Leopard taken hostage by Setup Assistant

leopard has been running great (except for a lot of app crashes), but as of last night, every time i try to log in the setup assistant starts. if i complete the registration process, it logs me out, but when i log in again, setup assistant takes over. "about this mac" and "restart" and "system preferences" and every other menu item fails to do anything. my machine is literally disabled by the setup assistant right now. suggestions? the way the machine has been rendered useless, it feels like a virus or malware or something has corrupted the system. i have no idea why this would happen--the mac did lock up during a software update (my mac loves to freeze up hard every now and then for no reason at all).

thanks. i think i was having more severe problems because i couldn't even get into safe mode. i suspect i had some bad memory (has since been removed, although it's still too soon to tell) which was causing random freezes. it happened during a software update, the recent one for itunes and quicktime. i decided to reinstall os x and restore using my time machine volume, and it worked impressively well. with a couple of hours, all my data was there, all my programs just worked (no more spending hours re-installing adobe software), and 99% of my mac and app settings were carried over, so it's basically like nothing happened. the only glitch was that time machine doesn't have an option to resume from a previous time machine volume--that is, when i noticed it wasn't backing up due to insufficient space, i didn't know what else to do but erase it and start over. i suppose that's one way to protect your data--explicitly forcing a manual erase, in case i wanted to use that volume to restore a duplicate onto another machine? or place it in cold storage; however, i wouldn't've minded the option to carry on uninterrupted. still, i'd call it a very successful practice test of time machine. going forward i feel a lot less concerned about losing all my files knowing i can be up and running again in a couple of hours right where i left off. i remember with windows i'd spend an entire weekend reinstalling the os, apps, coping files, entering serials, downloading drivers, etc. i'm sure there are plenty of backup programs on the market, such as retrospect, but this simplicity and integration speaks to just how mature os x has become.

Similar Messages

After Leopard install Mac OSX Setup Assistant is in a constant loop

I have a friend who I persuaded to switch to mac a few years ago and he recently installed Leopard without much success on his second mac (it was fine on his macbook pro 2.13ghz), a Power PC G5 1.8ghz - 1.25 gb ram. When I had a look at it it appears to be stuck in Mac OSX Setup Assistant mode - i.e. when you put the info in and the Screen says "enjoy your computer" or whatever it just comes back to the same Setup page. (What's weird is can't get to the end unless it has an internet signal - wireless at his place and ethernet at mine)
I'm guessing something went wrong during installation as when I restart with the Leopard disc in and hold "c" Leopard install launches but only shows drivers and some languages need to be installed. I copied all important files via target mode and it shows that the Computer is "10.5". I'm guessing the full installation was interrupted. There doesn't appear to be a way to do a complete re-install. I ran Tech-Tool and Disk Warrior to rebuild and verify permissions etc. No joy!
I'd like to do a full re-install of Leopard but I can't. As I have all important info backed up I guess I might have to completely wipe the disc and install Leopard on the blank disc - should this be okay as I've never done that before?
Any other suggestions appreciated.

If I press go back ...it just goes back to the Welcome screen.
I should mention that if I try and select anything that needs to be opened in a window from the Apple menu nothing opens up. For example if I choose System Preferences it will show System Preferences in the top menu but no window will open.

Do i need to upgrade to mountain lion from snow leopard first to use setup assistant?

to copy my hard drive via firewire from my old macpro to my new mac pro?

No. Just use the Setup Assistant on first boot as described in Pondini's Setup New Mac guide.

Help ! Going crazy : stuck with leopard Setup Assistant

I've installed and used Leopard since its launch.
Experienced some minor problems : iCal stopped when trying to open a Task... Bin could not empty on securized mode.
Today, after the same problem, I had to force to reboot and now it's running to Mac OS X Setup Assistant again and again, as if it never got it.
What can I do ?
Thanks for your help.

Casual_Tourist wrote:
There are three key problems with this system:
The skype reset only allows you to reset your Microsoft password - not your skype password
You cannot receive skype support without logging into Skype
It does not appear that the Skype team is monitoring the forum as there are many of these threads floating around unanswered
I don't know if it's the first rule of website design, but people forget their passwords all the time. If you really want people to use your services, Microsoft, you should remove this ridiculous loop from your system.
The most commong problem in all these cases is the following:
A user signed up for Skype account "john.doe456" a few years ago using an email address [email protected]
Later the user linked their Microsoft account [email protected] to the Skype account
Now it's March 2015 and they try to reset their Skype account password and request a password reset using the [email protected] email.
Users will always be forwarded to the Microsoft account password recovery. To reset the Skype account password you need to request the password recovery to the [email protected] registered email address of the Skype account. Many users have forgotten what their Skype account registered email was because they haven't updated them for long. In this case you need to contact Skype CS and get your primary account email changed. The starting point for this process is to fill out the form for "I don't know my registered email address" here:
https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA34537/i-don-t-have-or-don-t-know-my-registered-email-address
Follow the latest Skype Community News
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Can't get past setup assistant after installing leopard...

i am having trouble getting past the setup assistant after installing leopard on my other computer which is a 1.25 ghz G4 desktop. Everything seems to be going fine then the setup assistant comes up and i go through the exercise of filling it out and at the end it says click on done and then you can use the computer. unfortunately it goes right back into the setup assistant like i had never gone there before. it is in some kind of loop. would it be wise to reinstall leopard? if so, does it know that it was installed already and rewrite over the first install? or is there something else i may try. i tried resetting the PRAM and some other things recommended but nothing seems to work. any help will be appreciated.
thanks in advance...

mr_magicman,
I can imagine how frustrating this must be for you. It sounds like you went for the (default) Upgrade option.
Okay, how about trying this:
1. With the *OS X 10.5 Install Disk 1* still in the bay, Restart your computer. Without access to menus, you'll have to use the power switch to turn it off. +[Alternatively, if you do have access to menus, select the Restart command (in the Apple menu) — always the preferred method.]+
2. If you're using the power switch method, here, wait about 10 - 15 seconds then depress the power switch again for about 5 full seconds (or until you hear the computer come back to life). +[Alternatively, if you had selected the Restart command in Step 1, the computer will start up again on its own.]+ *Either way, as the computer starts up, press and keep pressing, the Mouse until the disk ejects.* By the way, if you're using a Mighty Mouse with a left and right option, press down on the left side only. Hopefully this will get you out of the loop caused by your Install DVD remaining in the drive.
Finally, to be fair to you, I must tell you that there's a more suitable Forum for your particular kind of problem, viz., *Installation and Setup* (http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1219) I recommend you check out the questions/answers in that Forum in case your question has already been asked and answered.
PS. If you do re-post your question in that Forum, don't forget to mention whether or not you internal hard disk has been backed up.
GOOD LUCK!
Bill

Basic Snow Leopard install with special customization: setup assistant infinite loop problem.

Hi, all,
Based on this post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1395118?start=0&tstart=0, I'm assuming there's a problem with setup assistant running after a customization install reboot. But I could be wrong.
Here are the details:
MacBook Pro
Clean OS X Snow Leopard install (I was "told" by IT I had to wipe the disk and re-install OS X after backing up personal files).
Installed extras I need/want (in particular, XCode, though I went ahead with the other optional software as well).
Installed the IT supplied "Supplemental CompanyName Installation Disc" (also referred to as "CompanyName Supplemental Installation Disc" ), which is supposed to create a customized, IT supported, setup.
When the supplemental install is done, the system is rebooted.
There is then a "Welcome" screen (starscape, with almost endless bombardment of the word welcome in various languages), finally followed by:
a) select language; b) select keyboard; c) select timezone; d) Don't forget to register your Mac, with a "done" button.
Clicking the "done" button goes to a blank grey screen. and then loops back to redo the "Welcome/language/keyboard/done" sequence, ad nauseum (that is, infinitely repeated).
Per the above mentioned post, I have rebooted to the Install DVD and run disk utility, repairing permissions. No difference on reboot.
Boot to safe mode goes to the same setup assistant sequence, not a login screen.
Another Mac user here suggested checking for /var/db/.applesetupdone, since missing it, or if it's correupt, could cause this problem.
So I booted to single user and checked for this file. It is not there. On the off chance the file is a simple flag and the content doesn't matter,
I did fsck/remount and touch /var/db/.applesetupdone but this did not change anything either.
Presumably, the file must be present and must contain some data. If this is true, can it be created manually and put in place via single user mode?
Or are there other, better solutions someone could suggest?
Many thanks.
Bob

Ah, it seems I finally found something useful, at http://hintsforums.macworld.com/showthread.php?t=84825
One of the responders supplied the content of their .applesetupdone file.
I was able to get this onto my Mac, in /var/db, as .applesetupdone (just to be safe, I linked that name to .AppleSetupDone, the name as mentioned on the above site). Note that both names begin with a dot (hidden, in UNIX parlance).
On reboot I was presented with the CompanyName specific login screen. It took a little bit more mucking around with passwords, but I was eventually able to login without any problem.
Bob

Leopard froze then booted into Setup Assistant (MacBook)

A friend of mine was cruising along the Internet when Firefox froze (not uncommon under Leopard). Soon thereafter, her dock froze in place, followed by the rest of Leopard's UI. No kernel panic, but she had no choice but to hard reset (hold power for 3 seconds).
When she powered up, she got the normal login screen. After logging in, she got the Setup Assistant (you know, the "Congratulations on buying a Mac. What's your name?" wizard), with a blank desktop and no dock. The assistant is unresponsive--none of the buttons work. She can't even shut down from the Apple menu. It just hangs after clicking shut down (if the menu even opens in the first place).
I was fortunate enough to be able to boot the MacBook into target disk mode and I'm currently backing up the whole drive using SuperDuper(!).
I plan to do an Apple Hardware Test after the backup completes, and if it passes, I'll downgrade to Tiger with an archive and install. I'm very reluctant to reinstall Leopard because of Firefox crashes, Time Machine malfunctions, and other commonly occurring Leopard problems.
Have any of you experienced this problem? Any ideas what happened? What do you think of my downgrade plan? Any advice or warnings?

UPDATE:
I successfully completed the SuperDuper backup, and booted into the Setup Assistant again. This time I got a couple steps in before it stopped responding. When I tried to retrieve files and settings from a volume on the computer, the assistant indicated there was no OS X system on the computer (very odd...).
Restarted, tried to do an Apple Hardware Test (holding H at startup), which didn't do anything. It just booted into Setup Assistant again.
Last chance: I booted into safe mode by holding down shift. After quite a while, the MacBook started up, and after login it loaded the desktop and everything else correctly. Seeing this, I rebooted normally. Everything loaded fine, like the whole Setup Assistant problem never happened.
So in the wake of this potential catastrophe, I'm creating a new SuperDuper backup, and on a separate partition, a Time Machine backup. I hate to say it, but I don't really trust Leopard.

Setup assistant in loop after leopard software update

Installed leopard as an upgrade to Tiger on my new Imac when it was launched. I had no problems and everything has been runningfine. Last night I got informed of software updates available, I remeber seeing that one of the updates fwas for the system. I said ok. After a while I got a dialog saying updates required restart of system, hold power key until system turned off. I did so. The system rebooted into the setup assistant. I filled in the details required in each of the steps until I then hit done on the last page. At this point it just goes back to the beginning of the setup assistant again.I've tried this several times, inlcuidng turning off and starting the system again. I've tried holding down the C key at time of boot with the leopard disk in the drive to bbot from dvd and I still get the same symptons.
Very bad experience. Anyone else seen this and got a workaround. Can;t get through to apple support.
Cheers
Iain

I just ran into this nasty glitch on a mac mini running Leopard which I had just attempted to update using Software Update. The only package requiring a reboot was iTunes 7.6 which did FAIL to update along with one other package (I forget which). I told the system to reboot and gave authority to 'kick' others currently logged in. It complied and the screen went black, however there was no reboot sound....hmm...I held down the power button and still nothing. Then held it still longer and finally it rebooted...I logged in then immediately saw Setup Assistant. I was like "hmm...odd...this doesn't look good." After complying I clicked "Done" and then it logged me out (odd?), and then I logged in again only to find Setup Assistant greet me! So here I am..looking for answers on how to fix. Luckily I have SSH enabled and can login to the machine via SSH. Looking for a possible solution to run OS X Updater from command and possibly fix what's broken.

Leopard Setup Assistant - Ability to Replay?

Following successful installation of Leopard, unfortunately I closed the "Setup Assistant" window which showed a funky preview thingy (showing the purple aurora lights etc) then presented me with some setup options to complete my applications setup (I guess) ... does anyone know how to get this screen to show again??
I tried re-installing 10.5 again - and successful again, but still no sign of this screen again.

Ah, right - thank you ... jumped too early on my response to the previous reply
Next issue is that I have to be an Administrator and since the upgrade all accounts seem to now be set as Standard ... but I think I've seen this in another discussion.
Thanks for your help.

No Setup assistant?

I have just opened my new MacBook Pro laptop and when I turned it on for the first time there was no setup assistant.
A program called Phoenix CE loaded and started running some technical diagnostics. The OS was 10.5.7 not 10.6 Snow Leopard as I was expecting and the Macintosh HD I was expecting (160GB) was only 2 partitions, Maxdisk (40GB) and DIAG (5GB).
The normal OS applications, iLife etc were nowhere to be seen.
I have taken photos, and am now reinstalling from the original discs, but I could do with knowing if anyone can tell me what they think has happened?
Many thanks & Merry Christmas
Paul.

Roger,
You asked me to let you know the outcome.
The store (a premium reseller) advised that the hard drive manufacturer had tested the drive and inadvertently left it without installing the Mac OS prior to assembly or packaging. They said the warranty is not invalid and they confirmed the machine was new and unused, but had just skipped the preloading of the OS stage.
Considering I had spent the time doing the installation and all the subsequent software updates, I have decided to keep the machine rather than exchange it which is what I was entitled to do (which they confirmed I could if that had been my decision).
I asked for compensation which they have offered by way of a 20% discount on AppleCare for this machine.
Regards,
Paul.

Stuck in install loop in setup assistant

Completed a normal upgrade install and then everything locked up. Nothing worked but pulling the plug. After restart and log on I was taken to Setup Assistant. Filled everything in and once completed went to log on screen again. Entered password and back at Setup Assistant again. Quitting it locks the computer up and filling it out again continues the loop...
Trying an archive and install now. Not fun so far. Anyone else have this issue and a better solution then wiping clean and reinstalling my 300GB backup data?

I had the same problem, only in a strange order.
At first Leopard came up great. So I started tweaking the new Leopard settings and then ran Software Update.
When I went to reboot from the Update the reboot hung. So I powered it down and started it back up and ...uh oh, Setup Assistant infinite loop.
I'm in the process of doing another Archive and Install. I'll let you know how it goes.
FYI: My MacBook Pro had 0 problems. My iMac had a minor issue which I resolved right away. And based on lots of other thread info, it looks like this upgrade is a bit touchy based on what you have installed where.
Cabal

Interrupted Setup Assistant

In the middle of answering the questions on Setup Assistant on my new iMac, the power cord disconnected. The idiot setting up the iMac (me) did not realize that the power cord was not securely in place. When I fixed my mistake and rebooted I was taken to what I suspect is the normal desktop view (no more Setup Assistant). How do I either begin Setup Assistant again and fill in all the information, or check that all the necessary information was already acquired by Setup Assistant?
Thank you for in advance for putting up with such a rank n00b.

well, it doesn't sound like you are missing much. the only thing that you need is an admin account to run your computer and it seems you already have that. you can check that it works. Go to system preferences->accounts. Your account should be listed there and it should say admin. also, log out of your account from the apple menu and log back in. if that works you are all set.
The only thing you might be missing is a .Mac account if don't have one already. I believe you can set it up from Apple web site.

Can I re-run the Server Setup Assistant?

I have a G5 tower with OS X Leopard Server installed. I made some rookie mistakes (such as not setting up DNS) during the initial Server Setup Assistant wizard so I would like to give it a try again. However, I already have a lot of files on the server that I don't want to lose. In the past, I have had to reinstall the server software but when I did, it only wants to do an erase and install. There is no opportunity to archive and install so I can save my data and just redo the server setup.
Further reasons to do this are tonight I discovered that all of my users were gone, including the admin user. I searched the threads and found that I could login as username "Local Administrator" with the password of the previous admin account. I then tried to use the Workgroup manager to add all the users back. I can at least now let the clients log in and access the AFP shared folder that is stored there but I'm getting a log of strange errors with other things. For example, on a fresh client, I used to be able to fire up Directory Utility and have the client automatically configure a few things to work with the server such as Time Machine. Unfortunately, now when I try this I get an error.
Therefore, if someone can tell me if there is a way to blow out the existing server configuration and redo it from scratch, please enlighten me.

Makes sense, although you're in a tough spot. While I can appreciate the notion of an inexpensive server, I'd hesitate to use a mini still. Even with an old G5, you can find eSATA options for RAID devices, or at the very least, install two HD's that you can easily access. One option you always want with a reliable server is to be able to replace HD's and copy from a backup in case of a HD crash. The expansion ports on a tower are also pretty important for a server when it comes to expansion, adding RAID's, and exploring other backup/redundancy options.
Even when we purchase Windows servers, we still buy a box in the 3-5K range. There is certainly a niche for mini servers, but just make sure it will fit your needs and you have a good backup strategy.
Jeff

New iMac--setup assistant confusion

I've googled, searched here and read the links, but they confuse me.
Bought a new iMac, Intel, Snow Leopard, still in box.
Loved my older iMac, dome base, PPC, running Tiger. It died last week (take my word for it), monitor, among other things, conked out. Been running it for a couple of years off a bootable firewire drive.
Using my Leopard (white) MacBook, I've dragged all my data files from the bootable PPC Tiger drive to back-up drives for safekeeping, then erased them from the Tiger drive.
Mostly, I'd like to have my Safari and Firefox bookmarks transfered to the new iMac, but if I can, I'd also like to have the actual older Firefox application transfered, too, given I don't care for the newer Firefox I use on my MacBook. But there are a few not-very-significant odds and ends applications I'd like to transfer, too, and maybe there would be some stuff like my printer and scanner settings/data that would be transfered.
When I bought the new iMac a couple of days ago, the Genius Bar advised me to use the setup assistant the first time I turned on the new iMac.
But I don't want to transfer my user account/settings to the new iMac, I want a new identity/password. Or iMovie2 (won't work on the Intel Mac)...and so on.
Besides, I CAN'T start up my old iMac in "Target Disk Mode"--the old iMac is DEAD. All I have is the bootable Tiger external firewire drive. Nothing to boot it with, though. So will that rule out Migration Assistant, too?
And, no, I live in a rural area, I don't know anyone with a Tiger PPC Mac--otherwise I could boot from my external drive and export the Firefox and Safari bookmarks.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

If your Firewire drive does indeed have a bootable copy of Tiger on it, you can connect that to your new iMac and let Migration Assistant migrate from it to your new iMac. I have not done this but I read about it on the discussions at the SuperDuper website. SuperDuper's head guy specifically said that it was a doable way to migrate to a new Mac.
I was sort of in your situation recently when I got my new iMac but I was a little better off in that my old flat panel 17 inch G4 iMac running Tiger was still in perfect working condition. After batting the issue around I finally decided against using Migration Assistant and I just did a manual migration by dragging and dropping data files and reinstalling applications.
If I had to do it all over, I'd probably just use Migration Assistant, but for some reason decided against it at the time. Several posters here have said they've used MA with good success in just our situation of going from PPC Tiger to Intel Snow Leopard. But there are a few hardliners who recommend a manual approach. As I said I'd probably go with MA if I had to do it over again. And if you have a bootable clone you can use MA to go from it to your new iMac.
By the way, which method did you use to make your bootable clone, SuperDuper or CCC or Disk Utility? As I said, the guy at SD definitely said MA would work on an SD clone.
Of course not all of your old PPC apps will work on your Intel iMac. But I gather from what I've read that Migration Assistant is "smart" enough to know how to handle the migration.
You seem to want to transfer only certain selected items so I'm not really sure how to advise you on that. I think there are some selections you can make when you use MA that will determine what gets transferred but I'm not familiar with it since I didn't use it myself.
Regards,
Steve M.

Computer crash? Can't get past the setup assistant

I recently added leopard to my Power PC dual g5 and it has run terribly, so added memory today, worked ok for about 5 minutes then froze, manually shut off - which I have had to do several times since installing Leopard. When I turned it back on the setup assistant appeared, went through the assistant but it just keeps reappearing - it won't go past it. Restarted in safe mode and did a disk repair, it said the volume header needed a minor repair and it fixed it. Restarted but still back to the assistant issue. Please help!
Message was edited by: tjbug

Were you able to solve this problem? I am now encountering the same problem... thanks

Leopard taken hostage by Setup Assistant

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