Hey Phil, thanks a lot for the suggestions, in the end i solved deleting the pref. file. But doing it from the terminal. Sorry, for not answering but i was in incredible rush. For info, the plist file wasn't there and after some typing in the terminal it appeared (odd behaviour). When i tried to open it the file was empty, but from terminal i could see the string where the error was. Then i deleted it from the terminal. The laptop wasn't mine so that i don't know the technical details of it, but later i think i will be able to answer with that, if needed.

Besides i was checking the related FAQs, but i didn't find anything about deleting the plist, so (as it was the first time i had to manage a pref. issue) i wasn't sure at all about deleting it and how to do it and i had to find the instructions about using defaults in the terminal to modify or delete the file. Then with your email and some googling i understood that one line from the terminal could solve everything. I just miss this indication in the FAQs or it's missing for real? if it's missing i think it could be useful to add it there in the FAQ section, cause as a newbie to this kind of operations i got lost for some hours. best

Marco

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Message: 2 Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 06:50:20 -0700 From: Phil Stone pkstone@ucdavis.edu Subject: Re: [PD] startup makes crash + .plist To: Marco Donnarumma devel@thesaddj.com Cc: pd-list@iem.at Message-ID: 49E3431C.90205@ucdavis.edu Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Marco Donnarumma wrote:

...

Hi list, i have an Urgent problem i realy hope someone could help me quickly. This is the last day for me to prepare a performance for a live show and Pd doesn't open anymore. :( The story> i installed pdmtl library (from zip file on MAC) following the video tutorial. I modified Pd preferences (path and startup), close Pd and when i tried to relaunch it, it open a blank consolle and then crash immediately without loading any library (or at least i don-t see in the consolle anything loading). so it doesn-t allow me to modify anymore the preferences.

i disinstalled Pd and reinstalled twice but it keeps on with the same behaviour described above (as far as i know the keys are still stored in the system).

This suggests that the problem lies in the plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/, as when you re-install Pd, you should be re-installing the default preferences as well (i.e., the plist that lives within the application package contents). Are you re-installing a completely fresh copy?

...

how can i modify the org.puredata.pd.plist file from terminal? i used the command defaults read org.puredata.pd and i see the error in in the flags startup - but i cannot sort out how to modify it from terminal... (sorry for the ignorance but im not used to manage terminal) i also look for org.puredata.pd.plist in |~/Library/Preferences/ |but the file doens't look to be there.

That's very odd. There should be "org.puredata.pd.plist" (as well as "org.puredata.pd.wish.pdlist", but ignore that) in ~/Library/Preferences/. It would seem to be the only explanation for the persistence of the problem. By the way, if and when you find org.puredata.pd.plist, just double-click it, and a property editing program will run. Alternatively, just delete it org.puredata.pd.plist from ~/Library/Preferences/ -- that will get you back to default behavior. See here for more info: http://puredata.info/docs/faq/pdsettings

...

or how i disinstall Pd in order to reset all preferences? or any other suggestion is really appreciated, i still have a hell of work to do on the performance patch..... :((((

I hope this helps...I'll be around for the next ten hours or so, so write back if you're still stuck. Good luck.

Phil