<moment>
I knew this day would come. I now realize that there does indeed exist a threshold beyond which I am literally frightened to help someone.
</moment>

Hi Jamestemroot. I wish you had pasted the exact line you were attempting to execute before the error occurred (the line that must've been just above the "cp: illegal option --V" line).

Quickie UNIX lesson:
* When you open the Terminal application, you leave the friendly world of Mac OS X and enter the harsh and stringent world of the UNIX shell.

* UNIX shell commands are typically formatted in the following manner:
command_name(blank space)options(blank space)parameters

Not so quick lesson on the UNIX copy command:
In this case the command you were attempting to make use of is the "copy" command. For historical reasons, this command is abbreviated to the letters 'c' and 'p' (in that order), so "cp" means "copy".

There must be a single blank space after the command! The blank space tells the UNIX shell that you are finished entering the command and are now moving on to other things that the command needs in order to do its job. So hit the space bar on your keyboard one time after typing "cp".

Next, we need to tell "cp" what options we would like to employ -- there are several from which to choose. Each individual option is identified by a single character (there are other ways to identify options, but let's keep this simple). Right. So today we are going to need options 'R' and 'p'.
You see, "cp" is usually used to copy a single file to some other location, but today we want "cp" to copy an entire directory structure full of files and other directories. The 'R' option tells "cp" that we want to do this -- 'R' stands for "recurse", but don't let that bother you. Let's keep moving.
The 'p' option (omg, sigh) the 'p' option takes a long time to explain. Some might argue (rightly) that it is not necessary for what we are doing today because of what I tell you to do in step 5. It is just an old habit of mine because of a bad experience in the past. The UNIX shell can be evil at times, but we mustn't fear it. Just use the 'p' for now -- do it for me. It stands for "preserve"; let's leave it at that.

Please excuse me for a moment...
<moment>
Now, right here you might be thinking to yourself, "...but there is no 'V'! What good is doing this if I don't get a chance to type a capital-v?" Please understand that "cp" does not like capital-v characters. You will not win this fight today. With experience, you can program your own "cp" command and force it to make use of an option identified as 'V'. It is possible -- just not today.
</moment>

Ok, I'm back.
Good. Ok. We must again enter a single blank space to tell the UNIX shell that we are now finished entering options and are now ready to enter parameters. The UNIX shell will assume everything from this point forward is a parameter. The "cp" command requires at least two (2) parameters. Each parameter must be separated by a single blank space.

Fear this: I'm going to *assume* the following:
* You followed Volkspost's directions and moved his Automator script to the Desktop before double-clicking it.
* You managed to complete my steps 1 through 3 from my previous post successfully.
* Your home directory is called "jamestemroot"
* The hard drive from which you normally boot your Macintosh computer is identified as "Macintosh HD".

If my assumptions are wrong, what I am about to tell you will not work!
This is a bit tricky jamestemroot. The first parameter tells "cp" where to find the stuff we want to copy today. You must then enter a single blank space. Finally, the second parameter tells "cp" where the stuff being copied should go. ATTENTION: the second parameter is a single period (also known as a dot or a full-stop). I know that is confusing -- I'm sorry. I've had nightmares that ended better than what would surely result from my attempt to explain to you why the period is the second parameter. Given the above assumptions are correct, having the period as the second parameter is good.

The parameters today are exactly the following (don't forget the quotes!):

"/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/jamestemroot/Desktop/Backup_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_6/"*.kext .

I will end with a prayer:
"May God guide your mind and your hands first toward successfully completing these instructions, and next toward your local bookstore where you will find a myriad of helpful books on the subject of the UNIX shell. A-men."

Just want to appreciate jasonb_too much.
I had the same as many of you problem with the non-working touchpad/mouse and keyboard.
And jason's tutorial really helped.
Except one thing about copying *.kexts from the backup folder. For some strange reason they copied only after adding a destination folder after the command
-R is for recursive, cause *.kexts are folders.

24" Alu iMac 10.5.6. After the patch, my mouse and keyboard just kept disconnecting and the mouse claimed low power all the time (despite several new batteries).

I took the AppleUSBHub.kext and IOUSBCompositeDriver.kext from the Backup_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_6 folder and put them in the Install_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_5 folder (replacing those which were there) and ran the Automator script in the Install_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_5 folder again from the desktop.

Worked like a dream - replaced password with mine, machine rebooted, all mouse and keyboard problems solved. I will use a USB hub next time I update my iPhone and stop messing with my very valuable system!

Thanks for the patch anyway - I did successfully update my iPhone (using Restore not Update which failed with error 12), but much stress and messing about with my Bluetooth for the next 2 days till I linked the 2 events!

messing with the IOUSBFamily.kext for people who has 10.5.6 or unibody MB seems to cause issues, namely keyboard and mouse, for some and not others.

yet others claim using a USB hub does the trick.

so my question is, the whole point to replace a couple of files within 10.5.6 IOUSBFamily.kext with 10.5.5 is to deploy the functionality of 10.5.5, right? which i totally understand the reason behind that.

what i fail to understand is HOW using a USB hub can accomplish the same thing? a USB hub plugs into 10.5.6 still uses the IOUSBFamily.kext in your MB, so what am i missing here?

those who claim USB hub works care to explain?

** here are a few questions for volks
1. you said you upgraded your unibody MB 10.5.5 to 10.5.6, right?
i have been reading on the apple site where many people seem to have issues
after upgraded to 10.5.6, have you experienced any problems so far?
2. i have unibody MB at 10.5.5 and kind of reluctant to upgrade to 10.5.6 with the
potential problems i have read. so is it possible to stay with 10.5.5 and use
your IOUSBFamily script?
3. assuming i ran your script in 10.5.5 and have no issues with keyboard, mouse
and further assume my MB now recognizes DFU. is that ANY REASON WHATSOEVER
that i need to restore to the backup IOUSBFamily.kext?
in other words, replace the two IOUSBFamily files from your script, have you
encountered any issue using your USB, other than DFU, that would require you
to restore the original files (in your case the 10.5.6 version).

Thank you for the complement Njke. Your post is a subtle and well-deserved hint to me. You're absolutely right. Much appreciated.

this method fixes the dfu problem but now my macbook air can't read my superdrive ,any way to undo this?

__________________
DOG FIGHTS OVER THE VIETNAM SKIES

To reverse the process, can't we just copy and paste the files in the backup folder to replace the ones that were just made????

I would like to do this so can someone tell me what folder these files are in...? Thanks!

i have the unibody macbook and i have not made the change because i want to read if people are having issues with it after they modified the file.

if i understand this correctly, the folder for the IOUSBFamily.kext locates in

/System/Library/Extensions

please let us know if everything works after you reverse the process

Actually... I was a dumb ass... I did this method and I have an early 08 model, not the unibody...

So I can't report back... my bad..

if you have an early 08 model, you need not do this method except you have upgraded to 10.5.6

so, is your machine ok now??