OSStatus error -1708

During our automated build we run DropDMG from a bash script:

dropdmg --config-name=TheAppName

Recently it has started failing with the message

The operation couldnt be completed. (OSStatus error -1708.)

Error -1708 is errAEEventNotHandled: “the AppleEvent was not handled by any handler.”

I haven’t come up with any leads searching for this error and would appreciate any help. Thanks!

Does this also occur if you are sitting at the Mac and run the “dropdmg” command yourself? Or only from the automated build system?

Do you see any other errors reported in the Console?

Does the problem still occur if you change your configuration not to include a layout?

Same thing happens when I run the command myself from a terminal.

Do you see any other errors reported in the Console?

No other errors in the console.

Does the problem still occur if you change your configuration not to include a layout?

Yes, same thing happens with no layout and no custom icon.

That is strange. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that. Have you tried restarting the Mac? Does it work if you just use:

NSDebugEnabled=YES dropdmg your-filename

? Or print a different error?

It works if I don’t use a config. If I use the config, setting NSDebugEnabled does not give any additional information about the error.

OK, thanks. As a temporary workaround, you might be able to specify all the options on the command line instead of referencing through the configuration. I will work on adding some more debug logging to figure out what’s happening here. If you send me an e-mail I’ll let you know when the new build is ready.

Thank you for looking into it. A bit more info: using the GUI and watching the activity window shows that the error occurs at the “Applying layout” stage.

Do you mean that you initiated the operation via the GUI, e.g. drag and drop? Either way, an error at that stage makes it sound like the error is not related to using the command-line tool. There may be more error information in the Detail drawer for the main window. You can also click this link to enable some additional debug logging for the layout.

I did not hear back from the customer, so I’m assuming that the problem no longer occurs. The improved error reporting was incorporated into DropDMG 3.3.