Using Location Manager

New versions of the Mac OS install Location Manager by default. It's a very powerful, very helpful program - but can also cause no end of problems if you don't understand it. And unless you move your computer or have more than one internet connection, you don't need it on desktop machines.

The following is taken from correspondence with Scott Barber.

Letter to Scott

I have a Revision B iMac 233 with Mac OS 8.5.1 - and I have had lots of modem trouble. Instead of "Dialing..." dialog, I get "Connecting," and this leads nowhere. I can't seem to isolate why anything is different when it works or when it doesn't.

I've installed all of the iMac updates on the Apple tech page and have seen no improvement.

Additionally, I've lost keyboard control and have had the Epson 740 printer drivers disappear.

The only software I've added is Microsoft Office 98.

Any ideas? I'm about to send it back and ask them to send me one that works. I sincerely appreciate your help.

Scott's reply

You're describing a networking problem - one that's kind of obvious, but not to most iMac users (iMacs are different from other Macs, and unless you're aware that you have three active network interfaces on the machine, it's easy to get lost.)

You're definitely going to have to throw away your TCP/IP and AppleTalk preferences files. Additionally you might want to trash AppleShare Prep (in Preferences as well).

Basically, you're network is losing it's mind. It thinks it's connected to the internet via an Ethernet connection, so it isn't looking for a modem or PPP setup. The Epson printer is confused, thinking it's also on the ethernet, and the driver software isn't noticing the USB at all. If this has crashed your USB setup, you'll have to zap the PRAM as well, since your keyboard and mouse are on the USB as well.

You don't need a replacement, just a network exorcism. Every network device is pointing to the wrong thing. Since you've lost your keyboard, you'll have to scrounge through the manual to find a way of resetting the motherboard without keyboard access - or boot without extensions, so that you can get the keyboard access you need.

Let me start over.

In this order, do the following

1. On starting the machine from a complete shutdown (power off), hold down the Apple, option, P, and R, keys. Keep holding these keys down until you hear the chimes at least three times. Note: I mean right at the very moment you turn the power on, before you see the lighted gray screen. If you start booting up with this key combination down, you're hosed and will have to turn the power off.
2. After all of these chimes (remember, at least three AFTER you've held the keys down), release the keys and hold down the shift key until the machine starts booting and you see "Extensions disabled" appear on the bootup screen.
3. At this point, you're running lean and mean. Go into your System Folder: Preferences folder. Drag the following to the trash: TCP/IP Preferences, AppleTalk Preferences, AppleShare Prep, Finder Preferences, Display Preferences, Monitors & Sound Preferences Folder (the whole folder), Sound Preferences, ASLM Preferences. This should reset most of the machine to factory specs.
4. Reboot again, and before the reboot sequence (gray screen) hold down the Option and Apple key until you get to the Finder. You'll get a prompt asking if you wish to rebuild the desktop. You do.
5. Now, after all this crap, shut down the machine (power off). Reboot, and set up your networking again -- in both AppleShare and TCP/IP control panels. Additionally, go into Modem and Remote Access control panels and set up the other crap as well (modem type, how you want to dial - all that).

This is a three hour ordeal, and you may not feel comfortable redoing all the networking stuff. I remember there's an Apple Internet access script - a helper script for this on the first level of the hard drive - you might want to go through all this with the presetup scripts if you're not familiar with TCP/IP and such.

Reply to Scott

I performed the exorcism last night per your instructions. Before I did it, I could not get the modem to "dialing..." instead I just got the "connecting..." box.

After performing the full set of steps, It worked great! Then tonight I started it up again and the modem is back to "connecting...". I did a full shut down and then started it again and tried "connecting..." was the result. So I opened the Open Remote Access control panel from the control strip and left Internet Explorer running. I selected CONNECT, and I heard the dial tone, it dialed the number, and then hung up (the phone connection, not the computer).

I canceled, and clicked CONNECT again, I heard the dial tone, saw the message "dialing..." and it worked. One other detail - when I get the message "connecting..." I never hear a dial tone. My printer works fine now, as does my keyboard and mouse. What's next?

Scott's reply

OK, this is definitely a problem in Remote Access now. You have to start playing a few games.

First, it sounds like you have Location Manager installed.

Location Manager is a quick idiot box method of allowing a PowerBook (or desktop Mac) to be changed from one location (i.e. business) to another. I'll give the example.

I have a PowerBook G3 that I use for several clients. When diagnosing problems at client offices, it's very easy for me to connect to their client network with a 10Base-T ethernet cable and use Timbuktu to control all of the machines, including their server, from my laptop to run diagnostics and find problems.

Additionally, when at Client A, they have a LaserWriter Select 360 printer. I create a Location called "Client A" in the location manager, set up my machine for their network settings (TCP/IP and such), and their 360 printer. It only takes a second to select the Client A configuration, and my PowerBook automatically changes all of it's network and printer settings for use with their network. It basically sets my TCP/IP settings to 10.9.9.9 to be a machine on their network, and sets my default printer to the 360 automatically.

When at client B, though, they have a LocalTalk network and a Personal LaserWriter NT. When I choose the Client B configuration, it automatically switches AppleTalk from Ethernet to Printer port, TCP/IP to AppleIP on a 65280 network, and sets up the Personal LaserWriter NT as my default printer.

So Location Manager is a cool little thing, right? But it messes up a lot. So it's important to do the following:

• Go to Remote Access, and choose Configuration from the File menu.
• Duplicate your current configuration, name it HOME, and make it active.
• Look at the Remote Access configuration...make sure your name and password is right, and check the Options button and confirm that everything is set up perfectly there...
• Go to Modem, do the same (do the HOME configuration thing as well)
• Go to TCP/IP, do the same
• Go to AppleTalk, do the same

Test your internet connection. Make sure it dials up properly and logs off properly. Do this a few times to make sure everything is working.

Now go to the Location Manager. Open it from the file menu. Make a new location. Name it home.

This takes all the settings you currently have set up, and makes them "hard" settings. We only have a few HARD settings that we NEED to be hard set (namely everything above), and you have to choose a few boxes in the Location Manager window to accomplish this.

Choose the following boxes only, making sure that HOME is chosen in the "Edit Location" pulldown menu.

• AppleTalk & TCP/IP
• Internet Set
• Remote Access

Now set your current location (the top pulldown menu), to HOME.

Last step: shut down the machine.

If you get a prompt asking you if you want to change your location manager settings - do update them!

Reboot the machine. Check out the internet connection. If it works, go to your Location Manager control panel and see that your current location is set to HOME. If it is, then you're almost done.

This step is not called the last, because there's a preventative measure that will help you in the future.

Open the Location Manager again. Choose Duplicate Location from the File menu. Duplicate the HOME menu and call it "HOME BACKUP NEVER USE". This will secure your HOME configuration for the rest of time.

If you have a problem with HOME again - where it won't dial in or something's broke - you open the Location Manager, delete the Home profile outright, make a duplicate of "HOME BACKUP NEVER USE," and rename it HOME. Then you select HOME as your current location, watch a few things change on your screen, and go on with your life, secure in the knowledge that you just saved yourself from hours of work.

Also - and this is very important....

If, while using the HOME configuration, if anything ever changes your TCP/IP, Modem, AppleTalk, or Remote Access settings, you will know because at shutdown or restart you will see a prompt on your screen. It's the same prompt asking you if you want to update your Location Manager settings. You always say "DO NOT UPDATE" - unless you specifically went in and changed some setting permanently (like you bought a new modem, or changed service providers, or someone sent you a new DNS for TCP/IP -- something drastic).

If you choose to update, you make PERMANENT changes to the location manager HOME profile, and run the risk of having to go to your HOME BACKUP to recover your connection.

EXTRA INFORMATION BECAUSE I'M A BORING LONGWINDED GUY

The reason you have the Location Manager is because the iMac is basically a PowerBook G3 motherboard. There are plenty of Macintosh sites that will confirm this - I'm not giving you a line of crap here. This means that no matter what version of the OS you ever install, it will probably not detect it as an iMac, but instead a PowerBook. Additionally, it will probably cause all kinds of PowerBook specific software to be installed from the system software - things like Trackpad controllers, screen dimmers, SCSI PowerBook control panels - things designed for portable computers - even though the iMac isn't really as portable as a PowerBook is. Keep this information in mind when you run into software problems - you're going to have all of the bugs and problems with this machine that PowerBook users have endured for years.

Laptops are not as reliable or stable as desktop machines, because of their portability. Nothing can be set in stone, most of the motherboard is shortcutted and slower than a desktop motherboard, and special patches constantly come up for PowerBooks that never affect desktops as system programmers and software designers make changes in their software to support these weird motherboards with their weird chips. Because you have an iMac, and perceive it as a desktop machine, you might be astonished at all the problems you'll have compared to your standard desktop Macintosh. This isn't a sign of a bad Macintosh - even though everything you've been trained by Apple to believe is that the errors you're getting are from bad hardware - it's laptop design, and errors in software support, that create the problems. Never guess hardware until all software is eliminated from the loop.

An easy test to see if it's hardware is to boot from the original CD that came with the PowerBook or iMac. If it boots, then your problem is software related. If it doesn't boot, 80% of the time it's because you hit the "c" key too late, or have the wrong combination of booting.

But if while booting from the boot CD, the machine locks up and crashes, and does this repeatedly three or four times in a row - then you have a hardware problem. Laptop/iMac boot CDs are designed to enable all the specific hardware on the machine that could be damaged, and if there is a lockup during the extensions booting of the CD, you have some piece of hardware that's loose, a bad drive hooked up, something wrong with your USB connectors or hub, something's wrong with hardware.

So throw all of your desktop experience in the trash when dealing with the Laptop/iMac. You're not crazy - it's the software in the machine.

Addendum:

On desktop machines I always throw away the Location Manager, but on laptops it's a requirement. Likewise, I would rather tell you to use the Location Manager to do all these things on the iMac instead of throwing it away. The reason is that programs designed to detect PowerBooks often change settings without prompting you about them on Laptops when they'd normally prompt you on a desktop - having an easy fix such as "Don't Update" or copying HOME backup to HOME is a real convenience. 

Scott L. Barber, serker@serker.com
CEO, SERKER Worldwide, a division of ContComm, Inc.
Providing Networking and Telecommunication solutions since 1984
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