Panther will not recognize my Keycode
 

I installed Panther 10.3 and it asks me for my keycode for Aquarium V 2.0. When I copy and paste or type it in I cannot get the OK button to accept it (it is dimmed). I read the other message in this forum regarding registration problems and deleted the preference files. However, I'm not the most computer savy but how do I re-run the application. I've searched everywhere and have finally given up

To run (or launch) the application, you can double-click it in the Finder, select it in the Finder (single-click) and open it (select Open under the File menu or type Command-O), or single click the icon for the application in the Dock (if the application's icon is in the Dock). To "re-run" it, quit the application and then run it again.

To configure the screen saver, open System Preferences (under your Apple menu, in your Dock, or from /Applications),select the Screen Saver/Screen Effects/Desktop and Screen Effects item (depending on the version of Mac OS X you are running), select the Marine Aquarium 2 screen saver from the list, and select the Configure/Options button. To "re-run" the screen saver configuration, quit System Preferences and perform these steps again.

If you can't get the OK button to become enabled when you type in your keycode (or cut and paste), then MA is not recognizing your keycode as valid. Double-check to make sure you are entering a valid MA 2 keycode (remember that MA 1 keycodes or MAT keycodes do not work in MA 2). If you believe you are entering a valid keycode and MA will not accept it, please e-mail tech support so they can help resolve this matter.

I've tried entering the keycode multiple times from both the application and the screensaver window with the same result: as soon as the screensaver activates, I get a gray screen asking me to enter my keycode. Any ideas as to when there will be a fix for this?

Did you try deleting the preference plist file?

Quit the MA application and/or make sure the screen saver is not active (not running and System Preferences is not running). Delete the file "com.prolific.ScreenSaver.Aquarium2.plist" from your /Library/Preferences directory (note that this is the top level Library directory, not the one in your user folder). Run the application (or use System Preferences to select the MA screen saver module) and enter the keycode again.

The problem you're seeing is caused by a combination of two conditions. First, changes in the system code in Panther result in a different "encoding" of your keycode information. Thus, when your old, encoded keycode information is read and "decoded", it doesn't generate a valid keycode. That's usually not a big problem, because it would cause MA to ask you to re-enter the keycode once and then save the newly encoded information to the preference file.

The second, and more significant, cause of this problem is that some installs of Panther (seems to particularly happen with "Archive and Install" method) result in a situation where the ownership and/or permissions of this preference file are changed in such a way that the current user only has read access to the file. Thus, MA cannot write the encoded information to this preference file. You could potentially fix it by correcting the ownership and/or permissions on this file, but it's generally easier for most users to just delete the file and have MA create a new one.

We're considering changes to future versions to at least detect this situation (preference file(s) cannot be written due to permission problems) and report it to the user.

Solved!
 

I tried dumping the plist file and it immediately solved the problem. Thanks!