How I spent the last 12 hours

Read the previous two blog entries first.

Let's see --

• Retrying the install didn't fix the problem.
  
• Booting in single user mode and hiding my preferences didn't fix the problem (got that idea from the this article in the apple knowledge base)
  
• Booting in single user mode and running dscl as described in this article didn't work at all -- the "launchctl" command failed -- never mind actually running dscl.
  
• Various other attempts happened.  I was starting to get seriously worried, or at least to think I'd have to bundle the thing back into the box and tote it over to the nearest Apple store for help.

<humor> One of the joys of Windows is how *many* times you get to install it on the same machine.   Yet another feature Apple has copied from Microsoft</humor>

Finally I found this thread on the Leopard install discussion page that suggested using the "Archive and Install"  w/o saving user settings during the upgrade.  That worked (although I got to play twenty questions again)   

It's up!

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And to respond to some of the comments to previous posts.

When I went into this my good friends who use Macs all told me -- you'll be up and running within minutes of opening the box.  It's not like Windows.  This is Macintosh!

I'm not really criticising them (or Apple).  I'm just reporting what really happened and how it make me as a new Mac owner feel about the experience.  That means I don't have to be "fair"  If it pisses me off, it pisses me off even if there is a perfectly good excuse (er, I mean reason) for the problem.

In response to the comment "most mac users are waiting for the ".1" release." How Microsoftian of them!   But seriously, if an experienced computer user who is trying hard to play it straight [except for the phone number thing] using a brand new, all-Apple, out-of-the-box machine encounters this troubles, how is good ol' Aunt Tilly gonna feel?  If I had a lot invested in existing work on the machine, I might wait for .1, too.  I'm still waiting on Vista --- although since I need to buy a copy of Windows to run on this machine under VMWare, I'll probably end up running Vista on THIS machine.  Strange, but true.

Oh yeah, one of the "brags" of the Mac crowd is they don't stuff your machine with cripple-ware.  Um--guys--there's a hobbled copy of Office on this machine!  Admittedly its not as cluttered as a new Dell would be but...

Anyway, I have a new wireless-Mac keyboard on order from Logitech.  It comes with a wireless mouse, too, which is good cause the mighty mouse, although functional, doesn't feel especially good when I use it.

In retrospect I should have taken the stock system from the Apple store, ordered a 2gig memory module and installed it myself (to get to 3G rather than the 2x1G I have now) and shopped for a wireless keyboard/mouse.   

Now, let's have some fun!

Dale