Security Update 6-09-2003 can corrupt clipboard file; external drive issue

Representing a case example of our discussion regarding corrupted user preference files next week, it appears the Apple's 6-09-2003 security updater can cause problems with the clipboard, preventing proper copying and pasting. Sometimes this can result in the following error message:

"Can't copy the objects. ID = -4990.' Selecting type returns with "Can't copy the type. ID = -4990".

The file that becomes corrupted in this case is: /System/Library/CoreServices/OBEXAgent.app/Contents/Info.plist. Replacing the corrupt version with one from a different Mac, or a separate Mac OS X installation, should allow normal clipboard function to resume.

Knowledge Base article #107377 notes the following occasional symptom: "OBEXAgent may unexpectedly quit when logging into Mac OS X 10.2. This document explains how to resolve the issue. When starting up, restarting, or logging into Mac OS X 10.2, the file 'OBEXAgent.crash.log' is created at ~/Logs/CrashReporter. It is displayed on the screen if Console is set to automatically display crash logs."

External drive issue MacFixIt reader Robert DeVoe describes a problem when applying the Security Update to an external drive, along with the solution:

"I installed the security update on a 60 GB WiebeTech FireWire bootable hard drive with a Mac OS X 10.2.6 installation. Immediately after quitting the installation, the icon for the WiebeTech drive's icon was a folder with a negative sign on it, and I now had no permission to use the drive. DiskWarrior 3 found nothing wrong, Repair Permissions was grayed out in Disk Utility, and I could no longer complete a boot from the WiebeTech drive. From the internal drive, I did a Get Info on the WiebeTech drive, selected Ownership and Permissions, unlocked and set owner permissions to Read and Write, and the drive contents were suddenly revealed. I could then run Repair Permissions on the WiebeTech drive, and it seemed as if almost every file was being repaired (it took much longer than usual). After that, the WiebeTech drive recovered its normal icon and would boot."

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