"Rosetta" applications suddenly stopped working

NuLynx wrote:

the conclusion of most of the threads I've followed on anything relating to Rosetta is "change or upgrade your software and move on."

This may be the ultimate solution, but, as long as you stay with SL, there's no reason to see it as the only solution. There must be some way to solve this.

when it comes to the case of Rosetta and PPC apps, things aren't so cut and dried. I've found nothing anywhere that says "remove rosetta .plist file" (by any other name), and that should fix it.

No, there is no such preference. However, as the problem is limited to one user account, the problem must be in that user's domain. If you absolutely must make sure, you can check if Rosetta is enabled with

$ sysctl kern.exec.archhandler.powerpc

but, to my knowledge, this is a system (not user) setting, so it should return the correct path anyway. I am baffled, though, as to what setting might be causing this. My first suspect would be the LaunchServices plist and the LaunchServices database, including its cache (simply because I can't think of anything else); that's why I asked if you tried rebuilding it. It's a bit tricky in SL. Maybe AppleJack does it, I don't know; I think Onyx does it. When you figure it out, it would interesting to know where the problem was, exactly.

SWWW wrote:

Microsoft Office 2004 has quit working altogether

Try a non-MS Office PPC app to make sure it's the same problem as the OP's.

Onyx will do it. But it can be done from Terminal.

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchSe rvices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain use

Hit return and wait for the $ sign prompt to reappear, which will indicate it's finished.

Quit Terminal then log out and in or restart

It's been cut here by the formatting, but it's all on one line. So copy & paste without any breaks.

Note: don't know why, but when posted "LaunchServices" keeps appearing with a space between the e and the r of Services. This must be fixed before using.

Message was edited by: WZZZ

Applejack will do a Permissions repair -- though I don't think this is a Permissions issue -- and verify and repair the drive as part of its routine when running from "applejack AUTO." BTW, even in AUTO you can skip steps if you like. You may not need to clear caches for the overall system. The important thing is to have it check preferences and clear caches for your user. For that, type in 'appejack."

Brad, first, you don't want to run Permissions repair booted from the DVD. This will produce errors based on the Permissions database for the version on the disc, which will be out of date. You should go back and repair Permissions from the normal boot volume, long since updated and modified, as you will now have introduced real errors, where probably there were none. As for the messages you have seen and will be seeing, especially for Java, we all get these repeated each time we repair Permissions (which should only be when there is a specific need to do that.) They can be ignored. What is important is if you get the message at the end, "Permissions repair complete." For example, here's what I get:

As for running the Rebuild command, I don't know what the reply you got means. (I've used that command recently on my own system and it ran without problem.) But did you paste that in with the space between the e and the r in "Services?" The command line is unforgiving of typos. If so, to correct that I would copy the command to TextEdit, where the mouse works and you can insert the mouse cursor -- no mouse in Terminal -- and make that correction there preserving everything else exactly. Then copy/paste it into Terminal and run the command again.

You did run AJ, steps 3 & 4, for your user, right?

It might come to migrating your user into a new, clean one. But that will not necessariy be without difficulty, since you don't want to reintroduce the same problem.

I suppose prefixing the command with sudo to run as root with a trailing space wouldn't do any harm. Rebuilding the Launch Services database is probably a long shot. But, in any case, you do have a backup I hope. Here's an article on moving to a new user, which you might want to have a look at. Again, don't do this without a backup.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20016747-263.html

NuLynx wrote:

Hey X423424X

I tried what you suggested right when I got into work.

Here are a few examples of what I get in Terminal.

It looks like I'm getting the same message for other apps I try, too.

Leopard:~ Panther$ /Applications/Disc\ Cat/DiskCatalog

-bash: /Applications/Disc Cat/DiskCatalog: cannot execute binary file

Leopard:~ Panther$ /Applications/Fetch\ 4.0.3\ Folder/Fetch\ 4.0.3

-bash: /Applications/Fetch 4.0.3 Folder/Fetch 4.0.3: cannot execute binary file

You didn't try doing the file command. I was particularly interested in what it would report.

Also I'd like to see if there is a Contents/MacOS directory in these apps. In other words, use the second technique I mentioned earlier:

/path/to/app/Contents/MacOS/appname

file /path/to/app/Contents/MacOS/appname

If what you tried is any indication then those apps are not executable files. You said that some of that stuff goes back 8 or 9 years. Back then there was an additional form of executable called a PEF file (Code Fragment Manager file, i.e., CFM). Perhaps that is what these are. But the only reason I haven't mentioned that is that if these were truly CFM files you would see a circle with a bar through it if you look at those app's icons in finder icon view. You didn't say wether that was the case. On the other hand "cannot execute binary file" is consistent with them being CFM executables.

Try it this way

/Applications/Utilities/Smasher.app/Contents/MacOS/Smasher

It's right (control) clicking, not option clicking, to show the Package Contents.

But, I entered (and got):

Leopard:~ Panther$ file/Applications/Utilities/Smasher/Smasher.app/Contents/MacOS/Smasher

-bash: file/Applications/Utilities/Smasher/Smasher.app/Contents/MacOS/Smasher: No such file or directory

If you can tell me what I have wrong with my string, I can try again.

In both those commands it looks like you forgot the space following file.

As to Disc Catalog and Fetch 4.0, when I tried the "open" string, i.e.:

/Applications/Utilities/Smasher/Smasher.app/Contents/MacOS/DiskCatalog

I got the no such file or directory.

Option clicking on either application, there is no Show Package Contents, and so there's no subfolder "MacOS" with the app inside.

Ahh, so you know how to do that, good. I didn't want to explain about opening bundles which is why I was giving instructions on using app/Contents/MacOS pathnames. It was also why I was "covering my bets" by telling you to attempt using both kinds of pathnames, i.e., open of the app bundle itself and direct access to the actual code file in MacOS.

But what all of this is telling me is that these apps are indeed old CFM (PEF) executables since they don't have the normal application executable bundle format (Contents, Info.plist, Resources, etc.).