10.6 did something to my HD...

[deputy_doofy]

Ok, installation went seemingly well. Restarted and the desktop came up... or didn't. The desktop is a default and the message states, "The home folder for user 'xxx' isn't located in the usual place or can't be accessed." It then follows up with that it may have been moved or deleted.

So, in a panic, I checked my apps in the dock. They work. iTunes has my songs. iPhoto has my photos.

Get this. I can get to my users folder and desktop via the terminal. I can repair permissions of the Macintosh HD in disk utility.

BUT... I cannot locate the actual Macintosh HD in the GUI. It thinks it's an alias, and doesn't know where it should be pointing to.

The terminal shows this:
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 1 Aug 29 00:16 Macintosh HD -> /

So... do we have any Unix gurus that know wtf happened to my file/folder structure exactly? I'm happy everything still exists, but I'd like things back to normal.

All help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[dukebound85]

did you rename your home folder?

 

[deputy_doofy]

No. I've never messed with it. The terminal also shows it with the same name it's always had.

 

[deputy_doofy]

I should specify that this problem happens with every account on my MBP, including a newly generated one. It's a problem with how it sees the Macintosh HD volume, I'm guessing.

 

[padawer]

solution

I had the same problem, and a VERY QUICK AND EASY solution created by Thomas Tempelmann elsewhere worked for me. (In my case, I also saw the dialog box that said, "The home folder for user "xxxxxxx" isn't located in the usual place or can't be accessed." As an aside, I suspect the problem may have arisen when two hard disks shared the same name "Macintosh HD" although I'm not entirely sure of that being the cause.)

SOLUTION that worked for me:
1) Open the Terminal.app
2) Type this and then press return:
sudo xattr -d com.apple.FinderInfo /
(note: don't leave off the last space and "/" character before pressing return)
3) It should have asked for your password. Type it and press return.
4) Now do nothing else, except quit Terminal.app and then RESTART your computer (select "Restart" from the Apple menu)

More about the original problem Thomas described (identical to mine): "Finder shows empty desktop, and even an 'open /Applications' in Terminal does not open a window. Furthermore, 'open /' leads to the message that 'The alias <diskname> can't be opened because the original item can't be found'."

I had almost given up hope, but this simple command that resulted in a repaired "com.apple.FinderInfo" file did the trick for me. I hope this works for you.