Yosemite

[MIDI Life Crisis]

The latest version of Menu Meters 1.7 from May 2014 won't work. Yosemite will not let it be placed in the menu bar. Is there a reasonable alternative that works with Y?

I'm on ver 1.6 and it's working.

[bayswater]

I'm on ver 1.6 and it's working.

Did you update from a previous OS version with Menu Meters already installed? I installed in a new partition. Installing Menu Meters works, but putting them in the menu is prevented with an alert. Probably best not to remove the meters from the menu because you might not be able to put them back

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'm on ver 1.6 and it's working.

Did you update from a previous OS version with Menu Meters already installed?

Yes, an apparently I missed the update. Now I'll wait.

[mikehalloran]

From MicroMat:

TechTool Pro 7 Yosemite Compatibility
TechTool Pro 7.0.5 will bring compatibility for OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), this update will be free to all TechTool Pro 7 users, and should be available within a few weeks of Yosemite's release. Version 7.0.4 can be used for testing safely, but any tools which change the structure of your disk (Volume Rebuild, eDrive, any optimization) should be avoided until the update is released.

I can confirm that testing does work in Yosemite.

Installing Menu Meters works, but putting them in the menu is prevented with an alert

What's the alert?

[bayswater]

Installing Menu Meters works, but putting them in the menu is prevented with an alert

What's the alert?

It says the item cannot be placed in the menu. Consult documentation.

[mongoose]

I'm still hacked off that folder custom icons do not display on the desktop. They DO display inside another folder, just not on the desktop. Get Info, and you'll see the icon in the info panel, but... not on the desktop.

Unless I am confused as to what you mean, this is not the way it's working on any of my systems. Folders with custom icons are still represented by those icons on the desktop in Y, just as always. Not sure what I'm doing differently that this works.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

It says the item cannot be placed in the menu. Consult documentation.

Could it be a permissions or security pane issue?

[bayswater]

It says the item cannot be placed in the menu. Consult documentation.

Could it be a permissions or security pane issue?

Very unlikely to be permissions. I've been doing permissions with each installation as I go. But I hadn't thought about checking the security pane. Thanks for the tip.

[Shooshie]

I'm still hacked off that folder custom icons do not display on the desktop. They DO display inside another folder, just not on the desktop. Get Info, and you'll see the icon in the info panel, but... not on the desktop.

Unless I am confused as to what you mean, this is not the way it's working on any of my systems. Folders with custom icons are still represented by those icons on the desktop in Y, just as always. Not sure what I'm doing differently that this works.

Ok, you gave me a clue, and I learned something, but the problem remains. It's just that it's not the same problem I thought it was.

The problem is ALIASES! Aliases will not display their custom icons on the desktop. And it happens ONLY on the desktop; they all display fine inside other folders. But the desktop is where I need them.

Has anyone else tried this? Can anyone say whether or not they can use custom aliases on the desktop?

Here is an example:

• • 

In the picture, the custom icons you see are all hard drives. Folders will work, also, as will files. But Aliases? All the generic folder icons are aliases. I don't use folders on my desktop, because these locations all contain large amounts of data, and I don't feel like having that on my primary drive. So, I use aliases. (I've got many more, but I removed them for this shot, so as not to clutter the picture.)

Shoosh

[mikehalloran]

HD's still show custom icons on the desktop. Only Folders do not. And only on the desktop; they all display fine inside other folders. But the desktop is where I need them.

I'll have to take your word for it.

I had no folders with custom icons on my desktop but have many in other folders. I dragged 5 folders and made 5 aliases of others. I dragged all 10 to the desktop without problems, rebooted a few times. No problem -- all custom folders and all aliases display correctly.

[Shooshie]

Just to be clear, your aliases have custom icons? And they are showing up?

You can see what's happening in the picture in my last post.

So, if this is just me, then it's not surprising, as I've had no end to trouble in the Finder. I may have to re-install the system just to get this damn-fool finder working again.

Question: how big are your aliases? Mine range from 1MB to 8MB. The pictures used for custom icons are about 128K to 256K in size. Alias used to be tiny. Why are mine so large?

Shoosh

[Shooshie]

I've been googling the alias problems: file size and loss of custom icons, and while I have not found clear, concise answers, I'm seeing a trend on replies that discuss Apple's restructuring of the Alias file a few OS's ago. They've apparently made it larger to contain resource files from the original, which may grow very large. One of my aliases — a pointer to other files, remember, which is supposed to have no intrinsic value of its own —  is 10.5 MB in size. The icon is a two-color graphic design of no more than 400K.

• • 

These aliases have been recreated to serve some future function of which we have no knowledge at this point. Old aliases still work, and are still small, ranging from 64K to 200K. Originally, aliases were only about 3K. The whole thing stinks. They should have created a new file type for their "future uses," and left our aliases alone. Of course, when Apple engineers think of people using their products, they see someone in their ads doing email, surfing the web, and writing the occasional letter. Creatively, they make a movie for their parents, take some photographs of their vacation, and create a little song in Garageband. They don't fiddle with folders containing 47,000 files on the first level, as I do. So, the engineers do not see the problems inherent in a 10MB alias.

I can only hope that Apple comes up with a better idea and restores our aliases for our own "future use."

[bayswater]

The growing alias problem was discussed earlier. Have you tried symbolic links as an alternative? The LN command will create these, and they function like aliases, except they will work in circumstances where aliases don't. For example, Apple updates will put files where Apple wants them, but if you put a symbolic link in place, the update will put the files where the link points.

Short article here:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?s ... 0610290643

A GUI for the LN command here:
http://download.cnet.com/Make-Symlink/3 ... 59550.html

I don't know if this will solve the icon problem but it should deal with the file size problem.

[mongoose]

Just to be clear, your aliases have custom icons? And they are showing up?
You can see what's happening in the picture in my last post.

Yep, I am able to give aliases custom icons on the desktop. Here's the caveat: I almost never use aliases, so I had to make some on the spot to test it. Maybe this is something happening over time to them, or that only happens to ones left over from a previous OS? Dunno. Weird problem; I hope you can figure it out.

[Gravity Jim]

Shooshie, given the nature and frequency of your posts on OSX problems recently, and the large number of "that isn't happening here" replies, I think it may be time to stop expecting a fix from Apple and to begin investigating the possibility that your system needs a colonic.

If it were me, I would scrape the drives and reinstall everything.