[CharlesS]

Well, the long promised, long anticipated, long delayed Pacifist 2.0 has just been released. Major improvements include being recompiled as a Universal Binary and fixing a truckload of bugs, but also include a bunch of other features, such as:

• Added support for .dmg disk images, .tgz (and .tar, .pax, and .tar.gz) archive files, and .bom file listings
• Added support for viewing the Software Restore disk images (and pretty much anything else with a .images folder at the root)
• Added support for a bunch of iWork, iLife, and other Apple install discs, rather than just the OS X install set (and if you find any other Apple install discs that don't work, e-mail me so I can add them too!)
• Added support for Mac OS X Public Beta packages, for all 3 of you who need this
• Added the ability to override a package's setting to authenticate as root when installing
• Added an Extension Report feature - I've always been a bit irritated by the fact that all kernel extensions go in /System/Library/Extensions, even if they came from a third-party installer. Pacifist's new Extension Report feature will go through all your receipts in /Library/Receipts and try to figure out, if it can, what put each kernel extension in the System directory so you can track down third-party ones if they're giving you trouble.

Another thing to note is that the registration problem people were having with 1.6.3 on Intel Macs should be resolved now that Pacifist is a Universal Binary. Unfortunately, Rosetta has a nasty math bug that was messing up Pacifist's registration system and causing it to fail before. Being a Universal Binary should cure this by causing Rosetta no longer to be used.

[rickey939]

Well done, as always. Thank you CharlesS!

[Mithras]

Nice. I love the Extension Report idea. What the heck is wrong with /Library/Extensions, anyway?

[Angus_D]

Originally Posted by Mithras

What the heck is wrong with /Library/Extensions, anyway?

Uh, the kernel doesn't look there?

[Ilgaz]

When I was new to mac in 2003, I purchased like $200 amount of "system diagnostic utilities".

I have kind of "regretted" after I finally found about Pacifist. The real deal is to take care about the OS X and "essentials" and check whether they are intact or not for a stable system. You can check a disk like 100 times by the most advanced utility (whatever it is) but the real deal is a 200 byte .plist file which was "gone" somehow.

I don't say "only pacifist is enough" but it is a lifesaver for sure.

Kernel extension idea is genius. Congratulations.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by Angus_D

Uh, the kernel doesn't look there?

I think what he meant was, why doesn't the kernel look there?

Originally Posted by Ilgaz

When I was new to mac in 2003, I purchased like $200 amount of "system diagnostic utilities".

I have kind of "regretted" after I finally found about Pacifist. The real deal is to take care about the OS X and "essentials" and check whether they are intact or not for a stable system. You can check a disk like 100 times by the most advanced utility (whatever it is) but the real deal is a 200 byte .plist file which was "gone" somehow.

I don't say "only pacifist is enough" but it is a lifesaver for sure.

Kernel extension idea is genius. Congratulations.

Well, I'm not going to try to claim that Pacifist is a replacement for DiskWarrior. I am glad, however, that it has been useful for you.

[Ilgaz]

Sometimes real funny "accidents" happen.

I don't know how but one day, there was a windowserver cpu hogging bug and Apple (KB) told me to delete windowserver.plist files.

As I am "too" clever and lazy, I used locate tool or something that can look the entire OS (telling for future lazy ones) and "sudo rm " the windowserver.plist files.

It didn't boot next time. I went back to "yea, Slackware is real thing" days, OS asked me to login on black screen

After my 2-3 disk checks, finder info test, file test, "clear caches" etc I launched Pacifist.

What I deleted you know? Windowserver.plist , in /etc/ services or something! Yes, the very file for initilising the window manager at boot!

So, that 200 byte thing is a real story Yes, I have no shame telling it. Next time- I will tell how I issued "del ." in Windows INF directory in '98. I got many stories like that.