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General Pref Pane Won't Open
#23833 10/19/12 01:37 PM
Joined: Oct 2012
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Joined: Oct 2012
Hi Everyone, I have a couple of Macs, one being an 1.5 y.o. iMac updated to 10.8.2. Soon after I updated to MT Lion, I get an error when clicking the General section on System Preferences.
I went thru a load of troubleshooting-removing the pref file-etc.It doesn't do it on the other user acct that is not used. It's come down to a complete nuke and pave. Not really looking fwd to this, AND, it's not really affecting the day to day operation.
So, I was wondering what anyone here thought? Thanks, R


Re: General Pref Pane Won't Open
Soundguyrob #23836 10/19/12 03:32 PM
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You'll have to provide more specific information. What is the exact error you are getting? Open console and see if any new messages appear in the log when you click and get the error message.


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Re: General Pref Pane Won't Open
Virtual1 #23840 10/19/12 05:26 PM
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Sorry, here goes-

com.apple.preference.general failed to load
-[_NSCFString _getvalue : forType : ] : unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x7f953b203280

Re: General Pref Pane Won't Open
Soundguyrob #23841 10/19/12 05:31 PM
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I just went thru to see if this file (com.apple.preference.general) existed and I don't see it?

Re: General Pref Pane Won't Open
Soundguyrob #23847 10/19/12 08:16 PM
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Originally Posted By: Soundguyrob
I just went thru to see if this file (com.apple.preference.general) existed and I don't see it?

So launch /Applications/Utilities/Console and search for a reference to com.apple.preference.general there and see where file is being called. If you don't know how to interpret the console logs copy the 10 or 20 lines preceding this call and maybe 10 lines following it and paste them into a reply here and someone can help you figure out what is going on.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: General Pref Pane Won't Open
Soundguyrob #23849 10/19/12 08:37 PM
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The string 'com.apple.preference.general' is the pref pane ID, not its name. The pref pane itself is called 'Appearance' (or 'General' in ML). To see this for yourself, open AppleScript Editor, copy the following script in its entry box and hit the 'Run' button:
Code:
tell application "System Preferences"

   set current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.general"

   activate

end tell

As to the problem itself, it appears that something is missing or corrupted. You might want to (re)run the Mac OS X 10.8.2 Combo Updater and see if that fixes things.


PS, before you do this, try joemikeb's suggestion. It just might lead to a quicker resolution.

Last edited by alternaut; 10/19/12 11:19 PM. Reason: added ML detail

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Re: General Pref Pane Won't Open
alternaut #23865 10/20/12 02:03 AM
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Ok, Sounds good- Sorry, I posted this on a Friday. I'll try the options you sent on Monday. Thanks in advance, Rob.


Moderated by  alternaut, dkmarsh, joemikeb 

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