Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Snow Leopard Security Update Kills PowerPC Apps Using Rosetta

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
68,108
38,863



snow_leopard_box.jpg


While the odd "CUI Error" experienced by some users after upgrading to OS X 10.7.3 earlier this week has garnered a fair amount of attention, it appears that a security update released for Mac OS X Snow Leopard at the same time is also causing major issues for users who rely on older PowerPC applications that run under Apple's Rosetta framework.

Security Update 2012-001 was released alongside OS X 10.7.3 on Wednesday in order to bring some of the security fixes found in OS X 10.7.3 to users still running Mac OS X Snow Leopard. But as noted in several discussions at Apple's forums (1, 2, 3) and elsewhere, users are experiencing a variety of problems with Rosetta apps following the update, including repeated crashes when trying to use any commands from the applications' main dropdown menus.

Users are reporting a significant number of applications being affected by the issue, including Microsoft Office X and 2004, older versions of Adobe Photoshop, Quicken, Filemaker 7, and various other applications that had been written to run on PowerPC chips used in Apple's older machines.

With Apple's transition to Intel, the company developed the Rosetta framework to allow those applications to continue to function on new hardware. Apple has discontinued Rosetta in OS X Lion, but it was still included as an optional install in Mac OS X Snow Leopard and a number of users have continued to use PowerPC applications on those systems either because they do not wish to upgrade or because newer versions are simply not available.

As noted in the Apple discussion forums, one user has worked to create a patch to address the issue, but the patch does not yet appear to work for all Rosetta applications.
This is a band-aid and is only recommended in emergency situations. Apple is currently working on a fix, but until that happens, we are stuck with reverse-engineering their update. I hope this helps those in distress from this update.
Click to expand...
Those who have spoken to Apple customer service about the issue have received varying responses, from notes that the company doesn't yet know what the problem is to claims that there is no issue and that Rosetta support has simply been discontinued, with the latter being unlikely to be true given that the change occurred with a minor security update.

Article Link: Snow Leopard Security Update Kills PowerPC Apps Using Rosetta
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/03/snow-leopard-security-update-kills-powerpc-apps-using-rosetta/
Updates

Hate to say this but never update unless you really do need to as there is always some issue. I havent updated using this security patch just yet until its all been sorted out, and Lion? Whats that?
 
Good, thanks for passing this along. I just shared this with my Dad, who runs his legal practice on an iMac using Snow Leopard and AppleWorks 6 (A PowerPC Application). He literally has *thousands* of AppleWorks files on his iMac and relies on AppleWorks everyday for his daily work (he has been using it since his old iMac Bondi Blue, Classic Mac OS 8.6/OS 9). This is the sole reason he has not upgraded to Lion is due to the inability to run Rosetta or launch PowerPC applications. The inability to run AppleWorks would cripple his entire operation, since he basically relies on this for everything.

I've told him to ignore any security updates, or at least until Apple gets this ironed out. Thanks again for sharing this news.
 
For the love of God Apple,

I just want to play Age of Empires one more time ...
 
longofest said:
Apple's QC has completely gone to ****.

"it just works"

...except when it doesnt...
Click to expand...

First the 10.7.3 "CUI CUI CUI ? ? ? ? ?" errors with Application crashes...

Now this...Application crashes on Rosetta in Snow Leopard...

What is Apple coming to? Do we need Jobs back?
 
This is a tragedy. Apple is destroying the wealth of data and applications that came before. The modern computers have the hardware processing capacity to continue emulating PPC, 68K, OS9, etc. Even the oldest iPhone or iPodTouch has the power to handle this in emulation. There are a tremendous number of applications for those in the educational and small business fields as well as games. These were never ported to OSX or iOS. Apple should work hard to support this older software. It would expand their market and benefit consumers.
 
Theres a reason why those of us still on SL are still on SL and for a nice chunk of its PPC support.

So glad I checked here before updating.
 
WardC said:
First the 10.7.3 "CUI CUI CUI ? ? ? ? ?" errors with Application crashes...

Now this...Application crashes on Rosetta in Snow Leopard...

What is Apple coming to? Do we need Jobs back?
Click to expand...

This trend started before Jobs passed/stepped down, but it is indeed getting worse.
 
Try as you may, I will not be forced to upgrade to Lion Apple, even with your stealth crappy updates that "just work".
 
Apple should just draw a line in the sand, already. Any powerPC software will no longer be supported. I don't want to see them follow Redmond's policy of supporting all legacy apps. Stay nimble.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

So much for staying with Snow Leopard to run PPC apps. Thanks to Carbon Copy Cloner so I can revert back...come on Apple......

How does this benefit any user (or Apple for that matter) by killing PPC app functionality??? Besides of course having some users say "Oh well. I might as well switch to Lion now"
 
On a roll! Seriously though this is pathetic. Apple - May be hire some of those Microsoft guys that do Windows update - they didn't seem to mess up this bad lately. Give them some stock and it might just work - magic and all you know ;)
 
They did this on purpose! Apple just wants to make you pissed and say, might as well upgrade to Lion now....
 
If this is a bug then hopefully they correct it. If it is deliberate then they could be in for a bumpy ride.
 
I use one PPC app under SL and it still seems to work fine after the security update. It won't work at all if I update to Lion, though, so maybe this is Apple's way of killing off Rosetta even on SL?
 
2cool4games said:
They did this on purpose! Apple just wants to make you pissed and say, might as well upgrade to Lion now....
Click to expand...

Yes... upgrade to lion so you can get the CUI error. :rolleyes:

There's really no escaping Apple's lack of quality control regarding software right now. Can only hope that this will be the worst of it and Tim will put a foot down and get everything under control.
 
WardC said:
[..] my Dad, who runs his legal practice on an iMac using Snow Leopard and AppleWorks 6 (A PowerPC Application). He literally has *thousands* of AppleWorks files on his iMac and relies on AppleWorks everyday for his daily work (he has been using it since his old iMac Bondi Blue, Classic Mac OS 8.6/OS 9). This is the sole reason he has not upgraded to Lion is due to the inability to run Rosetta or launch PowerPC applications. The inability to run AppleWorks would cripple his entire operation, since he basically relies on this for everything.
Click to expand...
I hope he does have an upgrade plan during the coming 5 years. Can't be healthy for your business relying on software that runs on obsolete hardware, emulated by obsolete software, that won't run on new machines.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back