Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.2.8: Working around the Palm Desktop 4.1 problem

Since last week, we've been reporting problems installing Palm Desktop 4.1 under Mac OS X 10.2.8 (an issue confirmed by Palm support). We've also posted a few workarounds provided by MacFixIt readers, including installing as root and copying the components, manually, from a successful install on another Mac.

We've since received suggestions for two other workarounds, both of which have been successful for some people. The first is to avoid using Palm Desktop 4.1 altogether, and instead run Palm Desktop 2.6.1 in the Classic Environment. The other, submitted by MacFixIt reader "tim821" in our comments section, is explained in this quote:

"I just upgraded to Mac OS 10.2.8 from OS 9.2 and then tried to install Palm OS 4.1 over the old Palm OS 2.6.The 4.6 installer continued to hang on install because the UNinstaller could not remove my old Palm OS. I finally got it to work by moving my old Palm folder to the trash ( and NOT emptying the Trash) and then starting the INSTALL program and once it started FORCE QUITTING ( Command-Option-esc) the UNINSTALLER program only. The INSTALLER program then launched and a full install suceeded. There seems to be a problem with the UNINSTALLER portion of the 4.1 Palm OS. I have performed several synchs with my Tungsten T now without any problem."

If none of these workarounds actually works for you, Palm has acknowledged the issue and is working on a patch for the installer.

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