Hi,
when starting the terminal.app I am getting this:
The terminal startup preferences are:
This happens on a very new MacBook Pro, Mavericks 10.9.5 from the very first use of Terminal.app. I am in dire need of using Terminal in order to set up and configure some very specific apps.
Can anyone help?
Thanks
MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5), purchased 2015-March
Chances are this is coming from a shell initialization script
Terminal -> Shell -> New Command
/bin/ls -l .bash_profile .bash_login .profile .bashrc
By default none of these file exist, so you are likely to get some "File Not Found" messages, however, for the ones that do exist, one of them is most likely issuing the error you are seeing.
You can analyze the contents to see if you can identify what is wrong. You can execute the found initialization files to see which one issue the error
Terminal -> Shell -> New Command
/bin/bash -x .name_of_found_script
You can fix or delete the broken shell initialization script depending on how much you need what is in the script.
You can post the offending shell initialization script here, and maybe someone will be able to identify what is wrong with it.
Terminal -> Shell -> New Command
/bin/cat .name_of_found_script
If you do not find any of these files, then that is useful information in trying to figure out what is happening
Hi Bob,
many thanks for your swift reply. I have tried your first suggestion and this is the result:
Terminal.app appears to not work at all. I then tried your second suggestion with the first file name of the first suggestion and I got a similar screen output (not shown).
Would it be reasonable to try to copy terminal.app from my old MacBook Pro, OS X 10.5.8 (Leopard) to the Maverick system, are they compatible?
It may not be Terminal. It may be one of the Unix utilities, such as /usr/bin/login, since the error is "login(...) malloc:.."
When I start a Terminal session, I have the following children processes
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Contents/MacOS/Terminal
login -pf myUserName
/bin/bash -l
So Terminal is going to invoke /usr/bin/login, and then 'login' is going to invoke bash.
You could also try a 3rd party terminal emulator such as iTerm2
If iTerm2 or a copy of Terminal from another source gives essentially the same error, then it is not the Terminal emulator, but another program being run, most likely /usr/bin/login.
If it is /usr/bin/login, that is not good. I would suggest re-installing Mac OS X over top of the current installation (BACKUP 1st - Twice!).
You are dead right! It is LOGIN as it shows here (iTerm2 screenshot):
But now, according to your suggestions, I have a REAL problem. The shop where I bought the MBP installed the Mavericks on to it. I don't know if they installed it OVER the existing Yosemite or if they reformatted the hard disk and then installed it onto a clean hard disk. However, I don't have a disk image of Mavericks. Is there any way to get one?
BTW, I find it is a real step back of Apple, not to deliver an OS DVD any more with a Mac as they did in the past (very past...)!
Take it back to the shop where you got it. Maybe they can reinstall Mavericks for you (and verify that you can use a Terminal session).
Or take it to an Apple Store (after making a Genius Bar appointment). They should be able to re-install Mavericks for you.
As for no DVD, Apple made that decision back in the Lion days (10.7 - July, 2011 - 3 and a half years ago).
Considering the extent of Internet broadband access these days, and that many of their products do not have DVD, it makes sense going forward. And the not having a DVD is not just Macs, the iPhones, the iPads, the iPod line, plus the ultra thin, light weight laptops. Plus fewer and fewer people were even using the DVD drives they have. I have not put a DVD or CD into one of my systems in ages. I even replaced one in my iMac with an SSD drive.
And I'll just throw in, that people complained about the original iMac not including a floppy drive. The reality is that it was no longer suitable for the size of typical files such as music, pictures, and video and Apple just happened to be the first to see that. Apple built a phone without a keyboard, and everyone said they were crazy and it would not sell without a keyboard. Now the vast majority of smart phones do not have a keyboard and Apple is the largest company in the world. Apple took the telephone modem out of their laptops and put in WiFi. Apple has just released a Mac with a single port (it does a lot with that single port, but it is still a change in what used to be included with a laptop).
The point is that Apple is not afraid to throw away old tech and move forward. Other companies spend a lot of time and effort supporting old technologies at a cost.
This trend will happen again and again. That is the reality of buying Apple products.
Thanks for your efforts, Bob. I hope that the local Apple Shop here where I live (Barbados) can help me. The MacBook I have bought in Germany, so its not that easy to "take it back to the shop where I bought it".
I am not of the same view as you are about Apple, they are more and more becoming like Microsoft... The quality of their products is degrading, too many new things and no time for thoroughly testing. I was really happy with my first MacBook and it served me very well. I turned into a full fledged web server including MySQL. That allowed me to test all my self developed websites while being off-line. Now I can't do that any longer, because with their "going forward" they dropped "Web Sharing" from the "Sharing" preferences page. That will be my next issue to discuss in another thread, same goes for "going forward" with no iSync services... (Don't even think about advising me about iCloud and synching devices the way Apple or Google wants it to be done... that is an absolute NO-NO!)
I am not sure yet if I will ever by an Apple product again, but the alternatives are even worse.
Thanks again Bob. Bye.
The MacBook I have bought in Germany, so its not that easy to "take it back to the shop where I bought it".
Road Trip đ
Now I can't do that any longer, because with their "going forward" they dropped "Web Sharing" from the "Sharing" preferences page
Just get the Mac OS X server. Since the Major OS is free, the incremental price for the Server software is no more than the last price they charged for the OS itself.
I am not sure yet if I will ever by an Apple product again, but the alternatives are even worse.
That is a decision everyone gets to make for themselves.
terminal.app
