The root user is the super user for the system, meaning it can do anything it wants to any file. Some, when troubleshooting, you need to use the root user. However, by default, the root user is not enabled (for security reasons). You can enable the root user three ways, outlined at Mac OS X Hints.

This problem seemingly comes up at random, as no trigger has been found yet for it. However, the solution is simple, even though Apple has hidden it. Instead of putting this option in the Date and Time System Pref pane, they put it in the International System Pref pane. In the International System Preference pane, click the time button, and there you will see the 12 and 24 hour clock options. If the 24-hour option is selected, select the 12-hour option. If the 12-hour option is selected, select 24-hour, and then reselect the 12-hour option.

With Mac OS X, Apple has decided to axe its very popular game sprockets, but hasn't put anything in their place. This means your favorite game pad doesn't work with your Mac OS X games. To get around this, a few developers have taken this problem, and come out with utilities to get your game pad working once again. Try Game Pad Companion, X Gamepad Support, or USB Overdrive.

Apple has a software update mechanism built into OS X that checks their servers to see if new software updates are available. However, some people have dial-up connections at home, and faster connections at work, or they want to download the update once and apply it to multiple machines. If this is the case, than all of the software updates are posted on Apple's download page. However, these updates are normally posted at least a week after they are available via software update.

If you have files in the trash that just cannot be deleted (mainly because of privileges), you might become very frustrated. A couple ways to solve this would be to change the privileges for the undeletable files, enable root user as in question 1, or try a utility such as XRay. Also see this Apple Knowledge Base article.

Toast likes to steal .dmg files and .img files from the application that should be handling them, Disk Copy. You could drag these files to Disk Copy every time, but that's not a very good solution. Instead, find one .img file, and one .dmg file. Do the following steps for each kind of file:

1. Click once on the file and get info.
2. Click on the General Information pop up menu, and select "Open with application"
3. Now click on the icon of the application that shows up (it will probably be Toast right now)
4. What pops up is a list of application that can handle that file format. Disk Copy should be on that list. If not, select other, and then navigate to Disk Copy in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.
5. once you have selected Disk Copy, the "Change All..." button should be active. Click that button to make disk copy open all files of that type from this time on.

This should make it so Disk Copy opens the files, and mounts the images, instead of Toast incorrectly handling them.

• "An error of type -192" alert message in Disk Copy when disk images fail to become available.
• "An error of type -108" alert message in Print Center when spooling print jobs.
• "You are running Classic without superuser (root) Privileges" alert message when trying to start up Classic and the System Folder is blessed.
• An Admin user cannot drag files to a folder to which they should have write access, for example, the Applications folder.
• Files are unexpectedly locked and cannot be unlocked in the Finder.

Apple has recognized these errors as happening on many users system, so they introduced a utility called Repair Privileges that should take care of them.

Please read this lengthy Apple Knowledge Base article.

If you forget your password for your computer, insert the Mac OS X CD and restart your computer while holding down the C key on the keyboard. When the Installer appears, choose Reset Password from the Installer menu and follow the on-screen instructions.

When you burn a CD or DVD via Mac OS X's built in burning utility, you need as much hard drive space as data being burnt to the disk. If you get this error, not enough space is available on your hard drive, and you need to delete files to make more room.

When you see these terms, they mean your Home Library folder, and your root Library Folder respectively. Anything with a ~ (tilde) character in it means that it is in your Home folder (each users has their own home folder). If it doesn't have a tilde in front of it, it means it's on the root level of your hard drive. You are at the root level when you are at the top of your hard drive (not to be confused with the root user).

Some people have noticed that when booting back and forth between the two Mac OS's, their system's time is off. Usually, this happens when the time zones are set different in Mac OS X than in MaCOS 9. To correct this, use the Date and Time control panel in OS 9, and the Date and Time System Preference pane in OS X to set the same time zones.

• Apple's Knowledge Base
• MacFixIt's Mac OS X page
• Mac OS X Hints