Dock is not running

[atrate]

Ok, so I probably did something stupid. I wanted to add a 'recent things' stack to the dock so I copied the code, defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }' from http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071101055329470 Then I read to see the folder, type killall Dock to restart the Dock and see your new folder. And my dock disappeared. It's not hiding, it just stopped running, period. Spaces aren't working either, but I'm more concerned about the dock right now. I think my problem may stem for not reading the fine print of it being for 10.5, while I have 10.5.8 I've tried restarting my computer, even booted it up in safe mode and nothing helped.

If anyone has experienced this problem before, or knows a solution, please help.

 

[calderone]

Moving ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist would be one solution. If you have access to Finder, do it there. If not, type this into Terminal:

mv ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist ~/Desktop

However, this will remove the majority of your dock settings. There are a few methods that preserve your settings.

Removing the offending key
Since it is likely that this most recent entry has caused the problem we can remove the key thats holds the items in the right side of the dock. In Terminal:

defaults delete com.apple.dock persistent-others

This will trash the right side of your Dock.

I could go further, and dig down to the offending subkey but I think we will leave it at this, plus I am tired.

In either case, run

killall Dock

after and you should be back in business.

Edit: On second thought, you may need to reboot or logout since Dock.app is presumably not running (it probably is, but is hung).

 

[Gregg2]

I saw that tip in MacWorld yesterday. Since the only two things it does that I'd use are already in the Menu Bar, I didn't do it. I didn't want to execute that killall Dock command anyway!

Did you replace the Dock's plist file? Was it a pain to reset your prefs?