Panther: Missing Menu Bar Icons
 

Hi people,

Switcher to 15" PB only bout a week ago.

At that time Panther was still on countdown. Fortunately I got my copy of 10.3 yesterday and before long i was installing it in my PB.

Prior to this i have done some reading up on various mac sites just to be sure i know
what i was doing and that there were no major issues.

(My copy of Panther was obtained through the Up to Date program)
After many comments that 'clean installs' are the most appealing, i chose 'Erase and Install' option when running the OS installer. Everything was smooth and i was enjoying expose til i noticed that menu bar icons which were present on the top right corner in 10.2.8 on my system before the installation was gone.

At first i assumed it was my lack of knowledge as i was a newbie so i went to check out all the preferences and looked at the manuals and all told me to check the

Boxes that read:
Show displays in menu bar > under Displays > under System Preferences
Show Airport status in menu bar > under Airport > under Network > under SP
Show battery status in menu bar > under Energy Saver > under SP
Show the date and time > under Date & Time > under SP

however when all were checked nothing showed up on the menu bar.
I returned to each of the boxes again only to find all have been unchecked.
So i studiously checked all of them again and this time even clicked on the "Click the lock to prevent further changes." icon. But to no avail still no menu bar icons!!

Then i went around looking for people who might have the same problem. But i found none so i figured why not reinstall Panther again. This time boot from CD to ensure a "Cleaner Install".

Well as of now i did that and the menu bar icons are still missing. Pls advise cos
it hurts to see something not function on a mac. (Especially when i have serviced PCs for 6 years and got so sick of windoze that i switched)

No other software was installed when the above installations were done. Not even X11, developers tools or updates.

Dan
I just love my mac
15" PB 1Ghz 512Mb Backlit

Fast User Switching
 

Request major assistance people.

Fast User Switching also does not work. Just like the whole of my menu bar.
Is it a bug or is it something i did??

"Apple we really have a problem."

Danny

look in Activity Viewer or Top and see if "SystemUIServer" is running.

My guess is that it isn't. SystemUIServer handles the icons on the right side of the menubar.

If that's the case, some things I'd try:

-restarting

-repairing permissions (from Disk Utility)

-checking the filesystem

-logging into a new account to see if the problem exists there

-if none of that works, just do another erase and install. since you probably haven't had time to do much customization, that might actually be quickest.

let us know how you fix it.

Menu bar: Create another user and check to see if the menu bar items show up for that user.

FUS: Fast User Switching is obtainable from the menu bar, so if it's not showing up, you couldn't use it.

Activity Monitor and New User
 

Ok guys tried some suggestions

In admin account:

Checked out activity monitor.
No systemuiserver process found.(u were right even checked terminal and noticed Library -> Preferences -> com.apple.systemuiserver.plist is also missing)

Then i tried yellow's suggestion and created a Standard account

So in standard account:
Something weird is observed. The user name flashes once in a few minutes on
menu bar. Now to confirm my suspicion i opened Activity Monitor once more and stared at it for a few minutes and guess what, i saw systemuiserver appear and
disappear as the user name flashed.

This did not happen to my admin account.I am lost.

By the way i did try doing another clean install this afternoon, same thing.
Even contemplated installing Jaguar first then perform upgrade to see if it works.

Tried restarting too. Futile

Dan

go into Script Editor and run the following script:

tell application "SystemUIServer"
activate
end tell

---

i don't think that will solve your problem, but it's worth a try.

this happened on your first boot after an "erase and install?" AND you tried another "erase and install" and got the same result?

if so, i'd say you have bad hardware or bad install CD's. this definitely is not standard behavior.

you're under warranty, so perhaps you should call Apple.

Tried running script
 

Ran the script with Activity Monitor next to the script editor window to check response.
SystemUIServer Process shows up then poofs the next moment its gone.

yes i did 2 "erase and install".

praying real hard its not my Hardware, I only just got it last week.....
And menu bar worked fine on 10.2.8 the whole of last week.


Dan :(

Sounds like a bad Panther build. Don't waste any more of your time with installs. Call Apple and explain the situation and get them to send you new Panther disks.

Panther Discs
 

Went straight to check the surface of the discs

Found that Disc 1 and Disc 3 do not have clear surfaces like Disc 2.
They have some areas that looked smudged.

Do u guys think i should try the discs again on a Graphite iMac my aunt just gave me (wonderful blessing i must say) to confirm its the problem with the discs? Its running on 10.2.7.

Will be calling Apple first thing tomorrow.

Dan

If you have a spare machine and the spare time, It certainly wouldn't hurt to be able to tell the Apple tech, "yes, I already tried it on another machine and that one was *(#$ too."

Last straw
 

Will give it a go.

If it does not work like we predicted then ball's in Apple's court.

hmm but what if it works then ........ground zero.

Dan

Update
 

Just clean installed the 10.2.7 that came with my 15".

The menu bar is back.

Weird.

Panther is now being installed on my Graphite iMac.

Then i will try upgrade Mac OSX option in Panther installer on my PB
later to see the result.

New update
 

Installed the Panther on Graphite iMac

Still no menu bar.

But surprise surprise when i did option Upgrade Mac OSX on my PB which just had 10.2.7 installed menu bar is BACK!

oh well i guess i just can't do a clean install.

What then can be the problem?

What do u guys think should i still breathe down Apple's throats for a new copy of
Panther.

Appreciate your time guys
Dan

examine the crash logs for systemuiserver

~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/SystemUIServer.crash.log

Log Report
 

Did the log check

It read mainly:

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at (0x00000006)

Thread 0 Crashed:
then ............................half a page of stuff

Dan

The important parts are in that half-page of stuff..

The entire log
 

Host: Danny-Chuas-Computer.local
Date/Time: 2003-10-29 00:21:32 +0800
OS Version: 10.3 (Build 7B85)

Command: SystemUIServer (/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer)
PID: 312
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x00000006

Thread 0 Crashed:
#0 0x90195460 in __CFStringCreateImmutableFunnel3 (__CFStringCreateImmutableFunnel3 + 1724)
#1 0x901a767c in CFStringCreateWithSubstring (CFStringCreateWithSubstring + 592)
#2 0x0000d414 in 0xd414
#3 0x0000d654 in 0xd654
#4 0x0002b784 in 0x2b784
#5 0x0002bf38 in 0x2bf38
#6 0x00010bd8 in 0x10bd8
#7 0x0000c134 in 0xc134
#8 0x000109f4 in 0x109f4
#9 0x909f7804 in _nsnote_callback (_nsnote_callback + 176)
#10 0x901aa7f0 in __CFXNotificationPost (__CFXNotificationPost + 436)
#11 0x901af200 in _CFXNotificationPostNotification (_CFXNotificationPostNotification + 832)
#12 0x909f5650 in -[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] (-[NSNotificationCenter postNotificationName:object:userInfo:] + 116)
#13 0x92ee362c in -[NSApplication _postDidFinishNotification] (-[NSApplication _postDidFinishNotification] + 112)
#14 0x92ee3518 in -[NSApplication _sendFinishLaunchingNotification] (-[NSApplication _sendFinishLaunchingNotification] + 92)
#15 0x92ee3748 in -[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleCoreEvent:withReplyEvent:] (-[NSApplication(NSAppleEventHandling) _handleCoreEvent:withReplyEvent:] + 120)
#16 0x90a4aa98 in -[NSAppleEventManager dispatchRawAppleEvent:withRawReply:handlerRefCon:] (-[NSAppleEventManager dispatchRawAppleEvent:withRawReply:handlerRefCon:] + 356)
#17 0x90a5117c in _NSAppleEventManagerGenericHandler (_NSAppleEventManagerGenericHandler + 120)
#18 0x91674af8 in _Z20aeDispatchAppleEventPK6AEDescPS_mPh (_Z20aeDispatchAppleEventPK6AEDescPS_mPh + 208)
#19 0x91677914 in _Z25dispatchEventAndSendReplyPK6AEDescPS_ (_Z25dispatchEventAndSendReplyPK6AEDescPS_ + 44)
#20 0x91674d38 in aeProcessAppleEvent (aeProcessAppleEvent + 284)
#21 0x928c4290 in AEProcessAppleEvent (AEProcessAppleEvent + 60)
#22 0x92dd2c58 in _DPSNextEvent (_DPSNextEvent + 856)
#23 0x92de93fc in -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] (-[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 116)
#24 0x92dfd730 in -[NSApplication run] (-[NSApplication run] + 540)
#25 0x0000aefc in 0xaefc
#26 0x0000ad64 in 0xad64
#27 0x0000abd8 in 0xabd8

PPC Thread State:
srr0: 0x90195460 srr1: 0x0000f030 vrsave: 0x00000000
cr: 0x24004248 xer: 0x00000015 lr: 0x901953d8 ctr: 0x9002a500
r0: 0x00000000 r1: 0xbfffdfa0 r2: 0x0000000c r3: 0x00000000
r4: 0x00000000 r5: 0x0000003c r6: 0x00000000 r7: 0x00000000
r8: 0x00000000 r9: 0x00000000 r10: 0x00000000 r11: 0x44008228
r12: 0x9002a500 r13: 0x00000000 r14: 0x0033dfe0 r15: 0xbfffe650
r16: 0x00000000 r17: 0x00000001 r18: 0x00000000 r19: 0x00000001
r20: 0x00000001 r21: 0x00000000 r22: 0x00000000 r23: 0x00000000
r24: 0xa01900e0 r25: 0x0034256d r26: 0xffffffec r27: 0xa01900e0
r28: 0x00000000 r29: 0xa0190dac r30: 0x00000000 r31: 0x90194dbc

/edit: nosmilies -mt

Any conclusions?
 

Any conclusions people?

System is working fine now after i did the 10.2.7 then OSX upgrade way instead
of clean install.

Dan

There's nothing that jumps out at me.. still curious if a clean install would show up like this again.

is that up to date program disc the full program or only an upgrade?

On closer observation
 

hmmm

on closer observation al2teach may have a point.

The 1st Disc was labelled install disc 1 upgrade disc
2nd Disc was labelled install disc 2
3rd Disc was labelled install disc 3
last disc was Mac OS X Xcode Tools

if it was really just an upgrade disc issue then its a big boo hoo.

So sorry guys.
But the assumption is, with 4 discs shipped, it sure looked the full version.

Its also funny how an upgrade copy of Panther can be clean installed.
So an upgrade disc is Panther without menu bar + .....?

Dan

Odd.. what version is the CD? Mine is 2z691-4585-a

Version
 

Disc 01 is 2Z691-4633-A (Front)
Disc 02 is 2Z691-4586-A (Front)
Disc 03 is 2Z691-4587-A (Front)

There's another under the CDs that is different.
Disc 01 is 2Z693-4532-A
Disc 02 is 2Z693-4533-A
Disc 03 is 2Z693-5064-A

same issue here
 

hi,

i am using an emac, and I am experiencing the same issues: no menu icons, ie. not clock, dates etc and selecting these in system preferences are not saved.

I too did a fresh install, into a middle partition.

My build: (from the system profile)
----------
System Version: Mac OS X 10.3 (7B85)
Kernel Version: Darwin 7.0.0

How did u get your Panther?
 

laxx can i check with you on how you got your copy of Panther? How many Discs?
the answer may confirm something.

i.e
a) Up to Date Program
b) Retail
c) Apple Developer's Connection
or ......

Dan

just took a peek at apple's discussion site for panther.
http://discussions.info.apple.com/We...B9.6@.599b3b48

one of these days I will know how to change a url to something like"here". the part for you is about the upgrade cd "Owners of the "Upgrade-only" CDs do not want to use Disk Utility to initialize their hard drives as described in step 3. Instead, they should use the "Erase and Install" option, described in step 5".

menu bar works again!!!
 

Got the same problem here after upgrading to 10.3 on a G4Ti Powerbook.

Flashing menu bar ...

1. - Search for " systemuiserver " in your home directory

2. - delete "com.apple.systemuiserver.plist" in preferences folder

3. - if more existing files like "com.apple.systemuiserver.003065f91522.plist ", delete also

Works great here, can now activate and deactivate all menu items like before, no more flashing ...

Hope, it helps on other machines ...

wow, if that works for those people, they will wonder what took you so long to get here tango, germany is not that far away, lol.

I had the same problem with the missing menu bar icons after a clean install. I had previously done an upgrade. My FW drive was unrecognized and Safari wouldn't start. Now I have no menu bar icons. I tried what tango said, but I don't have any systemuiserver files except for the crash log.

Yess, I found the solution!
 

YESSS!!! I found the culprit! it's the irDA menu which causes the problem! I first deleted the com.apple.systemuiserver.plist preferences. restarted, immediately disabled the IRDA menu in the network settings and VOILA!

best,
Iwan Baan

missing menu bar
 

Try to disabled the IRDA in menu bar. it works with me. now i have all the other icons, and they don't Blink!

actually i think i know.
 

i found that the problems happen if i choose SINGAPORE as the country of residence. If i were to chooose another country of the same time zone ie. hong kong, the problem does not happen. Call it the singapore bug. to fix it, go to system pref on Time & Date, go to time format, somehow if you choose the time format, you will notice that the time has been selected as AM 12 instead of 12am. clicking on it, and closing it seem to fix it, of cozz you have to log out first.


laxx

I wonder if Almist ever got it fixed.

Fixed
 

Well people,

Its been almost 5 months, getting real familiar with me PB 15" backlit.

The problem sure was fixed.

It was a case of what was mentioned earlier by laxx, the country of residence being set as Singapore was the culprit (real weird bug). Setting it to the States solved it for me. (And i am glad to have solved the same problem for many fellow Singaporeans)

Got 2 people switched in my 6 months as a mac user hehe.(me aunt and me fren, and maybe a few more on the way)

Anyway i got a new problem on hand and that's why i am posting again for help.

Thks again to those who contributed to this thread. " )

Just chiming in with what I experienced..
Sometimes my menu items load up fine but on some restarts not all of them turn up even though they were checked in system prefs - and when i try to reactivate something, say, fast user switching, the user name gets garbled up with the rest of the menu items due to overlapping.

I dont have any problems with the flashing user name though but I wonder if this is normal at all. its a real pain having to reselect the date to show up time and time again. That said, if the menu items were stable enough that would be great since it doesnt have to take up space anywhere else.

cheers