Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.3 (#21): "Secure Empty Trash" can delete in-use files; Ejecting CDs; more

"Secure Empty Trash" can delete in-use files It is worth noting that the "Secure Empty Trash" function in Mac OS X 10.3 (intended to permanently erase files) can delete files that are currently in use.

This will cause differing behavior different applications. For instance, if you are watching a movie in Windows Media Player, and use the "Secure Empty Trash" command to delete the file, the movie will stop playing, and Windows Media Player will unexpectedly quit.

For critical system files, the results could be much worse, and possibly require re-installation of Mac OS X 10.3.

Ejecting CDs We've received several reports of an inability to eject CDs under Panther, especially after the system has gone to sleep. On some desktop Macs, you can usually you can successfully eject the CD by pressing the actual eject button (not the keyboard eject button) during startup, but there may be a better answer.

It seems that some third party USB utilities can cause the keyboard's eject button, and other keys, to not function properly. One utility that has appeared as the culprit in many instances is USB Overdrive.

Fortunately, a new release (10.3) that fixes the problem is available.

Another calculator bug MacFixIt reader Matt Carrell notes yet another flaw in Mac OS X 10.3's Calculator application. Namely the inability to speak the "divide" symbol when that option is checked under the "Speech" menu.

"Calculator has an announcer option for visually disabled people or those who just don't want to have to look at the screen all the time. The problem is, it doesn't announce every key that's pressed. When you go to calculator's Speech menu and select Speak Button Pressed, it will speak every button pressed except for divide. For some reason, it says nothing when that one button is pressed."

Legacy LPD workaround There are problems printing with Panther to legacy LPD servers where the printing process will stop with an error. MacFixIt reader Colin Henein has posted a workaround.

"I was trying to print to an old NeXT printer on a NeXT workstation. This worked great with Jaguar, but Panther makes a configuration change to the Mac OS X CUPS printing engine that stops it from working in the default configuration. The fix is simple, see: http://www.orange-carb.org/~cmh/panther-lpd.html for instructions.

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