message now that I moved the plist entry to the desktop, so I am discarding it as directed. I still do not have my home page back, but I'll take what I can get.
Joan

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Answer 3

Jul 6, 2010 1:58 PM in response to JustJoan R.

HI,

Still don't have your homepage back...

From the Safari Menu Bar click Safari/Preferences then select the General tab.

Where you see: Home page: make sure you have the correct web address there.

🙂

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Answer 4

JustJoan R. Author

Level 1

29 points

Jul 6, 2010 2:11 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

I spoke too soon. The Pith Helmet error message is back -- it came back as soon as I cleared the cache and exited the program. And I deleted both files as you suggested. As for the home page, it is indeed there under Preferences/General. Doesn't make a difference. At this point I'm just going to keep deleting the error message and learn to live with Firefox as my default. Not a real hardship, but I have an iPad and like to keep them synced.

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Answer 5

Jul 6, 2010 2:20 PM in response to JustJoan R.

HI,

Try logging in to another user account on your Mac, launch Safari and see if the same thing happens there. If not, then the problem is at least isolated to your user account.

If it's just your user account, follow the paths here to make sure you don't have any leftover PH files.

Go to: /Library/InputManagers. Move the SIMBL file to the Trash.

Go to: /Library/Application Support and move these files to the Trash. SIMBL/Plugins/PithHelmet.bundle

Go to: (Your home folder) ~/Library/Application Support and move these files o to the Trash. PithHelmet/PithHelmet.log - logs all blocked urls if logging is enabled

Go to: (Your home folder) ~/Library/Application Support and move these files to the Trash. PithHelmet/com.apple.Safari/PHRuleSet.ka -

Relaunch Safari.

🙂

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Answer 6

JustJoan R. Author

Level 1

29 points

Jul 6, 2010 2:27 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Nope. None of that works, and as I said before, there are no, zero, Pith Helmet files on my Mac. They were all deleted months ago using CleanApp, and since then I have scoured all the Library and ~Library files, following the Knowledge Base directions. It's frustrating and at this point I'm inclined simply to let it go. Life is too short and I've spent too much time on it today. But thank you for your help, I do appreciate it.

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Answer 7

Jul 6, 2010 2:32 PM in response to JustJoan R.

Ok... sorry. Life is too short ...

So true.

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