OS X Odds & Ends: File extensions; Console log file; HP PSC 950; 10.1 documentation updated; more

Macromedia Director OS X "file extensions" fix Matt Warner writes: "Recently I've been searching for the reason why two Disney Interactive games don't work under the Classic Environment in 10.1. Double-clicking the application opened the executable in BBEdit Lite 6.1, even though the type is a Classic application. The name of the executable was Pschool.Mac. Simply renaming the file to PSchool.Macintosh solved the problem. My children can once again play their games. I've been a Macintosh user for many years, but this move to filename extensions is clearly a mistake."

Console log file causes disk full error Philip Sandiford found that a spurious error written to the console log and grown the file to 1.26 GB, which filled his hard drive. The source of the error message is not clear, but checking the console log occasionally may worthwhile if disk space gets tight. The console log is normally replaced whenever OS X is restarted.

Update: Dan Engler writes: "I had this same problem with OS X.0.4 and discovered that it was a result of having a USB Sony Spressa CD-RW Plugged into the machine. Unplugging it while the computer was on caused a kernel panic, but if I started up the machine without the CD-RW drive attached (it wasn't supported by OS X anyway) console.log problem disappeared."

Update: A reader notes: "The console log file at /private/var/tmp/console.log is deleted upon logout. OS X does not need to be restarted."

HP PSC 950 install freeze Jeffrey Mattox writes: "The setup assistant locks up in OS 10.1 and requires a force-quit when I try to install an HP PSC 950 (all-in-one) printer on my QuickSilver 897 with X 10.1. I know of at least one other user with the same problem. The install works fine under Mac OS 9.2.1." We have now received several confirmations of problems with this printer and OS X.

Updated 10.1 documentation Of interest mainly to developers, these two items are useful for users as well. Apple has posted the Human Interface Toolbox which comprises the Human Interface Toolbox release notes for Mac OS X 10.1, and Inside Mac OS X: Aqua Human Interface Guidelines which has been revised to include information about filename extension hiding, Dock Menus and notification, accessibility guidelines, full keyboard access, and other topics.

AppleShare servers via SSH broken? A reader writes: "It seems that OS X.1 breaks the ability to connect to remote AppleShare servers via SSH. Normally, the SSH client forwards traffic from localhost (127.0.0.1) for configured ports such as 548 (AppleShare), but now the Finder will not accept 127.0.0.1 as a valid server address. Some UI programmer at Apple short-circuited the underlying network model in favor of the message "This file server is running on your local machine. Please access the volumes locally."

iRez support unlikely soon? A reader was told by iREZ technical support that the CapSure card cannot be supported in OS X at present, because OS X does not support zoomed video.

No OSX Drivers for Philips Vesta USB cameras Doug Wilson was told by Philips that "There are currently no drivers for OSX for the Philips Vesta USB cameras. Nor is there plans at the moment for new X drivers."

Palm USB Cradle Syncs in OS X: a tip Muthir Kharusi found that he was able to sync a Palm M500 using the USB cradle in OS X as long as there is a Classic application in the foreground.

QuarkXPress hangs in 10.1 when accessing files on AFP servers Adrian Fry writes: "Having lost the ability in 10.0.4 to connect to the SFM drive (I had to use the DAVE 3 Beta), I was pleased to see the ability to connect via AFP in 10.1. Classic apps like Photoshop work fine, but QuarkXPress 4.1 hangs every time I even navigate to the mounted volume on the desktop. This appears to be a bug in Quark."

Update: Chris Murphy counters: "I'm unable to reproduce these results with a PowerBook or a QuickSilver G4."

Image Capture & iMovie bug? A reader reports that it is not possible to import photos from Image Capture into iMovie. He writes: "The images are grayed out in iMovie. I have to bring each image into PhotoShop and re-save them as something else before I bring them into iMovie."

No Canadian French keyboard? Michel Saint-Germain offers: "OSX offers many international versions: Korean, Swedish, Chinese - but no Canadian French keyboard. One Canadian-CSA, one Canadian-ISO, but no FC. There is a 'Canadien' (that's French) file in the Keyboards folder, but it's not available from the Prefs menu."

Internet Explorer 5.1 bug Jeff Preischel writes: "If I make a typo while entering a web address and the address doesn't exist (i.e. I typed "www.ebay.cokm") an error dialog pops up telling me the selected server does not exits. Now if I perform command-L to retype the address before getting rid of the dialog box I am unable to get rid of the dialog box at all."

Update: A reader offers this explanation: "Explorer actually suffers from several similar bugs that have to do with the fact that its error dialogs are modal dialog boxes that appear in the foreground and block access to other Explorer windows until you've dismissed them. The problem is that, even though those dialogs are modal and are designed to function that way (i.e., you must dismiss them in order to be able to continue to use Explorer), you can actually click on another window to bring it to the foreground or type certain keyboard shortcuts and therefore effect changes that can make dismissing the dialog almost impossible. For example, if you have a dialog saying 'The connecting server could not be found' and if you click on another browser window, this other browser window comes to the foreground and possibly hides the allegedly "modal" dialog box, so that the OK button is not longer visible/clickable, and the only way to dismiss the dialog is to press the Enter key."

OS X 10.1 spontaneously ejects CDs? A reader reports that several machines appear to eject the CD tray without any action by the user. Ted Pollari writes: "At first maybe a key-press had actually caused it, but after a few occurrences, once where I wasn't even touching my keyboard, I began to suspect something Several others on campus here have noticed the same thing."

Update: Brent Rossow writes: "Since upgrading to OS X 10.1 on my G3 bronze PB two weeks ago, the CD tray will spontaneously eject for no apparent reason. I thought perhaps it was from pressure on the keyboard as I typed, as my right hand rests directly above the CD drive, but when I saw it do it when I wasn't even touching the machine I determined that in fact it wasn't my fault. I have no idea what the cause may be, but the problem does exist."

For what it's worth, we have never seen this happen on either of our two Macs running 10.1. So, something beyond a basic install of 10.1 would appear to be involved here.

Star Trek:Voyager Elite Force Expansion Pack kernel panics: a workaround Joseph Prisco writes: "I was having frequent kernel panics and crashes when I tried playing this game under Mac OS X on my 450 DP system. I was told by Aspyr tech support that "We are finding that the multiprocessor code seems to be causing some problems, including the symptom you mention about the Escape key causing a crash. To correct it for now, disable the code as follows: Open the 'efconfig.cfg' file in a text editor, locate the line starting with 'seta r_smp,' and change the value at the end of this line from 1 to 0 (zero). That should take care of it for now. The programmer is investigating, and hopes to have a fix soon."

MacFixIt update We have also added information to several recent items, including Disk Copy and image sizes; Holding the X key at startup to select OS X; screenshots of the login window; and you may want to check yesterday's page, as we added several updates later in the day.