Eck! It’s the keystone cops, and their in my ‘puter!

I ran across this today…  And was very suprised…

1/21/10 10:10:04 AM	com.apple.launchd[1]	(com.google.keystone.daemon[36803]) bootstrap_register() erroneously called instead of bootstrap_check_in(). Mach service: com.google.Keystone.Daemon
1/21/10 10:10:04 AM	com.apple.launchd[1]	(com.google.keystone.daemon[36803]) Exited with exit code: 1
1/21/10 10:10:04 AM	com.apple.launchd[1]	(com.google.keystone.daemon) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
1/21/10 10:10:14 AM	com.apple.launchd[1]	(com.google.keystone.daemon[36804]) bootstrap_register() erroneously called instead of bootstrap_check_in(). Mach service: com.google.Keystone.Daemon
1/21/10 10:10:14 AM	com.apple.launchd[1]	(com.google.keystone.daemon[36804]) Exited with exit code: 1
1/21/10 10:10:14 AM	com.apple.launchd[1]	(com.google.keystone.daemon) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds

With some research, I found out that this is caused by the Google updater application attempting to run in the background…

One option is to remove all of the Google background updater applications…

  • “Google Updater Helper” – Firstly started by /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist  and subsequently by launchd – (seen by running launchctl list | grep com.google.Updater.helper)
    • Removal: edit/remove the google item in that file using property editor/textedit/Pacifist
  • “googleml-modwatch” – Started by launchd from: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.GoogleML.plist.
    • Removal: rename com.google.GoogleML.plist to com.google.GoogleML.plist e.g.:
      sudo mv /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.GoogleML.plist
      /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.GoogleML.plist.off
  • “GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon” – another launchd startup
    • Removal: sudo mv /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.google.keystone.daemon.plist.off
  • “GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent” – another launchd startup
    • Removal: sudo mv /Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist /Library/LaunchAgents/com.google.keystone.agent.plist.off

Then Restart and they should all be gone…. You can still manually run the updates when you want to by running:
“/Library/Google/Google Updater/Google Updater.app”.

But this really is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.  Google officially gives us the information to disable update checking, or to change the interval in which is checked…

Update Frequency

To change how frequently Google Software Update checks for updates, execute the following in the Terminal application:

$ defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval <frequency>

where <frequency> is the elapsed time in seconds between update checks.

To disable Google Software Update from checking for updates, execute the following in the Terminal application:

$ defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

Manual Updates

Google Software Update also provides a way to manually update all Google software on a user’s Mac. Here’s how:

  1. In Finder, select Go > Go to Folder.
  2. In the window that appears, enter one of the following locations. It’s expected that one of these folders won’t be found:
    • /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/
    • ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/
  3. In the folder that opens, double click the file named ‘CheckForUpdatesNow.command’.

Terminal will open to run the file. When you see the message ‘[Process completed]’ you can close Terminal. Once this is done, your Google programs will be up to date.

2 thoughts on “Eck! It’s the keystone cops, and their in my ‘puter!”

  1. hi & thanks for reading this question — you seem to know alot about mac and google — hope you can help 🙂

    my spotlight broke almost a month ago and nothing so far has fixed it so i’m installing google desktop. I’m using littlesnitch and netbarrier to block all hidden ougtoing google app extrusions (a bunch!)

    by any chance do you have any idea what these files/components below are and why they are part of googledesktop for mac (10.4 version)?

    googleML
    Gild

    The top 2, along w/ google software update are visible in the custom install option, altho they (and sftwr upd) appear as having zero/kb but each of the 3 can be checked/unchecked in the ‘custom install’ section.

    and these 2 hidden files alongside the installation package?
    .keystone_install -guild
    .keystone_postinstall

    anyway, thanks hope you can explain if i need these for Gdsktop to work and why so many phone home applets are double and sometimes triple installed/hidden if you install Gdsktop and Gadgets and wonder why google does not explain this.

    cheers!!!

    Reply

    1. The top 2, along w/ google software update are visible in the custom install option, altho they (and sftwr upd) appear as having zero/kb but each of the 3 can be checked/unchecked in the ‘custom install’ section.
      and these 2 hidden files alongside the installation package?
      .keystone_install -guild
      .keystone_postinstall

      PostInstall files are not unusual on the Mac, especially in installers, and there is nothing necessarily hazardous with them…

      Gild, is likely, the Gild REST service (http://code.google.com/p/microapps/wiki/Gild). Which in itself, is probably used for Google Desktop Search to produce HTML stylized preview pages for the documents that you are searching for.

      The keystone install appears to be to setup the search daemon for Google Desktop… The postinstaller just verifies that it installed properly.
      Google isn’t out installing malware… Yes, they do require you to keep up to date on their software, which some people object to… But nothing in your description seems to be malice, or dangerous….

      I would be more concerned that your Spotlight install died. Do you see any errors in the Console log?

      Reply

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