Sharing Preference pane "Cannot Open" error?

Question

Hi all,
Im running Tiger 10.4.6 on a MacBook Pro 2.0, connecting to the Internet through an ADSL router via an Airport Express base station, everything fully updated.
Suddenly, when trying to open the "Sharing" preference-pane, I get this error:
Preferences Error
You cannot open Sharing preferences pane on this
computer. Contact the developer of this software
for a newer version.
I haven't installed or updated anything in the last few days, and it worked earlier today.
I have tried restarting, and deleted the following preferences, to no avail:
com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist
com.apple.networkConfig.plist
Any ideas?
TIA,
Thomas
MacBook Pro 2.0 / 2Gig RAM / 100gb, 7200 rpm   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Answer 1

Hello again, and thank you for your replies, and sorry for the late response.
First off; I have installed the latest 10.4.7 Combo Updater, but that did not install a new SharingPref.prefPane. I even removed the old one, before running the freshly downloaded Combo installer.
Actually, I did the exact same thing a week ago - same result.
So, in the meantime I had some work I needed to finish, so I didn't have time to investigate further, until this morning. Where I, much to my surprise, found the SharingPref.prefPane back in /Macintosh HD/System/Library/PreferencePanes/ and it was still the wrong version!
So "something" must be installing the wrong - old - SharingPref.prefPane. Well, I took a peek at my install log, searched for "sharing", and lo and
behold!
The mystery is - somewhat - solved. The old SharingPref.prefPane comes from and old Apple Remote Desktop 2.2 installer, that contains an installer called PantherSharing.pkg. See search from Console.app below.
What puzzles me, is the fact that I installed the wrong (old 2.2) version of ARD, to monitor a couple of servers, and of course uninstalled that version, and installed 3.0, the minute I realized my error.
How can that old installer keep "updating" my system, even after I've removed the old ARD? It's as if something is running the receipt, witch I funny enough, can't find on my system anymore.
The dates don't match either, or they do, but I would expect more entries from last week, where I removed the old SharingPref.prefPane and it mystically appeared again this morning.
The receipt must have run in the last week, but I can't find anything in my logs - install.log.0.gz OR install.log.
Maybe running a reciept dosen't get logged?
Ohh well Anyway - beneath is a copy of my log, and the question now is; How do I get the correct Pref-pane, when the Combo Installer doesn't install it?
Thanks for your help everybody, and shawnhm, thanks for Sharing my Pane ... Thank you, Thank you, I'm here all week
===============================
Anything matching "sharing" from "install.log.0.gz:
May 27 14:40:17 tbo : @(#)PROGRAM:Installer PROJECT:Installer-94 DEVELOPER:root BUILT:Jan 13 2006 18:32:16\n
May 27 14:40:17 tbo : Hardware: MacBookPro1,1 @ 2000 MHz (x2), 2048 MB
May 27 14:40:17 tbo : Running OS Build: 8I1119
May 27 14:40:17 tbo : Remote Desktop Installation Log
May 27 14:40:17 tbo : Opened from: /Volumes/Apple Remote Desktop 2.2/RemoteDesktop.mpkg
May 27 14:40:18 tbo : It took 0.906322 seconds to finish launching.
May 27 14:40:20 tbo : Distribution: Remote Desktop
May 27 14:40:22 tbo : Installation checks completed successfully.
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : admin auth received to install
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : =============================================================================== =
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : User picked Easy Install
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : Choices selected for installation:
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : Install: "Remote Desktop"
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : RemoteDesktop.mpkg : com.apple.mpkg.ARD : 2.2.0.1660000.0
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : RemoteDesktopAdmin220.pkg : com.apple.pkg.RemoteDesktopAdmin220 : 2.2.0.1660000.338
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : RemoteDesktopClient220.mpkg : com.apple.mpkg.ARDClient : 2.2.0.1660000.0
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : RemoteDesktopClient220.pkg : com.apple.pkg.RemoteDesktopClient220 : 2.2.0.1660000.338
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : PantherSharing.pkg : com.apple.pkg.PantherSharing : 2.0.0.1660000.338
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : RemoteDesktopRMDB733.pkg : com.apple.pkg.RemoteDesktopRMDB733 : 2.0.0.1660000.338
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : =============================================================================== =
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : It took 0.031255 seconds to summarize the package selections.
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : Starting installation:
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : Preparing volume "Macintosh HD" for installation
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : Configuring volume "Macintosh HD"
May 27 14:40:37 tbo : Preparing local booted disk
May 27 14:40:37 tbo : Create temporary directory "/private/tmp/RemoteDesktop.mpkg.4601SJd5k"
May 27 14:40:37 tbo : run preflight script for Apple Remote Desktop Admin Update
May 27 14:40:36 tbo : PantherSharing.pkg : com.apple.pkg.PantherSharing : 2.0.0.1660000.338
May 27 14:40:38 tbo : preflight[472]: /bin/mv /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.tempSave
May 27 14:40:38 tbo : preflight[482]: /bin/mv /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.tempSave
May 27 14:40:38 tbo : preflight[482]: mv: rename /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.prefPane to /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.tempSave/SharingPref.prefPane: No such file or directory
May 27 14:40:38 tbo : run preflight script for Panther Sharing Preferences
May 27 14:40:38 tbo : preflight[492]: /bin/mv /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.prefPane /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.tempSave
May 27 14:40:38 tbo : preflight[492]: mv: rename /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.prefPane to /System/Library/PreferencePanes/SharingPref.tempSave/SharingPref.prefPane: No such file or directory
May 27 14:40:44 tbo : Processing Panther Sharing Preferences:
May 27 14:40:47 tbo : It took 0.080088 seconds to run preflight script for Panther Sharing Preferences
May 27 14:40:47 tbo : It took 0.681835 seconds to Install Panther Sharing Preferences: 20 elements
May 27 14:40:47 tbo : It took 0.680004 seconds to unsuccessfully Install package Panther Sharing Preferences
Jun 3 23:13:15 tbo : Panther Sharing Preferences Installation Log
Jun 3 23:13:15 tbo : Opened from: /Library/Receipts/PantherSharing.pkg
Jun 3 23:13:17 tbo : Distribution: Panther Sharing Preferences
MacBook Pro 2.0 / 2GB RAM / 100GB HD, 7200 rpm   Mac OS X (10.4.7)