Fanbois squeal over Mac OS X upgrade
Per usual
Apple's recently released 10.5.7 update to Mac OS X is bringing grief to a goodly number of unfortunate souls.
- MacInTouch readers have contributed multiple posts about multiple problems, some with suggested fixes, some without.
- MacFixIt has published three separate articles about installation woes - one describing download difficulties, a second discussing the Mac's version of the Blue Screen of Death and more, and a third focusing on third-party incompatibilities plus video-driver and language-support issues.
- As might be guessed, the Apple Discussion forum is also teeming with troubled users describing external drive problems, video-resolution oddities, Time Machine screw-ups, the ever popular circle-with-a-slash failure notice, and more.
We been through this before - and not that long ago. When version 10.5.6 was released back in December, problems also surfaced immediately - problems that Apple suggested could be fixed by trying again or by removing outdated third-party Mail.app plugins.
Here at The Reg, we hasten to add, we've experienced no difficulties whatsoever. The installation process, in fact, was surprisingly speedy. However, our production Mac Pro is kept in pristine shape, with a bare minimum of third-party system enhancements. Your mileage may vary.
Normally, we'd offer some advice on how to weather this storm, but this time out there are so many varied problems that we'll simply advise you to follow the links above and search out your individual problem.
If you're feeling mildly adventurous, however, you could try one of two time-honored Mac OS X hygiene maneuvers. To check for third-party incompatibilities, boot into Safe Mode by performing - what else? - a Safe Boot by holding down the Shift key during the boot process. This will disable all your third-party crapola and start up your Mac with the minimum of kernal extensions, fonts, and the like.
Just don't freak out when the boot process takes a very long time. Your Mac will run a full file-system check during the process, a lengthy endeavor. If all is well after a Safe Boot, your problem is likely a third-party incompatibility
Then there's the tried-and-true rebooting into pure-Unix Single-User Mode (hold down Command-S while booting), running just the file-system check by entering fsck -f at the prompt, then backing out by typing reboot.
If you're not familiar with the command line, however, be careful in there. One false move and you can really fsck up your Mac. ®
COMMENTS
Don't use 3rd party equipment
Quite a lot of people are having problems with this upgrade.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2004318&tstart=0
Fancy been stupid enough to use my TV as a monitor for a mini-mac, I shouldn't use nasty 3rd party equipment with a mac. The solution was simple use the back-ups and go back to 10.5.6 but it is still something I would rather not have needed to do!
Paris as she would not think that just because she hasn't had a problem doesn't mean that one doesn't exist!
@Anonymous Coward 13:05
Mate, take it easy ... you cannot claim that you have never seen a cockup with updates on Windows, that cannot be, lying or inexperienced. I have 9 years professional experience in IT and have seen cockups with all main OS's - that is just a fact of life .... I would say linux is the worst, though. I use linux for work and at home, and linux updates is so fscking annoying that I do not do it anymore ... The worst distribution for updates was Suse ... I came in one morning only to see that I could not start the shell, because Susue thought it would be smart to update glibc, without updating the dependencies ... it happened overnight, so it had to be automatic updates. That is when I switched to ubuntu ... how many times have I had x fail after an update, I dunno in the 20's or even 30's. Now, I have a Quad, and every time I update my kernel, I have to create a new initrd, because it cannot find my HD with the default one??? so I do not update kernels anymore ... but WTF??
Windows update?? I have had bluescreens, and these are work PC's, no "exotic" software allowed ... on my linux boxes, which I use at home, I have tons of stuff I compiled by hand ...
I seriously believe, being a longtime Mac user, that Apple is pretty good with updates, but that is because they control the hardware ... I guess that when you install crappy software like Norton on a Mac you will get that - I worked for symantec (not for very long, because their software is shite) and know what I talk about, thanks!
Then again, why must we always get to this my OS is better than yours ... everyone uses his OS of choice, let it be so ... all OS's are equal, no OS is better than any other ... Solaris is more equal than the others, though! LOL
The lonely Solaris fanboy! ROFL
PS: I only took Solaris because I want Webster to come along, where is he when you need him?
@ AC 08:15
" this is happened last time
a small percentage of OS X user had troubles with the update, but the internet media blew it all out of proportion because it was OS X. and then all the pc-trolls out there get on their soapbox and start shouting about how finally they've found proof that OS X is just as rubbish as their OS of choice, when in fact, the vast majority of users have no problem at all with the upgrade.
unlike windoze, where if there is a problem with their service pack, it seems to affect most users"
I'm sorry this is the best post ever, you make a perfectly valid point....... and then go straight into hypocrit land by saying that msot users are affect by service pack issues (when in fact, like with the osx its a small percentage), which is excatly what you were arguing about at first in your post.
Well done , you fail at IT and at life.
@WIndows makes me money.
bollocks
10.5.7 fell ass-over-tit on 2 mac's at home.
At work I regularly upgrade over 400 windows machines using WSUS, not a single blue screen - you obviously have fucking idiots creating your builds.
Glad you don't work here!
WIndows makes me money.
As usually I update my Macbook Pro with OS X 10.5 update. 8 hours later an el Reg article appears like clockwork with every release of an update and portents doom and gloom. I shake my head, everything works fine.
Today I go into work, updates for windows pushed down from the IT guys in their ivory tower. Forced shutdown and blue screens my system halfway through the shutdown process. I have to manually intervene and get the system booting up again.
Feeling brave, I update my Windows VMWARE Workstation software. No blue screen of death. Just took half the day uninstalling its previous version, sitting there forever on the please wait dialogue box. Then finally reboots and .... and .... working! - Boot up Linux in VMWare and now the VMWare Tools need updating.
Run my linux install and FAIL! -- You can not use the VMWare tools with your LInux you must recompile them. Recompile script FAIL! -- you must download and install all the kernel development tools first.... Download and install. Recompile script! FAIL- all kernel modules but one compile successfully. I have a partial VMWare Tools now running in Linux.
Thanks to Linux + Windows I got to bill the whole day as a contractor just fecking around with the systems. Billing 120 per hour I don't mind. I made close to a thousand off these two OS.
Thanks to OS X I had zero headaches and no time waste at home.
Life, Reality, Deal with it!
