Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext - Getting rid of file association?

Hey everyone, new to the OS X operation system -

Long story short: I got curious about reading the little poem Apple developers put in the .kext, and I figured it was the file equivalent to Windows where you would open a '.nfo' file with notepad (or text editor of choice) to view the hidden message inside.

Now being as unlucky and new to how OS X works, my guess was wrong.

Now I guess OS X has put a file association thing, because the icon of the 'Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext' went from the lego brick, to a blue folder icon.

How would I go about putting it back the way it was?

Thanks!

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.9) I only wanted to see the poem for myself ;_;

Posted on Mar 21, 2007 1:33 PM

Reply
10 replies

Mar 21, 2007 1:44 PM in response to It's Jono

Welcome To  Discussions It's Jono!

What exactly did you do, to try to open the Kernel Extention Don't Steal Mac OS X.kext?

Is it's name still the same?

The Poem:

"Your karma check for today:
There once was was a user that whined
his existing OS was so blind,
he'd do better to pirate
an OS that ran great
but found his hardware declined.
Please don't steal Mac OS!
Really, that's way uncool.
(C) Apple Computer, Inc."


ali b

Mar 21, 2007 1:56 PM in response to ali brown

I tried to open the .kext (or as I now know, the said Kernel Extenson 'Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext) with TextEdit.

The file is still the same I assume, it's just the file association by which it's opened has changed.

The icon went from a lego brick, to a blue folder. That's all that happened I believe, i'm just trying to get it to revert back to what it was that way OS X isn't corrupted or something.

Thank you by the way, for such a speedy reply!

Mar 21, 2007 1:56 PM in response to It's Jono

First, select the item and press COMMAND-I to open the Get Info window. Be sure the filename has not been changed (the extension should be .kext). Also check that the permissions are correct:

Owner = system with Read/Write privileges
Group = wheel with Read-Only privieges
Other = Read-Only privileges

Now select any other extension and open a Get Info window on it. Click on the icon in the upper left of the Get Info window then press COMMAND-C to copy. Click on the icon in the changed extension and press COMMAND-V to paste.

This may or may not succeed because of access restrictions. However, as long as the permissions and extension of the file are unchanged (.kext) there should be no impact on your system.




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Mar 21, 2007 2:22 PM in response to It's Jono

You're Welcome It's Jono!

Do as Kappy suggested. But I have an additional question.
Did you open Get Info on the .kext, and change Open With: to TextEdit?
If so, in that same window, are you able to reselect <None>?

In the future, it's probably not a good idea to be messing about with the System folders & files, unless you know exactly what you are doing!

ali b

Mar 21, 2007 2:54 PM in response to It's Jono

You should be OK. Just leave it be. Extensions are all "packages" anyway, and a package is nothing more than a folder of files and folders "packaged" together as though it were a single file. Same with applications. As long as the extension is valid and the permissions are OK the operating system will be fine. Just leave well enough alone.

In the future if you want to look inside a "package" select it and do a CTRL-click or Right-click then select "Show package contents" from the contextual menu. This will open a normal Finder window on the contents of the package folder which you can then navigate through as in any folder. Just don't make any changes to anything. If you open something be sure you don't "Save" it.

Mar 21, 2007 3:00 PM in response to ali brown

ali brown - nothing is in the folder, the system tries to run the file. I believe 'finder' is the equivalent to Windows' 'explorer.exe'

If i'm right, then I guess what might have happened is that i've made the default application to run it open with (despite TextEditor saying that it's the default app) 'Finder', as opposted to what it normally is.

That is why the system displays its icon as a folder (since it's recognized from shell that way) or something to that effect.

When I tried opening the folder, it just totally froze up my system. I had to force quit both Firefox (I reopened it, but it was very sluggish) and then I moved on to force quit Finder. That fixed it, but I rebooted anyway to free up resources.

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Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext - Getting rid of file association?

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