Finder crashes (repeatedly)

Question

I upgraded to 10.5.1 this morning and since the following restart, finder crashes every time it's trying to start. The shiny "application running mark" under Finder's icon in the dock lights up for about half a second and then goes off again for about 5 secs.
In the system log (/var/log/system.log) these lines are added after each crash:
Nov 17 16:24:37 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 com.apple.launchd[98] ([0x0-0x816816].com.apple.finder[3461]): Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
Nov 17 16:24:41 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 ReportCrash[3465]: Formulating crash report for process mdworker[3464]
Nov 17 16:24:41 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10c940.mdworker[3464]): Exited abnormally: Illegal instruction
Nov 17 16:24:41 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 ReportCrash[3465]: Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mdworker2007-11-17-162439Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
Nov 17 16:24:44 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 ReportCrash[3465]: Formulating crash report for process mdworker[3466]
Nov 17 16:24:45 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 com.apple.launchd[1] (0x10c940.mdworker[3466]): Exited abnormally: Illegal instruction
Nov 17 16:24:45 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 ReportCrash[3465]: Saved crashreport to /Library/Logs/CrashReporter/mdworker2007-11-17-162442Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5.crash using uid: 0 gid: 0, euid: 0 egid: 0
Nov 17 16:24:48 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 ReportCrash[3468]: Formulating crash report for process Finder[3467]
Nov 17 16:24:49 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 com.apple.launchd[98] ([0x0-0x81a81a].com.apple.finder[3467]): Exited abnormally: Segmentation fault
Nov 17 16:24:49 Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5 ReportCrash[3468]: Saved crashreport to /Users/jarnis/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Finder2007-11-17-162442Jarnis-Power-Mac-G5.crash using uid: 501 gid: 20, euid: 501 egid: 20
I've tried using Disk Utility to repair permissions. I get a bunch of warnings like these:
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/OwnerGroupTool" has been modified and will not be repaired.
Warning: SUID file "System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAg ent" has been modified and will not be repaired.
but as far as I can gather, that's a common problem and may be entirely unrelated.
I can start other programs from the Dock or a terminal but a few things are wierd with some of them:
Choosing Save causes the apps to crash (at least with BBEditLite, TextEdit and TextWrangler)
Directory Utility won't let me authenticate (password box never shows when clicking the button) so I can't enable root user.
Weirdest of all: I can't boot from the 10.5 install DVD: after trying to boot for a while the apple logo is replaced with a white "ring with line through it" and after another while the system just reboots.
Does anyone have any suggestions worth trying? I'd really like not having to reinstall the system again, even if I find a way to successfully start from the DVD.
Thanks in advance
Yarnish

Answer 1

I guess I'm behind the curve a bit... but these events are exactly why I'm still running 10.4.11... unfortunately I just received a brand new iMac 2.8 GHz... worked for a day and I copied my home folder from my MacBook Pro to the iMac and everything was fine. Today Finder started crashing when accessing content in my home folder, then progressively getting worse would crash when accessing the home folder at all and finally trying to launch Finder at all.
I've repaired Permissions and NOTHING... Spotlight works fine and I can open things there but it seems Finder is bleeding and I can't stop it.
Any help is appreciated!