All the sudden my Mac Book is periodically driving me nuts. All the sudden the Web Browser will become completely unresponsive (spinning ball), even though it seems like there should be plenty of processor left.
Update: I was travelling at the time, so one various Wi Fi networks: airport, client office, hotel, etc.
Because I was getting tired of Fire Fox v3 issues, I tried using Sa Fari as my primary browser. I think this more-extreme-than-Fire Fox problem arose after trying that. But switching back to Fire Fox hasn't made the issue go away.
At one point 'mds' was grabbing lots of cycles, but that eventually went away. (I just left the Mac Book open/running for a chunk of time. Maybe Spot Light was trying to index something it found on the network?
May11 update: Today I was noticing 'kernel_task' taking up a fair amount of processor when things dragged.
This thread suggested running Console.app (in the Utilities folder) to get more info.
I found 1 message (in the 'Log Database Queries'), about Div X: 'mach-o, but wrong architecture'.
This thread suggests that some app installed some bad Div X codecs. And says I need to follow the appropriate uninstall process for the naughty app, rather than just crudely deleting codecs. But if you don't know what app caused the problem, how do you figure it out?
Looked in other areas of Console: in 'system.log' found some messages just before the Div X message
- 'disk0s2: I/O error'
'Error loading /Library/Quick Time/Div X Decoder.component/Contents/Mac OS/Div X Decoder: dlopen(/Library/Quick Time/Div X Decoder.component/Contents/Mac OS/Div X Decoder, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:\n /Library/Quick Time/Div X Decoder.component/Contents/Mac OS/Div X Decoder: mach-o, but wrong architecture'
I quit Fire Fox, relaunched. It noted updates available for plugins (YSlow, PDF Download): installed them. Haven't had problem recur yet.
Jun29: have been having problems again.
- check Console.app, found a bunch of 'kernel[0]: disk0s2: I/O error' entries
of course I don't have a fresh Back Up, never got around to hooking up to the Time Capsule. Start manually copying stuff to my tiny USB drive, but keep getting stopped by a few individual file errors, and each time it seems to require rebooting the whole thing, so I stop (of course, will regret that later...).
ran Disk Utility-Verify, it says I have problems, need to boot from install-disk
doh, this would be a good time to have your CD-drive working! Mine has been broken roughly forever.
ah, connected to Ji Hi IMac in Fire Wire-target mode, running Repair from there...
- hmm, didn't seem to ever do anything, just ran for hours without any progress notes. Finally killed it. Suspect it had lost its connection sometime (there was a grayed-out note about "Not mounted"), though it let me run anyway.
- rebooted, tried again. Now it's working.
- Argh: "Invalid sibling link... Could not be repaired."
Jun30
trying the boot-single-user 'fsck -fy' approach. Hmm, 'Invalid node structure... Volume check failed'. Do I try again, do I do it with the '-r'? Do I do 'fsck_hfs'?
just repeated. This time got 'Invalid key length (4, 33872)' failure, ending with 'EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8'
- tried 3rd time: same results as 2nd time.
- tried 4th time: same results.
- tried 'fsck -fry': got 'illegal option - r' - maybe that 'r' only applies when doing the 'fsck_hfs'?
typed 'reboot', held Shift for Safe Mode as it came up. Hmm, had the Apple icon for a bit, then a progress indicator down below, then it suddenly shut down.
- tried powering up, no buttons. Same outcome of icon, progress, then shut-down. Yech...
powered up in Single User Mode. Got scrolling text on black screen as usual. Tried 'fsck -fy' again. Got 'Invalid key length' again. Reboot led to power-up failure again. Tried just regular power-up, failed again.
some suggest Disk Warrior. Disk Warrior says it fixes that problem. That would cost $100 (yay, local Digital Society has it at that price). Hmm, can I download to Ji Hi's IMac and run it via Fire Wire target mode? [[http://supportdb.alsoft.com:591/FMPro?-db=alsoftsupport&-format=alsoftsupport-qa.html&-lay=main&-max=15&-recid=67&-token=138&-findall=
|Yes]]
Set up Fire Wire target mode, install/run Disk Warrior. The first time it shows an "unkinown" disk, and says it can't repair it. After quitting and retrying it won't even recognize the disk. Nor does Disk Utility after that. Lordy...
Reboot in Single User Mode, which is does successfully. Do 'fsck -fy' again. Get 'invalid node length' msg. Try again, get 'invalid key length' msg. Try a bunch more times, get one of those msgs each time. Try Fire Wire-target, Disk Warrior and Disk Utility see nothing again.
Jul1
took it to Digital Society
- they called me back later
can't get direct access to drive, so will have to do Data Recovery for $250. Trying to get that done by end-tomorrow
shutting down during boot-up is not drive-related, it's Logic Board-related. Luckily the components replacement is all covered by Apple Care, so that won't cost me anything. But they can't send it out until they finish the Data Recovery process.
I'm working with my ancient IMac for the moment...
Jul02
argh not done with Data Recovery. So it's going to sit in their closed shop for 3 days until someone looks at it Monday morning.
the IMac gets really slow after a bit of Fire Fox use. We'll see how much I can stand it - this might drive me to buy a Net Book.
nah just restarting Fire Fox more often, it's livable
Jul06: recovery, not 100% successful (only got ~50GB out of 118GB), but done; machine going out today
Jul09: wow, machine back from Apple already today. They're going to check it out, move the recovered data over, then I can pick up.
Jul10:
pick it up. Apple replaced Logic Board, Hard Drive, CD/DVD drive, fan, and other stuff besides....
ugh, looks like Data Recovery really missed huge amount of stuff. Very bad. Also note that the short-user-name isn't what I want, so I'm not going to touch the machine until I have a chance to fix that and move along...
Jul13
info on changing the Short User Name. That worked, though it leaves the long username as "William Seitz", but I'll live with that.
- started moving some data around to the correct place. Suspect I'm going to ignore everything recovered in "Library" etc.
decide to get some basic stuff up and running. After a little effort, find pre-3.5 Fire Fox download location. Hmm, but it asks about importing - I probably have to find/move old files to do that...
start downloading Open Office, then realize that Neo Office (ex-Neo Office J) still sounds like a better system for Mac Os X.
download Thunder Bird. Them move over recovered Address Book and local folders. See that these are from Jan'2008. I don't think that actually matters much, as I didn't do much moving of things to local folders.
moved over all the documents I'd worked on during the interim on my old IBook.
there are others I can rescue from EMail attachments
hmm can't seem to import .xlsx and .docx files, which I thought I could on my Mac Book before... (hmm, I wonder if that was version 2.x?)
- importing latest patch (5) to v3.0 - nope that didn't help
it sounds like there are issues with the underlying Open Office code (or Micro Soft's compliance to their bogus OOXML spec - but Google Apps has been able to open those files).
by the way, it sounds like v3 of Open Office has Mac-native (Aqua) interface now, so may Neo Office is less relevant?
Jul14
download Free Mind. Saved lots of docs because the partial-saves were saved in a 'freemind' directory separate from individual doc locations!
back to Open Office/Neo Office
download Open Office - no better success at opening
hmm, I can't seem to open even files I made and saved as '.doc' on my IBook!
- restart - no help
going to check again on IBook, then re-copy. Maybe Flash Drive issue?
confirmed can open a specific file on IBook. Recopy. Still no good.
email to myself via You Send It. This I can open on Mac Book. So Flash Drive smells like the issue...
zip up and send all interim files via You Send It. Success!
imported old ITunes stuff
Jul15: install Text Wrangler, Adium X; empty Trash
Jul16
Private Wiki files from Nokia N810
run Back Up to external card
- argh can't get card physically removed
connect via USB, can copy zip Back Up files from external card
argh can't see anything inside My Docs. Ah, right, have to look inside '.documents' (do 'ls -a')
- hmm, can get to 'wiki' directory, but not finding 'text' subdirectory that includes actual meat!
- ah, need to use 'other.zip' not 'documents.zip'
remember to 'cp -f -p ....' to preserve dates (actually should re-look at options next time, if have actually edited any files on the Mac Book)
time to get a Back Up of this poor machine
connect to Time Capsule with Ether Net
- it takes ~2.5hrs to back up 45GB. Done!
already have Py Thon 2.5.1 - since there's a nice 2.6.2 disk image available, I figure I'll go ahead and do it.
- hmm, after install, just typing 'python' at prompt still gives me 2.5.1. If I launch Idle, it shows me 2.6.2.
- run 'Update Shell Profile.command' but that still doesn't seem to work.
- doh, quit Terminal, relaunch it, now recognizing new version.
have SQLite 3.4.0, current is 3.6.16 - it sounds like there are plenty of changes, and Djan Go documentation seems unconcerned, so going to upgrade.
hmm, have '.bin' files downloaded, but don't know what to do with it! Ah, copied to '/usr/bin/'. (Actually not sure whether I even needed to do this, or if this is correct... did I only download utilities without changing engine?)
install official Djan Go 1.0.2
- test that it's installed (via 'import')
- make '~/documents/djcode/' directory for bits
- make a 'mysite' inside there
not bothering with Mac Personal Svn Server. Install Gi T client.
at 'python pinax-boot.py --development ./pinax-env' get 'Could not call install_name_tool -- you must have Apple's development tools installed'. Start downloading XCode. Now it works.
- finish installation, clone 'social_project' as 'mysite', start it up.
I think I'm done re-building now.