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Lost My Leopard Dock - Please Help

G

gorslam

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 29, 2008
4
0
hi, i tried to change my leopard dock, and followed the instructions on this site:

http://www.leoparddocks.com/instructions/

which said to:

1. Go to Macintosh HD > /System/Library/Core Services/
2. Right-Click on "Dock" and select "Show Package Contents"
3. Go to /Contents/Resources/
4. Backup the files you are about to replace (Incase you did not listen, here they are)
5. Move those same original files to the trash
6. Move the files you downloaded to that folder
7. Open Terminal and type "killall Dock" (without the quotes)
8. View your nice new dock

everything was fine until i ran the terminal command. when i did the dock disappeared, and i have not been able to get it back.

is there a step im missing? i tried restarting and that didnt help. and i downloaded the original dock files and put them in the resources folder where they were to begin with and still no dock.

im guessing there is another terminal command that would restore the original dock.....but i cant find one that will work.

any help would be appreciated.

thanks.
 
Search for a program Docker 1.1.1 - it has a restore feature that I am sure would work.
 
thanks, but I tried both of those restore functions and unfortunately neither of them got me my dock back.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Is this something I should contact apple about?

thanks.
 
gorslam said:
thanks, but I tried both of those restore functions and unfortunately neither of them got me my dock back.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Is this something I should contact apple about?

thanks.
Click to expand...

wouldn't bother really, i'd do an achive and install
seems a tad drastic but you won't lose anything and your dock will be home safe
 
gorslam said:
thanks, but I tried both of those restore functions and unfortunately neither of them got me my dock back.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Is this something I should contact apple about?

thanks.
Click to expand...

It's not really something you can contact Apple about seeing as it was you tinkering about that caused it. Their answer will more than likely be to just Archive and Install.
 
joefinan said:
As you backed-up the contents of the folder, can you not just put it back as it was before you started tinkering with system files?
Click to expand...

well, i didnt exactly back them up. I put them in my trash and didnt empty it, figuring if need be I could just take the folder out of my trash if I needed the filed again. Unfortunatly, i cant access my trash folder, because i have no dock and I can't find where else it would be.

besides, I downloaded the original contents of the folder from someone else and put them where they originally were, but nothing happened.

thanks anyway.
 
So do we not recommend to use this websites advice? I mean, after having a look I like some of the docks there, so should we take gorslam's experience as an anomaly?
 
To access the trash, spotlight Trash.

The .trash (notice the "dot") should be your trash folder.

Yep, that's it. I just dropped the screenie I just took, into the folder, then respotlighted it. The pic is in the trash, so this is a viable way to find your trash folder without having access to a dock.

Picture2-20.png
 
skwij said:
To access the trash, spotlight Trash.

The .trash (notice the "dot") should be your trash folder.
Click to expand...

Alternatively, open a Finder window, and choose Go (menu) > Go to Folder… (shift+cmd+g) and type (or copy-and-paste) in ‘~/.Trash’ without the quotation marks. You’ll then see your Trash folder.
 
ok, thanks for the help everyone. i was able to access my trash and i saw that i also deleted another folder by accident.....the name of the folder in the trash was "MacOS" and inside there was a "Dock" icon that when i clicked it the dock came back the same way it was before i screwed everything up.

the problem now is, it opens another terminal window when i click on the dock icon, and when i close terminal the dock disappears with it. does anyone know a way i can run this "dock" application without using terminal.

i attached two screen shots of the dock icon and its info.

thanks again.....im staying away from terminal from now on.
 

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I'm having the same issue.

I have followed all of the steps in this thread and I am stuck at the same point that the last poster was at. Did this issue ever have a resolution?

To refresh:
I followed the steps on that site, and backed up the files, and tried to make a new custom dock. The new dock did not work (by simply dragging the files over) so I deleted those files and replaced them with the original ones. The dock now will not show up on its own, I have to click the MacOS exe file that opens up Terminal. Even then, the dock is not right. There are no leds underneath of icons, no separator, and no swirl underneath of the icons.
Another thing I am a little concerned about is that I can nowhere on my computer find the dock.plist. I never deleted that.

Help? I just want my dock back, I promise I won't mod it again.

-Meredith
 
gorslam said:
ok, thanks for the help everyone. i was able to access my trash and i saw that i also deleted another folder by accident.....the name of the folder in the trash was "MacOS" and inside there was a "Dock" icon that when i clicked it the dock came back the same way it was before i screwed everything up.

the problem now is, it opens another terminal window when i click on the dock icon, and when i close terminal the dock disappears with it. does anyone know a way i can run this "dock" application without using terminal.

i attached two screen shots of the dock icon and its info.

thanks again.....im staying away from terminal from now on.
Click to expand...

OK, first of all the MacOS folder with the Dock.app inside was deleted from the "package" contents of "Dock" within Core Services..... now for some details to fix that by putting it back in the right place:

You need to first off get the MacOS folder out of the trash for simplicity- get it onto your desktop.

Now:
• Open a window to your hard drive
• Open the System folder
• Open the Library folder
• Open the Core Services folder
• Hold Control and click on Dock
• Pick "Show Package Contents" from the list that appears
• Open the Contents folder in the new window that will appear
• Drag the MacOS folder (with the dock.app inside) into the Contents folder window that is open. You may need to authenticate with your password to move the folder into place.

• Close all the windows
• Do one final "killall Dock" in Terminal
• Dock should then act normally

After this, perhaps consider using some of the prepackaged dock changing solutions- I would suggest SuperDocker or CandyBar.;)
 
Thank you for your quick reply. Hopefully you can help some more.

I did not have the MacOS in my trash, it was in the Content folder. Since posting I have noticed a few more things.

My Dashboard is no longer active, the widgets are there, but all in their start-up phase (i.e. showing, but blank)
In CoreServices, the Dock Icon is greyed out with a dashed circle in it. Generally not a good sign.

Also, I still cannot find the dock.plist anywhere. This I'm guessing could be part of the issue. Is there anyway to force it to recreate?


Thank you for any help you all can give.
 
That's what you get for messing around key elements of Mac OS X. :D Just download a dock modder app and use the restore. to rid yourself of that app, just use AppDelete or something.
 
dude you trashed your whole Dock.app! you only need to replace the png files in Dock.app/Contents/Resources (right click and Show Package Contents) to open the Dock.app directory.
 
richthomas said:
dude you trashed your whole Dock.app! you only need to replace the png files in Dock.app/Contents/Resources (right click and Show Package Contents) to open the Dock.app directory.
Click to expand...

That is the only part that I got rid of. That's why I don't understand what happened. I only trashed(after backing up) the Resources folder. When I noticed the new dock didn't work I put the old files back in, yet I'm still having issues.
 
open Finder, click "Go To Folder…" from the Go menu (or press "Command-Shift-G") and copy and paste this directory in

Code: 
/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources

trash all of the png files listed below and then copy the default png files back from your backup. you will need to click Authenticate in the box that appears and suppply your admin password.

  • frontline.png
  • indicator_large.png
  • indicator_medium.png
  • indicator_small.png
  • scurve-l.png
  • scurve-m.png
  • scurve-sm.png
  • scurve-xl.png
  • separator.png
then to use a custom dock do exactly what you just did but instead in reverse so trash the default pngs and then copy the custom pngs over.
 
meredithla said:
Thank you for your quick reply. Hopefully you can help some more.

I did not have the MacOS in my trash, it was in the Content folder. Since posting I have noticed a few more things.

My Dashboard is no longer active, the widgets are there, but all in their start-up phase (i.e. showing, but blank)
In CoreServices, the Dock Icon is greyed out with a dashed circle in it. Generally not a good sign.

Also, I still cannot find the dock.plist anywhere. This I'm guessing could be part of the issue. Is there anyway to force it to recreate?


Thank you for any help you all can give.
Click to expand...


OK, earlier you mentioned finding the MacOS folder in the trash and included a pic of that which led me to showing you where it belonged, but now you mentioned that it was correctly in place in the Contents folder, so I am lost.

It sounds like you need to do an archive and install of the OS at this point, or at very least use the utility called Pacifist to restore missing files but I really think that would lead to more problems in this case.

Archive and install is probably the safest and best bet at this point. Good luck!
 
Sorry if this was confusing. There was another person having this issue before I posted saying I had a similar one.

When I am back home later today I will be backing up my important things and reinstalling the os. To make this all worse I've had these problems on vacation. I guess that's what you get for taking your laptop with you!

Thank you all of you for the advice. If anyone thinks of another solution please post it as this is the first thing to come up on a google search of this issue!
 
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