Here's an interesting one. I can access my router from my powerbook in Safari, but not from my older Desktop macs. Same version of OS and Safari, same exact prefs. All computers plugged into the same gigabit switch. But when I put in the URL of the router using my beloved Seabiscuit (Dual 500 G4 gigabit, 1.5gigs RAM), Safari chokes on it. I actually end up having to restart the app. Checked all the firewall and connection settings. It's like the one URL that doesn't work.

Brother Rico, any ideas?

Brother thalo, I sure hope your problem gets solved. Let me make an appeal for general help as well.

Okay, I've axed a few of my friends and none of them have an OS 9.2.2 startup disk. Did Apple even make such a thing? Does anyone else have one? If you do, and if it isn't too illegal, I'll pay ya twenty bucks for a copy. I feel naked running this thing without a way to boot up and troubleshoot. Oh, I guess I could do so in OS X but since it's on the same drive that might not always be possible (depending on the problem). And besides, I've found that OS 9 is a great troubleshooting tool for OS X so first things first.

Brother thalo does it seem like it could be something with the keychain access? Or possibly the firewall settings in X on Seabiscuit?

Brother Brad did you try burning the 9.2.2 system folder installed on the MDD. From X try burning what you would like on a startup disk like Diskwarrior and 9.2.2. It should work to create a bootable cd. I am not sure if it will be a bootable cd for the MDD. I would just use the mac/pc compatible cd setting for the burn.

Problem solved, brother Brad... but it took a friggin' FULL install of Panther. First I tried all the usual suspects, reinstalled the app, the prefs, repaired the permissions, etc., etc. But when it would happen I kept getting this weird console message. The issue was, whenever Safari tried to draw the SHEET (you know, the little semi-transparent dialog animation) for the authentication screen, something failed. Near as I could tell, that was an OS issue. The App kept calling some routine there, but got no answer. And I could find no unix troubleshooting procedure to repair that.

So, hauled out the disks, went through all that... then all the updaters. Now it works. But damn, it was a long way to go to fix... seems to happen to me way too often when this bloated crapware decides to shit the bed on me.

Rico, I'll give your idea a try. Thanks.

Thalo, what are you doing up so late? Glad you got your problem solved. What's the big deal about reinstalling the OS? It's only about a gajillion megabytes. Piece of cake.

up late last night because bugs always lead to other bugs.

After the reinstall, Safari worked, but all my MACROMEDIA products, every last one, suddenly stopped working. They'd bounce once in the dock, and die.

This is an issue with the Macromedia product activation stuff breaking in Panther when you do an "archive and install"... There is a hotfix for this on the Macromedia site. Of course then you're likely to get the "too many activations" alert, and you have to deal with all that crap.

So, all you Macromedia users out there... if you're ever going to reinstall the OS... BE SURE to deactivate all the authentication crap on your computer by transferring your all your product licenses BEFORE you do the install. It's under the Help menu > "Transfer Your Software License"

Harrumph. Product activation. Don’t get me wrong. I understand why it’s done. But there will come the day when you will have to do a retinal scan before launching a program. It’s just a matter of time. But for the time being, wouldn’t it be feasible (and a hell of a lot more user friendly) just to have a dialog box pop up in the splash screen where you could enter any needed information? I don’t know what voodoo goes on between one’s computer and Macromedia’s servers, but surely they could dynamically handle this stuff so that a simple reinstall of the OS or of the applications would be relatively painless while still safeguarding their product.

At some point it becomes too burdensome on the user if a whole bunch of crap is in place and then falls like a house of cards because of all the dependencies. I love software that goes “Can’t launch such and such because I can’t find the file such and such” and then offers you a dialog box to go find it and re-link. Okay, perhaps a really smart program could handle the fact that I accidentally moved one of its components and would offer to search for it and put it back for me. But programs that don’t launch and leave the user to wonder what the hell happened is a step backward.

Have some coffee. That will help.

Has anyone else had to deal with Quarks Administrator License app. We have one user that must work at home part of the week. You can give out an extended license in such a case with QLA. I installed Quark on a pocket drive and assigned the extended license.

Quark would not launch with alot of yadda yadda dialogue boxes. I get Quark on the horn their fix is you must unplug from any network or dsl/cable modem. Then launch Quark. You can then reconnect to the network/modems. Now you can not shut down Quark. If you shut down Quark you will not be able to relaunch it. Even if you disconnect as before. QLA creates a .dat file that allows Quark to launch offsite. Only problem this file corrupts itself when Quark is launched if the computer is connected to a network/modem. Hence their fix.

My user has not had a chance to try this yet but what I said to do is copy that .dat file to some other place on the hd before they do anything to replace the one in the Quark folder once it becomes corrupted.

Other than this QLA works fine without the need for any of those dongles. The MDD machine would not work with Quark 4.11 in classic because the dongles would not work properly with the iMate usb/serial adaptors.

One other thing Quark is not allowing is downloading of the most up to date QLA. Mine is 3.0. Quark is already to QLA 3.2. To get the most up to date and stable versions you must order a cd from Quark.

Maybe this would have been better to update my Migrating office thread.

I know, all that crap drives me mental. The issue with product activation is this: when you have an OS that is easy to break, any elaborate product activation scheme will either break it, or screw up when you are fixing something else.

If you have a STABLE OS, then hey, go for it. Keep everyone honest. But OS X is like bailing out a leaky lifeboat... users are more worried about keeping it afloat, so it's unfair to make us wear heavy suits of armor, which increase the chances of us sinking. I think developers will have the LUXURY of making their products secure, when end users have the luxury of an operating system that works.

That's the deal with betas. They should be free. You shouldn't have to copy protect anything that ain't commercial quality. But that's the situation we have now. Because the OS is a paid beta. Hey, when we actually GET commercial quality, all bets are off. Then I don't care one way or the other what hoops I have to jump through to make sure I'm following the rules.

The thing with all the confusing bullshit in this operating system is that there's way more to go wrong. A lot of those dependencies dealing with unlocking the program for use, unfortunately are dependent on little files that seem to always go corrupt.

In the age of the work in progress, where we are updating software FREQUENTLY... we geometrically increase the chances that something will crap out on us. And we're always stuck in a position where we have to start from scratch. Reinstall, then run all the updaters again to get us current. Then re-verify, and hope one little thing doesn't go wrong where we have to start over AGAIN.

It's friggin' crazy.

In all my years as a Mac user, I've never had to start from scratch and reinstall the operating system so many times.

The tools for OS diagnostics and repair are highly inadequate.