[colivigan]

I came down this morning and was greeted by the infamous "startup disk nearly full" warning displayed over top of my login window. WTF? Inconceivable!

In fact, it was completely full. After a little investigation, I discovered a 25 GB windowserver.log file in /private/var/logs. it was full of messages like this:

Dec 05 06:48:07 [5902] (ipc/rcv) invalid name: CGXRunOneServerPass: mach_msg (gServiceSet) failed (last RPC: LaunchAppRequestWithAuditInfo)

Deleted the offending log file and got my disk space back. Ran Disk Utility and repaired permissions, rebooted, and now everything seems fine ... almost.

I cannot run an 'ls' command from Terminal! It gives an error similar to those that were in the windowserver.log:

bash> ls /bin/ls: line 1: syntax error near unexpected token `(' /bin/ls: line 1: `id name: CGXRunOneServerPass: mach_msg (gServiceSet) failed (last RPC: LaunchAppRequestWithAuditInfo)'

Syntax error? Huh? I Googled unsuccessfully. Any ideas?

[chucker]

Boot into single-user mode (cmd-S) and do, in this order:

fsck -fymount -rw /rm -rvf /var/log/windowserver.logrm -rvf /System/Library/Cachesrm -rvf /Library/Cachesrm -rvf /Users/(you)/Library/Cachesreboot

Naturally, replace "(you)" with whatever your main account's user name is.

FWIW, it's not ls that's broken.

[colivigan]

Thanks, chucker, I'll try this tonight when I get home.

If I'm understanding correctly, I probably have one or more corrupt or partially written cache files (directory cache?), most likely a result of the disk-full condition. This is causing 'ls' to choke, and scrubbing the caches will eliminate the problematic file(s) and resolve the immediate issue.

Any idea what would cause windowserver.log to asplode like this in the first place?

[chucker]

Originally Posted by UncleJohn If I'm understanding correctly, I probably have one or more corrupt or partially written cache files

Yup, that's my guess.

Any idea what would cause windowserver.log to asplode like this in the first place?

No. Seems a very rare bug.

[colivigan]

Well, I cleared the caches per chucker's suggestion, and it didn't fix the ls problem. And now my fans run continously, full-on.

I tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM per the sticky in this forum, and still no joy. Any other ideas?

This is a PM 1.8 single running 10.4.8 with the latest security updates.

Update: Powered off and unplugged for several minutes to reset SMU, and that has fixed the fans. Thank goodness, that thing sounded like a jet engine! But I still can't 'ls'. Does OS X have a utility like truss or strace so I can try to figure out what files it's opening and possibly choking on?

[colivigan]

Originally Posted by chucker FWIW, it's not ls that's broken.

Believe it or not, it was.

Even though Finder didn't show a recent modification date for /bin/ls (obviously, I couldn't run ls -al)
I decided to try copying /bin/ls from my iMac running the same OS version over to the PM G5, and now all is well!

I can't wait to find out what else is broken. Full disk BAD!

[chucker]

Hmmm, I would recommend installing BaseSystem.pkg, Essentials.pkg and then Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo(! not delta!).

[colivigan]

Originally Posted by chucker Hmmm, I would recommend installing BaseSystem.pkg, Essentials.pkg and then Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo(! not delta!).

Yeah, I was thinking that a reinstall might be wise. Can I just install those packages individually off the Tiger DVD, without going through the installer itself?

[Brad]

Originally Posted by UncleJohn Yeah, I was thinking that a reinstall might be wise. Can I just install those packages individually off the Tiger DVD, without going through the installer itself?

It's possible, but I wouldn't recommend it.