Apple has a migration utility for moving stuff from one Mac to another. My PowerBook is going for repairs, so I had everything migrated off to another one, so that I'd have something to use while it was gone.
So I wanted to tell you, my loyal readers, about a little bit of caveat emptor that you might want to know about should you use this utility, and if you're a Unix geek like myself. You see, I install a lot of stuff via somewhat non-standard means. For example, I have Apache installed, from source, because that's the kind of guy I am. And I have a variety of other weirdnesses installed in various places - mostly in /usr/local it seems, although there's probably stuff elsewhere.
You see, if you don't install stuff in the accepted Apple way, the migration utility doesn't notice it. So right now I'm manually copying over /usr so that I'll at least have that stuff. I don't actually know what else is missing, but I imagine I'll run into a few things. Mostly, it will be fine, because eventually I'll get my original laptop back, and all that stuff will still be there, but I expect some pain in the meantime.
The worst thing thus far has been Thunderbird. I don't know what the deal actually is, but Thunderbird launches and then hangs for a while, then tells me that the security bits didn't start up properly and that things might not work. So I can't get to my email. Which is a pretty big deal. Hopefully copying over /usr/lib will help, but who knows?
Alert. Could not initialize the browser's security component. The most likely cause is problems with files in your browser's profile directory. Please check that this directory has no read/write restrictions and your hard disk is not full or close to full. It is recommended that you exit the browser and fix the problem. If you continue to use this browser session, you might see incorrect browser behaviour when accessing the security features.
Yes, it says behaviour, not behavior, which I find interesting.
DrBacchus, I've got a question. No offense, but did you have a trained professional ;-) clone the entire hard drive before they shipped your computer to Apple? Or, are you just curious and testing the Apple Migration tool before shipping it off because you thought it would be faster than copying the entire hard drive?
I have found through experience the past couple of years that the Apple Migration tool is not a reliable way to move applications from one Mac to another. On the other hand, it does pretty well with data files, especially data files created by native Mac applications (not Unix apps).
In the end, I've found the only way to avoid problems like you experienced is a full backup of the hard drive. That works every time. My favorite (free) backup utility is called Carbon Copy Cloner. It works very well. Of course, Apple's Disk Utility works fairly well, too.
I think it doesn't copy /etc either.
British spelling? :-)
Yes, I noticed that. :-(
I've brought both laptops home, and I'm trying to get enough copied over that I can make it through the weekend.
Yeah. British spelling. Rather surprised me in a Thunderbird error message.
Ok, so this error message appears to be related in some unspecified way to cert8.db and profiles. Now it's screwed up much worse than it was before. Great.
Matsu,
A trained professional did indeed to a full hard-drive backup, but the actual migration to the new machine, he (not I) did with the migration tool. It migrated all of my normally-installed apps, and their related data, correctly. The only exception to this I've found so far was Thunderbird, which (I think) is finally rectified. It's just good it was imap and not pop.
Presumably, the full backup which is back at the office will be good in the event of a catastrophic failure of some kind.
What got missed, it seems is anything that was installed from source, and stuff installed via Fink or DarwinPorts. And there's some other random stuff missing, like X11 and and various of my "hacker" tools. In short, everything that was installed as Root, rather than as me.
I would have use CCC to clone to the temp PB with FWTDM. Then back again when you get yours back. Takes some time, but its the safest way, IMO.
I don't know what either CCC or FWTDM is, but I'll mention that to the help desk guys. Meanwhile, they're doing a full backup of my original, and re-restoring to the loaner, and hopefully that will be happier.
I just abbrebrated CCC because the first comment said it in full.
Carbon Copy Cloner. And. FireWire Target Disk Mode.
Place loaner laptop in FWTDM (check your manual or apple kb for the key, I forget) (it may be f) at boot, download and install Carbon Copy Cloner on your main one, and choose the loaner's HD in that app, hit clone, enter password, kaboom.