Odds & Ends: OS X Fonts folders; Damaged Files folder; iTunes launch error?; more

Mac OS X 10: Font Locations and Their Purposes TIL article 106417 states: "Mac OS X has multiple Fonts folders. Where you install a font determines when and who can use it. It's definitely worth a look - as it clearly explains the function of each font folder.

Damaged Files folder? David Rouse writes: "I've had occasional problems with my FireWire G3 PowerBook running Mac OS X but I haven't used any third-party disk utilities. Recently, I noticed a folder named 'Damaged Files' at the root of the hard drive. It is owned by user 'system' and group 'wheel' and it contained aliases to several files, including 'mach' files. I may have booted into Mac OS 9 before noticing the folder, so I'm not sure of the exact chain of events." We have never heard of this folder appearing before. Anyone know where it comes from?

Update: Rob Kennedy believes this folder is created by Disk First Aid. He writes: "I had this happen to me also. When running Disk First Aid from Mac OS 9.1, it created a Damaged Files folder while checking my OS X partition. Replacing the damaged files from a backup proved a simple fix."

Update: Andrew McNaughton doubts that Disk First Aid would create such a folder as it "doesn't perform any file level checks. It only checks HD directories." Andrew suspects Norton Utilities as the source. However, David claims to have never used it.

iTunes launch error: "OS X version required" When Jesse Miller tried to launch iTunes from the Control Strip Module in OS 9.1, he got an error message that said: "This version of iTunes requires OS X." He was using a PowerBook (Pismo) running both OS X and OS 9 on a non-partitioned hard drive with both versions of iTunes installed. We tried it on a similar single partition setup and it launched the OS 9 version of iTunes with no problems. Still, a posting in the MacFixIt Forums also reports this error - noting that it extends to the Recent Applications list as well.

Explorer install oddity When Frédéric Berti checks for Software Updates, he keeps getting told he needs Explorer 5.1.1. He selects to download it, a "successful" install is reported, but the update never appears. The next time he checks, Software Update again tells him he needs the new version. Deleting the "receipt" file did not help. We have had a few other similar reports.

Terminal Basics Although not yet listed on this web page, a new version 2.0 of Terminal Basics was posted yesterday. It is a brief guide to using Unix in Mac OS X.

Install Unix software without typing Unix commands OpenOSX.com web site offers their Database CD, stating: "Without typing a single UNIX command, our CD installs and fully configures MySQL 3.23.39, unixODBC 2.0.7, BerkeleyDB and InnoDB for Mac OS X. For MySQL administration, our CD will optionally install and configure Apache Web Server, PHP 4.0.6 and phpMyAdmin 2.2.0rc1. The CD also installs complete documentation in both HTML and PDF formats and source code." They offer a similar OpenWeb CD.