Applications not responding on start-up

[emc2]

I would appreciate any suggestions regarding this problem:

Upon Start-up, Apple applications such as Safari, stickies, system preference, fontbook and other apple applications won't respond at all.
Right now, my workaround on this is as follows:

1. Log-out then log-in - All application would work now except it won't open a password protected disk image so i have to...
2. restart - Now everything's fine and working again but...

Everyday, i have to do this instead of just one start-up process.

Any ideas on what could be the problem and solutions to this?

Thanks in advance,
emc2

[Gnarlodious]

Did you repair permissions? Anything acts funny on your Mac first thing you should do is repair permissions.

[Raven]

Also check to make sure if this happens if you login with another user account if repair permissions doesn't do the trick.

[Gnarlodious]

Waffled foreheads are a symptom of broken keyboards and inexperienced users
Hey good sig! You must be on my Applescript list, home of waffled foreheads waiting to happen

[Raven]

I am on those lists... but this is a modded version of a suggestion of one I saw there :D
I wanted it there as a nice joke... Hope I didn't offend any one who is also using it as his/her signature...
If so, do tell me.

[Gnarlodious]

No, not a problem. It was just a comment I made in passing. There's actually an animated avatar somewhere of a guy pounding his forehead on the keyboard. It's what inspired the remark.

[Raven]

lolll Ok... :D
Its just so easy to imagine the poor guy bashing his head into his keybaord untill the keys mark his skull... :D

[hayne]

Upon Start-up, Apple applications such as Safari, stickies, system preference, fontbook and other apple applications won't respond at all.

It sounds like you are saying that it is only certain apps which cause trouble. What about iTunes for example? Or Finder? Do they work?
If so, maybe it is Cocoa apps that are causing the trouble. That might point to a problem with the software libraries or it might be as simple as something wrong with the fonts that they use.

Have you disabled any of the fonts from the System area ? You shouldn't - there have been reports of this causing application problems.

Launch the "Console" application (under /Applications/Utilities) and look for relevant error messages. Note that messages are labeled with the date & time so you can use that to locate the part of the log to look at. Copy & paste the relevant messages back here so we can see them.

[emc2]

Thank you for all your replies. I really appreciate this.

- Yes, i did repair persmissions. But the problem still exists.

- I also tried creating a new account and the same problem does not
exist on the new account.

- I haven't disabled any system fonts at all.
I use fontbook. The only thing i do is to resolve any font duplicates
but not with the system fonts.

- With regards to which softwares are affected, well they are mainly
safari, notepad, apple menu> system preference, utilities> disk utility,
even console won't work, itunes, imovie, idvd. as you will notice, they are mainly apple applications. But surprisingly, Internet Explorer is working
and all other adobe softwares.

I tried opening console now and found these error messages:

Under system log:

Apr 27 10:16:14 localhost kernel: jnl: close: flushing the buffer cache (start 0x7d9e00 end 0x7de200)
Apr 27 10:16:42 localhost /Applications/Internet Explorer.app/Contents/MacOS/Internet Explorer: *** Warning: ATSUSetFontFallbacks has been deprecated. Use ATSUFontFallbacks objects instead. ***
Apr 27 10:22:25 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/ref, pid 443
Apr 27 10:22:26 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/opi FPO, pid 443
Apr 27 10:22:27 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/opi, pid 443
Apr 27 10:22:28 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_mount: /Volumes/data, pid 443
Apr 27 12:25:32 localhost crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/SecurityAgent.crash.log
Apr 27 12:25:32 localhost crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/SecurityAgent.crash.log
Apr 27 12:25:33 localhost crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/DiskImageMounter.crash.log
Apr 27 12:25:33 localhost crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/DiskImageMounter.crash.log
Apr 27 12:25:37 localhost crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/SecurityAgent.crash.log
Apr 27 12:25:37 localhost crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/SecurityAgent.crash.log
Apr 27 12:25:38 localhost crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/DiskImageMounter.crash.log
Apr 27 12:25:38 localhost crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/DiskImageMounter.crash.log
Apr 27 12:26:55 localhost shutdown: reboot by ericcruz:
Apr 27 12:26:57 localhost syslogd: exiting on signal 15
Apr 27 12:27:27 localhost syslogd: restart
Apr 27 12:27:27 localhost syslogd: kernel boot file is /mach_kernel

LaunchApplication(/Applications/Lotus Notes/NotesDynConfig)
Apr 27 15:37:05 localhost Toast This: pluginFactory
Apr 27 15:37:05 localhost Toast This: queryInterface
Apr 27 15:37:05 localhost Toast This: examineContext: list
Apr 27 15:38:28 localhost /Applications/Internet Explorer.app/Contents/MacOS/Internet Explorer: *** Warning: ATSUSetFontFallbacks has been deprecated. Use ATSUFontFallbacks objects instead. ***
Apr 27 15:57:42 localhost Toast This: examineContext: list
Apr 27 15:58:15 localhost diskarbitrationd[88]: disk1s2 hfs 8877D94D-D4A7-3933-8268-E6B243B811C3 EC_Back-up1 [not mounted]
Apr 27 15:58:16 localhost diskarbitrationd[88]: disk1s2 hfs 8877D94D-D4A7-3933-8268-E6B243B811C3 EC_Back-up1 /Volumes/EC_Back-up1
Apr 27 16:18:47 localhost /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari: *** Warning: ATSUSetFontFallbacks has been deprecated. Use ATSUFontFallbacks objects instead. ***
Apr 27 16:34:12 localhost crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Adobe Photoshop CS.crash.log
Apr 27 16:34:13 localhost crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/ericcruz/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Adobe Photoshop CS.crash.log
Apr 27 17:46:46 localhost Toast This: examineContext: list
Apr 27 18:18:54 localhost /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari: *** Warning: ATSUSetFontFallbacks has been deprecated. Use ATSUFontFallbacks objects instead. ***

Apr 28 12:55:04 localhost Toast This: examineContext: list
Apr 28 13:01:40 localhost Toast This: examineContext: list
Apr 28 13:02:36 localhost Toast This: examineContext: list
Apr 28 13:04:30 localhost /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari: *** Warning: ATSUSetFontFallbacks has been deprecated. Use ATSUFontFallbacks objects instead. ***


Under var/log.> httpd>install.log:
Apr 20 11:02:16 localhost : Creating directory at /private/tmp/.Cinematize2DemoInstaller.pkg.413.install2vBNUD
Apr 20 11:02:17 localhost : Extracting files from Cinematize 2.03 Demo
Apr 20 11:02:17 localhost : Running task: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Installation.framework/Resources/pax
Apr 20 11:02:17 localhost : ERROR:Could not set file attributes. - pax: error 1:Could not set permissions on . - Operation not permitted
Apr 20 11:02:17 localhost : ERROR:Could not set file attributes. - pax: error 1:Access/modification time set failed on: . - Operation not permitted
Apr 20 11:02:17 localhost : ERROR:Could not set file attributes. - pax: error 1:Could not set permissions on . - Operation not permitted
Apr 20 11:02:17 localhost : ERROR:Could not set file attributes. - pax: error 1:Access/modification time set failed on: . - Operation not permitted

anmd another one under Library/console> console log.1
Mac OS X Version 10.3.7 (Build 7T52)
2005-05-01 08:57:22 +0400
2005-05-01 08:57:22.947 SoftwareUpdateCheck[328] Checking for updates
2005-05-01 08:57:23.374 SoftwareUpdateCheck[328] connection:didFailWithError: no Internet connection
SoftwareUpdateCheck: network error

[hayne]

I also tried creating a new account and the same problem does not exist on the new account.

That indicates that the problem almost certainly is due to something under your home folder.
And it likely is something under ~/Library
( ~ = your home folder)
The most likely thing is a bad preference file under ~/Library/Preferences
You could start by removing the preference files for the apps you are having trouble with.

If the problem persists, you need to narrow the problem down - you could start by moving (via drag & drop) the whole "Preferences" folder that is under ~/Library to the Desktop, then log out and log in again. A default copy of the Preferences folder will have been recreated. Does that improve things? If so, you could use a divide & conquer approach to figure out which of the preference files is causing the problem - move half of the preference files back into the Preferences folder, log out & in again, etc.

But before you do that sort of fiddling, see below about the crash logs.

Apr 27 12:25:32 localhost crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/SecurityAgent.crash.log
[...]
Apr 27 12:25:33 localhost crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/DiskImageMounter.crash.log
[...]
Apr 27 16:34:12 localhost crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/emc/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Adobe Photoshop CS.crash.log


You should look at these crash logs by using the "Console" application (under /Applications/Utilities). Press the "Logs" button (top-left) and go into the ~/Library/Logs section to find those particular crash logs. Copy & paste back here the last portion of the crash logs - the part that gives details about the last crash (or preferably attach it as a plain text file, using the "Manage Attachments" button at the bottom when you reply).

These crash logs will likely give us a clue about what is causing the crashes.

[voldenuit]

Adding to haynes advice, consider trashing every cache file in the corrupt home directory.

That would be the entire Library/Caches folder at least, but it's probably best to go with one of the numerous Cache-cleaners out there, the cleanest approach is probably AppleJack as it works in single user mode, but has a very friendly user interface.

[emc2]

Thanks again.

Before i go on trying out hayne's and voldenuit's advices,

Attached is a Safari crash report from the Console utility.

There are other crash reports from Finder/Installer/Notes/Photoshop
but it will exceed the 100kb limit if i upload them all ot once.

I guess we are getting somewhere here.

Thanks again.

[emc2]

Here is the Finder crash report.

[emc2]

I would like to thank all of you once again for all your responses.

The problem is solved.

Taking on from Haynes' advice to check on the preferences,
i remembered that before the problem occurred, i was testing 3
information manager applications namely formation, Devonthink
personal edition, speedesk. So before dragging the whole preference folder
and restarting, i tried to trash the preferences of these 3 apps first
and re-logging in. To my surprise, everything's fine and working properly.

Once again, thanks all and thanks to this site! It works!