Prepping to upgrade from 10.2.8 to 10.4 -- problem with Disk Utility

Question

I have an 17" iMac that I'm preparing to upgrade from 10.2.8 to 10.4. In preparation, I did the following:
* Mounted a new external HD (LaCie) (my second one)
* Backed-up all personal files / folders to the new drive
* Ran Software Update to check for any recent updates - updated iTunes (6.0.3) + an iPod update
* Ran Disk Utility to repair permissions (which I do whenever I've installed or deteted software) -- Have never had any issues, but this is where my problem started.
Repair permissions hangs at the end (status bar to the very end), and it appears to be working on permissions related to iTunes (sorry, will have to run Disk Utility again and follow-up with the specifics). I ran it twice with the same result.
I saw other threads suggesting that the problem may be with the latest iTunes update (recommending moving the iTunes application folder to the desktop and rerunning Disk Utility), but it seems specific to 10.3. Could this be an issue with 10.2.8 as well. If I can successfully complete repairs to permissions (with the above workaround), can I proceed with the 10.4 upgrade, and if so, what should I do with the iTunes application folder (keep it on the desktop, or move it back)?
Thanks

Answer 1

Cornelius ... thanks for the follow-up. I went ahead and tried both methods, although I should note that I didn't show the iTunes.pkg or iTunesPhoneDrive.pkg files in the Library>Receipts folder as described in the two approaches. I had no luck at all with Kappy's solution (I moved the one file I did have -- iTunesX.pkg -- and Disk Utility stalled as before). I moved iTunes.pkg back to its original folder, and tried the first method you described. I moved the iTunes app to my desktop, and I was able to successfully repair permissions. I trashed two files (iTunes3.pkg and iTunes4.pkg) and left the iTunesX.pkg file as instructed (again, I don't show the iTunesPhoneDriver.pkg file at all). I reran Disk Utility with the same faulty result.
I suspect it may have something to do with the missing files. Any thoughts on that?
Thanks again.
Max:
Sorry I misunderstood you. Actually you don't move
your iTunes folder at all. Here are a couple of
procedures. Since I have not had to use it I can't
vouch for either, but I have heard both have worked
for others.Just to catalogue the
solutions listed above
Here's what I did, and it worked fine.
1) Move iTunes onto the Desktop.
2) Run Disk Utility
3) Go to HD>Library>Receipts and trash all iTunes
.pkg files EXCEPT for iTunesX.pkg and
iTunesPhoneDriver.pkg
4) empty Trash.
5) move iTune from Desktop back to 'Applications'.
Hey presto. you should now be able to repair
permissions again.
HTH
Kappy’s solution
1. Navigate to the /Library/Receipts/ folder.
2. Locate the iTunes.pkg and iTunesX.pkg files and
move them to the Desktop.
3. Run Disk Utility and repair permissions.
4. Move the .pkg files back into the
/Library/Receipts/ folder.Note that you
are not moving the iTunes folder, but the .pkg files
from the Receipts folder. In the first method you
Trash some of them, in the second you move them back.
But you don't touch the iTunes application as such.
Good luck.
cornelius
PismoG4 550,
100GB 5400 Toshiba internal, 1 GB RAM; Pismo 500 OS X
(10.4.5)   Mac OS X (10.4.5)   Beige G3 OS
8.6