Mac OS X 10.4.1 Is Out 151
MrBadbar writes "Software Update just informed me that an update to Mac OS X (10.4.1) is now available. The updates include mail, address book, dashboard widgets, Safari, iLife, and other miscellaneous fixes. At this rate, it's only about 18 more weeks until 10.5."
Installed fine here... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:2, Interesting)
I ended up replacing the hard disk myself (warranty expired long time ago) and I was amazed at how the computer was even still booting off that disk - when I took it out and shook it i
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:2)
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:5, Informative)
BUT I had a problem earlier with a grinding noise in the hard-disk area on my powerbook.
Turned out to be that the hard disk was faulty.
IDE type Hard drives have an area of space reserved for "reallocating" bad sectors. If your disk is really bad this area will fill up. When there is no more space left to reallocate to you will get a SMART error.
Click on "About this Mac", click "more info" and select your drive from the ATA section. You will see the SMART status there.
If you get this then you need to replace the drive.
I ended up replacing my drive with a 7200RPM Momentus - MAN I'm happy the old one died now!
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:5, Funny)
Right, and when it fills up, everything overflows and the loose bits sit on the bottom of the hard drive case... that's why you hear the grinding noise.
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:1)
Go to Disk Utility and click "Import left over bits from plastic bag"
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:2)
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:1)
shame i didn't wait until 10.4.1...
That sounds like a regular old hardware failure waiting to happen. You just expedited the drive dying by installing a lot of new files all over the disk. By the way, why on earth do you think it'd take a couple of weeks? I sent my iBook off to Apple to get the logic boar
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:1)
Re:Installed fine here... (Score:2)
A couple of notes (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, Mac OS X 10.4.1 completely fixes the the widget auto-installation issue by adding widgets to the items that Safari prompts for before a download is complete. You will now receive a notice:
"(file) is an application. Are you sure you want to download the application (file)?"
...including when Safari is in its default state, i.e., "Open 'safe' files after downloading" is enabled. This issue is now completely mitigated, as no item can be downloaded or installed without the user's express knowledge and permission. Therefore, this issue is now closed.
Re:A couple of notes (Score:5, Insightful)
I can confirm this. I would disagree on the "completely" but it is certainly good enough for now. It would be better if you couldn't override existing widgets and even better if Apple supplied an advanced button that allowed me to control the sandbox that is built in to Dashboard. As it stands now, Apple has a working sandbox with various levels of security which is completely useless because it isn't exposed to the end user. What is the point of having a AllowFullAccess boolean if the developer can add it without any controls by the user?
Also, do you know if this fixes the 1GB sparse image problem? I see a HFS resource fork issue vaguely mentioned in the developer release notes but I have no idea if that is the sparse image problem or not.
Re:A couple of notes (Score:2)
None at all, and it wouldn't make any difference if the user could control it. Dashboard is not inherently sandboxed, and shouldn't be. It's an application environment, not a browser.
The real problem is still that Safari is treating Dashboard as "safe", when Dashboard is not "safe". Even if "open safe files after downloading" was a good idea, a Dashboard widget is NOT a safe file.
Re:A couple of notes (Score:2)
Re:A couple of notes (Score:2)
If Apple is like most large development houses, 10.4.1 went into development well before 10.4 went gold. Typically you start work on the next release as soon as you go from development into test, and work on both paths simultaneously until the first track is released. Bugs that are known in the first track but not deemed severe may be delay
THIS DOES NOT FIX THE PROBLEM (Score:2)
THIS DOES NOT FIX THE PROBLEM
Widgets are still autoinstalled by Safari when "open safe files" is turned on. PROMPTING BEFORE AUTOINSTALLING IS NOT ENOUGH. This is one of the first things Microsoft did to try and paper over ActiveX, and we can all see how successful that was.
Without shouting... (Score:4, Insightful)
When people are faced with dialog boxes when they do a routine operation saying "what is about to happen may be dangerous", then they pretty soon get in the habit of just clicking "yes" without thinking.
Do you want to delete this file? (click) (oh, hell)
Do you want to run this ActiveX control? (click) (damn)
I spent several years supporting Windows users, and every now and then one of them would come to me and say "I just did something stupid, I got this box, and it asked if I wanted to run something, and I said yes, and now I'm infected". And I'd go clean their PC up. And some of them, a few months later, would come to me again, "I'm sorry, I did it again"...
This was still pretty rare, for a long time, because I'd set up a policy back around 1997 that Internet Explorer and Outlook and every other application that used the MS HTML control was banned. So the only time these problems came up for many years was when someone was using IE against my instructions. A couple of years back, though, we got merged with the rest of the company and my policy was overridden by the parent's "IE only" policy. Then I started getting this regularly.
But, most users were using other browsers, like Netscape. And Netscape (and Firefox, mostly) doesn't have any kind of "auto run" mechanism. You have to explicitly download a file and run it. I still had a few people that did that, but I never had one do it twice, and even when most users were using Netscape it was IE and Outlook where the vast majority of my virus and spyware problems came from.
This is not a hard lesson to learn. Automatically opening safe files after you download them is dangerous. Automatically downloading them is more dangerous. Automatically downloading and installing them when they're not even "safe"? I've watched what happens when you allow that, EVEN WHEN you pop up a dialog box when you do it, and if Apple keeps this up, I'm going to have to treat Safari as the same kind of "Typhoid Mary" as Internet Explorer. It's not quite as bad, I suppose it's like going to work when you've got a contagious cold... it's still not what anyone would call appropriate behaviour.
A previous thread on the same subject here [slashdot.org].
Re:Without shouting... (Score:2)
Thats one difference between Windows and OS X. OS X doesn't bombard you with dialog boxes all the time that have "OK" and "Cancel" buttons on them.
In fact, I don't remember Safari ever putting up a dialog box.
Re:Without shouting... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes. It's the difference between accidentally buying a pallet of junk at an auction by waving your hand at the wrong time, and buying a pallet of junk at a surplus store by pointing to it and saying "I want to buy it".
It's hard for me to understand how you could have a powerful, flexible system that doesn't allow the user to do stuff by clicking on things.
You'll have to explain what you're getting at here. I haven't suggested that people shouldn't be allowed to "do stuff by clicking on things". I'm saying that the browser shouldn't interpret a click in a "sandboxed" environment as a request to move an untrusted document outside that environment and open it.
Clicking on links in a browser is something that is, normally, always a "safe" operation as far as your computer is concerned. The browser is sandboxed, as you mode from page to page the websites can sow you different serts of images and text, even quite sophisticated ones uring Flash or Java, but you can't normally have that take over your computer, any more than reading a book can make your head explode, or watching TV can set your end-tables on fire.
And that's important, because you can't trust people on the net not to want to set your end-tables on fire or explode your head.
So moving OUT of the "safe" environment into the "unsafe" environment should require an explicit action. If you're watching TV and someone comes to the door, you have to get up and go down to the door and let them in. You don't yell "yes, who is it" and have your house interpret that "yes" to mean "let them in".
Well, that's what a dialog box does in this situation. It doesn't make an unsafe operation safe, it just makes it one that can happen by mistake.
Re:Without shouting... (Score:2)
If you can't assume websites are safe, that the next click on a link won't load an untrusted program into an application that was never designed fromthe ground up to handle untrusted data, then you really can't use the web at all. Because the fact is, any click on any site can take you to a page that contains potentially unsafe content. Even within a trusted entity's secure website: the website could have been compromise
Re:Without shouting... (Score:2)
Re:Without shouting... (Score:2)
Re:Without shouting... (Score:2)
That used to be true. And generally on the Mac you didn't get supposedly sandboxed environments doing dangerous things, either. These used to be among the reasons Mac OS X was inherently resistant to the kind of scattershot exploits that Windows was famous for.
Now Apple is starting to change both of these things, in a kind of codependent hobble down the same "road
It's really sad... (Score:2)
As a poweruser, I get very sick of dialogues, when I click something, I damn well know what I'm doing, and if not, I can fix it. I'm smart enough to know that when website x tries to load "pornmonkeydialer.exe", I say no, and I don't run it if it somehow ends up on my desktop. ActiveX controls are not an issue of course (use only FF an
SMB no change (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:SMB no change (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:SMB no change (Score:1)
Re:SMB no change (Score:4, Informative)
Have you checked your logs to see why Samba is failing?
Re:SMB no change (Score:3, Informative)
What are you doing? (Score:1)
Then again, like someone else mentioned, why not use NFS? if you've got Windows XP Pro machines, why not chuck services for UNIX on, and mount the NFS shares?
Re:What are you doing? (Score:2)
Re:What are you doing? (Score:2)
But, please enable encrypted passwords. Not only will it get Tiger to interface with your server (small bonus) but it helps increase the security of your LAN. The last thing you'd want to do is give an attacker your password for free, with no effort at all. Then they wouldn't even have to hack your mac, they'd just use the password you graciously gave them.
This is for the good of the Internet. Get with it.
Re:SMB no change (Score:2)
I have the same problem accessing my FreeBSD samba server (well, maybe - mine just sits there "Connecting..." forever).
Interestingly enough, the RHEL samba server sitting right next to it works fine...
Re:SMB no change (Score:2)
Re:SMB no change (Score:5, Informative)
It appears as though 10.4 requires the password exchange to be encrypted, so in the smb.conf file:
; encrypt passwords = false
(note the semi colon).
I used to run plaintext passwords with 10.3 for some reason. I think it was because 10.3 didn't like encrypted password exchange with Samba, but I may be mistaken (poor memory).
Re:SMB no change (Score:2)
Is Samba on the Debian box configured to support encrypted passwords?
If not, either enable encrypted passwords (as per another reply - note that Microsoft changed Windows in Windows 98 [microsoft.com] and in NT 4.0 SP3 [microsoft.com] to, by default, reject attempts to connect to servers that don't support encrypted passwords), or configure OS X's SMB client to allow connections to servers that don't support encrypted passwords [apple.com].
What's new video-wise? (Score:1)
Re:What's new video-wise? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:What's new video-wise? (Score:1)
Re:What's new video-wise? (Score:2, Insightful)
Also, what kind of hardware do you need to enjoy any Q 2D benifits?
Re:What's new video-wise? (Score:4, Informative)
Can your hardware handle it?
Go into "About this Mac" and click "More Info"
Select the video card for more detailed information
Look for:
Core Image: Supported
Core Image-capable graphics cards include:
ATI Mobility Radeon 9700
ATI Radeon 9600 XT, 9800 XT, X800 XT
nVidia GeForce FX Go 5200
nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL, 6800 GT DDL
Full details. [macosx.com]
Stability Issues (Score:3, Interesting)
Additionally, Tiger occasionally turns off the function and volume keys on certain powerbooks. This has been confirmed by several users and does not appear to be fixed in the update.
Sigh.......
Mail Imap is signicantly faster. (Score:2)
Re:Mail Imap is signicantly faster. (Score:2, Interesting)
Speaking of mail..
Mail.app now doesn't support the httpmail plugin [sourceforge.net].
Again.
Just after it was updated.
How annoying.
Re:Mail Imap is signicantly faster. (Score:1)
Re:Mail Imap is signicantly faster. (Score:2)
The disabling of Mail bundles is documented in the release notes under the Mail and Address Book section:
Resolves a potential issue in which Mail could unexpectedly quit, stop responding, or fail to import your previous emails if third-party software were installed in a ~/Library/Mail/Bundles or /Library/Mail/Bundles--this update prevents previously-installed plug-ins from loading. (Click here [apple.com] for more information.)
GPGMail 1.1 no longer tiger compatible (Score:2, Informative)
~/Library/Mail/Bundles/
seems to have been renamed to:
~/Library/Mail/Bundles (Disabled)/
A warning dialog box is displayed notifying you that the bundle is no longer supported the first time you start up Mail under 10.4.1
Re:GPGMail 1.1 no longer tiger compatible (Score:2)
Re:GPGMail 1.1 no longer tiger compatible (Score:4, Informative)
Resolves a potential issue in which Mail could unexpectedly quit, stop responding, or fail to import your previous emails if third-party software were installed in a ~/Library/Mail/Bundles or /Library/Mail/Bundles--this update prevents previously-installed plug-ins from loading. (Click here [apple.com] for more information.)
Re:GPGMail 1.1 no longer tiger compatible (Score:2, Informative)
or just do this:
(from homepage)
GPGMail & 10.4.1
MacOS X 10.4.1 will automatically disable all Mail bundles when encountering them the first time. To re-enable GPGMail (which works fine with 10.4.1), you need to:
* Quit Mail
* In Finder, rename folder $HOME/Library/Mail/Bundles (Disabled) back to $HOME/Library/Mail/Bundles.
* In Terminal, type:
defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles 1
defaults
VPN clients still broken (Score:1)
No, not quite... (Score:5, Insightful)
Making VPN clients work with 10.4.x is completely up to the vendors, and all vendors have had all the information and everything they have fundamentally needed, from a developer standpoint, to make their clients work with Tiger since *last June*.
There is absolutely no reason all of the VPN client vendors shouldn't have had their clients out on April 29 alongside Tiger. Any feigned surprise on their part, or finger pointing at Apple, is completely bullshit. Yes, Tiger changed how things work which "broke" the old clients. But they've also had almost a year to fix it.
Re:No, not quite... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:VPN clients still broken (Score:1)
Right on schedule... (Score:5, Informative)
I've already installed it on my PowerBook, and after a few days' time I'll see if it's the update that makes it worth recommending for most of my clients to start their testing. Usually, it seems to take Apple a couple more point releases to really get the major kinks out, so I'm expecting Tiger to hit its stride around mid-summer.
For those of you unfamiliar with Apple release cycles - expect to see a point release like this every 4-6 weeks initially, followed by a cutback to every couple of months later on. Security updates are typically released on a separate basis, about once per month, and will be available for Panther as well for the foreseeable future. Even 10.2 still gets some security fixes now and then. And there will be occasional updates to the iApps and other stuff that are done separately.
There's also a few Safari bugs that snuck in late in the cycle that haven't been addressed yet - Safari is unchanged in 10.4.1.
Re:Right on schedule... (Score:1)
A few Safari bugs, yes... also there's apparently something about syncing Address Book data with
Problems with third-party plug-ins (bundles) (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Problems with third-party plug-ins (bundles) (Score:2)
GPG Bundle remains broken (Score:2, Informative)
I have a PowerBook 1.5GHz with 2GB RAM, and under 10.4 the internal drive and both firewire disks (one a FW400, the other a FW800) would spin perpetually, my load average went from the normal
All of this has been corrected in 10.4.1 (for me). Load average is back down to
483 mdimport 0.0% 0:03.16 4 67 65 1
Working here (Score:2)
Not here, no. Worked fine before 10.4.1, works fine after 10.4.1. However, you need to upgrade to v1.1 (v42, Tiger).
Cheers,
Ian
Obligatory Snappier! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Snappier! (Score:1, Informative)
But you know what?
I'm actually not kidding. I was swapping pretty bad with 10.4.0 which was causing some real pain. So far, no swap.
Build 8B15 (Score:2)
Has anyone else noticed. . . (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, me neither.
Re:Has anyone else noticed. . . (Score:2)
Quartz 2D Extreme (Score:5, Informative)
I had temporarily enabled it under 10.4.0 via the debugging tool, but the speed difference was nowhere near what I'm getting after booting the entire OS with it enabled!
A lot of people are reporting bugs with this being enabled, which is likely why Apple still hasn't enabled it by default. But I've had absolutely 0 bugs so far - Which to be honest has only been about 2.5 hours, but still... It's enough to at least justify trying it out IMHO. Using the hint I reference above, you ocan always "reset" it to off, if you do run into problems.
For what it's worth, I'm going to be leaving this on unless some (any!) problems pop up tomorrow. It's very impressive! Even apps which I wouldn't think would be impacted, such as Remote Desktop (controlling an XP box from within OSX) are noticably faster.
For the record, I'm running a dual 2Ghz w/2gb of ram, and an ATI 9600. Your mileage may vary.
Re:Quartz 2D Extreme (Score:5, Informative)
That hint enables Q2DX the hard way. The easier way is to open a terminal and paste in the following command:
HTH!
Yaz.
Re:Quartz 2D Extreme (Score:2)
Re:Quartz 2D Extreme (Score:3, Informative)
Because:
Yaz.
Re:Quartz 2D Extreme (Score:2)
10.4.1 - Mail 2.01 - GPGMail.mailbundle (Score:1)
Re:10.4.1 - Mail 2.01 - GPGMail.mailbundle (Score:2)
Bug in updated version of mail (Score:1, Interesting)
For the curious... (Score:2, Informative)
The summary:
476 changes
16 additions
0 removals
Detailed list of modifications is available here [macguru.net].
For reference - these changes were captured by the OpenSource build of Tripwire, patched for Mac OS X. It's pretty likely that any changes captured on your system will differ in a few ways, but the basic theme should be consistent.
Jason
My biggets complaint... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:My biggets complaint... (Score:1)
Saves on system volume reindex time.
Phew, now I can justify my partitioning fetish again - thanks Tiger!
SMTP over IPv6 in Mail still broken (Score:1, Informative)
(The reason is that Mail inserts some random characters in the domain name in the EHLO line when the connection is over IPv6.)
Preview annotation bug seems to be fixed! (Score:2)
This is really great, but, of course, when I really needed this was right after Tiger came out when I was grading a bunch of undergrad papers, and could have done it all electronically...
I know it will never happen, but it would be nice to see some more bugzilla like representation of current issues with more applications. I also think that the "bug" (repor
SSH Problems? (Score:2)
Mine takes about a minute to authenticate, but once it does it works fine. 10.3.x worked just fine.
Anyone else?
This story should be really useful... (Score:2)
Rewrite finder, please. (Score:2)
I read somewhere that Apple wrote the Finder in Carbon, just to prove to other companies that they could easily port their software to OS X, so that developers would quickly embrace the new OS. Fortunately, this is no longer necessary, because nobody makes software for 9.x anymore. So the Finder should be rewritten from scratch to take advantage of advances in the OS since
Re:Wireless reception lower (Score:2)
Re:Wireless reception lower (Score:2)
Re:Wireless reception lower (Score:5, Informative)
FUD'ly AC (Score:1)
Nice FUD. let me give you software update procedures for OS X10.4.1. Click on Software Preferences in Dock. Click On "software update" Check for Update. Install update.
Yeah, sure was a hassle
Re:FUD'ly AC (Score:5, Funny)
1. On the Apple menu, choose Software Update
2. If updates are available, click Install.
Boy howdy, that Windows Update sure is easy in comparison. "You MUST install Direct X 9 separately from everything else, reboot seventy-eleven times, and dance backwards across the carpet while holding a DDR 2700 DIMM...."
Re:FUD'ly AC (Score:5, Funny)
Re:FUD'ly AC (Score:1)
Re:Or try automatic updates. (Score:1)
gee, wonder why M@ and Sony both choose IBM?
maybe its platform of future? at least Mac users can look fwd to 3.2 HGZ IBM PowerPc (that RISC to all you WinDOZE trolls) multi core chips BY NOVEMBER as will M$.
i guess m$ finally has given up on the PC for gaming by your logic.
btw, look at Sony PS3 (not 360) specs and cry.
sony understands future of HD. as does Apple. MS is DOOMED! (required troll hyperbole)
Re:Or try automatic updates. (Score:1)
Re:Or try automatic updates. (Score:2)
But it's just semantics. Apple uses a nice, consistent versioning scheme.
a.b.c where:
A = Complete OS, possibly breaks compatability with A-1
B = Major OS, significant new features
C = Update OS, bug and security fixes (generally referred to as a point release)
Windows has gone from 3.1 -> 5.1 but you'd never know it from their brand names. They haven't really made an "A" revision since Win3.1->Win95, although Longhorn will be one. MS
Re:Or try automatic updates. (Score:4, Interesting)
The truth is, updating your OS can be a hassle, no matter what machine you use. Apple has a fairly good track record, but that doesn't mean it's always going to be painless.
I guess I could own a PC for gaming, instead of for doing real work like my Mac.
Or I could get a console and enjoy a wider selection of games, and not be pigeonholed into dozens of boring FPS rehashes (now you're in WWII! Now you're in WWII in space! Now you're in WWII in space as a SpaceNazi!) or a bunch of repetitive MMORPGS (Now you're fighting monsters for experience! Now you're doing it in space!).
Wouldn't it be nice if the PC gaming industry could be rebooted and start producing more interesting content instead of boring rehashes of the same game over and over? How many Diablo clones, Doom Clones and Warcraft clones can you take before your gag reflex kicks in?
Re:FUD'ly AC (Score:2)
If run from a secondary account giving admin pwd, it will work.
If set first language of locale settings to English , it will work.
First time in my life, I have disabled the automatic software updates on any os because of that, glad I am a versiontracker pro subscriber. It does the update checks for me.
What if I wasn't? What if I didn't pay $50 for my own comfort?
First lines of w
Re:FUD'ly AC (Score:1)
Re:FUD'ly AC (Score:2)
your are a child updating your High school lab arent you?
Re:Differences! (Score:2)
Look on the Windows Update site and you'll find plenty of troubleshooting info there too. In fact, a cursory glance shows me that there are whole forums devoted to helping people whose Windows Update doesn't "just work."
I run Software Update and it works fine for me. I don't need the troubleshooting notes.
I've run Windows Update and it's been fine too.
Perhaps this is one of those things caused by just not understanding how
Re:Differences! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Differences! (Score:1)
i imagine from your knee jerk, cry baby frustrations, lack of seeking knowledge queries, you are one of the bit torrent installers. poor you.
poor poor you. whaaa. i had problems on my install so this OS must suck! whaaaa! i seek no information that can allow me to accomplish any adult tasks. so i must cry! Whaaa!
and you think your a IT
Re:GPGMail (Score:1)
Resolves a potential issue in which Mail could unexpectedly quit, stop responding, or fail to import your previous emails if third-party software were installed in a ~/Library/Mail/Bundles or
Re:I don't get it (Score:2, Funny)