8023 As of this writing, I've gone four days without having to reboot Leopard due to Spaces glitching up, and prior to that I got a five-day uptime stretch, which is a record for me with OS 10.5 I think. What seems to have proved the charm is running a selection of system and Finder maintenance routines using the new version 1.9 for Leopard of the excellent little freeware system utility OnyX.

There are more than a dozen OS X applications - some shareware, some freeware, that can verify and run Repair Permissions, toggle the Unix cron maintenance scripts and so forth, but I've not found one that does it more satisfactorily than OnyX. The program is also very actively developed, with frequent version updates released, and its slick and polished user interface puts many commercial software apps. to shame.

I also hasten to emphasize that Onyx can do a tremendous amount more than simply running maintenance routines, but the latter are what I primarily use it for.

The OnyX interface, which has evolved substantially through the versions, currently displays six tabbed panels and two other buttons, the first called OnyX, simply collapses the interface window back to the tab display:

• Verify - Allows you to run a hardware diagnostic that could predict a hard-drive failure, a Structure of Volume pane that runs a check on the structure of the System files

• Maintenance - Lets you verify and repair Permissions, run chron scripts, optimize the system, Spotlight index, Mail's Envelope Index, and reset several other functions, and a routine to check the syntax of your Preferences files.

• Cleaning - Allows you to clean or clear selected or all Internet, user, and System caches and log files.

• Utilities - allows you to rapidly find files and folders

• Automation - Runs Repair Permissions and all or selected maintenance routines. By default, cron scripts run automatically, but early in the AM, between 3 and 6, and only if the computer is turned on and not sleeping. You can also rebuild LaunchServices and the Display of folders content ( on which more in a moment).

• Parameters - Reads out information on and can alter and customize configuration settings for the Finder, Dock, Exposé and Dashboard, Safari, Login, and Misc - .. to delete cache, to remove a certain number of files and folders that may become cumbersome, to see the detailed info of your configuration, to preview the different logs and CrashReporter reports, to check the Preferences files and more.

• Log - Logs the application's use.

OnyX 1.9 for Leopard has received a facelift. Here's the new installer splash screen:

OnyX is also delivered with Uninstall-Onyx, an independent application allowing users to individually remove the components created while installing and using OnyX (preferences, history...).

Some folks dismiss running OS X system maintenance routines "routinely," as unnecessary - even "superstitious." but my empirical experience has been otherwise since running OnyX the clean and sort things out has delivered quantifiably better performance and in at least two instances has evidently fixed instability and problem issues that had me contemplating a system reinstall. One was when I first installed the OS 10.4.8 system update. The system installed and booted just fine, but I discovered that the Finder's "Find" function was not working (nothing would happen), and the little text search utility SpeedSearch would find document titles but not display contents summaries. Bummer, but Onyx to the rescue. I ran the cron scripts, Repair Permissions, and some selected cache dumps, but omitted optimizing the system since the update installer had just done that. When I rebooted after OnyX had done its thing, both Find and SpeedSearch had been restored to working normally.

The second was last week. I had been rebooting on a near-daily basis because after a day or two of uptime clicking application and document icons in the Dock would stop bringing the selected item forward (switching to the Spaces pane that it was in). The pane selector in the menulet bar still worked, but that wasn't nearly satisfactory. After running a slate of maintenance and cleaning routines with OnyX I have gotten five and four days (counting) of proper Spaces behavior respectively without rebooting..

One observation, however. I decided that a new category in the Automation pane for rebuilding "Display of Folders Content" looked interesting, so I added it to the selected slate to run. I don't know the details of its function, but it sounded promising. Perhaps it was even the one that improved the Spaces problem, but it did have one unwelcome consequence; to wit: it reorganized my Desktop contents into a neat, but useless neat grid pattern. I'm spatially oriented, keep too much stuff on the Desktop (although I've reformed on that substantially), which usually looks something like this - and I know where everything is:

After running the "Display of Folders Content" routine, it looked like this:

Which necessitated a half-hour or so restoring things to where I can find them quickly. I don't doubt that rebuilding "Display of Folders Content" from time to time is probably a good idea (perhaps analogous to the old Rebuilding the Desktop routine in the Classic Mac OS), but be forewarned.

OnyX is an Universal Binary application and works with all Macintosh PowerPC and Intel computers running Mac OS X version 10.5.x (Leopard). To run correctly, OnyX must be run from an admin account.

OnyX is also available in versions for Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (OnyX version 1.5.3) and Mac OS X 10.1.5 Puma and 10.2 Jaguar (OnyX version 1.3.1).

New in version 1.9:

• VERSION FOR LEOPARD ONLY!


• New version totally rewritten


• Bug quitting the applications corrected


• New replacement icon


• Enable/disable Journaling function


• Enable/disable iChat Data Detectors function


• Hide the icon of Spotlight in the menu bar function


• Display the OnyX Log improved


• New Utilities panel


• Files Search function (locate)


• Empty Trash function


• Reseting the Sidebar of Finder windows function


• Kiosk Mode improved


• Deleting the Conversations log of instant messaging


• Some bugs of the previous beta corrected

System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.5 up

System support
PPC/Intel

OnyX is Freeware, gratis and freely usable; you may copy and distribute it at will.

For more information, visit:
http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs/english.html


Charles W. Moore

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