Tiger takes care of installation problems
I am no longer able to install Apple software on my Mac. I have a PowerBook G4 and I recently upgraded to Tiger (OSX 10.4). I am not exactly certain when the problem began, because I have not been upgrading much recently.
When I run Software Update I get a lot of red exclamation marks next to the items to be installed and then a message that says something like: Software Update could not expand the packages correctly. Then I have to exit and nothing has been touched.
I cannot understand what is going on and nobody seems to be able to help me. (I did ask at the shop where I bought the machine, but they could not help.) Have you any idea what is going on or how I can fix this?
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Not too long ago, I reviewed a product that helped me recover from a crashed disk. For a month or two I thought everything was fine until I ran across the same problem.
I thought I had possibly corrupted my system when I copied things over from the recovered disk. After a lot of thought, I went to the Web and did a search. The answer came from an excellent site that solves Mac problems. The solution is not difficult but it does require doing a number of steps in the right order and making certain you find one particular folder.
You must load your Tiger DVD Installation disc and boot your machine as if you were going to install a new system. After you choose the language you want, go to the menu bar and choose Disk Utility. Click on Repair Disk and do it a few times if necessary, until it says there is nothing wrong with the disk.
When you go back to installing the OS, select Archive and Install under Options. Make certain that all settings are preserved. After rebooting you will have to run Disk Utility again to Repair Permissions (this is a recurring theme with OSX).
Now find a folder called Library (there are two, one on the hard disk and another inside the System Folder. You want the first one, not the one inside the System Folder).
Look for a folder Library->Receipts. Go to the 'old' system (it is now called 'Previous Systems' and find the same folder. Copy whatever is in the old Receipts Folder into the new one. Do the same for the following folders inside Library: Contextual Menu Items, Fonts, Internet Plug-Ins, Mail and Mozilla (if you use it).
You should now be able to install all the items you previously could not with Software Update. When you have yet again run Disk Utility to Repair Permissions, you can reboot and finally erase that extra folder Previous Systems (it is big).
Of course you really should have an external hard disk you can use to back up the one inside the PowerBook. I always suggest a disk that is at least the same size as the internal one.
