My bad...

[Appendices]

So I really screwed up here guys.

Due to my clean-freakyness, I was trying to remove notification center.

A site gave the terminal command:

launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.notificationcenterui.plist

However, I only got to "/System/Library/LaunchAgents" before I accidentally pressed the enter button. For some reason I was dumb enough to restart rather than reload LaunchAgents.

So now, I get a big white screen every time I log in. No menu bar, application bar, wallpaper, nothing. I can still see changes in brightness and hear the volume change blip, but I don't see the bubbles.

I can't log into root because I didn't have it enabled before. Logging in in safe mode gives the same white screen. I can run recovery mode, giving me a shot at a terminal window, but if I command:

launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents

It shows a long list of things it tried to load but "failed: -10", followed by a short list of "Already loaded".

In order to cover all the bases, I reset my NVRAM, which had no effect.

I don't want a conversation about how dumb this was, I just need help, and I would prefer not to have to reinstall OSX.

For reference, I'm using a mid 2012 MBP with OS 10.8.2.

Edit: I just reinstalled Mountain Lion, but the problem persists!

 

[Kaveman]

Do you have a current backup?
Messing around in terminal - reinstall OSX.

 

[Appendices]

Sadly I haven't used Time Machine since it was introduced to me in Tiger/Leopard.

I just tried to reinstall OSX, but I still get the white screen.

I did try to reinstall OSX over the old install, rather than wiping the drive and then reinstalling.

There are a few things that I would like to keep, but they are replaceable so I may be headed in that direction.

 

[Kaveman]

If you have access to another Mac you could try Target Mode, to access the Hard Disk and retrieve the files.

 

[Appendices]

I have my mother's MBA handy. I can't think of a way to connect these two. I have no USB A - USB A cords, the MBA has no Firewire 800 port, the MBA has a Mini-DP rather than a Thunderbolt.

 

[Kaveman]

You may be able to use an Ethernet cable, if you have one handy.

 

[Appendices]

MBA has no ethernet port.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi Appendices,

Think you need to buy the external Apple 10/100Base-T Ethernet adapter that connects via the sole USB ports.

 

[Appendices]

It's okay. I gave in and did a clean install. Thanks for the help though.

 

[oldscribe]

Ok, thanks for the info sometimes that is the quickest solution.