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NuLynx Author

Level 1

0 points

"Rosetta" applications suddenly stopped working

I've got a problem with my computer at work. It's running Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I've got a number of older apps, including Quark 6, Epson scanner software, Disc Catalog, etc, that have all been working fine for the last number of years. As of yesterday afternoon, I was still scanning with the Epson software and everything was running fine. When I came in to work this morning and fired up the computer, NONE of my pre-Snow Leopard apps work.

At first, when a few of my apps didn't work, I suspected a font issue, because at the end of the previous day, I was working on a "problem job" that had conflicts with my basic system fonts. But, as the hours passed, I began to realize none of my older apps worked. At that point, I started to suspect a problem with Rosetta.

Hours and hours of searching, both here and across the internet came up with nothing. A few sites gave step by step instructions to drop into terminal to reset bindings, delete preferences, etc. Nothing worked.

Most of the older apps I NEED for our company. Many of those don't have upgrades available, and some are just too expensive to justify.

After almost an entire day of getting nowhere, I decided to set up another "user" called Troubleshooting. Lo-and-behold, all of the apps worked fine. So, that ruled out a problem with the Rosetta interface, and the suspeced Security update in the recent past that was said to cause problems with the whole Rosetta interface.

So, my question is, since only my original Administrator User is not functioning properly, is there possilby a preference .plist file that could be causing the problem? Could there still be a font issue? Is there anything I can do in Terminal to reset to a default?

I wasted an entire day banging my head on the desk trying to wrap my brain around it. Repairing permissions, disc check, etc. did nothing to help the issue.

I COULD get around the problem by logging into my "Troubleshooting" user to use the apps...but that's beside the point. I COULD do that, but I really want to figure out what's going on with my main User workspace.

So, before I need to come into work on Monday and spend another whole day not knowing what to do, can anyone offer any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Brad

PowerMac, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Mar 23, 2012 6:37 PM

128 replies

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Mar 26, 2012 7:34 PM in response to NuLynx

This thread has been going on long enough I completely forgot about the "works in other accounts" fact. But I cannot (won't) believe the apps you been sampling here, that are not executable bundles are executable even in another account.

You can always check if they are app bundles by seeing if they have the usual executable bundle contents (at least info.plist and Contents/MacOS). For those that do, but still crash, then I would assume it is a preference (plist) file associated with those respective apps.

I don't remember if this was asked, but do have any login items or ~/Library/LaunchAgents? Maybe there's some interaction with one of those (or have you tried a safe boot already and it still failed, in wich case, it's back to plist suspects).

Mar 27, 2012 7:22 AM in response to X423424X

I spent a number of hours on the phone with Apple recently.

I waited to apply the Snow Leopard security update until the revised version appeared. All was well for a few weeks, then suddenly no PPC application would open.

They will all open in a new test user account.

The applications in question do have executable bundles. From staring at all the applications on the main drive in System Profiler and ArchDetect, AppleWorks seemed to be the only one with problematic content.

Eliminating the entire user library on the main account didn't cause a single PPC application to open.

A number of other steps suggested here, such as booting in safe mode, made no difference either.

All of this generated a lot of logs for review and perhaps there will be a solution.

NuLynx Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2012 7:44 AM in response to X423424X

X423424X wrote:

This thread has been going on long enough I completely forgot about the "works in other accounts" fact. But I cannot (won't) believe the apps you been sampling here, that are not executable bundles are executable even in another account.

Not sure what to tell you, but they do work. We use them every day. In fact, the DiscCatalog is used by every person in our art department, and all except one of us are using Snow Leopard. Here's me using it with my new user, even as I'm typing this reply.

I don't remember if this was asked, but do have any login items or ~/Library/LaunchAgents? Maybe there's some interaction with one of those (or have you tried a safe boot already and it still failed, in wich case, it's back to plist suspects).

I disabled my third part login items on Friday trying to troubleshoot. I also did 4 safe boots for various reasons, but nothing changed.

So far, I've found 23 apps that won't launch. Five of them are just like DiscCatalog. No packaged contents.

And, so far, I'm still stumped.

Brad

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Mar 27, 2012 10:58 AM in response to NuLynx

In fact, the DiscCatalog is used by every person in our art department, and all except one of us are using Snow Leopard.

Can you compress and upload DiscCatalog to one of the media sharing sites like mediafire, rapidshare, pick your favorite? I would like to see why it would execute.

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,184 points

Mar 27, 2012 11:57 AM in response to NuLynx

Have you tried my suggestion of moving (at least temporarily) most of Apple's preference files out of your account yet?

NuLynx Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2012 12:15 PM in response to Kurt Lang

Yup. I moved most ALL of the preferences out...except for a few listed earlier. No luck.

Now, I do know there are a few invisible files, in the Prefs folder, but don't know what most of them are. I did try to remove the invisible "global preferences" .plist...

Didn't change anything.

NuLynx Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2012 12:17 PM in response to X423424X

Hey X423424X,

https://rapidshare.com/files/3415711831/DiskCatalog_Mac.sit

Original .sit file from 2003.

Kurt Lang

Level 9

62,184 points

Mar 27, 2012 12:25 PM in response to NuLynx

Hmm, that seems to at least show the preferences aren't the issue. Must be something to do with your account though since a test account works.

It doesn't happen very often, but an account itself can get damaged. I had that happen once, and the only fix was to copy the entire contents of my account to a flash drive, create a new account, login to that, and then copy everything back in. That included all preference files and everything else. There were no default files left from the new account, and yet my new account then worked.

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Mar 27, 2012 1:22 PM in response to NuLynx

NuLynx wrote:

Hey X423424X,

https://rapidshare.com/files/3415711831/DiskCatalog_Mac.sit

Original .sit file from 2003.

Got it. Thanks.

Hmm, it is a PEF executable. I guess they still work on Snow Leopard after all. I launched it with no errors (heh, Haxial, I remember them😀) on my 10.6.5 Snow Leopard. Note, DiskCatalog creates a file DiskCatalog.stg in the same directory as the app so make sure that you can write to that directory.

So this is an example of one that is not working on your machine in your account?

Just to check something again. Please do a file command on DiskCatalog in the terminal:

file /path/to/DiskCatalog

You should get a message saying it is a "header for PowerPC PEF executable".

Incidentally, for DiskCatalog at least, no preferences are created for it. So it cannot be something directly related to that specific app if it isn't working in your account.

NuLynx Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2012 2:17 PM in response to X423424X

Leopard:~ Panther$ file /Applications/DiscCat/DiskCatalog

/Applications/DiscCat/DiskCatalog: header for PowerPC PEF executable

Leopard:~ Panther$

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Mar 27, 2012 3:59 PM in response to NuLynx

Another terminal command line. What does this report, if anything:

LaunchCFMApp /Applications/DiscCat/DiskCatalog

And if it says it cannot find LaunchCFMApp then do the following (this is one line):

/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Support/LaunchCFMApp /Applications/DiscCat/DiskCatalog

NuLynx Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2012 4:19 PM in response to X423424X

Will do.

I'll check it out...but it will have to wait until morning again. I'm home for the evening.

I didn't answer a previous question of yours where you asked if it was an example of one of the apps not working.

Yes, it's actually the first one I launched Friday morning that tipped me off about something being wrong.

Brad

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Mar 27, 2012 4:30 PM in response to NuLynx

Ok, no hurry. At the moment I am hard pressed to understand what might be user account specific when launching that CFM app. I did a fs_usage (file system trace) across a launch of DiskCatalog on my system and don't see it accessing any account data. I'm hoping that when you use LauncCFMApp directly on your terminal some error message may shed some light on the problem.

A thought crossed my mind that perhaps it is a corrupt cache and I might suggest clearing it if it weren't for the fact that I would think that a cache file hit would have shown up in the fs_usage too.

NuLynx Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 27, 2012 5:12 PM in response to X423424X

Not accessing any account data...that's interesting. But complicates things, too.

I'll run those commands first thing in the a.m.

Not being a unix type person, in layman's terms, it appears that there's "something" acting like a mini firewall, blocking the whole Rosetta (or whatever) thing from working properly. From the way Smasher was acting, I would almost guess it's on the Finder level, since Terminal could launch it. But, since none of the other apps I tried in Terminal launched, I think it goes deeper than that...but I'm just not getting anywhere.

To further confuse things I did a reinstall of the core system on a different drive, and imported my previous users. The original user profile still wouldn't launch the apps, while my new user still worked like normal.

I guess that totally rules out anything on a core system level. It's definitely something in the user profile/folder that's causing the problem.

Not sure that helps much...it sure doesn't shed any light on my end. Except for the fact that there's SOMETHING in the user settings that's causing the problem.

I see there are a few more people chiming in on this thread about suddenly having the same problem. Even if I have to do a complete reinstall from scratch, I hope we can come to the bottom of it just to get an answer out on the boards.

Brad

X423424X

Level 6

14,271 points

Mar 27, 2012 5:38 PM in response to NuLynx

Maybe you should upload one or two more sample apps (Smasher?) so I have some multiple data points for comparison.

I would almost guess it's on the Finder level, since Terminal could launch it.

Huh? I don't recall you mentioning that before?

"Rosetta" applications suddenly stopped working