Hello Esther and others,
Wow! Esther, I feel like I've learned a ton of information from this
problem. Thanks to your post I've now used terminal and am less intimidated by
it. In some ways it does bring back memories of a time when I was a pretty
good DOS user.
I followed your commands and even snagged help from James Austin over Skype.
So I'm pretty sure I got the syntax and spacing and such correct.
Still no luck in emptying the trash. That is no luck when the external drive
was plugged in. It seemed to work normally when the external drive was not
connected.
Although I'm now inspired to read Take control of the Command Line In Terminal,
I think for now I'll resolve the problem by simply reformatting my Time Machine
drive. I use it really as a second backup to my Carbon Copy Clone so I'm OK
with starting over. Hopefully this will solve the problem.
Thank you again for all the information and extra bits of knowledge that filled
this and other posts!
Eric Caron
On Nov 13, 2011, at 10:47 PM, Esther wrote:
> Hi Eric,
>
> This is going to take a little testing on my part, and reviewing the
> Preferences setups you should have for Terminal to hear things spoken with
> VoiceOver, but first let me ask whether your TIme Machine disk is currently
> mounted. If, under Finder, you can use the Command-Shift-G "Go to Folder"
> shortcut, and type in:
> /Volumes/My Time Machine
> then press Return, and be placed in the top level of your Time Machine
> volume, then under the Terminal Application you would type either:
> cd /Volumes/My\ Time\ Machine
> with backslashes added before each space in the name of your volume, before
> you press Return, or else you need to enclose the entire path name inside
> quotation marks like this:
> cd "/Volumes/My Time Machine"
> and then press return for the first command. You may find it easier to just
> put quotation marks around the name of your Time Machine volume. Terminal is
> like DOS command line. The reason that you need to either put quotation
> marks around your path name if it includes spaces, or precede every space
> inside the name of the path with a backslash character, is that terms
> separated by spaces are treated as different arguments or parameters in a
> command. Without the quotation marks or backslashes, your "cd" command to
> change your current directory would be interpreted as a request to change to
> a mounted volume named "My", since there would be a space after the first
> word. When the command is executed, I'll hear VoiceOver say "newline
> Apples-MacBook-Pro:~ esther$" for the prompt, if this hasn't been redefined.
>
> You correctly typed the second command as:
> sudo rm -rf .Trashes
>
> I have my Terminal preferences set up so that when I launch this application
> with VoiceOver on, VoiceOver reads the response prompt from Terminal. Sarah
> is correct that when there is no new response prompt, Terminal has usually
> just executed your command. However, if I precede a command by typing
> "sudo", I should certainly get a command line prompt in return for
> "Password:" before the command is executed, because the "sudo" command means
> that I want to execute the command with superuser privileges. I won't be
> allowed to proceed without supplying a password that authorizes me to do
> this. I don't hear my password echoed as I type it. When the shell executes
> my command, I'll hear the default prompt back of "newline
> Apples-MacBook-Pro:~ esther$" (I'm doing this in an account where the default
> prompt has not been reset; most VoiceOver users who work in Terminal a lot
> will customize their prompt in the shell so they don't have to listen to all
> that every time they type a command.)
>
> I'll have to check the setup parameters that Travis gave in his "Hints on
> using Terminal" post last October. However, what you can do is try typing:
> rm -rf .Trashes
> followed by a press of the Return key in Terminal for your second command,
> and then check in your Trash to see if your problem file is removed. I'm
> guessing that you need your Admin user privileges to remove it, though, which
> is why we're using Terminal. The command line interface gives you the
> ability to execute commands that you can't usually run from the GUI
> interface.
>
> And the first time you type in a "sudo" command, the shell will probably
> respond with a warning message that asks you whether you are sure you want to
> do this.
>
> Let me do some checking and get back to you. Maybe somebody else can make
> suggestions. Dónal probably routinely teaches this sort of setup to his
> students. I have a link saved to the post Travis wrote about setting up
> Terminal last October, but it's really long, and he goes through absolutely
> every Window. I suspect that you only need to change a few settings under
> the "Settings" category of Terminal Preferences in order to make your changes
> -- mainly on the "Advanced" tab of the Settings where you change the Terminal
> emulation to "vt100", and the boxes for "Paste new lines as carriage returns"
> and "Scroll to bottom on input" checked.
>
> I think you may have to restart your machine, or at least quit Terminal and
> restart it to have the new settings take effect. If Travis Siegel, Jon Cohn,
> or Dónal are on line, one of them can probably give much better instructions
> about this than I can! Or James may remember the Terminal preference
> settings setup for VoiceOver.
>
> If you're interested, this is the link to Travis' (very long) "Hints on using
> terminal" post:
> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/2010/004769.html
>
> HTH. Cheers,
>
> Esther
>
> On Nov 13, 2011, at 15:24, Sarah Alawami wrote:
>
>> Acutlaly if you hit enter and no prompt comes up you usually did it
>> correctly. Try em[tying yoru trash to see if it solved the problem. I suck
>> at using the terminal but all it is is something like a dos prompt. if you
>> can think of it that way you should be fine.
>>
>> Take care.
>> On Nov 13, 2011, at 5:07 PM, Eric Caron wrote:
>>
>>> Esther and others,
>>>
>>> I've never liked the idea of using something called "Terminal" It sounds
>>> way too final and almost deadly! But despite my fear I'm willing to try to
>>> do this as I'm sure Esther has discovered my problem.
>>>
>>> I have tried to follow the directions but as this is my first Terminal
>>> experience I have not yet met success.
>>>
>>> I went to terminal and ran the program.
>>> I hoped I was in the correct spot and typed the first line.
>>> I then typed the second line using the one that started with sudo
>>> I entered my password and hit return a third time
>>>
>>> nothing seemed to happen.
>>>
>>> I'm wondering if I'm understanding how to get the correct path name.
>>>
>>> My time machine is simply called "My time Machine"
>>>
>>> here is what I typed once Terminal was opened
>>> cd /Volumes/My Time Machine
>>> sudo rm -rf .Trashes
>>>
>>> I then pressed return and entered my pass word. I pressed return again and
>>> nothing seemed to happen.
>>>
>>> I'm sure I'm not doing something simple that I don't know as a new Terminal
>>> user.
>>>
>>>
>>> I'm very happy That Esther identified my problem though.
>>>
>>> Eric Caron
>>> On Nov 13, 2011, at 4:18 PM, Esther wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Eric,
>>>>
>>>> From the file name you mentioned in your system message, the problematic
>>>> file is a Time Machine backup file that was moved to the trash in the
>>>> middle of its backup activity, and the reason that you are having
>>>> difficulty getting your Trash to empty completely is that your Mac
>>>> considers this to be file that is still open by an active process. The
>>>> default behavior is not to let you empty the Trash when such files are
>>>> still open and being worked on by active applications, because this could
>>>> potentially be something you want to keep -- or else why wouldn't you have
>>>> closed the application?
>>>>
>>>> The instances where this kind of behavior can be confusing include when
>>>> you are trying to eject a volume or shutdown, when you're told it is still
>>>> active or a file is in use, or when something is being accessed by Time
>>>> Machine backups, since it's easy to forget that this process may be
>>>> running in the background. In the first case, which usually happens when
>>>> you mount a USB memory stick and either navigate into folders because you
>>>> want to transfer files between the memory stick and your computer, the
>>>> solution is to check your Finder windows to make sure you're not in a
>>>> folder or sub-directory of the device you're trying to eject. As long as
>>>> you're in the file structure, even if you're not actively playing an MP3
>>>> file or quick looking a file, or editing text on the mounted volume, that
>>>> device is considered to be "in use" and can't be ejected, so either close
>>>> that Finder window or navigate up to the top level of the device with
>>>> Command+Up arrow.
>>>>
>>>> In the case of your Time Machine backup, it sounds as though you "deleted"
>>>> a .InProgress file by moving it into the Trash, but can't empty the Trash
>>>> because the file is on an attached disk drive. You'll need to open
>>>> Terminal, and use the command line "cd" command to change to your Time
>>>> Machine drive, then use the "rm" command to remove your ".Trashes" file.
>>>> Depending on how the drive is set up, and the response you get to trying
>>>> to do these commands, you may also have to first change the permissions in
>>>> the directory so that you can remove the files with a "chmod" command.
>>>> Travis, or someone else familiar with the permissions status of these
>>>> files can probably assist you if you run into a glitch here.
>>>>
>>>> I"d try something like the following:
>>>> 1. Open a Terminal window. (I keep Terminal in my dock, but you can launch
>>>> it from Finder by pressing Command-Shift-U to move to your Utilities
>>>> folder, then press "T" to navigate to "Terminal", and Command+Down Arrow
>>>> to launch the app).
>>>> 2. In Terminal, type:
>>>> cd /Volumes/<name of your time machine drive>
>>>> and press Return after typing the line. You need to type the name of your
>>>> Time Machine drive. An easy way to do this is to navigate to your Computer
>>>> in a Finder window by pressing Command-Shift-C. Then navigate to the
>>>> entry for your Time Machine volume, and press Command-C to copy the path
>>>> to that location. Command-Tab back to the Terminal window, type:
>>>> "cd" (without quotation marks) at the start of the line, press space bar,
>>>> then press Command-V to paste in the path to your Time Machine drive, then
>>>> press Return. The command line might look like:
>>>> cd /Volumes/Time\ Machine
>>>>
>>>> Then, on the next line, type either:
>>>> rm -rf .Trashes
>>>> followed by a press of the Return key, or else
>>>> sudo rm -rf .Trashes
>>>> followed by a press of the Return key.
>>>>
>>>> I suspect that you may have to use the second line, which requires you to
>>>> supply your Admin password with superuser privileges in response to the
>>>> prompt.
>>>>
>>>> It should take a short time to remove the file, depending on how large the
>>>> backup file was. I don't have a system that I can run a test check right
>>>> now, so someone else may be able to fill in the details.
>>>>
>>>> HTH. Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Esther
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Nov 13, 2011, at 09:06, Eric Caron wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello helpful listers,
>>>>>
>>>>> For several months now I have not been able to get my trash to
>>>>> completely empty. Now things seem even worse. When I now attempt to
>>>>> empty my trash I'm asked if I want to delete unlocked or all items. No
>>>>> matter what I choose the next message that comes up is,
>>>>>
>>>>> "The operation can’t be completed because the item
>>>>> “2011-09-19-163521.inProgress” is in use."
>>>>>
>>>>> This happens even after I restart my mac book and have not opened a
>>>>> program.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is a new problem as in the past I could at least empty the unlocked
>>>>> items.
>>>>>
>>>>> Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
>>>>>
>>>>> eRic Caron
>
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