I accidentally deleted iChat...

[andysmith]

I've had an eMac for about a month now, and it's my first foray into Macs (and I LOVE it :):))
When I first got it, I dragged iChat into the trash, thinking it was just a shortcut like Windows (I didn't understand how apps work on Mac back then).
But now I've appreciated how crap MSN for Mac is, and I'd like to try out iChat... but I don't have it :(

Is there any way to restore it from my installation DVDs without re-installing the whole system?

[munkle]

If you dragged the icon from the dock into the trash then you haven't deleted it.

If you have deleted it, you can use Pacifist (http://www.charlessoft.com/) to save you the hassle of reinstalling everything.

Keep enjoying your Mac! :)

[andysmith]

Thanks - will I need to pay for it just to use it once? Or will it do the job I want?

[edesignuk]

I'll put a copy up you can just download. You are using Panther right?

edit: here (http://tracker.yo-momma.net/tracker.php?id=14) you go :)

[andysmith]

Ah-ha - I installed Pacifist, which just has a 15-second nag screen. Popped in my restore disc and it worked fine. Thanks guys! :) :) :) :)

[crachoar]

I have never successfully reinstalled iChat, even while using Pacifist. If somebody can help me out with this, via email, irc, etc. sometime, that would be fantastic... :(

I will try that file 'edesignuk', and hopefully that'll fix everything.

It stopped working when I plugged in a new Logitech USB headset. The program would constantly hang (and would then quit itself), so I deleted it entirely, hoping I could just reinstall the app...

I'll let you know how that goes. Thanks for the download.

Edit: Same thing happens. It launches, hangs for about a minute, then asks if it can access my keychain. After this, it asks for my screen name and such, then spinning beachball of death. After about 2 minutes, it gets to the Rendezvous Messaging window, asking me if I want to use it or not. It hangs for a while (about a minute and a half). After this, it says I am ready to use iChat AV, however, it will not let me click 'done'. It's just a white button for about thirty seconds, then it's glowing blue. I hit 'return' and the window vanishes. The program in the Activity Monitor is still listed as 'hung'.

After it stops being listed as 'hung' in the activity monitor, if I try to interact with the program from the dock, it'll hang again and then say 'iChat Internal Error! NSInteralinconsistencyException: SubNet service is not available!'

This is as far as I've ever gotten with this. Sounds like something pretty minor. Please respond if you know what to do.

That window offers two options: 'Quit' or 'Continue'. It I hit 'return' and wait about a minute, it vanishes and the program is no long listed as being 'hung'.

Now, I click on the 'iChat' menu. It hangs again. Now I get this error.

'iChat Interal Error! NSInternalInconsistancyException: Invalid parameter not satisfying: aString != nil'. Once I click 'Continue', it responds immediately and everything seems fine. As soon as I click on the menu again, I get the same error. It appears as if I can't go any further. However, this is as far as I've ever gotten with a reinstall attempt. Usually it crashes at the Rendezvous window.

[edesignuk]

- crachoar

Try tashing your iChat prefs

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.AIM.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChatAgent.plist

Not sure which ones you need to delete exactly, but try trashing them all (but LEAVE them in the trash, then you can restore if need be).

[munkle]

I have never successfully reinstalled iChat, even while using Pacifist. If somebody can help me out with this, via email, irc, etc. sometime, that would be fantastic... :(

This is as far as I've ever gotten with this. Sounds like something pretty minor. Please respond if you know what to do.

Don't know if this will help but try deleting the iChat's preferences files...In Finder go to file/find type in ichat and delete the preferences files that come up. It should have the effect of 'resetting' iChat and hopefully it will work this time round.

[crachoar]

I've done that in the past, will try again in a few seconds though.

Update: I quit the program (since it was in that endless error loop) and restarted. Now it's acting as if it never installed again. Giving me the 'Welcome to iChat AV' window again.

:(

Will try deleting the prefs again...

Hung for about 30 seconds, gave me the 'Welcome' window again, as if I were installing...

Now what? :(

[jeremy.king]

Andy,

You may also want to take a look at Adium (http://www.adiumx.com/) or Proteus (http://www.proteusx.com/download.php)

There are many others as well, documented pretty well at http://www.macorchard.com/chat.html

[andysmith]

Andy,

You may also want to take a look at Adium (http://www.adiumx.com/) or Proteus (http://www.proteusx.com/download.php)

There are many others as well, documented pretty well at http://www.macorchard.com/chat.html

Thanks - Proteus looks quite nice. :)
Is there any MSN Mac client that supports Display Pictures or Custom Emoticons?

[edesignuk]

Go with Adiumx!!!!!!!

[crachoar]

Soooooooo........

:confused:

[edesignuk]

Soooooooo........

:confused:
To hell with iChat, it's not all that anyway! :eek: Get AdiumX (www.adiumx.com).

[crachoar]

Except for the part where it doesn't have voice or video chat...

At least it didn't last time I checked...

And why do people always do that? That's like me coming here saying, 'Help, have a problem with Photoshop...' and you tell me, 'Use GIMP instead!'

What if I prefer iChat so far (since nothing I've seen yet has the nice voice-chat features of iChat). Granted, iChat kinda blows...but last time I used Adium, it wasn't so hot either.

Things I require: 1) Voice Chat 2) File Transfer Capabilities 3) AIM support. That's all I want in a chat program.

[edesignuk]

And why do people always do that? That's like me coming here saying, 'Help, have a problem with Photoshop...' and you tell me, 'Use GIMP instead!'
People "don't always do that", if you read the thread you'l see we have tried to help as best we can, and I for one am now out of ideas and am offering an alternative, again, still trying to help :mad:

[Inkmonkey]

To hell with iChat, it's not all that anyway! :eek: Get AdiumX (www.adiumx.net).

Linky no worky.
What's so great about AdiumX? Sell me.
I just upgraded to Panther last night so I haven't had much time to check out iChat yet. Ya I know, I'm quite behind the times. I'm still wearing my Michael Jackson "Thriller" jacket.

[edesignuk]

Linky no worky.Fixed :D
What's so great about AdiumX? Sell me.Just try it, you'll like it. I'm not gonna try and sell it to you, because to be quite frank I couldn't care less if you do or don't use it :p








...ok...you can customise how it looks, use Yahoo, AIM, & MSN, tabbed chat window...

[crachoar]

I'm not saying you're not trying to help.

It's just annoying when you need a certain program for a certain reason and somebody suggests something that is 'kind of like what you need, but not really'.

I'm not saying your suggestion is annoying, I'm saying that it's annoying because that's the only help I've ever gotten with this issue...

It can't be impossible to reinstall it properly. Maybe I'm missing some crazy hidden file or something, I have no clue. That's why I'm asking for help.

Thanks for trying. I didn't mean to say that you didn't. Can you see why it's annoying? ;)

It's like when you have a problem in Windows and somebody says, 'hah! Windows is lame! Use Linux!'

Sure, Windows may be lame...but I need it for a certain reason, otherwise I wouldn't be concerned about getting it to function again. Ya dig?

So if anybody here is willing to help me out with this to save me from reformatting, that would be magical. It seems a bit mysterious to me and I imagine it would be a nice learning experience to figure out what causes something like this to happen...

[Inkmonkey]

Fixed :D
Just try it, you'll like it. I'm not gonna try and sell it to you, because to be quite frank I couldn't care less if you do or don't use it :p

Hey, you think you can get away with that attitude just because you're beautiful!!
:p

...ok...you can customise how it looks, use Yahoo, AIM, & MSN, tabbed chat window...

Thank you, kind sir. I may have to download and give it a try since I know nobody who uses iChat or AIM.

[edesignuk]

Hey, you think you can get away with that attitude just because you're beautiful!! :p
Not this again...


THAT IS NOT ME IN MY AVATAR! I am a man....man!


:)


edit: wait, you said sir in the 2nd part of your last post, now I'm not sure if you were just joking :confused: anyway...meh...

[Inkmonkey]

Not this again...


THAT IS NOT ME IN MY AVATAR! I am a man....man!


:)


edit: wait, you said sir in the 2nd part of your last post, now I'm not sure if you were just joking :confused: anyway...meh...

Hahaha...yes I was joking/trying to make you fly off the handle.

[tomf87]

Hahaha...yes I was joking/trying to make you fly off the handle.


Looks like it worked on her, I mean, him... :)

[Inkmonkey]

Looks like it worked on her, I mean, him... :)

(S)he's so cute when (s)he's mad. ;)

[edesignuk]

*must. resist. temptation. to pwn. with. image. macros*

[Inkmonkey]

*must. resist. temptation. to pwn. with. image. macros*

Haha...ok I'm sorry. Was fun while it lasted.

[wrldwzrd89]

I have never successfully reinstalled iChat, even while using Pacifist. If somebody can help me out with this, via email, irc, etc. sometime, that would be fantastic... :(

I will try that file 'edesignuk', and hopefully that'll fix everything.

It stopped working when I plugged in a new Logitech USB headset. The program would constantly hang (and would then quit itself), so I deleted it entirely, hoping I could just reinstall the app...

I'll let you know how that goes. Thanks for the download.

Edit: Same thing happens. It launches, hangs for about a minute, then asks if it can access my keychain. After this, it asks for my screen name and such, then spinning beachball of death. After about 2 minutes, it gets to the Rendezvous Messaging window, asking me if I want to use it or not. It hangs for a while (about a minute and a half). After this, it says I am ready to use iChat AV, however, it will not let me click 'done'. It's just a white button for about thirty seconds, then it's glowing blue. I hit 'return' and the window vanishes. The program in the Activity Monitor is still listed as 'hung'.

After it stops being listed as 'hung' in the activity monitor, if I try to interact with the program from the dock, it'll hang again and then say 'iChat Internal Error! NSInteralinconsistencyException: SubNet service is not available!'

This is as far as I've ever gotten with this. Sounds like something pretty minor. Please respond if you know what to do.

That window offers two options: 'Quit' or 'Continue'. It I hit 'return' and wait about a minute, it vanishes and the program is no long listed as being 'hung'.

Now, I click on the 'iChat' menu. It hangs again. Now I get this error.

'iChat Interal Error! NSInternalInconsistancyException: Invalid parameter not satisfying: aString != nil'. Once I click 'Continue', it responds immediately and everything seems fine. As soon as I click on the menu again, I get the same error. It appears as if I can't go any further. However, this is as far as I've ever gotten with a reinstall attempt. Usually it crashes at the Rendezvous window.
If I were you, I'd just download iChat from Apple (http://www.apple.com/ichat/download/).

[jeremy.king]

If I were you, I'd just download iChat from Apple (http://www.apple.com/ichat/download/).

Too funny...All this talk about Pacifist, and its available for download LOL

[crachoar]

Actually, no. The download from Apple does not install/work.

Anybody else want to take a stab at it?

[andysmith]

Well I got it up and running, with a nice blank contact list.
So I persuaded a friend running Windows to install AIM, but for some reason I couldn't add them. Then I remembered the iChat update I'd checked to ignore in Software Update, so I installed the update.
But then whenever I tried to add a contact, it just said 'AOL instant messenger service failed to create group "buddies"'.
So I tried signing up for an AIM account (I was using my .Mac account), which let me sign in, and add my friend.
Then I realised that iChat is absolutely horrible and wastes loads of space in the message window, and now I love MSN even more :D

I don't really like the look of Adium - Proteus looks much nicer, I'll have to give it a go some time.