Mac OS X 10.3.6 Update Now Available

[cb911]

well said Doctor Q.

i agree as well... all OS X updates have presented no problems for me - they've all been good in one way or another. faster boot times, fixed small issues etc.

i also suspect that some of these reported problems are not caused by the actaul Software Update but perhaps a badly maintained system? i don't store any of my documents on my OS X boot partition - maybe that's got something to do with why i've never had any problems.

i'm actually quite amazed that i've had no problems... with the amount of litttle 'haxies' and other useless app i've got installed.

 

[wdlove]

well said Doctor Q.

i agree as well... all OS X updates have presented no problems for me - they've all been good in one way or another. faster boot times, fixed small issues etc.

i also suspect that some of these reported problems are not caused by the actual Software Update but perhaps a badly maintained system? i don't store any of my documents on my OS X boot partition - maybe that's got something to do with why i've never had any problems.

I'm actually quite amazed that i've had no problems... with the amount of little 'haxies' and other useless app i've got installed.

I do try my best to keep my Mac maintained. Don't have a partition on my hard drive. The recommendations from most said not to, unless there was special need. Even so, I'm another one of those that haven't incurred any big problems with the updates from Apple. Pretty much the status quo.

 

[zync]

I do try my best to keep my Mac maintained. Don't have a partition on my hard drive. The recommendations from most said not to, unless there was special need. Even so, I'm another one of those that haven't incurred any big problems with the updates from Apple. Pretty much the status quo.

As I said before I'm doing fine too. A year's worth of updates and no big issues. The only problem I've had/am having is that annoying Safari issue where you have to reload a page every once in a while. It is becoming more frequent though And sometimes it takes a while to happen. I'd be interested to know what the bug is once it's found. Hyatt has been pretty silent on this issue on his blog.

 

[FoxyKaye]

Perhaps your misunderstanding of how to properly install Mac OS X was part of the reason your installation failed.

Um, no offense, but the tips to which you've linked are all like "duh" stuff that I do fairly regulary and pre/post update. I've been working on Macs as a user or sysadmin since 1996. I think I know how to apply OS updates.

Also FYI, by "clean installation" I mean that I've repartitioned, wiped and reinstalled using the 10.3.5 combined updater and my Retrospect files.

Look folks, Apple is not infallable, not every OS update is going to be gold (or need I remind folks of the System 7 debacle). It's quite conceivable that there's problems with this update. There's a laundry list on this thread, the longest I've seen in a while, and implying that folks having problems don't know what they're doing is neither productive nor supportive.

 

[FoxyKaye]

In other words, Disk Utility is just making extra sure that cd9660.util has the correct permissions by forcing the issue rather than doing it conditionally.

Way late on this, but that was a really cool explanation of the issue. I'd always assumed it had something to do with making sure this worked, but never put that much more thought into it. Nicely done!

 

[Doctor Q]

i don't store any of my documents on my OS X boot partition - maybe that's got something to do with why i've never had any problems.

That's verrrrrrrrrry cautious and therefore very safe, but I doubt it's necessary. Storing files on the boot partition, as long as they are outside the System and Library folders, should be quite safe. I use partitions, and I have plenty of my own documents and applications on the boot partition, but I limit my interference in the folders that belong to Mac OS X itself. Yes, certain items do belong there, such as fonts you add for all users, screensavers, etc., but the less you tinker in there, the more likely it is that Mac OS X will be able to upgrade without incident.

 

[FoxyKaye]

That's verrrrrrrrrry cautious and therefore very safe, but I doubt it's necessary. Storing files on the boot partition, as long as they are outside the System and Library folders, should be quite safe. I use partitions, and I have plenty of my own documents and applications on the boot partition, but I limit my interference in the folders that belong to Mac OS X itself. Yes, certain items do belong there, such as fonts you add for all users, screensavers, etc., but the less you tinker in there, the more likely it is that Mac OS X will be able to upgrade without incident.

All true - Before I "upgraded" to a B/W, I had a Beige G3 running 10.2. Since the boot partition on this machine had to be less than 8GB, I wound up moving a lot of stuff to other partitions and hard drives because of space constraints. Updating the OS was seldom a smooth process, especially after I added a Radeon 7000 and hacked it to run Panther. It was fun though, seeing how far one of those old Beige systems could be pushed. Anyhow, the long-winded point being that if you have the HDD space and backup capability, I agree it's best to let the OS put stuff where it wants.

 

[ottonian]

What about the REST of the Mac users...

I, like most of you, am a bit of a 'geek' when it comes to my machines.

BUT...I have parents and in-laws who I convinced to buy an iMac last year and they are far from literate beyond the interface. They both upgraded to 10.3.6 and now both machines are having mouse problems where there were none before[sticking, freezing, slow movements etc.]. What were they to do when the auto-update appeared but trust it, click and restart?
Remember, these machines are supposed to be user friendly. There is no automatic repair of permissions for these users and no automatic disabling of 3rd party programs.

We must hold on to the idea of having the technology evolve to the point where it runs in the background of the tasks it was designed to perform.

To those who 'doubt' the problems reported...stop patting yourselves on the back for 'doing everything right'. Power users will always be ahead of the game. But our platform of choice can only be as strong as the weakest users among us...the consumers who don't want an IT degree just to perform everyday tasks. Let's stick together as a community, trust and believe each others claims, and help each other to overcome these 'glitches' so we can stand behind and grow the Mac community. The problems are REAL.

I for one will wait and see what happens with the next release.


my 2 cents.

 

[Video_Producer]

Update - 10.3.6 issues

Hmm... I did some searching, and I've come to a different conclusion than before. If your clock and volume are affected, maybe you've got a PRAM problem. To reset the PRAM, reboot your Mac, and hold down Command+Option+P+R until the Mac chimes three times.

The culprit, bad ram. I was finally was able to pull the ram out last night, hasn't had a crash since. Not something I thought of, I saw it on another post and AppleCare confirmed that bad ram would cause some issues like crashes, freezes and the like, so now it's a fight for new ram.

Rich

 

[wrldwzrd89]

The culprit, bad ram. I was finally was able to pull the ram out last night, hasn't had a crash since. Not something I thought of, I saw it on another post and AppleCare confirmed that bad ram would cause some issues like crashes, freezes and the like, so now it's a fight for new ram.

Rich

Bad RAM will do that too - maybe you had intermittently bad RAM that worked fine when you tested it with Apple Hardware Test, but failed to work at other times.

 

[JJTiger1]

I, like most of you, am a bit of a 'geek' when it comes to my machines.
{snippage}
We must hold on to the idea of having the technology evolve to the point where it runs in the background of the tasks it was designed to perform.
{snippage}
Let's stick together as a community, trust and believe each others claims, and help each other to overcome these 'glitches' so we can stand behind and grow the Mac community. The problems are REAL.

I for one will wait and see what happens with the next release.


my 2 cents.

... You will see that the people who forgot to REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE will have problems with the update.

I am trying to help the Mac community by spreading the word:
REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE.

I do not doubt that people are having the problems that they are reporting.
I do not doubt that hardware issues are cropping up with the update.

However, I doubt that the software installers will ever evolve to the point where the installer will REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE.

... If the installer was to REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE, the same whinners who won't do the REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE for themselves now, will whine that the new-fangeled Installer's automatic REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE takes too long.

I have not had problems with the 10.3.6 Updaters.
I learned long ago to do it myself:

REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE

 

[bousozoku]

...
Look folks, Apple is not infallable, not every OS update is going to be gold (or need I remind folks of the System 7 debacle). It's quite conceivable that there's problems with this update. There's a laundry list on this thread, the longest I've seen in a while, and implying that folks having problems don't know what they're doing is neither productive nor supportive.

That's for certain.

I've been running on two very different machines and have the same memory issues since updating to 10.3.6 but no others. When 1.5 GB is suddenly not enough RAM with a couple of applications running, I know there is something wrong, even if I'm not as smart as gopher.

 

[Rower_CPU]

...REPAIR PERMISSIONS BEFORE INSTALLING THE UPDATE...

Quit yelling.

I've never repaired permissions pre-update and never had an issue. Can you point us to a study or something more objective than you shouting the same thing over and over?

 

[JJTiger1]

Quit yelling.

I've never repaired permissions pre-update and never had an issue. Can you point us to a study or something more objective than you shouting the same thing over and over?

You never repaired permissions pre-update and never had an issue? You are not alone, but you seem to be in a minority.

A case study of problems: ... how about these 18+ pages?

I truly believe that most of the software issues would have been avoided if the user had Repaired Permissions BEFORE installing the updater.

I truly believe that some application installers change permissions as part of the install.
I truly believe that simply using some applications will change permissions.
... how else can you explain that permissions get changed somehow without doing a Get Info and deliberately changing permissions?

Along comes an Apple Updater, and everything goes ka-flooie.

"Repair Permissions BEFORE installing the updater" has shielded me from any software issues.

"Repair Permissions BEFORE installing the updater" has been working for me on many machines, not just my own.
=-=
Hardware Issues: .. well that's another story.
So far, just one. A Rev 1 Blue & White G3 just would not work when updatered from 10.3.2 to 10.3.6 Combo. Everything software related that everyone has noted here, and then some. Repairing Permissions had no affect one way or another. After a dozen attempts, including reformatting the hard drive and starting from scratch, we gave up on that unit. Finally we reformatted that unit's hard drive and reinstalled 10.3.2 and left it there.

... The updatering beyond 10.3.2 problems may be unique to that particular unit. I won't jump to any conclusions about saying that the problem exists on "ALL" Rev1 B&W's. I think it's just that particular unit.

... I have yet to try updatering another Rev 1 B&W.
... the owner of that Rev 1 B&W has walked away from that unit.

No problems noted on Rev 2 B&W's.

 

[Rower_CPU]

You never repaired permissions pre-update and never had an issue? You are not alone, but you seem to be in a minority.

A case study of problems: ... how about these 18+ pages?

<chomp>

I manage about 50 Macs at work in addition to my personal ones - models ranging from eMacs to PowerMac G3/4/5s to PowerBook G4s to Xserves - all have had no issues with security/OS updates regardless of permissions repair schedules. I may be in the minority according to you, but I've got a pretty decent sample size to back up my opinion.

Until every person in this thread that's had problems states exactly how and when they've repaired permissions in concert with this update AND everyone who hasn't had problems says what they did this is all anecdotal and not a case study upon which to build any unequivocal statements.

I'm not looking to pick a fight. I just want to make sure that we're not spreading FUD or snake oil when it comes to preventing tech issues with OS X.

 

[zync]

I manage about 50 Macs at work in addition to my personal ones - models ranging from eMacs to PowerMac G3/4/5s to PowerBook G4s to Xserves - all have had no issues with security/OS updates regardless of permissions repair schedules. I may be in the minority according to you, but I've got a pretty decent sample size to back up my opinion.

Until every person in this thread that's had problems states exactly how and when they've repaired permissions in concert with this update AND everyone who hasn't had problems says what they did this is all anecdotal and not a case study upon which to build any unequivocal statements.

I'm not looking to pick a fight. I just want to make sure that we're not spreading FUD or snake oil when it comes to preventing tech issues with OS X.

I'll be the first. Other than the Safari reload issue, I've had no problems with the update and on a whim I decided to repair permissions yesterday. I did NOT repair before the update. I never repair before the update. That's useless. There is no reason I can see to repair prior to updating since in most cases the updates need to be repaired anyway. I repaired permissions once before and after and update and it still needed to be repaired. It might be a placebo. I'd almost be willing to bet that you can repair one right after the other and still have things that need to be repaired.

 

[JJTiger1]

I manage about 50 Macs
{snippage}
I just want to make sure that we're not spreading FUD or snake oil when it comes to preventing tech issues with OS X.

I am not at liberty to disclose my customers, let's say that there are vast quantities and models at my customers' facilities which include the models that you are familiar with.

FUD. Nope. Snake Oil? Definitely not.
... VooDoo certainly. It works for me. I have heard and seen other forms of VooDoo. My VooDoo: A simple, but time consuming, Repair Permissions before and after installing the update. Harmless, yet seems to do some good.

Repair Permissions needs to be done on a regular basis anyway.
For instance: User complains that the computer is acting up.

Why not kill two birds with one stone? You are there to install the updater, why not repair permissions while you are at it? Happy customer.

Another VooDoo trick: disconnect the external devices before applying a major updater such as 10.3.6. Might not need to be done, but done none the less. Re-attaching the external devices gives the tech the opportunity to inspect the devices for general condition, and make a clean firm socket connection. Sometimes untangling the wires helps make the customer happy.

The only recent FireWire issues: (neither related to any software)
One had a loose connection at the port. Push the plug all of the way in. (me bad: D'oh !!)
One had a bad/loose port on the drive itself. One of those car-brand named units. Faulty assembly. Sent in for waranty claim.
... the owner thought that the car MFG made the hard drive, so it had to be good.

 

[Rower_CPU]

*sigh*

I have no doubt that your method works for you - you certainly shouted loud enough about it.

I just want to be clear that until Apple themselves or a 3rd party tech support vendor shows a statistically valid study stating what you have, it's just more "voodoo", as you put it, and should be taken with a grain of salt.