Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

brettcamp · Sep 3, 2004, 01:17 AM

Ever since I upgraded my G4 iBook to 10.3.5, no dmg files will mount, and when I pop a CD in, it doesn't show up on the desktop nor on iTunes; the only way to "see" and ejct the disk is via disk utility, but of course I can't use or listen to the disks that way. I've tried repairing permissions many times, have rebooted, etc. Anybody have any ideas about what might be causing it or how to fix this?

Krusty · Sep 3, 2004, 01:21 AM

Did you check in Finder -> Preferences -> General ? There are checkboxes for "Show these items on the Desktop" and include CDs/DVDs, Hard Disks, etc. Are those checked on ???

brettcamp · Sep 4, 2004, 01:03 AM

Originally posted by Krusty:
Did you check in Finder -> Preferences -> General ? There are checkboxes for "Show these items on the Desktop" and include CDs/DVDs, Hard Disks, etc. Are those checked on ???

Yep, they're checked on. I'm really puzzled about this. Never happened before, and the only variable I can think of is the 10.3.5 upgrade, but if anyone knows of other potential causes I'll try anything. don't want to wait for 10.3.6 to be able to play CDs!

Chinasaur · Sep 4, 2004, 08:32 AM

I had the "no-mount" issue once in 10.2, but repairing permissions/privelages fixed it.

Try whacking your finder prefs first. If no joy, get Onyx or Cocktail and run it through it's paces. Do all the options. Reboot when it tells you to.

Hopefully something it does will work.

Krusty · Sep 4, 2004, 08:45 AM

Well, next thing I'd suggest is looking in User/Library/Preferences/ and finding com.apple.finder.plist. Move this file to your desktop temporarily. Relaunch the Finder (by clicking and holding on the finder icon in the dock and pressing the option key at the same time -- a "relaunch" menu choice will appear). Once you've relaunched, the finder will revert to all of its default behaviors (and create a new com.apple.finder.plist file). Now, throw in a CD and see if it works. If so, you may need to trash your old com.apple.finder.plist file and redo your other finder prefs manually. If this doesn't work, then just delete the new com.apple.finder.plist that has been created in User/Library/Preferences and restore your old one (and then relaunch the Finder again as noted above) to get all your old finder prefs back.

brettcamp · Sep 5, 2004, 01:07 AM

Thanks, Krusty. It sounded like a promising approach, but when I tried it ... still no CD showing up.
Anybody have any other ideas?

Originally posted by Krusty:
Well, next thing I'd suggest is looking in User/Library/Preferences/ and finding com.apple.finder.plist. Move this file to your desktop temporarily. Relaunch the Finder (by clicking and holding on the finder icon in the dock and pressing the option key at the same time -- a "relaunch" menu choice will appear). Once you've relaunched, the finder will revert to all of its default behaviors (and create a new com.apple.finder.plist file). Now, throw in a CD and see if it works. If so, you may need to trash your old com.apple.finder.plist file and redo your other finder prefs manually. If this doesn't work, then just delete the new com.apple.finder.plist that has been created in User/Library/Preferences and restore your old one (and then relaunch the Finder again as noted above) to get all your old finder prefs back.

Krusty · Sep 5, 2004, 08:45 AM

OK then, couple more things to try:
Open the terminal and type "disktool -l" .. it will list all disks available to the system.
If your CD shows up in this list, try typing "disktool -m <name of CD as listed by disktool - probably "disk1">" . So disktool -m disk1

One would assume that if Disk Utility can see the disks, then the system knows about them but just isn't mounting them for some reason.

This won't solve your problem long-term but hopefully you can at least get access in the meantime while you figure out another solution. BTW, type "disktool ?" in the terminal to get a listing of all the commands you can use with disktool

Finally, one more GUI - based thing to try: Create a new user (you can delete the user when you are done). Log that user in and see if the dmg and CDs mount fine. If they do, your problem probably resides somewhere in your user folder. If the new user can't mount the disks either, then it a true system wide problem.

brettcamp · Sep 5, 2004, 09:36 PM

Originally posted by Krusty:
OK then, couple more things to try:

One would assume that if Disk Utility can see the disks, then the system knows about them but just isn't mounting them for some reason.

Yes, I think the system "knows" the disks are there because Disk Utility can see them, and also F12 ejects them. I didn't try your disktool/ terminal idea because, well, I've never used the terminal and it scares me a bit, and also because I need a long term solution.
I do have other options (i.e. my wife's Powerbook, which doesn't suffer the same problem even though it's running 10.3.5 too) so it's not truly urgent, though it is more than a little annoying.

Finally, one more GUI - based thing to try: Create a new user (you can delete the user when you are done). Log that user in and see if the dmg and CDs mount fine. If they do, your problem probably resides somewhere in your user folder. If the new user can't mount the disks either, then it a true system wide problem.

That's a good suggestion, so I tried it (had never actually logged in or out or created a new user), and once again the CD wouldn't show up. So I guess it's a system wide problem.

Could it somehow be related to the fact that when I download dmg files, they now fail to mount?

Also, just want to say thanks so much to Krusty and others for taking the time to try to help. I really appreciate the folks on this forum. but I guess if we can't solve it here, I'll have to try calling applecare, although I don't know if they'll help with what appears to be a non hardware problem. Anyway, if anyone has any other ideas, or has had similar problems, do let us know. Thanks!

Krusty · Sep 5, 2004, 10:20 PM

Originally posted by brettcamp:
That's a good suggestion, so I tried it (had never actually logged in or out or created a new user), and once again the CD wouldn't show up. So I guess it's a system wide problem.

Could it somehow be related to the fact that when I download dmg files, they now fail to mount?

Multi-users are GREAT IDEA, even if you only need one user space. That second user can be left without a password so that you may allow visitors/friends/whatever to use you machine without worrying about them "messing up" anything about your setup inadvertently -- also good for testing User vs System problems

Personally, I'd think that the .dmg and CD problem ARE the same problem ... a problem mounting volumes other than the boot volume.

You REALLY SHOULD try the terminal commands I listed. You will not hurt anything by running disktool (Its exactly what OS X is doing "internally" when it mounts volumes). If you try it and it works without a hitch, that could help isolate the problem (eg. the system is not registering the proper "trigger" for mounting volumes even though it may be fully capable). And while it is a stop-gap solution, it could help you keep working until the problem gets fully isolated. If it makes you feel more comfortable, I can write you an AppleScript that you can double-click that will do the same thing through the GUI.
Don't be afraid of the terminal, Most things you could really do to screw up the system would require an Admin User password verification before you could do it anyway.

Best of luck. To me, it sounds like a system event is not firing for some reason. As a backup plan, you could get your OS X install disks and run and "Archive and Install" which will keep all of your files etc. intact but make a fresh new System Folder for you (which you'd then have to upgrade to 10.3.5). This may end up being what you have to do anyway with the problem you have.

brettcamp · Sep 7, 2004, 12:27 AM

[
Best of luck. To me, it sounds like a system event is not firing for some reason. As a backup plan, you could get your OS X install disks and run and "Archive and Install" which will keep all of your files etc. intact but make a fresh new System Folder for you (which you'd then have to upgrade to 10.3.5). This may end up being what you have to do anyway with the problem you have. [/B][/QUOTE]

Thanks, Krusty. I went ahead and archived and re-installed my original system disks. Fortunately, the iBook is only a couple of months old, so I'm back to running 10.3.3 . I'm l, and CDs are once again showing up. I've also tried mounting the dmg files that wouldn't mount before, and they're working fine. So I guess it was some problem with 10.3.5 update. I'm running software update now, but the big question is: dare I update to 10.3.5 again? or wait till the next update?

Thanks again for your generous help. I guess no one else here experienced the same problem.