Which Panther bugs are fixed in Tiger?

[SittingBull]

Hi forum,

this topic is just a suggestion. If a thread like this already exists, then sorry for my ignorance. Anyway, I don't consider this suggestion "just another bug list". I'd rather like to see a CHECK-list as to which bugs have been FIXED.

As a start, here's one Panther bug that I think should be fixed in Tiger, otherwise Tiger is not worth the upgrade, in my opinion. (Or perhaps it has already been fixed in another Panther version.)

Bug:

When two or more windows are partially overlapping on the desktop, I often can't select underlying windows using the mouse: there are "dead spots". Clicking on these dead spots on an underlying window does not bring this window to the foreground.

These dead spots are rather large: On my system it's approx across the left quarter of the screen, about 200 pixels in width and all the way from top to bottom. -- In some cases not even Exposé will highlight the window I'm clicking on. -- And TextEdit will not let me click on text areas lying in these dead spots; it just ignores the click and the blinking text curser stays at its old position.

I thought it might be the "unusual" resolution of 1344 x 1008. But switching to 1280 x 1024 doesn't fix it either.

Please note that the mouse cursor doesn't disappear in the dead spots, -- and it also works Ok in other tasks. The main problem is just the window selection and the annoying behaviour in TextEdit.

Or is it a user error?

If somebody can tell where I can find the exact OSX version number I'll tell you that one, too. All I can tell now is I bought Panther in summer 2004 and haven't updated it ever since.

Thanks!

Cheers.

 

[7on]

Hi forum,

this topic is just a suggestion. If a thread like this already exists, then sorry for my ignorance. Anyway, I don't consider this suggestion "just another bug list". I'd rather like to see a CHECK-list as to which bugs have been FIXED.

As a start, here's one Panther bug that I think should be fixed in Tiger, otherwise Tiger is not worth the upgrade, in my opinion. (Or perhaps it has already been fixed in another Panther version.)

Bug:

When two or more windows are partially overlapping on the desktop, I often can't select underlying windows using the mouse: there are "dead spots". Clicking on these dead spots on an underlying window does not bring this window to the foreground.

These dead spots are rather large: On my system it's approx across the left quarter of the screen, about 200 pixels in width and all the way from top to bottom. -- In some cases not even Exposé will highlight the window I'm clicking on. -- And TextEdit will not let me click on text areas lying in these dead spots; it just ignores the click and the blinking text curser stays at its old position.

I thought it might be the "unusual" resolution of 1344 x 1008. But switching to 1280 x 1024 doesn't fix it either.

Please note that the mouse cursor doesn't disappear in the dead spots, -- and it also works Ok in other tasks. The main problem is just the window selection and the annoying behaviour in TextEdit.

Or is it a user error?

If somebody can tell where I can find the exact OSX version number I'll tell you that one, too. All I can tell now is I bought Panther in summer 2004 and haven't updated it ever since.

Thanks!

Cheers.

sounds like a display problem. I remember something like that happening to my PB one time with an external monitor... I think I had the external monitor res too high or something.

oh, and update Panther... to see your version number click "About the Mac" under the apple menu. Software Update should be under that.

 

[bankshot]

If somebody can tell where I can find the exact OSX version number I'll tell you that one, too. All I can tell now is I bought Panther in summer 2004 and haven't updated it ever since.

Apple Menu -> About This Mac -> Click on the version number and it will show you the build number. I don't think I've ever noticed what you're describing, but perhaps it's just something that never comes up in the way I use things?

For the thread topic, I have one off the top of my head. Not so much a bug, but an annoyance in Panther. I have my security set to lock the screen when the screensaver comes up. So if another person switches users after that and then I want to come back to my account, I have to type in my password twice. The first time at the login window gets me back to my account with the screensaver still on. Then the password dialog from the screensaver comes up and I have to enter it again to unlock. Annoying.

In Tiger, that's no longer the case. After I enter my password into the login box, the cube rotates around to my desktop, already unlocked for me. Thank you Apple!

One bug I've noticed that isn't fixed yet is with Expose. If you have a bunch of windows of the same application at exactly the same vertical position and height, the window placement algorithm stinks and puts them all in a tiny row when you hit the F-key to show all windows of that app. This happens to me all the time with Safari since I have the windows usually as large as they'll go. See picture:

Very annoying. If I move just one window down by one pixel and hit the F-key again, then it places them much more intelligently:

I kept wanting to file a bug report but then figured I'd hold off, assuming things would have changed enough in Tiger that it would go away. No such luck!

Other than that, I'm pretty happy with Tiger in the first 12 hours or so.

 

[markoibook]

One question I would like to ask is how Tiger deals with sleep mode and multiple users. One thing that really bugs me about my parents machine (as they have multiple users - I don't on my iBook) is that if say my Dad is logged in and puts the computer to sleep, if my Mum then wakes the computer up, clicks Switch User on the password entry screen(which is prompting for Dad's password), then 30 seconds after my Mum has entered her password and switched to her account, the computer goes back to sleep. Note that if Dad enters his password first and then switches users, it works fine. I remember reading somewhere that this was all due to the user that put the computer to sleep, and that if that user did not enter their password after 30 seconds (even though another user has) then the computer still goes to sleep.
It's not a major issue, but sure gets irritating, and I would imagine that it affects a lot of people!!!!
Has this been fixed in Tiger????

 

[Makosuke]

When two or more windows are partially overlapping on the desktop, I often can't select underlying windows using the mouse: there are "dead spots". Clicking on these dead spots on an underlying window does not bring this window to the foreground.

Well, I've certainly NEVER seen this issue on any version of Panther I've run, though I seem to remember reading about some sort of Expose bug that did this. Is it always with a specific application open? Perhaps some App you run reserves space for its windows in an odd way and that messes up everything else.

The bug I'm waiting to see about is the one where icons in the finder start getting mixed up (wrong icon, corrupted icons) after you've had the computer on for a week or two without restarting--that one was widely documented on every version of 10.3. It'll take a while to find out if it's fixed, though.

Also, I had a problem that was apparently isolated to 10.3 users with DP G5s and a lot of RAM that did upgrade installs from 10.2 to 10.3 wherein Netstat would go berserk and get stuck. That also would only happen after the computer had been on for three or four days, so I can't be sure it's fixed yet.

 

[hodgjy]

The bug I have every 1 in 10 times when trying to mount my external LaCie firewire hard drive has not been fixed with Tiger. For some reason, the drive won't mount until I reset the power on the drive and try again. When it does this, it doesn't even show up in disk utility, so I can't even manually mount it.

 

[aria505]

One bug that has gotten fixed in Tiger is how mounted servers are handled after coming out of "Sleep".

In Panther if you mounted a server and then put your computer to sleep, when you woke the computer the servers would get an error and not remount so you would have to remount all the servers manually again.

That doesn't happen now. Tiger remaps all the servers automaticlly after waking the computer. No more annoying errors.

 

[SittingBull]

Thanks for the tips. Ok my version is 10.3.4. And it's a standard G5 with Apple's standard ATI video card.

Sorry, what I told yesterday is not quite correct. I now have found the exact dead spot coordinates and it affects in fact every application. In cases where the mouse cursor should change its shape, the cursor remains unchanged (e.g. in TextEdit the pointer won't change to the blinking line; in Photoshop the pointer won't change to the current tool symbol etc.). And mouse clicks are simply ignored there (in all apps, incl. Finder, the desktop etc.).

I'm attaching a screen shot. I painted the dead spot red. (Of course, it's not really red, it's just an illustration).

The coords are:
x1: 50
y1: 825
x2: 225
y2: 958

Monitor resolution: 1344 x 1008.

This is clearly reproduceable. Is it still just me?

 

[zero_bit]

I had that exact same problem but the bug lies with a 3rd party app, but I don't recall what app it was. I'm sure it will hit me tonight in my sleep.

I want to say maybe shapeshifter or a virtual desktop program... but I just can't put my finger on it.

 

[sorryiwasdreami]

Do you have Gcount? It's a gmail notifier app. That looks like the exact place where gcount places it's "identity icon" when it is started up.

 

[SittingBull]

No shapeshifter, no Gcount.

 

[Applespider]

Have you run Onyx? I'm sure there was a setting in that which created a rectangular non-responsive patch on the desktop.

 

[Blue Velvet]

One bug that has gotten fixed in Tiger is how mounted servers are handled after coming out of "Sleep".

In Panther if you mounted a server and then put your computer to sleep, when you woke the computer the servers would get an error and not remount so you would have to remount all the servers manually again.

That doesn't happen now. Tiger remaps all the servers automaticlly after waking the computer. No more annoying errors.

Thank you, Apple!

At last!
That alone makes it a candidate for the work machines.

 

[fBaran]

I had the same problem related to 3rd party software. It may have been Onyx for some Expose extra. Got rid of if and my non-responsive square disappeared. BTW, it was in the same same spot and the same size.

 

[munkle]

Have you run Onyx? I'm sure there was a setting in that which created a rectangular non-responsive patch on the desktop.

It's from changing exposé settings to minimize onto desktop. Deselect this setting, from Onyx or Tinker Tool, logout and then log back in to solve the problem

 

[SittingBull]

Halleluja!

I'm an idiot.

It's fixed now.

Yes, indeed, a few weeks ago I got TinkerTool and turned that infamous "desktop" feature on. I even read the associated warning in TinkerTool! But I didn't know what that warning is talking about (what means "inactive" in this context?) and didn't notice any errors either. -- Until recently.

Now I remember the warning and -- now I know what "inactive" means! ;-)

Thanks all for your help!

This thread may continue anyway.