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Can't start Fetch (18 posts)

  • Started 14 years ago by Mark Hagerman
  • Latest reply 14 years ago from Scott McGuire
  • Mark Hagerman Member

    When I try to launch the program, it seems to be starting up for a few seconds, then shuts down.

    No window, no dialog, nothing.

    I'm at Fetch 5.3.1 under OS 10.4.11, on a PPC eMac.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    Is this a new problem? Have you been able to use Fetch successfully on that Mac before?

    Please try doing the following:

    * In the Finder, go to the "Go" menu, and choose "Home"
    * Open the Library folder
    * Open the Preferences folder
    * Find the com.fetchsoftworks.Fetch.plist, Fetch Prefs, and Fetch Cache files, and move them to the Desktop. (You may not have all three of these files, and that's okay.)

    Then try to run Fetch. Does that fix the problem? Let us know.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Edited 14 years ago #

  • Mark Hagerman Member

    Yes, it's new. I've used Fetch off and on for years, to maintain my web page. I've never had a problem 'til now.

    At some point, I switched from my (antique) Performa to an eMac. Some time later, I downloaded Fetch 5.3.1. Last February, when the evaluation period ran out, I bought a license, and everything worked OK. A couple of days ago, when I tried to use it again, it misbehaved.

    I've used the Find facility to locate and delete all *fetch* files except the app itself; it's still doing the same thing.

    Are there any log files I can check to find out what's happening?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for the additional information.

    Yes, there are log files we can look into; I just want to try the quick fixes first.

    Before we look at the log files, could you please download our latest version - Fetch 5.5.2 - and see if it has the same problem? I checked our records, and Fetch 5.5.2 is a free upgrade for you. You can download it using the link on our homepage: http://fetchsoftworks.com .

    If Fetch 5.5.2 works, then you'll be all set; if it doesn't work, it will be easier for us to debug when seeing the problem in the most recent version of Fetch.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Edited 14 years ago #

  • Mark Hagerman Member

    I figured that would be the next step.

    I DLed the latest version, installed it, cleared out the pref. files again, and retried. No joy.

    Ain't customer service fun?

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    Well, it's more fun when I can actually fix the problem on the first or second try. :-)

    Thanks for giving 5.5.2 a try.

    Let's look and see if you have any crash logs. Please do the following:

    To find the Fetch crash log file on Mac OS X 10.4.11:

    * In the Finder, go to the "Go" menu and choose "Home"
    * Open the Library folder
    * Open the Logs folder
    * Open the CrashReporter folder
    * Find the file named "Fetch.crash.log"

    Please send it to us at bugs@fetchsoftworks.com and we'll take a look.

    If you don't have a Fetch.crash.log file, let us know.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Edited 14 years ago #

  • Mark Hagerman Member

    Well, THAT's a surprise! No log file. Found the CrashReporter folder just fine. There are several other apps represented, but not Fetch.

    Hmmm.

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for checking. It's a little surprising, but not unheard of for there not to be a crash log file.

    So instead, we'd like to see your system.log and Fetch.log files.

    To find the system.log file, choose "Go to Folder..." from the Go menu in the Finder and enter "/var/log" (without the quotes).

    Then, please email the system.log file you'll find in that folder to bugs@fetchsoftworks.com .

    (There may be other files named "system.log" with numbers after them, you don't need to send those.)

    To find the Fetch.log file:

    * Choose "Home" from the Go menu in the Finder
    * Open the Library folder
    * Open the Logs folder
    * Find the file named "Fetch.log"

    And also email it to us at bugs@fetchsoftworks.com.

    Hopefully those will provide some clues about what the problem is.

    (Both these files may be rather large; you may want to compress them before emailing them. To do that, select the file in the Finder, go the File menu, and choose Create Archive, which will create a zip file. Email the zip file to us.)

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Mark Hagerman Member

    Well, there's no "Fetch.log" file in ./Library/Logs, or anywhere else. (I did a full disk search.)

    I've sent the current system log to you, but I doubt it'll do you any good; there's no reference to Fetch.app in it.

    I opened the Console app, and filtered for "fe" against system.log AND all its previous generations...no joy.

    Maybe my computer just doesn't like peremptory orders. "Fetch, huh! I'll show YOU 'Fetch'!" <grin>

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    You're right, your system log doesn't include any information that appears related to Fetch. However, it looks like the log file had just rolled over recently, so I'm wondering if maybe it didn't cover the time period when you'd tried to open Fetch.

    But there's another preferences file I'd like you to try to remove to see if fixes the problem:

    * Choose "Home" from the Go menu in the Finder
    * Open the "Library" folder
    * Open the "Preferences" folder
    * Find the file named "com.apple.internetconfig.plist" and move it to the Trash

    Then try running Fetch again.

    If that doesn't fix the problem, please send us your system log file again (because we'll know it includes an attempt to open Fetch).

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Mark Hagerman Member

    At 20:30, I repeated the procedure; the most recent entries in the system log are:

    Oct 8 16:38:49 Terra KernelEventAgent[39]: tid 00000000 received VQ_NOTRESP event (1)
    Oct 8 16:38:54 Terra /System/Library/CoreServices/mcxd.app/Contents/MacOS/mcxd: mcxd [5698] Giving up waiting for mcxd process 5694 to quit after waiting 30 seconds
    Oct 8 16:40:45 Terra KernelEventAgent[39]: tid 00000000 received VQ_NOTRESP event (1)

    However, the console log has something useful:

    terminate called after throwing an instance of 'OSError'
    what(): an error has occurred (Mac OS error -2582.)

    Apple's support sites indicate:

    From: MacErrors.h

    /* Icon Services error codes */
    enum {
    invalidIconRefErr = -2580, /* The icon ref is not valid */
    noSuchIconErr = -2581, /* The requested icon could not be found */
    noIconDataAvailableErr = -2582 /* The necessary icon data is not available */
    };

    I think this is what's called a clue. <smile>

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for the info. We'd like to confirm that that error is, indeed, happening when you try to open Fetch by trying to open Fetch using the command-line in the Terminal application.

    Could you please do the following?

    * Open the Applications folder.
    * Open the Utilities folder.
    * Open the Terminal application.
    * At the prompt, type:

    /Applications/Fetch.app/Contents/MacOS/Fetch

    * Then press Return.
    * Send us any errors that appear after you enter that command.

    (The above instructions assume Fetch is in your Applications folder. If it is not, replace /Applications with the full path to the folder where Fetch is located. If you're not sure what to type, let us know.)

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Mark Hagerman Member

    Last login: Fri Sep 25 17:28:12 on console
    Welcome to Darwin!
    [Terra:~] mhagerma% /Applications/Fetch.app/Contents/MacOS/Fetch
    terminate called after throwing an instance of 'OSError'
    what(): an error has occurred (Mac OS error -2582.)
    Abort
    [Terra:~] mhagerma%

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    Thanks for confirming that.

    Getting such an error when trying to open Fetch would usually indicate a corrupt copy of Fetch, because Fetch is trying to load some resources (in this, case icons) and getting an error when it tries to do so. However, since you downloaded Fetch 5.5.2 and installed it and ran into the same problem, it's not too likely that you got two corrupt copies in a row.

    Another possibility is that some piece of system add-on software (such as something that modifies the appearance of Mac OS X window, or that adds features or menus to every application) is interfering with Fetch somehow. I don't know if you have any such software.

    One way to test to see if this is the case would be to create a new user account and try to run Fetch in the new user account and see if it opens there. If it does, then most likely some software installed in your regular user account is causing a problem. (If Fetch fails to launch again, it's not completely diagnostic - some add-on software installs itself in such a way that it affects all users - but if Fetch does open successfully in a new user account, then that is useful information.)

    The final possibility is that your copy of Mac OS X has gotten slightly corrupted. Unfortunately, the only way to fix that would be a re-install of Mac OS X.

    So, I'd try running Fetch in a new user account and see what happens, and consider if any other software you have might affect Fetch because it affects all applications. After that, the next step would be to consider re-installing Mac OS X.

    Sorry not to have simpler answer for you. please let us know what you find out and if you have further questions.

    Thanks,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Mark Hagerman Member

    Well, I tried it on my wife's account (on the sam emachine, of course), and go the same result. However, her account pre-dates mine, so any installs that degraded the system would likely have affected her account at the same time.

    I noticed this morning that the trashcan was displayed in the toolbar as a simple document icon...not good. I think I'm going to do a (shudder) reinstall of the OS, and see if that buys me anything.

    I may not do that for a few days, so don't be surprised if you don't hear more from me for a while.

    Thanks, and I WILL let you know the results.

    Mark

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    Okay, thanks for the update. Yes, I realize that re-installing Mac OS is a drag, but I do think it's the best next step at this point.

    Best,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Mark Hagerman Member

    Um...well, you it's like this.

    Before I got 'round to the system reinstall, something else came up (I forget what) that required a cold restart. Once that was done, I got to thinking. I tried launching Fetch again, and it's working now. So, I guess I won't do that reinstall after all. Thanks for your help.

    Mark "is my face red, or what?" Hagerman

    Posted 14 years ago #

  • Scott McGuire Administrator

    Hi Mark,

    You're welcome, and thanks for the follow-up - we're glad to hear Fetch is working again and you didn't need to reinstall the system after all!

    Best,

    Scott McGuire
    Fetch Softworks

    Posted 14 years ago #

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