Shortly after the release of Snow Leopard, some users have reported a problem where the keyboard stops working after switching spaces. While the mouse remains responsive, the keyboard becomes dysfunctional for any key input, possibly except for the keyboard shortcut to switch spaces again. In many instances, the space selection “window” seen to right refuses to disappear and stays on top of other windows, though this is not always the case. Cnet has documented this issue before:

This problem seems to happen only when people use keyboard shortcuts to select a specific Space, rather than when activating the Spaces grid view. The Spaces indicator will activate and then seem to remain as the foremost process, not quitting or allowing other applications to use the keyboard.

Spaces is integrated into the Dock; therefore, if this problem occurs, you can regain control of your keyboard by force-quitting the Dock. Since the mouse should be working, you can navigate to the Utilities folder and open “Activity Monitor.” From here, highlight the Dock process and click the “Quit” button, which should make the dock disappear and reappear, releasing the hold on the keyboard.

In case you didn’t click on the article link, that article was posted over three months ago; the lack of attention to this problem from Apple is getting somewhat annoying. Some users have reported that if you use an external keyboard, unplugging it and plugging it back in will fix the problem. But for us MacBook owners, force-quitting the Dock is the only workaround.

Instead of navigating to the Activity Monitor, I’ve compiled an Automator script to force-quit the Dock for you. Just keep it on your desktop (or in your Dock) to relaunch the Dock and fix the Spaces issue whenever you need it.

Click here to download.

Related posts:

1. Microsoft Office ‘Spaces’ issues finally fixed?
2. SmackBook with Leopard Spaces

Still haven’t upgraded to Snow Leopard? What about trying the next best thing and making it look like you’ve upgraded? While there’s no reason not to upgrade given Snow Leopard’s low price, if you’ve still haven’t gotten around to upgrading yet, you can experience what it’s like to at least pretend you’re on a Snow Leopard machine by using its wallpaper. Download link after the bump.

To save an image in full resolution (2560×1600):

1. Click on the image,
2. Right click,
3. Save image as…

Or just download the zipped collection.

[via Materia Geek]

Related posts:

1. Snow Leopard available on August 28th
2. Snow Leopard disc packaging leaked
3. Keyboard unresponsive using Spaces in Snow Leopard

Also compatible with Snow Leopard!

SmackBook was originally a name given to the method used to switch between virtual desktops in Richard Wareham’s Desktop Manager using the MacBook’s built-in motion sensor. You would “smack” the MacBook on the side, and the sensor would read the movement and trigger the program to go to the desktop corresponding to the direction of the smack. Leopard’s spaces has made Desktop Manager nearly obsolete, but thanks to Jason Shen we can once again use it for SmackBook thanks to a script he’s written.

First you will need to download a few files:

1. smackleopard.command, the file that contains the sensitivity information and calls for the system event to switch spaces, and
2. AMSTracker, the command-line program that retrieves acceleration data from the Sudden Motion Sensor

Once you have downloaded the 2 files, you will need to place them in the same directory. After that, you might want to open the smackleopard.command file with TextEdit to modify the sensitivity.

To change the sensitivity find the following lines and modify both the numbers indicated. The higher the number, the harder you need to smack.

if(abs($x) > 30 && $stable > 30) {

	$stable = 0;

If you aren’t using the default keyboard shortcuts to switch between spaces (Control + Arrow keys), you will need to modify the file to reflect the shortcuts. I for one use the Option + Arrow keys to toggle spaces so I changed the following code

`osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke (ASCII character 29) using control down'`

} else {

`osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke (ASCII character 28) using control down'`

into this

`osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke (ASCII character 28) using option down'`

} else {

`osascript -e 'tell application \"System Events\" to keystroke (ASCII character 29) using option down'`

I also swapped the keystroke parameters (ASCII character 28/29) to reverse the direction that spaces switch in to my liking.

Once you have configured the smackleopard.command file, you will need to change the script’s permission so that it becomes executable. Open up Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and switch to the smackleopard.command directory using the cd command. If it is on your desktop, you would type in the following:

cd /Users/myusername/Desktop

Change permissions with the following command:

chmod +x smackleopard.command

Now assuming that both smackleopard.command and AMSTracker are in that same directory, you may now run it by typing in the following:

./smackleopard.command

To hide Terminal press Command + H, and to end the SmackBook system events, just press Control + C while Terminal is in focus. Watch it in action in this video, though the instructions may be a bit confusing to the inexperienced. I’ve embedded a more concise video by anthonym2121 that sums up the contents of this article below—thanks Anthony! The older video can be found here.

And macBound commenter Shy has made an executable file that runs SmackBook as a shell script so it runs without Terminal open—it can be downloaded here. Thanks Shy!

Related posts:

1. Keyboard unresponsive using Spaces in Snow Leopard
2. Take Screenshots in Mac OS X
3. Microsoft Office ‘Spaces’ issues finally fixed?

After purchasing your Mac you may notice some components of the OS missing, as did I. This may be because of a faulty Leopard installation on the Mac that didn’t install all the applications or utilities. The easiest way to restore them is to do an Archive and Install. This is similar to doing a repair installation on Windows; it installs a new copy of Mac OS X whilst giving you the option to preserve your settings.

The following explains how to do an Archive and Install:

1. Insert Disc 1 of your Mac OS X install disc into your computer (it should have come with your Mac).
2. Restart your Mac (Apple menu > Restart…).
3. As your Mac is booting, hold down the C key on your keyboard. This forces OS X to boot from the disc.
4. Once the disc has booted, select your language of preference and continue.
5. After accepting the license agreement, select the destination disk OS X is installed on and click on the Options button.
6. Make sure the Archive and Install radio button is selected, and preferably the Preserve Users and Network Settings checkbox as well. This will import existing user accounts, their home folders, and your network settings into the new system.
7. Accept the settings and click on continue to complete the installation.

Once the installation is complete, there will be a new folder on the Macintosh HD entitled Previous Systems, which contains existing system files before the Archive and install. This folder can be deleted if unneeded as it just takes disk space.

Related posts:

1. Keyboard unresponsive using Spaces in Snow Leopard