Data Loss - cant save data or apps prefs

[CPYCGerry]

About twice a week my system gets into a state where it can not access the drive. When I quit an app, it says that it can't save defaults or data. If I try to download a file, the browser (Safari or Firefox) says that it can not save the file. A reboot and everything is fine.

Software: Tiger 10.4.1 with all patches including today's security update (updated from 10.1, 10.2, and 10.3)

Hardware: Cube with the Powerlogix 1.35 GHz CPU (and fan), 1.5GB memory and a 120GB Maxtor HD

I suspected some cron or startup task. I have removed Norton 10, and Retrospect. There are no non-Apple startup items or cron items. The Activity Monitor shows nothing strange.

My Energy Saver is set for cpu=never, display=30, and never put the drive to sleep.
All Sharing disabled.

My only concern is the group on my home directory. Recently, I created a new user for testing something. It has "user:user" for owner and group. Yet my own home folder, the one that has followed me through all the OS X updates) has "name:staff". Could that be the problem?

[hayne]

Recently, I created a new user for testing something. It has "user:user" for owner and group. Yet my own home folder, the one that has followed me through all the OS X updates) has "name:staff". Could that be the problem?

No - that is normal. Since Panther, new users are created with their own group. In Jaguar and earlier, users were in group 'staff'.

You say you have removed Norton - make sure all parts of it are gone. Maybe check Activity Monitor to see what is running.

And run the "Console" application and look for relevant messages in the logs.

[voldenuit]

1
Run applejack.sf.net and let it perform the whole list of what it can do.

2
As hayne suggested, make sure there are no stray leftovers; for kernel extensions use this command to check for non-apple stuff

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

[CPYCGerry]

I ran the kextstat and all were com.apple. I also ran Applejack. I did find a loginwindow requesting a Norton file. But a file not found error should not be a problem. A review of the Activity Monitor shows nothing out of the ordinary.
Here is a listing from Cosole. Looks OK to me.
Mac OS X Version 10.4.1 (Build 8B15)
2005-06-09 12:41:16 -0700
Hello from SOX Schedule
2005-06-09 12:41:24.508 SystemUIServer[175] lang is:en
Version = 4.7
No features used - Quitting
2005-06-09 12:41:27.109 MagicMenuHotKeyDaemon[205] Started

However this from the system log looks troubling
Jun 9 12:40:25 Cube SystemStarter[274]: authentication service (288) did not complete successfully

I also see a lot of
bootstrap 1103 uid 0: "/usr/sbin/lookupd"[59]: exited abnormally: Hangup


If this doesn't work, it looks like time for a nuclear winter. [reformat and load a clean system].

[CPYCGerry]

Still happening. I just started an erase and install. Here goes two days of restoring my 5 years of OSX apps.

[hayne]

After you do your reinstall, avoid installing things like the "MagicMenuHotKeyDaemon" that is referred to in the logs you showed above - at least until you are sure the system is stable.