OS X 10.4.6 Now Available

[bousozoku]

One thing I noticed briefly while reading the details of this update was a task that seemed to have something to do with anti-virus technology. I haven't seen it since that point.

Did anyone else see something similar?

 

[joecool85]

Well, I just installed it on my 867mhz 12" G4 PB with no issues. I did backup my stuff first though just in case. All 640mb of RAM is showing up btw, I know people had issues with that.

 

[Queso]

One thing I noticed briefly while reading the details of this update was a task that seemed to have something to do with anti-virus technology. I haven't seen it since that point.

Did anyone else see something similar?

Maybe it was something to uninstall all Symantec products. How that's worth updating to

BTW, I've so far installed 10.4.6 on both my PB12 867 and my iMac G5 1.9 and no problems with either.

 

[deadturtle]

My 40 some odd meg install went ok.. will have to wait till I get home from work before I reboot... just in case (no sense in doing it remotely, not having it come back up and then have to wait 6 odd hours before I can poke it again). Hopefully the AFP,SMB updates will fix some of the squirrley little things that have been going on with my connections to the developer shares both here and at home.

 

[TheMac19]

so far the only negative things i have noticed are that my backlighting on my powerbook is gone as are my panther mail iconss that i had installed...

Yes indeed, my backlight is gone too. I bet this flakey little side effect will be noticed more and more as time goes on, as it's not something most people would use straightaway.

I just had a thought - I ran the update (both from software update and then the combo...) while having an external USB Apple Keyboard plugged in. Could this update have possibly sniffed that out and nixed my backlighting for some reason? Sounds like a crazy idea to me, but it sure is as odd problem.

I've tried unplugging the external keyboard, but that doesn't fix the problem...

 

[ejl10]

A-OK on iMac G5 Rev. B

Installation went smoothly this morning on my Rev. B 20" G5 2.0 wireless iMac. Well, it booted and Firefox worked, anyhow. That means BT and Airport must be OK, too. I'll check it out carefully after work, before the nightly Deja-vu backup. Sorry to all those that have problems - best of luck.

 

[TheMac19]

I wonder exactly HOW those disaster updates were executed. I've noticed some here think it's just fine to run an incremental updater while continuing to run a bunch of applications AT THE SAME TIME. I wonder if they had quit everything and run the Combo updater if then their update would have failed. I wonder how much free disk space they had on their system volume. I had totally smooth updates on both a Quad and an old 1.25 GHz PB G4 using the Combo from here.

While I am a little concerned, I am more inclined to attribute these disasters to operator error rather than to Apple. My Quad has never run better. I love this update.

Would all who had disacsters please answer the above questions. Thank you in advance. I hope no one is going to get mad at me for positing this theory.

I ran the update with no other programs running. Not Mail, not Safari, nothing. I also followed all the instructions regarding iSync, and I don't have any shady software. I repaired permissions, ran maintenance scripts, and verified the disk before the update, and I backed up my entire system to an external firewire hard drive before the update. (Yes, the external HD was disconnected prior to updating.) Free disk space on my system: 35+ gigs.

Since the update I have two problems. My SonyEricsson k700i will not sync with iSync and the backlight on my powerbook's keyboard no longer works. Neither of these, my friend, are "operator error".

And to be honest, I'm not real bothered about either of them, which is why I hit these boards. To see if 1) other people are affected, or 2) everyone else is affected.

At the moment it seems that in regards to my phone - everyone with the k700i is troubled by it, and that some people have lost the backlight on their powerbooks.

That said, these forums and Apple's own discussions are the medium through which we'll get these things sorted.

 

[50548]

The thread reminds me of a truism of the internet/forums - you'll hear the negative people complain, whine, b**** and moan, ad nauseam... but you won't hear the good or in some cases when it just works.

For hundreds MR members it just worked. No complaints. Then there's four or five, and in a couple cases people that clearly did not read the tech notes first (you get what deserve) but overall to clarify for anyone coming here reading this thread thinking the update will cause the world to implode under it's own weight and dogs will fornicate with cats and from now on everything will taste like postage stamps... it won't. This update is perfectly fine, check to see the tech notes effect you, maybe manually shut down all apps first to be safe and unplug squirrelly devices, install, and be happy.

Ditto...the update is GREAT; no further comments needed.

 

[DamonNoisette]

I wonder exactly HOW those disaster updates were executed. I've noticed some here think it's just fine to run an incremental updater while continuing to run a bunch of applications AT THE SAME TIME. I wonder if they had quit everything and run the Combo updater if then their update would have failed. I wonder how much free disk space they had on their system volume. I had totally smooth updates on both a Quad and an old 1.25 GHz PB G4 using the Combo from here.

I stopped all programs and ran Software Update on our Dual 2.5 G5. Everything was fine.

I stopped all programs and ran Software Update on our 1.67 G4 PowerBook. The update failed.

To remedy the situation I tried the following

1. I downloaded the Combo update.
2. I attempted to install it -- it couldn't find a target drive
3. Tried to run Disk Utility -- it couldn't start... something about a background process..."
4. Tried to boot from Install disc -- Ended up at Open Firmware screen with %SR00: error...
5. Reset Open Firmware.
6. Tried to boot from Install disc -- Ended up at Open Firmware screen with %SR00: error...
7. Reset PRAM
8. Tried to boot from Install disc -- Ended up at Open Firmware screen with %SR00: error...
9. Pulled out hair.
10. Tried to run Disk Utility [again]-- it couldn't start... something about a background process..."
11. Complained to the wife
12. Called it an evening

I'll get on the phone with AppleCare tonight when I get home...

What a pain.

 

[IDX Steffan]

Weird Behaviour

I installed the update from Software Update, restarted my G5 and popped out the room for a few minutes.

I came back to a roaring noise and the grey apple logo on my screen. Nothing happened. So I pressed the power button and tried starting the G5 again. The grey apple logo appears, my HD clicks a little, nothing happens, then my G5 starts roaring. Listening close up the noise is coming from my HD, although the sound is very much like when the fans are on full blast.

What has the update done to my G5?

 

[devman]

Yup... I posted that way back on page 1 in an effort to warn people.

Apple do suggest that if you do update before your final synch that you should remove the device from iSync and then set it up again

Yep I saw it way back on page 1, read it and followed it.

I still have the exact same problem as the person with k700i. file exchange works but iSync does not since 10.4.6.

Edit 1: Oh and I'll add my phone is an S700i.

Edit 2: And I have the keyboard backlight not working also.

 

[WildCowboy]

So all of you people complaining about your keyboard backlight not working...did you go into System Preferences and turn it back on? Yes, Apple updates sometimes change minor things...this one happened to turn my keyboard backlight off. It took me all of three seconds to fix it...I'll live.

 

[gleepskip]

Because its a Mini with its insanely slow internal HD.

I have the same setup as you: Mac Mini with OS X installed on an external HD. The update was successful for me, with a couple apps running during the update. No hiccups.

 

[devman]

So all of you people complaining about your keyboard backlight not working...did you go into System Preferences and turn it back on? Yes, Apple updates sometimes change minor things...this one happened to turn my keyboard backlight off. It took me all of three seconds to fix it...I'll live.

I'm happy for you. The pref was still on for me. Toggling on and off (which is what F8 does anyway) has no effect. F9 or F10 do not work and show the "circle with a line through it" symbol.

I've also discovered that System Profiler no longer saves its output. Run it and do a Save or Save As and no .spx or .rtf file is created. I only just found this out when trying to fill out a bug report...

 

[iMeowbot]

One thing I noticed briefly while reading the details of this update was a task that seemed to have something to do with anti-virus technology. I haven't seen it since that point.

Did anyone else see something similar?

OS X Server 10.4.6 includes a ClamAV update (release notes). Maybe that's what you saw?

 

[WildCowboy]

I'm happy for you. The pref was still on for me. Toggling on and off (which is what F8 does anyway) has no effect. F9 or F10 do not work and show the "circle with a line through it" symbol.

That's what they'll show if the backlight isn't activated because it's too light. Try covering your speaker grills until the backlight comes on, and then try F9/F10. Does that work?

 

[Doctor Q]

The thread reminds me of a truism of the internet/forums - you'll hear the negative people complain, whine, b**** and moan, ad nauseam... but you won't hear the good or in some cases when it just works...

It would certainly be amusing if Apple put out a "null update", a large download that in fact did nothing at all to Mac OS. Then we'd watch as people tell us what feels different, what no longer works, and what started to work.

One reason this happens is that certain types of problems (and maybe fixes?) become apparent only after a restart, and many people restart only when installing a Mac OS X update.

 

[amanset]

I have the same setup as you: Mac Mini with OS X installed on an external HD. The update was successful for me, with a couple apps running during the update. No hiccups.

Cheers. I'm keeping an eye on this for a while before I decide whether to give it a go or not. Good to know that it works for someone.

I did a complete reinstall when I bought the drive, I must have done the install ten times, each time using a different approach (combo or delta, going straight to 10.4.5 or go incrementally upwards, stuff like that) and I never got it to work for anything above 10.4.3. Reading the Apple forums and MacInTouch it seems liek quite a few people have had the same issue, but not everyone, making it somewhat awkward to track down. Seeing as 10.4.3 works perfectly though I really don't think it is a hardware error.

 

[chaos86]

AAAAAHHH - my first ever problem with a Mac OS update!

i guess these pictures will do the talking. the first is an email in the preview pane of Mail, the second is macrumors' RSS feed in safari. this crap is appearing in random places.

 

[TheMac19]

That's what they'll show if the backlight isn't activated because it's too light. Try covering your speaker grills until the backlight comes on, and then try F9/F10. Does that work?

Hmm... not for me. If I pressed F10 to turn on/up the keyboard backlight, it would turn on the keyboard backlight, regardless of the ambient light. I have never seen the ol' "circle with a line through it" until now, post update, with my backlight dead. Here's a screenshot...

 

[devman]

That's what they'll show if the backlight isn't activated because it's too light. Try covering your speaker grills until the backlight comes on, and then try F9/F10. Does that work?

Nope, not for me.

This is the first time I've ever had an OSX update problem (3 of them with this update). Anyway, for this backlight thing is zapping pram or pmu something to try? I've always skimmed past those messages before, but this sounds like the sort of problem where this might help. Any thoughts?

Edit: Good news (for me at least). A reboot has fixed it. Weird! I noticed over on macfixit that someone reporting a font problem also saw that fixed by a reboot. Anyway, just adding some extra info since this point release was a bit special with its two reboots instead of the usual one (and in my case 3 reboots to at least get my backlight working again).

 

[kretzy]

Just installed with no noticeable problems, though start-up seemed to take an age. I'm glad that they've added phones to the iSync compatibility list as I probably getting a Nokia 6280, which until now was unsupported and a bit of a put off.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

i guess these pictures will do the talking.

After you've restarted, repaired permissions and all that usual mumbo jumbo™, take a look in your Font Book if there's not any problems with one of the fonts in Helvetica's family. Once we had similar problems, and then it was a font that had gone nuts and was substituted with a Indian font.

 

[chaos86]

After you've restarted, repaired permissions and all that usual mumbo jumbo™, take a look in your Font Book if there's not any problems with one of the fonts in Helvetica's family. Once we had similar problems, and then it was a font that had gone nuts and was substituted with a Indian font.

geez i hate font book. takes 5 minutes to start because I have the adobe font library... can you confirm it's the apple standard OTF helvetica family im looking for?

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

can you confirm it's the apple standard OTF helvetica family im looking for?

No, I cannot confirm it... but it's a place to start...

And the machine we had similar problems with, i.e. my girlfriend's, also had a lot of Adobe fonts installed...