Okay, so my system is a 2011 iMac and it has a 200GB SSD along side the factory 1TB Mac Hard Drive. Since upgrading to Yosemite i've had a load of problems. I cannot install new updates. I've tried to reinstall Yosemite. I've tried to repair permissions from disk utility. Nothing has worked for me yet. I'm really hoping I can find some help on here. I will upload a couple of screen shots, (one taken with my iPhone). The first screen shot is of the login screen. I apologize about it being a little burry but the thing I wanted to show was the weird characters that make up all the letters on the screen. The second screen shot is a terminal window showing permission denied on the updates I'd like to install after running sudo softwareupdate -iva.
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Yosemite Corrupt login screen | Permission errors HELP!!
- Thread starter rmalkmus
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Ditto the "installed any custom fonts" line of questioning.
Usually see something like that by installing font(s) that have some issue. Eg. seen folks complain about Finder windows/boxes all messed up after installing custom fonts for Office.
Or one of those "skinning" customizations that changes the default icons.
Backup everything, wipe the drive, reinstall OS. Login and see if everything is fine. That would point to something you've installed/added to the environment.
Usually see something like that by installing font(s) that have some issue. Eg. seen folks complain about Finder windows/boxes all messed up after installing custom fonts for Office.
Or one of those "skinning" customizations that changes the default icons.
Backup everything, wipe the drive, reinstall OS. Login and see if everything is fine. That would point to something you've installed/added to the environment.
The text on that window comes from the systems font, its messed up indicating there is an issue with the system font. Whether you knowingly installed it or not.
Best advice is to wipe and reinstall.
No I would not link the drives into a fusion, IMHO it adds unecessary risk and complexity to little benefit.
For updates, try sudo bash then run the update command.
You could try installing the OS X 10.10.1 update (again), it may just tidy up what is needed: http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1779/en_US/OSXUpd10.10.1.dmg
You could try installing the OS X 10.10.1 update (again), it may just tidy up what is needed: http://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1779/en_US/OSXUpd10.10.1.dmg
simonsi - I have tried to re-install. but, have not had any luck with that. The way I've tried was by booting into recover mode (command + R) and then re-installing Yosemite that way. I think it downloaded the .dmg from the internet and then installed it. It copied all of my applications so i'm wondering if there are settings tied to my apple ID account or something. This makes me wonder if the corrupt font is tied to my apple ID settings that get pulled after I re-install Yosemite somehow.
The thing that concerns me the most is not being able to update Yosemite. I have seen soft links on the SSD pointing back to the factory Mac hard drive. I'm not sure, but i think that these links are somehow related to the weird permission errors.
Kilamite - I tried to use sudo in front of the softwareupdate command but still the same permission denied error. I'm going to try and download the update from the link you sent below and install it. I'll let you know how that goes. Thank you.
The thing that concerns me the most is not being able to update Yosemite. I have seen soft links on the SSD pointing back to the factory Mac hard drive. I'm not sure, but i think that these links are somehow related to the weird permission errors.
Kilamite - I tried to use sudo in front of the softwareupdate command but still the same permission denied error. I'm going to try and download the update from the link you sent below and install it. I'll let you know how that goes. Thank you.
Sounds like you jut reinstalled the OS? While Im a bit surprised that didnt fix it I did suggest "wipe and install" to force it to reinstall everything.
Did you try a Safe Mode boot?
Ive never needed to install updates via the commend line so I cant tell whether you are following a workable route there.
Did you try a Safe Mode boot?
Ive never needed to install updates via the commend line so I cant tell whether you are following a workable route there.
okay guys, I think i've resolved it. So, i rolled back the image to an image back in July from a time machine backup I had. That image was mountain lion i think. Then, the Yosemite upgrade was available from the app store. I did that and BINGO, the login screen is normal, updates are able to be installed, and everything seems good thus far. Now, the question I still am pondering about is what was the cause of my weird issues that I've been having. I'm not sure how to prove it, but I downloaded this software called "triim enabler" back when I installed my SSD (post July). This software is suppose to upkeep the health of a solid state drive. I am wondering if that software did weird things to the drive causing the problems I was having. Any thoughts? After all, it was a software that had access to the low level software on the solid state drive (i think).
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Unlikely in the extreme:
TRIM only deals with data the OS has decided should be thrown away.
If it screwed up, you would likely have far worse problems that you had.
Pretty sure you had a messed up system font one way or another.
Unless you got TRIM Enabler from a 2nd-hand source and it came with something else you didn't know about...?
I am having the same issue with weird characters on the login screen but I don't have an image on time machine. What can I do?