Firelight

52 Comments:

• Man you rock, saved my ass with this post and Front Row now runs like "a hot knife through butter" you'd think I had a new Intel Mac Mini. Well done.

  By  Steven R. Neuman, At 3/02/2006 3:49 PM  

• dto. THX a lot. After a few tweaks (root access to
  copy over the system files) MAC OS X is now the good old ones like before. And Front Row is awesome
  in this version. In my opinion you earned the Nobel
  prize for "Rescuing your Tiger" :)

  By  capn-jazz, At 3/02/2006 4:08 PM  

• I'm glad I could help. I've made a minor modification to my instructions that lets people know they'll be prompted for a user name and password when moving the files in and out of the system folder.

  By  Scott, At 3/02/2006 4:32 PM  

• Thanks guy
  
  Now my menu bar and FR work like a charm.
  
  Tiger howls...

  By  Kaisow, At 3/02/2006 7:13 PM  

• It's good that you have specifics as to what broke and what to replace.
  
  However: the same thing could have been accomplished by re-installing the Combo Updater and then Applejacking the system -- as the main issue is 1] corrupt resources that the Combo would -definitely- replace, and 2] permissions problems, which diskutil or Applejack would fix as a matter of course. Read: There might be other FrontRow Update related permissions problems and this 'spot fix' wouldn't catch those.
  
  I'd rather -not- have newbies and endusers in the Terminal. And doing superuser stuff?? *shudder* Better to -tell- them what the deal is and then give them an Apple or near Apple solution to the problem like the Combo and Applejack. Just my 2 yen.

  By  Leo of BORG, At 3/02/2006 8:19 PM  

• In my post I did mentioned the combo updater as an option and provided a link to it. I was avoiding it because it could be a rather lengthy download (~120 MB), just to replace two files.
  
  As for AppleJack, which I know and love, it sometimes has a problem performing repair permissions. On many different machines I've noticed this issue causing it to run forever.
  
  Having users copy and paste stuff in the Terminal can be a little daunting, but I've found that it is often more reliable then having someone remember a series of steps, such as booting into single user mode, and then running AppleJack with the AUTO flag.
  
  I'm also unaware of any other files that are have been adversely affected as to necessitate a Combo update, which could potentially undo other intentional user modifications.

  By  Scott, At 3/02/2006 9:02 PM  

• You're a legend, thank very much. When the menubar died it was as if it was just a small obstacle on the way to getting front-row to work thanks to this 'how-to'.

  By  Nick Smith, At 3/02/2006 9:30 PM  

• Works great on my PB, but my mac mini had the same menu bar issues. I am trying to follow the directions at http://voice.firefallpro.com/ but I do not know where to place the original BezelServices.Frameworks file and the other one BezelServices.loginPlugin files. The directories that they are in when I get them in Pacifist are not availble on the mini. PLease Help...

  By  Jamie C, At 3/03/2006 2:19 AM  

• The directories listed aren't available for my eMac either.
  
  This fucking sucks, I wish I knew this shit before I tried this FrontBar crap.

  By  Anonymous, At 3/03/2006 2:49 AM  

• Well, I tried everything you recommended (re-install Combo, fix it by hand, re-install and enabling FrontRow) buy unfortunately I still don't get the menubar back :-(
  
  But I've also made some interesting observations:
  
  - I installed Plaxo Beta for Mac and Salling Clicker after I lost the menu bar and - voilá those two are displayed in the menubar.
  
  - After the system comes up, there is a white space between the right edge of the screen and the Plaxo / Clicker icons, a little more than the size of the Spotlight icon. When I move my mouse over that area I get the spinning beach ball.
  
  - Looking into the Activity Monitor I see the crashed SystemUIServer. After Force Quitting it, the Plaxo and Clicker icons move all the way to the right until the new SystemUIServer has taken over and they are moved further to the left again.
  
  - Moving the mouse over this right edge white space does not produce the beach ball again. It looks as if the server is re-establishing the Spotlight icon, but it just isn't shown... clicking on the white space - of course - leads to nothing.
  
  - Spotlight can not be called using the keyboard shortcuts. Either of them produces no results.
  
  I just can't make any sense of this. I hope you have another idea what could be the root cause of this...
  
  Oh, and by the way - I also tried to re-install FrontRow (which was at one time actually working) but that's not working either now. There's not even the process in the list... quite strange...
  
  Thanks, cheers,
  Alex
  
  P.S.: If you'd rather want to move this discussion out of the blog, I can also send you my mail address.

  By  Anonymous, At 3/03/2006 7:53 AM  

• Lets see where I can help:
  
  Q: "I do not know where to place the original BezelServices.Frameworks file and..." - Jamie C.
  
  A: Your Mac Mini should have the path that I noted in my initial post. Once you click on your hard drive, usually called "Macintosh HD". Once in there you go to "System", then "Library", then you should be able to see the "PrivateFrameworks" and the "LoginPlugins" folder, among many others. Once you've located it, just follow my quick fix instructions. Using the contents of the zip file is by far the easiest way to replace the damaged files.
  
  Misc:
  - Plaxo and Salling clicker are most likely not real menu bar items, and not effected by the damaged files. My Growl Tunes menu never disappeared.
  
  - Continued problems after attempting my short method, and the longer method, though rare may indicate that there is file or file structure corruption. Note that this is probably something that manifested over time. Most people try to draw a correlation between system failure and the last significant thing they did, when it's usually a gradual process marked by a coincidental event. If you have installed the combo update, I recomend running AppleJack, with the AUTO command. If AppleJack sticks on repairing permissions for over 10 minutes, hit "Control" and the "C" key to stop it. Restart, by typing in "reboot" and hitting return. Run it again, but this time don't use the AUTO command, just run it in order, skipping the repair permissions option. Repairing permissions can be accomplished in Disk Utility (or by other methods in the command line). AppleJack will hopefully find any file system damage, clear bad cache files, and locate damaged preference files. If this all still-does-not-work, then try creating another User. If they exhibit the same issues as your account, then it's sadly time to perform a OS X clean install. If they don't then you're on the road to recovery...
  
  Anyway, I could go on for a while about troubleshooting techniques, but I won't. Keep the questions coming.

  By  Scott, At 3/03/2006 10:46 AM  

• Thank's a lot for doing this!! I was so frickin' pissed when my menu bar dissapeared!! I'm gonna stay away from FrontRow til I get an Intel Mac... Anyway, thank's SO MUCH!

  By  Anonymous, At 3/03/2006 4:30 PM  

• Man, do I owe you... I was about to go bunkers and had the DVD in hand for a REINSTALL.. with all the work that comes with that, but this works like a charm...
  
  Saved me a saturday and a headache....
  
  thx a million

  By  Anonymous, At 3/03/2006 8:51 PM  

• I'm getting "PrivateFrameworks cannot be modified" when I try to add the new folder.

  By  Anonymous, At 3/04/2006 8:16 AM  

• ""But I've also made some interesting observations:
  
  - I installed Plaxo Beta for Mac and Salling Clicker after I lost the menu bar and - voilá those two are displayed in the menubar.
  
  - After the system comes up, there is a white space between the right edge of the screen and the Plaxo / Clicker icons, a little more than the size of the Spotlight icon. When I move my mouse over that area I get the spinning beach ball.
  
  - Looking into the Activity Monitor I see the crashed SystemUIServer. After Force Quitting it, the Plaxo and Clicker icons move all the way to the right until the new SystemUIServer has taken over and they are moved further to the left again.
  
  - Moving the mouse over this right edge white space does not produce the beach ball again. It looks as if the server is re-establishing the Spotlight icon, but it just isn't shown... clicking on the white space - of course - leads to nothing.
  
  - Spotlight can not be called using the keyboard shortcuts. Either of them produces no results.
  
  I just can't make any sense of this. I hope you have another idea what could be the root cause of this...""
  
  
  
  Same here.
  Tried to use Applejack but I'm unable to restart as single user.
  Any suggestions?

  By  Anonymous, At 3/04/2006 2:27 PM  

• Q: "I'm getting "PrivateFrameworks cannot be modified" when I try to add the new folder."
  
  A: I think that usually happens when you do not remove the item you are trying to replace first. In other words you should drag the damaged files out before replacing them.
  
  Q: "I can't boot into single user mode". Failure to boot into single user mode is almost always the result of using a non Apple keyboard or not having the keyboard plugged directly into the computer. If you do not have an Apple Keyboard available, try holding down the Control and S key at as soon as the computer is turned on, instead of Command and S. In some cases it's another key. The reason for this is third party keyboards use drivers to remap the keys once the computer is completely started. Our Microsoft Keyboards work that way. So they are tricky to use to boot into single user mode. KVMs, and hubs also complicate things. It's best to remove them if your not too sure how the affect the keyboard during boot.
  
  P.S. If you think this post, or any of our others is helpful please keep coming back, we aim to do some really cool stuff this year.

  By  Scott, At 3/04/2006 7:00 PM  

• Thank you very much. You are a lifesaver.

  By  Anonymous, At 3/04/2006 11:42 PM  

• Thank you SO F#$^@ING much. I love our awesome and friendly Mac community.

  By  Anonymous, At 3/05/2006 9:25 AM  

• I have installed more time FrontRow Enabler, whit different configuration. I follow exactly each step of andrew's tutorial, but when I perform "enable frontrow", they return an error, he don't find different file of type zip2 in directory /usr/bin/bzip2, and say "patch corrupt".
  Now I have Tiger 10.4.5, iPhoto 6.0.2, and latest iTunes. Someone can help me?
  Thanks

  By  roberto, At 3/05/2006 11:33 AM  

• roberto, I'm not too sure what's going on, but you should post your question on the Front Row Enabler site for the best help.

  By  Scott, At 3/05/2006 4:25 PM  

• amazing. absolutely amazing. took some mad tweaking, but then worked, and the results are amazing.

  By  Anonymous, At 3/05/2006 9:43 PM  

• How To Install Apple’s Front Row | menu bar, helo? | preferences crashes | how to fix it
  
  thanks a lot!
  while downloading the combo update, i found this. and it worked. just replace this 2 folders, set permissions and enjoy fr (after log out/in)
  
  by the way BezelServices.loginPlugin did even exist there anymore/ever???
  
  @andrew ... to avoid problems with those of you who can’t seem to follow simple instructions...
  suggestion: present a solution for dummies OR explain why and when (where) wihich file should look HOW. but thanks anyway
  
  btw fr works also with iphoto 4 !!!

  By  Anonymous, At 3/05/2006 9:52 PM  

• I tried this fix.. but alas, to no avail. In the end, I did a reinstall and archive - my first ever since becoming a Machead.
  
  The ease of the reinstall reignited my faith in the design of this OS.. an outstanding process.. easy.. robust.. beautiful.

  By  Anonymous, At 3/06/2006 11:09 PM  

• Hi Scott,
  
  Thanks for the advice, unfortunately it hasn't worked for me, still no menu bar stuff. I tried your fix, applejacks and the apple combo update with no success.
  
  In my activity monitor systemUIserver says "not responding"....before I found your blog I tried a "fix" recommended on the forums at apple.com, which said the "systemUIserver" APP should be trashed, as opposed to just the plist...I think this might be the problem now, maybe the "not responding" part is shown as the app is N/A?
  
  Anyway, I have a crash log that called systemUIserver.crash.log....anything to look for in there?
  
  Thanks in advance for any thoughts...

  By  Male model, At 3/07/2006 1:41 AM  

• "male model," it sounds like your situation may be leaning toward a system reinstall. After a certain point trouble-shooting is going to take longer then to do a clean install of OS X. Also it's nice to have a clean install every once in a while.

  By  Scott, At 3/07/2006 11:51 AM  

• Hi. I have i litle problem ..
  
  I cant empty the trash entierly .. the fix work but the stuf I trashed .. folowing your instructions ... can not be removed from my trash can ..
  
  the system are teling me that its in use ... ???

  By  Anonymous, At 3/09/2006 4:02 PM  

• If you get an error message saying the "Trash can not be emptied because it contains items that are in use", then you have to Restart and try again. If this still fails then use "Secure Empty Trash" from the Finder menu.

  By  Scott, At 3/09/2006 4:08 PM  

• And all I did was re-boot my Powerbook G4 this morning.....
  
  I must say many many thanks for such a detailed and (for me anyway) totally successful "fix" to the missing menu items.
  
  I am travelling on business in Hong Kong and couldn't believe how much I missed those little menu bar items! And everything seems worse when you are away from home with no disks to re-install from...
  
  I went for the "Bezel Services" small download and printed all the instructions as a PDF in case of crashes and can say that it worked like a dream and took no more than 5 minutes after a day of repairing permissions, and using Onyx, Tinker Tool etc. etc.
  
  To those who have yet to try this fix - I can say it is a lifesaver and really not dificult using Terminal (having never even opened it before in 3 years!).
  
  I only wish I had known that it was Front Row that had caused the problem, and although I think that Andrew brought a great alternative to all of us who have yet to get a Mac with Front Row pre-installed, I hope that he will post the possible down sides to the latest update on his website, so that less tech savy users will avoid like the plague....
  
  Anyway, thanks again for such perfect detailed instructions on getting my Powerbook back to working order.
  
  All I have to do now is save all this stuff to fix the G5 when I get home in 2 weeks!!!!

  By  Norman travelling in Hong Kong, At 3/10/2006 8:09 AM  

• can somebody help me ..after replacing the two folders, when trying to run the two command in terminal , this message come out ." bash: sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BezelServices.framework: No such file or directory .....how to proceed farward?

  By  Anonymous, At 3/13/2006 11:42 AM  

• when inputing the two commands in terminal after pressing enter , it asked ...We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
  Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:
  
  #1) Respect the privacy of others.
  #2) Think before you type.
  #3) With great power comes great responsibility.
  
  Password:
  
  how to proceed onward?

  By  Anonymous, At 3/13/2006 11:51 AM  

• Q: "can somebody help me ..after replacing the two folders, when trying to run the two command in terminal , this message come out ." bash: sudo chown -R root:wheel"
  
  A: That most likely means you did not place the necessary files in their proper locations. Please carefully read the original post again to make sure your completed the necessary steps. If necessary use the Combo Update method.
  
  Q: "when inputing the two commands in terminal after pressing enter , it asked ...We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
  Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:.."
  
  A: That message is a little humor and warning from Apple about using the sudo command. At the end of that message is the password prompt. Enter in your password at that prompt and hit return.

  By  Scott, At 3/13/2006 5:26 PM  

• I fixed my FrontRow Installation as you described. Works fine so far. But if I know would like to remove it, do I only need to remove it from CoreServices or is there a better way to deinstall FrontRow?
  Thanks in advance

  By  Anonymous, At 3/15/2006 1:13 PM  

• As far as removing Front Row, it doesn't actually run until you launch it the first time. So it's rather harmless. It might be much easier to disable it by un-checking the box next to "Front Row" in the "Keyboard Shortcuts" section of the Keyboard & Mouse preference pane.
  
  If you want to go all the way and get rid of it you should be fine taking it out of the Core Services folder. Though I wouldn't be surprised if other's advocated additional cleansing.

  By  Scott, At 3/15/2006 1:32 PM  

• guys, (scott?)
  thanks for all, i fixed it!
  great
  
  but anyone knows how to get the escbar
  instructions now that the website is down?
  ???
  
  
  mano from tokyo

  By  Anonymous, At 3/16/2006 6:20 PM  

• Q: "anyone knows how to get the escbar
  instructions now that the website is down"
  
  A: You might want to try Google's cache for a copy of the instructions. I'm not sure where you can still get the Front Row Enabler software. I don't have a copy anymore.

  By  Scott, At 3/16/2006 6:51 PM  

• thanks for your reply
  the software i have,
  the instructions i dont
  !!!
  ?

  By  Anonymous, At 3/16/2006 7:10 PM  

• Before I proceed, the following is the best that I can remember. I take no responsibility for it's accuracy, effectiveness, or consequences that it may have on your system. In short, think of how many people came to this site just because their computer was fouled up by Front Row Enabler...
  
  From what I can remember:
  1. Download and run the latest full combo updater from Apple.
  2. Download Front Row from Apple, drag the installer to the desktop.
  3. Patch the installer with Front Row Enabler.
  4. Install Front Row.
  5. Reboot if need be.
  6. Enable Front Row with Front Row Enabler.
  7. Reboot.
  8. Set the Front Row hot-key in Keyboard & Mouse are of the System Preferences.
  9. Enjoy Front Row.
  
  If the above doesn't work, then It's best to ask Google for more clarification.

  By  Scott, At 3/18/2006 7:09 PM  

• Worked well, thanks, but I'm having one problem since installing Front Row.
  
  I'm using and ibook 1.33ghz and after it running for several hours, (I use it to play music pretty much whenever I'm home), my availible hard disk space starts evaporating, when I reboot gives me the space back. If I boot and do not run Front Row everything works fine, if I start Front Row and exit out, play music for a couple hours, it will start eating my free disk space.
  Normally I have 2.5 gig free and one day after 1.5 gig had evaporated I recorded the sizes of the each of the directories on the hard disk (Apps, Lib, Sys, etc.). After I rebooted the 1.5 was back, but all of the directory sizes were the same.
  Am I going to have any legal trouble with apple if I call for support? Does running enabler void my warrenty? Is there anything I can do to solve this without calling apple?

  By  Duct Tape Kids, At 3/20/2006 10:52 AM  

• im getting file or dirrectory dose not exist?? i coppyed the folders over but still no joy?

  By  Anonymous, At 3/20/2006 4:56 PM  

• ok thats strange i restared my mac after putting those new dirrectorys in and they are working fine now but still when i go to terminal it says no dirrectry or file found? hows that? do i need to log in as a different user i only have the one user on this machine and i dont log on its automatic?
  
  im a mac newb as you can tell any help?

  By  Anonymous, At 3/20/2006 5:20 PM  

• Q: "my availible hard disk space starts evaporating"
  
  A: Kinda sounds like a permissions issue, or Norton Antivirus. I don't think it has anything to do with Front Row. I'd try running AppleJack, and most importantly repair permissions. If you have Norton Antivirus, Macfixit.com has been covering a host of issues with it, such as sapping drive space.
  
  I wouldn't be worried having Front Row installed affecting your warranty. Just don't mention to Apple that you went and installed it. If you do they'll most likely get lazy, blame it, and tell you to do a clean install of OS X.
  
  Q: "im getting file or dirrectory dose not exist"
  
  A: Chances are you're mistyping something or accidentally placed the files in the "Library" folder in your home folder (e.g. /Users/youraccount/Libary/), or the one at the root of your hard drive (e.g. /Library/), instead of in /System/Library/...
  
  It's important to remember the leading slash in paths in the Terminal commands that I provided. It designates to begin at the start of your drive, and not down from where ever you happen to be.

  By  Scott, At 3/20/2006 6:02 PM  

• This post has been removed by a blog administrator.

  By  Ben, At 4/05/2006 2:04 PM  

• Actually, scratch that last comment. Restarting and then emptying the trash did the trick.
  
  You are amazing.

  By  Ben, At 4/05/2006 2:12 PM  

• "- I installed Plaxo Beta for Mac and Salling Clicker after I lost the menu bar and - voilá those two are displayed in the menubar.
  
  - After the system comes up, there is a white space between the right edge of the screen and the Plaxo / Clicker icons, a little more than the size of the Spotlight icon. When I move my mouse over that area I get the spinning beach ball."
  
  The culprit was Plaxo installation. Trash the SystemUIServer.plist. I had the same problem.
  
  Regards
  Venosa

  By  Anonymous, At 4/19/2006 6:32 AM  

• hi scott,
  thank you very very much. i was worried sick about this problem.. and now everything works perfect again!
  you're making an enormous difference with this post. for me and all others who posted here.
  thanks again. just amazing.
  +om

  By  +om, At 6/23/2006 1:52 PM  

• Thank so much your truly a mac genus
  well done

  By  Steven B, At 7/20/2006 6:58 PM  

• Anyone know if there's a way to make front row work on a Mac Pro?

  By  David, At 9/01/2006 3:34 PM  

• I would be surprised if it didn't come already installed and working on a Mac Pro, if not try the updated Front Row enabler.

  By  Scott, At 9/02/2006 8:12 PM  

• Please Help Me!!!
  
  I guess maybe I'm too much of a newbie here, but I tried to "enable front row" using the new version of "enabler" on my osx 10.4.8 Ibook system (I previously had it installed and working properly, but it stopped from an update I guess). Upon reboot the system now will not start. What do I do now?!?

  By  CassandraNova, At 10/21/2006 6:42 AM  

• If it won't boot you'll either need to try to safe boot by hold down the shift key, or boot off of an OS X CD and do an archive and install. If you can boot it in safe mode try to download a Combo standalone installer.
  
  If you need more specific information you'll have to leave better contact information.

  By  Scott, At 11/14/2006 8:07 PM  

• Any updates to this post? The links do not work anymore

  By  Anonymous, At 10/23/2008 12:15 AM  

• The site andrewescobar.com seems to be down now. I don't have any links to Front Row enabler. You may still be able to get it from Mac Update, but at this point its probably completely unmaintained and won't work in newer versions of OS X. The links to replacement files and combo update still work fine.

  By  Scott, At 10/24/2008 12:42 PM  

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