After reading a
recent thread that discussed strange problems some 10.4.10 users (including myself) have encountered after restoring an SD! backup, I learned that resetting the LaunchServices database is most likely the solution.
Unfortunately it turns out this is not the case.
To summarize, sometimes when a 10.4.10 image is restored, the dock icons get messed up (they point to random resources) and some applications do not start properly the first time (Photoshop CS3 gave me an "internal error"). Some other users have reported the pref icons and other links are also broken.
The proposed resolution to these problems was to rebuild the LaunchServices database by executing this command in Terminal.app:
Code:
/System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/\
Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister \
-kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
Unfortunately this
does not fix the problem. For a while I thought it did, but a few hours after restoring my MacBook Pro image, my dock went all screwy again, even enough I had reset LaunchServices as soon as my restored MBP booted for the first time.
To make sure I hadn't messed up, I restored my MacBook Pro yet again and reset my LaunchServices database. This time it only took a couple of hours for things to start misbehaving like before.
I'm running fully-patched 10.4.10 on a latest-generation Santa Rosa MacBook Pro, if that matters. Also, my backup drive image was initially called "Macintosh HD Backup", though I tried renaming it back to "Macintosh HD" before restoring so both drives are named the same, which seemed to make no difference.
Can anyone tell me what I have to do to make my restored 10.4.10 images behave? Restoring dock icons isn't a big deal, but some applications like Photoshop CS3 are not starting properly the first time, and who knows what else has been damaged because of this issue? And restoring the LaunchServices database is not making this problem go away.
Fortunately I'm only doing this to get familiar with SD!, so no data has been endangered, but I'm glad I decided to experiment with restoring before I truly needed it, as it doesn't quite seem to be working.
I should also stress that I have never seen this bug on any of my 10.4.10 Macs prior to restoring with SD!.