Mac OS X 10.3.7: Software Update not working; solutions

Some readers are have experienced difficulty using Software Update after the upgrade. When this problem manifests, the menu-access cue is grey and cannot be selected. Richard Kennedy writes:

"After repairing disk permissions, I installed the Mac OS X 10.3.7 combo updater. After the reboot, selecting 'Software Update' from the Apple Menu does nothing. Also, when 'About This Mac' is selected from the Apple menu, the 'Software Update...' button is grayed-out."

MacFixIt reader David Taylor's case is typical:

"I have seen this problem on two different systems the nonfunctional Software Update and grayed out Software Update tab in the About This Mac panel. The Software Update in the system preference panel still works correctly. I tried Cocktail Combo 10.3.7 Updater repair permissions and the grayed Software Update remained."

MacFixIt reader Aaron tried accessing Software Update through the Terminal when he experienced this problem, with the following results:

"I've been doing things from within terminal, and the error returned when I run softwareupdate is 'Couldn't register server on this host.' Running ktrace then kdumping the output shows an incomplete trace, Which stops half way through the xml returned by apple as part of the first web request (this looks like it might have something to do with the list of apple software for which updates are available). The trace never gets far enough to show what the program is trying to do right before it spits out the server error, so that makes debugging it any further a little difficult."

Clearing Caches The most consistent workaround for this issue has been clearing of system caches -- a task easily accomplished with a tool like Panther Cache Cleaner.

MacFixIt reader Steve writes: "I also observed this problem. It was resolved by running Panther Cache Cleaner in its 'Deep clean all caches' mode. A less aggressive mode might have been effective, but this is what I did.

"Using Panther Cache Cleaner also fixed another problem at the same time: after the update a blank CD would not appear on the desktop, even after I'd responded to the dialog about a disc name and required action."

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