Oops, I moved the Mach Kernal!
holy smoke! i didnt know... i thought they were part of a new program i just installed.
the apple tech and the apple website's knowledge base said that the mach files couldnt be moved back, and that i'd have to reinstall OS X and lose everything i had on it.
but--knock on wood--we were finally able to get into OS 9, and putting the mach files back where i found them worked.
should i be relieved, or could i still be screwed in the long run?
the apple tech and the apple website's knowledge base said that the mach files couldnt be moved back, and that i'd have to reinstall OS X and lose everything i had on it.
but--knock on wood--we were finally able to get into OS 9, and putting the mach files back where i found them worked.
should i be relieved, or could i still be screwed in the long run?
Comments
Second, you should have never seen those files in OSX unless you used the Terminal or TinkerTool to make the Finder show invisible files. Were you in OS9 when you deleted them? If you put everything back where it was and can boot into OSX okay, then you're probably fine.
To be extra certain, though, I'd run the OSX Installer CD to make sure everything is in the right place. Just restart from the CD and tell it to install. It won't actually re-install everything; it'll just look for missing components and put them back wher they should be. This is actually what any Apple technician would probably have told you to do.
[ 04-06-2002: Message edited by: starfleetX ]</p>
i had already reinstalled os x, but it still didnt work. the tech told me how to get into os 9, and said i should back up whatever i could because it was pretty much hopeless. later, i remembered where i got the files from and went back into os 9 and moved them to their original location. os x booted up after the next restart and is working fine now. should i reinstall os x again anyway?
p.s at least i didn't spell it "colonel."
[code]-r--r--r-- 1 root admin 563812 Apr 5 17:59 mach.sym
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 3156580 Jan 24 22:06 mach_kernel</pre><hr></blockquote>
What does yours say?
The kernel is basicall the very core of the OS...it's the brain...I guess. Basically, Mac OS X misplaced its brain in this case.
I don't think you'll have any problems with Mac OS X. I don't think you'll need to reinstall, but I guess it couldn't hurt...
Then type in: ls -l /
exactly as it's written. (you can copy and paste it)
If you see the two lines Eugene posted along with other stuf, you're fine. No need to reinstall or anything.
If not, pop in the CD and hit the Install button. It will just fix any misplaced files.
Some background about the Kernel:
The Kernal is the lowest part of Mac OS X. It handles all of the most basic things, like managing your connected devices and sending a signal to the screen. It's pretty much the heart of OS X. If you remove it, the system can't do anything, much like a human can't live without his or her heart.
Other things you should leave alone:
Don;t touch the following things, if they should appear (the slash infront of a name means it is at the "root" of the heard disk; i.e., where the Applications and Users folders are.
/etc
/private
/bin
/sbin
/cores
/dev
/temp
/usr
/var
[quote]
I don't think you'll have any problems with Mac OS X. I don't think you'll need to reinstall, but I guess it couldn't hurt...<hr></blockquote>
If the machine is up and running MacOS-X again, there is absolutely no need to reinstall. Tech persons are usually completely clueless, Apple techs are no exeption.
<strong>When I type "ls -l /" in the terminal, part of it reads like this:
[code]-r--r--r-- 1 root admin 563812 Apr 5 17:59 mach.sym
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 3156580 Jan 24 22:06 mach_kernel</pre><hr></blockquote>
What does yours say?
.</strong><hr></blockquote>
hey, thanks! i just tried that, and i got a really long list of stuff. but the above was also in there --whew!
<strong>
Other things you should leave alone:
Don;t touch the following things, if they should appear (the slash infront of a name means it is at the "root" of the heard disk; i.e., where the Applications and Users folders are.
/etc
/private
/bin
/sbin
/cores
/dev
/temp
/usr
/var</strong><hr></blockquote>
thanks, it's good to know. i dont know why these things would suddenly appear, but i wont touch them next time. who knew??? i've never seen anything like it before. im new to unix...hehe.
not that im going to do it again, but do you think if i got norton utilities, it would prevent crucial files from being moved?
<strong>
thanks, it's good to know. i dont know why these things would suddenly appear, but i wont touch them next time. who knew??? i've never seen anything like it before. im new to unix...hehe.
not that im going to do it again, but do you think if i got norton utilities, it would prevent crucial files from being moved?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Don't bother. It's a waste of money. OS X already does this out of the box.
In OS X, every file has a set of "permissions" which define who can do what to any given file/folder. Permissions work like this:
Each file/folder has an owner, a group, and an "everyone" field. In these fields, there can be 8 settings: Read, Write, Execute (run, as in a program), and combinations thereof. These define that, say, Jimmy can make changes to a file, while other people can only read it. And so forth.
The files and folders that I mentioned, and others, are set to have the owner "root". This is the SuperUser, which is the only user that can do anything. And in Mac OS X, nobody can log in as him (at least without activating it). That means that nobody can touch the files.
The problem you probably encountered is that OS 9 knows nothing of these, and lets you muck with files that OS X would say "No way!" to any changes you try to make.
Solution: Don't move any files you suspect are important in OS 9. And, use the Classic Enviornment in OS X instead of using OS 9 only whenever possible.