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Deleted com.apple.WindowServer.plist... help?

J

JudasConstant

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 21, 2007
11
0
So, I did something kind of stupid and started playing around with this file without creating a backup. Long story short, I ended up deleting the file:

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer.plist

Can someone walk me through the repair process? I have a plastic Macbook.

I also have at my disposal:
An iBook running Tiger (it doesn't have a copy of the file )
The install DVD (I don't really want to reinstall OS X for one file)
A firewire cable
This information: "Default /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer.plist"

I don't really know what I'm doing, which is obvious considering I'm begging on this forum. Help me out, if you'd be so kind. :apple:
 
I have never dealt with launchdeamon .plist but I know other .plist are recreated by opening the app that created it. Afterwards you have to reformat your preferences. I don't know if this info will help in your case. What did rebooting your system do? Did it create a new .plist file?
 
Repairing disk permissions and creating a copy of the file in text edit and putting it in using target disk mode didn't work.

I likely created the copy incorrectly. I just opened up text edit, pasting this and saving it as com.apple.WindowServer.plist.rtf and deleting the extension didn't work, though that might have to do with the .rtf part. Is there another (correct) way to create the file?

:confused:

EDIT: In response, there was not another com.apple.WindowServer.plist created in the folder when I rebooted. Thanks for responding, btw.
 
When you reboot, it should create a new .plist file. It may be different, it may suck, but it will be there.

If you have what you want in a text file, just duplicate another .plist, open it, paste, save, and rename it to what you need.
 
So, I've just created the file without any of that .rtf extension confusion by going to here and clicking "save as..." and then just giving it the name com.apple.WindowServer.plist without anything appended to the end.

I put that in in target disk mode, and I'm still stuck at the apple logo and the spinning grey thing.

There was no .plist file created after a few reboot attempts, but I'm afraid it might have to do with the fact that I also installed security update 2008-007 for leopard before the initial restart when it failed to boot. I'm sure it's not a problem with that update, but it may complicate things in conjunction with the missing plist file.

Anyone with a similar configuration willing to post a copy of their com.apple.WindowServer.plist file?

Thanks again for helping out.

EDIT:

A typical plist file is on the left, the copy of com.apple.WindowServer.plist I created is on the right.

Picture%201.png
 
It's alive! I think I'll post the way I fixed it so you don't have noobs such as I bothering you with these requests. I resolved it using the following method:

1. Use another computer to create the com.apple.WindowServer.plist file by going here and then file>save as... "com.apple.WindowServer.plist" (and don't append .txt.)

2. Boot your mac in target disc mode (hold down t after the startup noise) and copy the file to /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/.

3. Reboot your machine to the command prompt (hold down command+s) and enter the following to repair the permissions on the file, thoughtfully provided by frontendplace:

  1. /sbin/mount -uw / ***note the space between w and /***
  2. cd /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/
  3. sudo chmod 644 com.apple.WindowServer.plist
  4. sudo chown root:wheel com.apple.WindowServer.plist
  5. sudo /sbin/reboot

4. Reboot

That's it, I hope this helps someone in the future.

For those of you who are wondering why this happened, I was trying to get rid of this modification I made back when Leopard first came out. Since the update there's no need to mess with this file because you can toggle transparency in system preferences. I was trying to revert to the old settings, assuming that the deleted .plist would be recreated, but it wasn't.


Thanks to everyone who offered advice.
 
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