HOWTO: Fix SystemUIServer on your Mac after hacking in Front Row and applying the 10.4.5 update

Wow, longest. title. evar.

Anyway, I rebooted my Mac today and when it came up, I kept getting crashes on SystemUIServer.

SystemUIServer quit unexpectedly

EXEC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (0×0002)
0×00000002

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 BSRemoteControlFeatureAvailable + 140
1 0×1000 + 7556
2 0×1000 + 6544
3 0×1000 + 49204

After some searching and digging, I found the cause. I had followed Andrew Escobar’s excellent guide to getting Front Row to work on my (unsupported) PowerBook G4. The update to 10.4.5 patched some of the file used to make the Front Row hack work, so they started crashing. The solution is rather simple. This assumes you already had Front Row installed and working, and now it is erroring out. If you want to install it for the first time, I recommend you read Andrew’s Directions.

1. Download the Mac OS X 10.4.5 Combo Updater
2. Download and install Pacifist. This awesome program will go inside of .pkg installer files and let you copy our individual pieces of the program.
3. Use Pacifist to open the package. Restore the following directories back to their original locations by right clicking them, and choosing the obvious option:

• /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BezelServices.framework/
• /System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/

7. Using Andrew’s Front Row Enabler, (re-)Enable Front Row
8. Log off and back on (or reboot)
   … and that’s it! It should work again! Good luck!