Tiger troubles

On 28-Dec-2006, at 13:21, Brian Tokar wrote:
> Is this a problem that's been addressed in later versions of Mac OS
> 10.4? Has anyone seen this?

I had no issues importing mailboxes from 10.3.8 to 10.4

> Also, is there a way to extract the system password?

No.

> I'd rather avoid having to reinstall from scratch and lose all the
> configuration work I did yesterday, if possible.

You don't have too. Simply boot off the install CD and reset the
admin password (it's an option in the Apple menu, as I recall).

On Dec 28, 2006, at 3:21 PM, Brian Tokar wrote:

> Also, is there a way to extract the system password? The person I
> bought the Mini from is not Mac savvy and may not have it. I'd
> rather avoid having to reinstall from scratch and lose all the
> configuration work I did yesterday, if possible.

You can change the original password (without knowing it) by booting
up from the original install disks and choosing that option from the
top menus. Then reboot from the internal drive - nothing lost.

Regards,

Howard

On Dec 28, 2006, at 3:21 PM, Brian Tokar wrote:

> Is this a problem that's been addressed in later versions of Mac OS
> 10.4? Has anyone seen this?

The easy way to answer this is to just run software update to bring
it up to 10.4.8, then try importing again. Have you tried that?

> Also, is there a way to extract the system password?

No. Never.

But you can reset it by booting from the installation CDs that came
with the computer, or from the regular Tiger DVD. (Well, provided
that it's a G4 mini then the regular Tiger DVD; otherwise you'll need
that restore disc that it came with.)

You can absolutely do this without requiring a reinstall.

You can also do this from a single-user boot, but the safer way to do
that is from the restore CD if at all possible.


--
Chris Devers

Problems (mainly) solved. I got the password, and mailboxes seemed to import properly in 10.4.8 (although one mailbox needed to be imported in 2 segments to get the whole contents). Thanks to those who responded today via email (I originally tried posting this over the weekend, when everyone was sensibly out holidaying).

Only remaining problem I can identify is that the 'short' username was set to 'johndoe;' I may just have to live w/ that one. I thought there was a command line or NetInfo Manager fix, but it appears not.

Brian.

> Posted by: Brian Tokar Date: Dec 28, 2006.
>
>....I've been having trouble importing mailboxes: it appears to be
> importing only a small (and apparently random) sample of the messages in my
> original OS 10.3.9 mailboxes. Is this a problem that's been addressed in
> later versions of Mac OS 10.4? Has anyone seen this?
>

I think this (& the question below) are best put to the relevant Apple
Discussion forums. I'm assuming you're talking about Apple Mail?

<http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=753> for Mail under Tiger.

Regards,

GAM

On 12/31/2006 12:53 AM, "Brian Tokar" wrote:
> Only remaining problem I can identify is that the 'short' username was set to
> 'johndoe;' I may just have to live w/ that one. I thought there was a command
> line or NetInfo Manager fix, but it appears not.

You can use ChangeShortName to change the short username:

<http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/23494>

(Disclaimer: I helped create it.) Just be sure to read the ReadMe file
first.

On Dec 31, 2006, at 12:53 AM, Brian Tokar wrote:

> Only remaining problem I can identify is that the 'short' username
> was set to 'johndoe;' I may just have to live w/ that one. I
> thought there was a command line or NetInfo Manager fix, but it
> appears not.

There is no officially supported way to change the short name of a
user account. It's quite hard to find and fix all the places where
these names have crept. (It's easy to just change it in the accounts
database; the hard part is finding all the *other* places that are
using it and will break in interesting ways if you don't change it
there.)

If it really bothers you, you can create a new user account (in the
Accounts preference pane). I'd do that anyway; there's no telling
what ancient crud an existing account brings with it. You can keep
the old account as a fall-back, or delete it when the new one is
established. Note that the new account will not own the files of the
old one (unless you get tricky and change its user-id to the same as
the old one, which you can do with Netinfo Manager).

Cheers
   -- perry
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
Perry The Cynic
perrycynic.org
To a blind optimist, an optimistic realist must seem like an Accursed
Cynic.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---

On Dec 31, 2006, at 3:53 AM, Brian Tokar wrote:

> Only remaining problem I can identify is that the 'short' username
> was set to 'johndoe;' I may just have to live w/ that one. I
> thought there was a command line or NetInfo Manager fix, but it
> appears not.

There's no great way to change the short name.

If you want to change it, you have to change it in like a dozen
places in order for things not to break.

In my experience, the simpler way to "change" it is...

* create a new account with the short name you want
* set everything in the old account to belong to the new account
* rename the new home folder something temporary, like "newname.tmp"
* rename the old home folder to the new shortname,

Then double-check the ownership & permissions, reboot, and log in.

If all goes well, nothing is lost and the new name is in place.

You can do most of this in something like half-a-dozen lines from
single-user mode, but if you're not comfortable with the Unix shell
you could massively break things by doing it that way, so I prefer
not to put the instructions in the list.

Still, an approach on those lines might be a decent way to go, if you
wanted...


--
Chris Devers

On 12/31/06 12:53 AM, "Brian Tokar" <briantpshift.com> wrote:

> Only remaining problem I can identify is that the 'short' username was set to
> 'johndoe;' I may just have to live w/ that one. I thought there was a command
> line or NetInfo Manager fix, but it appears not.
>
There are some free tools for changing the short username. Check out this
MacOSXHints article; read all the comments as well, there is another tool
mentioned there plus a manual (Terminal) method.

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20040527135936888
--

Allen Watson . Writer/Webmaster [ p. 503 .281 .0250 m. 503 .916 .9411
e. watson.allencomcast.net
homepage.mac.com/allen_a_watson/

>> I'd rather avoid having to reinstall from scratch and lose all the
>> configuration work I did yesterday, if possible.
>
> You don't have too. Simply boot off the install CD and reset the
> admin password (it's an option in the Apple menu, as I recall).

I just did this for someone who "forgot" their system password. But for
whatever reason it did NOT change the KeyChain password. Now we're stuck
with a keychain that can't be accessed.

Anyone got an answer to this one?


["Take Control of Passwords in Mac OS X" would help. In essence, the keychain password is a separate thing and can be managed separately. -Adam]

<http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/passwords-macosx.html>

On 3-Jan-2007, at 07:00, Chris Devers wrote:
> * create a new account with the short name you want
> * set everything in the old account to belong to the new account
> * rename the new home folder something temporary, like "newname.tmp"
> * rename the old home folder to the new shortname,

Yep, this is by far the simplest way to go. ESPECIALLY if the
account is an admin account.

> You can do most of this in something like half-a-dozen lines from
> single-user mode, but if you're not comfortable with the Unix shell
> you could massively break things by doing it that way, so I prefer
> not to put the instructions in the list.

I have no such reservations. :) You break it, you broke it. Don't
come whining to me.

Well, make the account in the Accounts control panel, that's step 1

cd ~oldaccount
sudo chown -R newuser .
sudo mv /Users/newuser /Users/newuser.tmp
sudo mv /Users/olduser /Users/newuser

logout, login, Voila!

Don't go putting extraneous /'s at the end of any of those commands,
btw.

On 3-Jan-2007, at 07:06, David Ross wrote:
> I just did this for someone who "forgot" their system password. But
> for whatever reason it did NOT change the KeyChain password. Now we're
> stuck with a keychain that can't be accessed.

You're SOL.

> Anyone got an answer to this one?

As I understand it, there is no way (short of guessing) of recovering
a keychain password.

At 5:36 AM -0800 2007/01/04, Google Kreme wrote:
>On 3-Jan-2007, at 07:06, David Ross wrote:
>>I just did this for someone who "forgot" their system password. But
>>for whatever reason it did NOT change the KeyChain password. Now we're
>>stuck with a keychain that can't be accessed.
>
>You're SOL.
>
>>Anyone got an answer to this one?
>
>As I understand it, there is no way (short of guessing) of recovering
>a keychain password.

        Sure, as it should be, but you can easily delete the old one
and create a new blank keychain with a new password. Just start fresh.

--
Chris Pepper: <http://www.reppep.com/~pepper/>
                             <http://www.extrapepperoni.com/>
Rockefeller University: <http://www.rockefeller.edu/>