Mac OS X 10.3.7 (#5): Network slowness, fixes; More on deleting network links for startup problems; more
Network slowness, fixes We continue to cover severe network slow-downs for a number of systems upgraded to Mac OS X 10.3.7. This issue can cause an array of other problems including slow startup for network-enabled applications and slow startup for Mac OS X itself.
MacFixIt reader Ulf Cronenberg found that changing the format of his local IP address assignment fixed the issue:
"My router - a Draytek Vigor 2900 - had the IP 192.168.1.1. You only have to change it e.g. into 10.0.1.1 and after that Mail, OmniWeb and iChat opens as quick as before. It seems that Mac OS X 10.3.7 has problems with routers using the IPs 192.168.1.x."
Jon confirms the previously reported workaround of manually entering DNS server addresses:
"Typically I left my Location set to 'Automatic' and things would just work between home and office with my AirPort card. After updating my 1.25GHz Aluminum PowerBook to 10.3.7, I experienced dreadful slowness on DNS lookups. But only in the office. While at work, connecting to a Buffalo wireless router, it would often take 5 seconds to do one DNS lookup. [...]I ended up creating a "Work" location and hard assigned the DNS numbers. This sped things up a bit but once I switched from DHCP to Manual and hard assigned all numbers, things are just a fast as they were before the upgrade."
Charles Elliott found that turning off all of his equipment, waiting a few minutes, then turning it all back on resulted in elimination of the network lag:
"Upgraded through Software Update. First couple of starts were very slow but this has improved. Had the same trouble many are having with slow internet apps- slow to launch, didn't seem to be working. I turned off Airport, shut the computer down, powered off my Airport Base Station (graphite), cable modem, and LinkSys router for a few minutes, restarted the modem, router and Airport, and rebooted the PowerBook. No more internet or network problems."
More on deleting network links for startup problems Yesterday we noted that removing automatically mounting network links (in the left-hand column of a standard Finder window) can, in some cases, resolve issues with slow or stalled startup that occur after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.3.7.
David Luckhardt confirms this workaround, and notes that users can delete the com.apple.sidebarlists.plist file, located in ~/Library/Preferences, if problems get too bad:
"I've seen this problem over and over in corporate settings -- the only solution is to delete ALL links to anything network-based in the sidebar. The Apple "Add to Sidebar" command in Finder's File menu can be a real mistake if network resources get moved or renamed. Safest to make aliases of network resources and leave them on the Desktop.
"If the problems get bad enough, users often can't open any Finder windows or sometimes even view the Desktop at startup. Then the only fix is to start up the Terminal / Console and delete the user's com.apple.sidebarlists.plist preference file."
FireWire boot volume conundrum; workarounds As we've reported several times, Apple suggests that users disconnect any FireWire drives before applying the Mac OS X 10.3.7 update. This has left a number of readers asking "If we have to disconnect external FireWire drives before installing the update, how do we update external FireWire boot drives to 10.3.7?"
There are a couple of ways you can deal with this dilemma.
First, if you have an internal volume, you can apply Mac OS X 10.3.7 to it and then use a tool like Carbon Copy Cloner to mirror the installation on your FireWire drive.
Alternatively, you can bite the bullet and boot from the external drive then upgrade it. Make sure you perform a full backup first, however.
Meanwhile Joe Winogradof confirms that temporarily disconnecting power from FireWire drives can, in some cases, restore proper operation:
"After updating to 10.3.7, I tried to mount two FireWire drives - no go. Restarting didn't work. Then I restarted, and removed the power cords from both drives, waiting at least 10 seconds before trying to mount the drives again. That worked. Since then, no sudden unmountings from the Tekserve drive. So, unplugging the power cable from the drive and waiting 10 seconds before plugging it back in helps with these problems."
Long filename truncation bug: Fixed, or not? Some readers are reporting that the long filename truncation bug which materialized under Mac OS X 10.3.6 reappeared after updating to Mac OS X 10.3.7.
However, the kernel extension previously implicated in this problem, System/Library/Filesystems/AppleShare/afpfs.kext was not changed by the update. Many users had the version of this file from Mac OS X 10.3.5 installed under Mac OS X 10.3.6 as a workaround.
If you are having this issue, please let us know.
Java causes Safari to crash Several readers report broken Java functionality under Mac OS X 10.3.7. This has caused an inability to access a variety of Web sites, including Yahoo's chat rooms and others.
Some users, experiencing this problem in Safari, have been able to resolve it by using the "Reset Safari" option located in the Safari application menu.
Others reported that re-installing the Java 1.4.2 Update 2 does the trick.
By far the most successful workaround, however, is clearing Java caches.
In order to perform this procedure, go to the /Applications/Utilities/Java folder. You will notice Java 1.4.2 Plugin Settings and Java 1.3.1 Plugin Settings. Launch both of these applications, select the cache tab in each, and click "clear". Attempt to access problematic sites again.
Myst IV unexpectedly quits MacFixIt reader Greg Piper is among a handful of readers reporting that Myst IV Revelation crashes frequently after installing Mac OS X 10.3.7:
"Right after the update to 10.3.7, Myst IV Revelation crashes shortly after going to the 'book menu' of the game... every time. A peek into the crash report sending to Apple shows many instances of the ATI 9700 drivers and kernel problems. I have a Quicksilver 733 with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac Edition AGP card, and a Radeon Mac Addition (PCI) card with a second monitor, and a Gig of RAM."
So far, all of the users reporting this problem are using ATI graphics cards. Cards from NVidia seem unaffected.
If you are having problems with Myst IV after the update, please drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com.
Favorable reports We continue to receive reports of smooth upgrade processes, and improved operation after installing Mac OS X 10.3.7.
Ira Altschiller writes "10.3.7 is the best of the recent updates for me. Everything seems faster -- the sluggish applications launch some have reported has not occurred -- in fact, programs are opening faster. Login is about the same. Based upon about two hours of working with it so far."
David Oshel writes "I'm not unhappy with the new update -- my iBook seems a bit snappier than usual since installing 10.3.7 (combo). Dialup seems a lot smoother, almost as solid as Linux, but sounds still drop volume levels."
Mike Charbonneau writes "No more fuzzy video in the Canvas or Viewer (in FCP) now that 10.3.7 has been applied."
Finally, Alan Somers adds "I have a PDF document that has a watermark. When I printed out the document from the Preview app in 10.3.6, the watermark came out with very jagged edges even though it appeared OK on-screen (the rest of the document text and graphics printed out fine). I had pretty much concluded that it was a problem with the ESP Ghostscript driver I was using. When the 10.3.7 update came out, the release notes listed a fix for printing "shaded text" in PDFs to raster printers. With anticipation, I applied the 10.3.7 update, printed the document again, and the entire document printed clearly (including the watermark)."
Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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Everytime i do my determination of my permission the system show this log:
Determining correct file permissions.
We are using special permissions for the file or directory ./System/Library/Filesystems/cd9660.fs/cd9660.util. New permissions are 33261
The privileges have been verified or repaired on the selected volume
The same strange thing appears when i repairm my permission from the restore dvd.
This has been going on now for a while with several revisions of Panther, it didn't just start with 10.3.7. It's harmless and there is no need to worry any about it.
This error message dates back to 10.2.x at least and has always been
ignorable. In 10.2 there were other ignorable error messages too. Maybe
10.4 will get rid of this last one.
Read it more carefully. <b>It is not an "error message"</b>, but an advisory
message. There is no "error" ? nothing gets repaired.
<p>---<br>Andreas
But it *is* an error message, as much as any permissions error is anyway.
Nothing gets 'repaired' because it tries to set the file mode to 0100755
(octal), when file modes only go up to 07777. Apparently, it's meant to be
04755 or so.
I agree with the previous poster. I've seen this behavior since 10.3.2 or 10.3.3 with no apparent ill effects.
Quick note: When you repair permissions from the Install DVD, you are
not taking into account the software packages you've installed since the OS
was installed - ie: the DVD cannot correct permissions properly, because the
information needed doesn't reside on the DVD.
*IMPORTANT* Always repair permissions while booted from your normal
startup volume!
Doug
This is actually almost entirely a myth, regardless of what anyone tells you, even the creators of OS X. I did a bunch of experiments about a year or so ago that proved that OS X's repair permissions routine uses the receipt files that are located on the volume you're repairing (the "target volume"), not those on the startup volume (whether the startup volume is a hard drive, a CD, or a DVD). One easy proof is that there are no receipt files on CD1 of the OS X installer set (receipts are supposed to always be at /Library/Receipts), so when you run Disk Utility from the OS X installer CD, the only source for receipts is the target volume. If you boot from a hard drive, then insert the OS X installer CD1 and tell Disk Utility to repair permissions on the CD, an error alert will appear saying no receipts folder could be found on the CD. Similarly, if you remove the /Library/Receipts folder from an OS X startup volume, and then start up the Mac from the installer CD, run its copy of Disk Utility, and tell it to repair that volume's permissions, it will display the same message about not being able to find the Receipts folder. You do sometimes find that if you repair a volume's permissions while the Mac isn't booted from that volume, and then repair permissions again when the Mac is booted from that volume, that a few more permissions are sometimes repaired, but not in any significant amount. The only time the repair permissions routine definitely uses the receipts on the startup volume, is when that's the volume that's being repaired. But as I pointed out, those receipts will be used even if you're not started up from that volume when you repair its permissions.
<br>
I wish MacFixit had polls where everyone could vote on their upgrade
experience. Be interesting to see what (approximate) percentage of
upgraders are having trouble.<br><br><br>
<br><br>
I was being sarcastic, BTW... I know MFXT now has a 10.3.7 poll... I'm just
making fun of all those who used to detract against my past repeated calls
for MFXT to have such poll... there where many of you.... HA! [cow
laughing... last]<br><br><br>
Ulf Cronenberg stated: "It seems that Mac OS X 10.3.7 has problems with
routers using the IPs 192.168.1.x."
Not so. My router's been set to 192.168.1.1 for years and I didn't experience
this problem while beta-testing the 10.3.7 and earlier updates. Something
else is amiss with his configuration.
installer from your internal drive and then choose the external drive to
update. Since the external drive is not running, it should not cause any
firewire problems. I did this with my new iPod but did appear to run into a
problem. It would not boot after the update because the ignore permissions
on this volume was suddenly checked. When I unchecked this and used disk
utility to repair all the permissions, several files were still owned by me in an
unknown group. This included several parts of AppleSlewClock.kext which
caused it not load and give a warning message on start up.
My solution to these permission problems in /System/Library was the
following:
1. Use ls -n to find out the number of the unknown group (which will be 99 in
these examples).
2. Create a list of files with this group by typing the following in /System or
below:
sudo find . -group 99 -print > ~/system.probs
3. Fix the owner/group problem by typing:
sudo chown -v root:wheel `cat ~/system.probs'
Note that there will probably be too many entries in a list obtained from
/System so these commands will probably first need to be done on some
subdirectories in /System/Library. Also this does not change the owner/
group of symbolic links and the commands that will change symbolic links
seem to lead to errors. When I tried changing the owner and group of
symbolic links and also tried to change the owner and group of files outside
of /System, I got an iPod that would not boot.
"Another potential way to update a firewire drive to 10.3.7 is to launch the installer from your internal drive and then choose the external drive to update."
This is worth trying, though you mean the user should start up from the Mac's internal drive, and run a copy of the 10.3.7 updater that's located on the internal drive. I suspect that most people who have updated their Firewire drives to 10.3.7, did it while the Mac was started up from the Firewire drive, either using a copy of the 10.3.7 updater that was located on the Firewire drive, or via Software Update. However, we can't be sure, since nobody reporting so far on Macfixit, that I can remember, about their experiences after updating to 10.3.7, has described exactly how they performed the update--whether it was from a copy on the internal drive, or a copy on their Firewire drive, etc.--the specifics might just matter, even though to some it might seem unimportant.
"Since the external drive is not running, it should not cause any firewire problems."
However, this isn't necessarily true--hence the reason for the test you suggest. Just because, during this approach to updating to OS 10.3.7, the Firewire drive isn't the startup drive, it doesn't mean it isn't running.
The problem is that after about half an hour connected to internet the time
showing in the menu bar frezzes and the modem tries to disconnect but
it never disconnects.
for email or even a safari page to load...this is ridiculous!
I just got back to my machine after the holidays. I am extremely under-
whelmed with the performance of my G5 dual 2.0.
Safari takes forever to load pages, mail takes forever to send. If I try to
launch Stuffit Expander, it repeatedly takes between 35-45 bounces before it
even launches.
I just bought this machine 4 weeks ago and it is nowhere near as fast as
some of my client's G5 dual 2.0s.
A 1 min down load took 8hrs. if sucessful at all. I spent over 12hrs
with apple trying to correct problem, My cable modem D-link with
cable insightbb.com) was not communicating properly with airport.
I went to Belkin router which cured the problem. The belkin router
has print server which will not work with apple. I sold my Airport
base station and antennae on Ebay. Apple does have a problem
with Airport
- by thedave--2008 December 23, 2004 4:01 AM PST
- The issue with long startup, and stalled desktop is well known to 10.3.x users
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(18 Comments)and is not specificly to 10.3.7. the work around is to delete all shortcuts to
network places from the left side bar, but the only way to do that after an
unsuccefull start up, and stalling desktop is to get into preferences, and in
network, to make it disable. then, once the desktop is online, remove all
network shortcuts from the above location, and enabling back the network.