Hardware:  Apple Titanium Powerbook, 667 MhZ G4, 1 GB SDRAM

I recently installed Tiger (10.4.2) (fresh install, not an upgrade) on
my Powerbook.  In Panther, I could right-click (or ctrl+left-click) on
the icon of a
running application in the Dock, and a pull-down menu would appear
listing all of the open instances of that application.

Now, however, nothing happens when I right-click.  Similarly,
ctrl+left-click behaves like right-click in other apps (contextual
menu appears).  But nothing happens if I ctrl+left-click an active
icon in the Dock.

So far, I've tried the following without results:

1. Powercycling the computer.

2.  Checked the Dock preferences for right-click behavior.  Nothing in
the dock preferences appears to control right-click behavior.

3.  Performed all of the available software updates.

4.  Swapped out the mice.  Right-clicking also works in other
contexts, so I know it isn't a physical problem with the mouse.

5.  Delete the Dock plist, and restart to get it to regenerate a fresh plist.

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
killall Dock

6.  Check the mouse/keypboard preferences.  Nothing in the
mouse/keyboard preferences appears to control right-click behavior. 
If I switch the primary mouse button to the right button, the left
button doesn't open the pull-down menu either.

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 07 Sep 2005 12:59 PDT

Hi crasch,

If you "click and hold" on a dock icon for a few seconds a menu should
pop-up. Does that help?

Regards,
hummer

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Clarification of Question by crasch-ga on 07 Sep 2005 14:22 PDT

Thanks.  No, clicking and holding a dock icon for a few seconds (with
either mouse button) does not cause a menu to pop up.

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Request for Question Clarification by hummer-ga on 10 Sep 2005 14:27 PDT

Hi again,

Do you have the software loaded that came with your mouse? I happened
to come across the following article and thought of you.

"If your PC runs Panther (the previous edition of Mac OS X) or Windows
2000 or XP, setup is simple: plug the Mighty Mouse into a USB port and
commence mousing. You'll be able to make only minor changes to the
buttons' functions via the operating system's control panel. If you're
running Tiger, you'll need to load up the included installation
software and be running version 10.4.2 of the OS. Once the software is
installed, restart your computer. Finally, using the control panel in
system preferences, you'll be able to configure the Mighty Mouse to
your preferences."
http://reviews.cnet.com/Apple_Mighty_Mouse/4514-3148_7-31470406.html 

Otherwise, you may need to reinstall Tiger because right clicking
should work. Here's a pretty good article -

Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Review
Page 5 (see graphic)
"The Dock has a few changes in Tiger. Most notably is that now when
you right-click on any item in the Dock, you have the ability to
select Open at Login, which will launch the application whenever you
login to Tiger..."
http://reviews.cnet.com/Apple_Mighty_Mouse/4514-3148_7-31470406.html 

Regards,
hummer

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Request for Question Clarification by welte-ga on 11 Sep 2005 05:28 PDT

Hey crasch-ga, great to see some other Mac fans out there.  One thing
to try that frequently fixes problems like this is to run Disk Utility
(from the Utilities subfolder on the hard-drive).  Select your main
(boot) drive and click on Repair Permissions.  It's good to do this
after installing major software (which can sometimes break some of the
permissions) or if you're having odd problems.

Best,

      -welte-ga

Try just clicking on the icon and holding down. If that dosen't work,
then re-install the OS. If that dosen't work, you have a motherborad
issue.