system preference

[arfofoto]

When i want to open network in system preferences i always get the message "network is changed by an other program". If i say ok the message is always coming back and i have to use force stop. What should i do?

Thx dirk

 

[mahoneyjoe]

A Newbie Response--proceed with caution

Hopefully you get another more experienced response because I don't really understand this, but for what its worth, I had this too just this past week and got help with my applecare/calling support.
Running 10.4.11 on pb15, the support guy had me log into a second account and try opening system preferences, and network, and with that the slip message that you/I got did not show up.
From that he had me go mac hd>library>preferences>SystemComfiguration then drag the last folder to the desktop, then reboot. My understanding is that upon rebooting, systemconfiguration preferences is then regenerated from scratch, which solved the problem, and I could/did trash the old folder. Now all is good.
Maybe someone can explain the whats and whys.
Hope this helps, or leads to further research. Good luck.

 

[arfofoto]

thank you it worked great

dirk

 

[mahoneyjoe]

Great; you're very welcome; I think my first time helping someone. I'd still appreciate an explanation if anyone knows how this works, the trashing of a preferences folder fixing something.

 

[rolex54]

Great; you're very welcome; I think my first time helping someone. I'd still appreciate an explanation if anyone knows how this works, the trashing of a preferences folder fixing something.

you were right, moving the preferences file creates a new one when you restart, often fixing the problem

 

[applefan69]

Great; you're very welcome; I think my first time helping someone. I'd still appreciate an explanation if anyone knows how this works, the trashing of a preferences folder fixing something.

OS X saves the preferences you "prefer" in data files... the name of them completely escapes me right now... uhh i think its XML files but idk.

Anyways, so as you change your preferences, OS X will write your changes to that preference file. Then when OS X needs to know what your preferences you chose are, it'll read that file. (pretty simpy ehh?)

Well if those files arent in the correct directory, OS X will make new one, with DEFAULT preferences. So by moving that folder from the correct directory then OS X thought those preferences were missing, as a result it just made new preference files set at default settings.

Why this fixed things, is more then likely because your preferfence file became corrupt, so by making OS X create a new one, problem was solved

 

[moonbeam]

a simple fix that worked for me...

i found this solution via the comments on a post at urbantektonic.com, it's simple and it worked -

...open System Preferences, go to the “security” icon, then click “Require Password to unlock each secure system preference”

when you open the network pref's the dialogue box should no longer pop up.