How to "Bless" system folder

There is no such thing as "blessing" a system folder in OS X. That was something done in Mac OS. Your problem suggests that one or more of the operating system files needed during startup is corrupted either because the files are corrupted or there's a problem with the directory or the hard drive.

What you can try is to repair the hard drive. However, that will not repair damaged files, only a damaged directory. So there is no assurance it will fix the problem. You say you cannot Archive and Install, but you don't say why.

To repair the drive do the following:

Boot from your OS X Installer. Be sure to use the installer for the version of OS X you have installed. After the installer loads select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (or Utilities menu if using Tiger.) After DU loads select your OS X volume from the list on the left, click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer. Now shutdown the computer for a couple of minutes and then restart normally.

If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior (3.0.3 for Tiger) and/or TechTool Pro (4.1.1 for Tiger) to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.

If this doesn't repair the problem, then either you do an Erase and Install or an Archive and Install. The latter would be preferable if you didn't want to erase the drive. However, unless the drive has been verified as OK an Archive and Install will likely fail.

"There is no such thing as "blessing" a system folder in OS X."

Not entirely true Kappy: http://www.hmug.org/man/8/bless.php

Our ACTC demo'd this command a couple weeks ago as a way to recover from the "circle-slash" icon that can appear at startup when the Open Firmware startup in BootROM can't detect the BootX file.

To bless a volume with only Mac OS X or Darwin, and create the BootX
file:

bless --folder "/Volumes/Mac OS X/System/Library/CoreServices"
--bootinfo "/Volumes/Mac OS X/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.bootinfo"

Well, learn something new every day.

Although technically what you describe isn't really "blessing a system folder."

I'm not real sure about your message formatting whether the terminal command is a one-liner or if there are two commands. The second line starts out with two hypens suggesting it's really part of a one line command. On the other hand you bolded the "bless" command. I'd appreciate clarification before I recommend this to others.

I just copied the command text from the website I referenced, and added the bold type to match theirs.

http://www.hmug.org/man/8/bless.php

It's near the bottom in the "Examples" section.

Thanks for the link to the man page. I guess the word "bless" is a generic term for setting BootX in *nix systems as well as for the old Mac OS. Obviously this is the underlying command used by Startup Disk (and I assume it's used for OPTION booting as well.)

Again, thanks, Templeton.

bless --folder "/Volumes/Mac OS X/System/Library/CoreServices"
--bootinfo "/Volumes/Mac OS X/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.bootinfo"

Well, bless my holey socks!



-mj
macjack@gmail.com

Kevin:

It sounds to me like you need to do an erase and install. First create a clone of your hard drive on a firewire external (I recommend SuperDuper! for that but Carbon Copy Cloner is free), then run erase and install from the Tiger install disk. When you start up a window will come up, I forget exactly how it looks but at some point you will get the option to use Migration Assistant which will transfer over all your files, settings and applications. Be patient, it takes a while, and be sure and run Repair Permissions after it's all over, then download the latest full update to Tiger 10.4.4 and Repair Permissions again at the end.

I've found this will fix pretty much any problem other than a hardware one and give you a fresh, clean and very zippy system, but one complete with all your apps and stuff.

If the same problem happens again then it's likely you DO have a hardware problem.