Mac OS X 10.5.3 To Fix Over 200 Bugs, Coming Soon

An anonymous reader writes "MacScoop reports that 'Apple has seeded several builds of its Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3 update to developers during the past few weeks and just seeded yet another one numbered "9D34" earlier today.' The update fixes over two hundred bugs, weighs almost half a gigabyte and should be available soon."

Leopard has been fine for me

[Thornburg]

Just to contrast the "great, because 10.5 has been so buggy for me" posts:

I've been using 10.5 on two different machines for quite some time now, and I have had not had very many problems at all, and none since the 10.5.2 update.

Fixes

[WilyCoder]

Here [apcmag.com] is a compiled list of fixes in 10.5.3.

Re:Service pack 3?

[nawcom]

Heh, the leopard dock was something I found weird. It was like they planned to make the end users figure out how to customize it or something.

http://www.innermindmedia.com/dock_doctor_app.html [leoparddocks.com]

http://leoparddocks.com/ [leoparddocks.com]

Re:I hope it's true

[XxtraLarGe]

Did you ever use OS X versions 10.0 or 10.1? Those two versions of the OS were absolute nightmares. I couldn't recommend OS X over OS 9 until 10.2 came out. I've been using 10.3.9 for quite some time now, and it has been extremely stable. Now we just got a 24" iMac last week and it seems to behave pretty flawlessly EXCEPT my wife's dock seems to disappear every once in a while under her account. I can't duplicate the problem under my account, but I'm hoping this problem will be fixed in the update.

Re:Big Creepy Crawlies...

[Halo1]

Apple does do delta updates [apple.com].

Re:Just 200 bugs?

[0100010001010011]

OS X uses quite a bit of OSS stuff. There's a good chance that a good portion of these bugs aren't theirs.

http://httpd.apache.org/security/vulnerabilities_20.html [apache.org]
I see 3 vulnerabilities in Apache 2 right there.

My Leopard install is showing "OpenSSL 0.9.7l 28 Sep 2006" while my Debian machine is showing "OpenSSL 0.9.8g 19 Oct 2007". I imagine there might be a few bugs there, and it's late enough that it wouldn't have been released close enough to be included in 10.5.0.

Lets see in /usr/(s)bin, zip, gunzip, tar, efax, cron, ip6config, postfix, cups. No chance they had any bugs. They're good open source software.

Responding to you and the guy below, the reason that these bugs are 'so big' is that Apple isn't sending out a bunch of .diff files as updates. If they're upgrading Apache 2 they have to recompile as a universal binary and send out that entire file.

Re:I hope it's true

[Anonymous Coward]

For usable X11, install the latest Xquartz [macosforge.org].

Audio Problems in 10.5.2...

[weston]

Some recent discussion on audio in Leopard:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/tag/leopard/ [createdigitalmusic.com]

Now, note in particular that Digidesign's struggles aren't limited to Leopard (see, for example "Digidesign and M-Audio Drivers Fail to Keep Pace with Vista, Leopard, and XP SP3") -- I personally think Digi as a company has a problem. But they're not the only vendor mentioning audio issues in 10.5.2, and there are others like MOTU who haven't been explicitly complaining but have had product release delays (DP 6 was supposed to be out Q2).

Re:Just 200 bugs?

[Paradise Pete]

Which 200 bugs are they talking about?

Here is a list [apcmag.com]

Re:A few corrections to OP

[tepples]

Go to the next starbucks and do it there

Pretty tough to get an iMac in there, no?

Seriously, where in the more or less developed world where people can afford Macs do you still have a per megabyte limited internet.

Residential Internet connections in at least New Zealand and Australia still have low monthly caps (by world standards) on bandwidth to the American and Eurasian continents.

Re:Service pack 3?

[mr_matticus]

10 isn't really part of the version number, it's part of the name).

No, it's definitely part of the version number, just like the leading 5 (or now, 6) in Windows version numbers. What it's not is the major release number (that's the second, just like in Windows).

The breakdown is very simple: Generation.Major_release.Minor_release, with build numbers appended to that. Windows does an almost identical pattern Win2k (5.0), WinXP (5.2), etc. MS's numbering is non-sequential, but it's not really any different. Hell, Windows 7.0 is actually being called Windows 7 for now.

'OS X' is a brand in its own right, and one Apple has spent a lot of resources and effort building. The '10' in the version number that matches the 'X' in the name isn't cast in stone, and to claim that part of the version number is part of the brand is misleading. The stupid Mac-people meme of "when will we hear about OS XI?" skips right past the far more likely case that there will NEVER be an OS XI. They will either stick with OS X as a brand and move right on to OS X 11.0, or they'll come up with something entirely new when the time comes.

Friendly Reminders

[Spencerian]

Being an Apple technician, my natural tendency is to avoid new Apple products since they often get a little rushed to market. But yes, some software and some hardware updates later, all is good. My first generation MacBook was a mess. I knew the job was dangerous when I took it...er, bought it. It's a fine system now, 10.5 installed, and one logic board later.

The biggest problem anyone will have with an 10.4 to 10.5 upgrade is installing 10.5 over the 10.4 installation. Welcome to Pain, here's your pitchfork. Don't EVER do this, even if Apple supports it, when moving from one reference release (10.4.0) to another (like 10.5.0). It might work with Windows migrations, but not so much here.

It's not the system level parts that cause issues, but applications that worked OK in 10.4 and user account data will fight with the new 10.5 settings. Making a clean install and transferring your user account with the Migration Assistant might be OK, if you are careful.

Those new to Macs will be happy to know that Apple tends to have the serious bugs squashed flat by the ".3" updates or so. Luckily, Apple also rolls out these counterparts to Windows Service Packs with greater frequency, keeping you from gnashing your teeth for very long.

One Fix is for 802.1X

[Greatmoose]

I know at least one of the major fixes is an 802.1X implementation that actually works without having to install the Internet Connect App. It's finally going to correctly support 802.1X PEAP w/WEP and WPA, something the previous version of 10.5 did horribly, if at all. Installing the Internet Connect app from 10.4 was a useful workaround, but seemed like a pretty stupid thing to have to do, especially for an apple product. But, as along as 10.5.3 works, my clients should be hapy (if a bit annoyed that it took so long).

Re:I hope they finally fixed IPv6 now...

[Anonymous Coward]

Posting as Anonymous Coward because I've already modded this thread and don't want to waste the mod points, but I also want to be helpful.

You can quite easily configure static IPv6 addresses via System Preferences. It's not all that hard. Here's how:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click on the Network preference pane. (Optionally, select or create a location from the Location drop-down.)
3. Select the network interface you wish to assign a static IPv6 address.
4. Click Advanced...
5. Depending on the interface (e.g. Airport), you may need to select the TCP/IP tab, if it is not selected by default (e.g. Ethernet).
6. Change the Configure IPv6 drop-down from Automatically to Manually.
7. Input your settings for Router, IPv6 Address, and Prefix Length.

That wasn't so hard, now was it?

Re:Aluminium Keyboard Update Bug

[FrankDeath]

I had the same problem. You're not actually completing the installation. Download the fix from Apple's download page (http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/) and run the update manually.

Re:I hope it's true

[corser]

I had a similar issue. I could duplicate it by the following
1. Turn on full screen visualization in iTunes
2. Stop the music (or otherwise have iTunes to nothing)
3. Allow the computer to start the screen saver (or turn off the monitor )
4. Wake up the screen
If will now be exited from the visualization but the dock will be missing. My guess is that starting a full screen app sets a flag to hide the dock and the method I describe bypasses setting it back.
I was able to get the dock back by going into full screen visualization and then exiting it.
(* trying it again right now to make sure I'm not a liar)

Re:Aluminium Keyboard Update Bug

[xlogan]

I had the same issue with the MacBook firmware update. You have to actually go the file that is downloaded and manually run the update. I believe the link is http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303364 [apple.com].

Re:What's wrong with Spaces

[AlpineR]

I think Anonymous Grump is referring to a hidden preference:

Disable Space switching on Command-Tab in 10.5.2 [macosxhints.com]

That might solve your problem of Command-Tab'ing to an application without changing Space. For me, I tend to open applications with the mouse. It'd be nice if I could tell Terminal and Camino to default to opening a new window on the current Space rather than transporting me to an open window on another Space. But I'm slowly forming the habit of opening new windows with right-clicks instead.

Re:Service pack 3?

[Phroggy]

People still have dial up? I expect that Apple would ship disks on request but I wouldn't expect them for free. I've never had Apple refuse a reasonable service request but I've never asked for that.

You can also stop in at an Apple Store [apple.com] if there's one in your area, and they'll usually give you a copy for free, from what I understand.

Re:Friendly Reminders

[ratbag]

And as an anecdotal rebuttal to all that, I've personally updated two machines from Panther -> Tiger -> Leopard and my family at large has done Jaguar -> Panther -> Tiger -> Leopard on G5s, PowerBooks, MBs, MBPs and MacPros, using a wide range of software (we're all photography buffs, one of us is a designer, two of us are developers, one MacPro is still running Tiger). Backup, upgrade. If you have problems, do a clean install. But so far we've done just fine with upgrades, thanks.

Re:Service pack 3?

[Pathwalker]

If you set the OpenFirmware password, then clients connecting via FireWire are blocked from doing direct memory access.

Re:Service pack 3?

[1729]

Here's Apple's take on this:

gestaltSystemVersionMajor
      The major system version number.
      For example, in 10.4.12, this would be the decimal value 10. Available in Mac OS X v10.3 and later.
      Declared in Gestalt.h

gestaltSystemVersionMinor
      The minor system version number. For example, in 10.4.12, this would be the decimal value 4.
      Available in Mac OS X v10.3 and later.
      Declared in Gestalt.h

gestaltSystemVersionBugFix
      The bug fix version number. For example, in 10.4.12, this would be the decimal value 12.
      Available in Mac OS X v10.3 and later.
      Declared in Gestalt.h

From http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Carbon/Reference/Gestalt_Manager/Reference/reference.html [apple.com].

Re:Bugs in Software Update

[Ilgaz]

If you have a broadband connection, act like us, old fashion guys.

Run Terminal (if you don't want to buy a dl manager), get the "combo" with curl (all OS X 'es have it,pre installed) or use a user friendly extension to firefox like "flashgot" which can use curl. Just launch the installer from DMG.

The good thing is, you can write it to a CD-RW or USB Key. I always keep last "combo release" on a backup disk replacing the previous one. It is also a great favor to Mac using friends if they come by.

Another thing before I forget: It is NEVER 500 MB for all updates installed end user. If you have 10.5.2 installed, it could be 60-70 MB download for software update. The "combo" won't be 500MB too. It is the developer "seed" they talk about/leak.

Re:What's wrong with Spaces

[Onan]

I'm curious as to what it is you feel would be the more correct behaviour when foregrounding an application whose windows are on another desktop.

Are you suggesting that the OS should focus some unknown windows on another desktop that's not currently visible to you? Such that if you were to switch to Terminal and start typing, you would be blinding typing into some unknown window?

Or are you suggesting that some new application behaviour should be created in which an application can be topped in some general sense, but with none of its windows focused? I have a hard time imagining many cases in which that would be anything other than the exact opposite of what a person would want. "Yes, I want to talk to this application. Yes, I want to talk to an actual fucking window this application has open, that's why I fucking switched to it!"

I've been an obsessive multiple desktop user for fifteen years now, and I have found Spaces to be the best implementation I've ever seen on any platform. I'm sorry that it makes you less happy.

(Oh, and for the particular case of wanting to create a new terminal window in your current space: right-click the terminal in the dock, and select New Window. It shows up where you are, no switching.)

Re:Big Creepy Crawlies...

[Halo1]

No, there are three possible versions of most updates: combo updates which can be applied to any previous version (with the same major version number), regular updates which update Mac OS X a.b.m to a.b.n, and delta updates which do the same as a regular update but which are smaller (due to the use of binary patches rather than including all replaced files in full).

The ability for software update to use delta updates was introduced in Mac OS X 10.3.4, as the support document I linked to implies (it's not like before 10.3.4 you only had combo updates).