May 5, 2005 7:30 AM PDT

Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) #10: Another AFP workaround: ShareWay IP; Significant slow-down? Check Activity Monitor; more

by CNET staff

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Another AFP workaround: ShareWay IP As we reported yesterday, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) does not support AFP networking over AppleTalk. Users must instead turn on File Sharing over TCP/IP (in the File Sharing Control Panel on Mac OS 9 systems) in order to enable networking.

However, this workaround will not work for systems running Mac OS 8.6 or earlier, necessitating an upgrade to Mac OS 9.

A number of readers have now noted that OpenDoor's ShareWay IP will provide connectivity for systems that cannot be upgraded to Mac OS 9.

MacFixIt reader Guillaume Gete writes:

"OpenDoor sells ShareWay IP which was then bought in a limited license by Apple to be integrated in... Mac OS 9. So, if you need Mac OS 8.6 or a previous version and can't upgrade it for any reason, you should have a look at Shareway IP (though it is really a bit pricey)."

Another possible fix for SMB connection problems Over the past few days we've been covering issues with connecting to SMB (Samba) shares under Mac OS X 10.4 -- usually resultant in error -36.

Now MacFixIt reader Jim reports that changing a line in the smb.conf (configuration) file to be uncommented resolves the issue in his case.

Jim writes:

"I've solved my Samba problems - it seems Tiger is sending encrypted passwords. If Samba isn't configured to receive them, Tiger can't log in.

"In smb.conf, the line:

encrypt passwords = yes

"must be uncommented (make sure there is not a ";" at the beginning of the line).

The smb.conf file is located at /usr/local/samba/lib/smb.conf.

You can access the smb.conf file in the terminal via the command:

sudo vi /etc/smb.conf

which will open smb.conf in the text editing utility "vi".

Significant slow-down? Check Activity Monitor Users experiencing unusually slow overall system performance after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) should use Activity Monitor (located in Applications/Utilities) to check for problematic third-party system utilities and other components that, for one reason or another, consume large amounts of resources under Mac OS X 10.4.

MacFixIt reader Jeff LaSorella reports a case example involving the utility "iSeek."

Jeff writes:

"After installing Tiger, I noticed a significant loss of speed on my computer in just about every program. After speaking with an Apple sales assistant at my local Apple store, he mentioned to check the Activity Monitor application to see if I could determine what was going on. I opened it and noticed the Iseek application I had installed a long time ago was sucking up 66% of my processor. As soon as I quit it and restarted, my processor speed came right back."

Problems with Bonjour printing: Deleting then re-adding printers may solve It appears that many of the issues users are experiencing with Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous) network printing under Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) can be resolved by simply deleting, then re-adding problematic printers in the "Print and Fax" pane of System Preferences.

One reader writes:

"After upgrading to Tiger I tried to print with an Epson 1270 through Airport Express. When I selected Bonjour every app would crash. I deleted the Epson 1270 printer in the Print and Fax that remained from Panther. ( I did OSX Upgrade install). I then added my Epson 1270 again to the new Print and fax. Bonjour now saw the Epson 1270 and printed normally."

More problems resolved by removing SCSI cards As noted over the past few days, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) appears to have some serious issues with SCSI expansion cards and drives in some system configurations.

MacFixIt reader Barry Weber describes the latest case, in which removing a SCSI expansion card resolved constant kernel panics that were occurring after the update.

Barry writes:

"I have an Adaptec 2930 SCSI board. About 1/3 of the way through Tiger installation, the G4 Dual 1Ghz Mirror Door Drive received a kernel panic lockup. I reset the computer and then removed all PCI cards and external devices and reinstalled. When I tried to re-insert the SCSI board, I again received a kernel panic."

Safari 2.0: Problems logging into secure sites, older version works Several readers have reported issues logging into banking and other secure Web sites with Safari 2.0 (included with Mac OS X 10.4).

One reader writes:

"After doing a clean install of Tiger, the Safari version installed with Tiger does not let me login to my Bank. My bank is TD Canada Trust, one of the largest (the largest?) banks in Canada. Safari loads the log-in page, accepts the log-in info, but does not load the next page."

MacFixIt reader James reports that using a previous version of Safari (e.g. 1.2.4) from an older installation of Mac OS X can provide access where 2.0 cannot:

James writes:

"I made a copy of Mac OS X OS X 10.3 to another HD before installing Tiger. I made an alias of Safari 1.2.4 on this HD, and moved the alias into the root folder of the Tiger HD. I renamed the Safari alias to 'Safari 124' and dragged it to the dock next to the Tiger Safari icon. Safari 1.2.4 works where Safari 2.0 does not."

Spotlight: Finding deleted Mail.app messages? MacFixIt reader Ray Kloss reports that Spotlight is finding e-mail messages that have been deleted, and emptied from the trash in Mail.app 2.0.

Ray writes:

"Try this: Type a letter with some unique words in Mail. Send it. Delete the file in Sent Mail. Empty the trash in the Mail program. Do a search in the Mail search box for the unique word in the letter. It won't find it.

"Now go to Spotlight and type the word. The Mail letter will show up. You can even open it and read it (I'm not sure where it is). I can do a search from inside Mail and not find it (because it is deleted) but Spotlight will show it to anyone who desires."

iPhoto: Freezes on launch, fix Several readers have reported a repeatable issue where iPhoto freezes on launch under Mac OS X 10.4. MacFixIt reader Zach Benz reports that updating to the latest version of Keyword Assistant -- a plugin for iPhoto to make keyword management easier -- resolves this issue in many cases:

Zach writes:

"I found the cause of iPhoto hanging - Keyword Assistant. This helpful utility is installed _inside_ the iPhoto application bundle, which explains why none of my attempts to fix iPhoto worked. None of these attempts actually replaced the existing iPhoto application, including the reinstall (since it simply upgraded iPhoto in place). The fix is to either remove Keyword Assistant, or install the latest version which works around a Tiger bug which causes the hang, either of which can be accomplished by downloading the latest version and running the installer."

Slow iChat AV 3.0 performance Users continue to report degraded performance in iChat AV 3.0.

Phil Gale writes:

"I have just installed Tiger on my 1.5GHZ 17inch Powerbook and can confirm the bug with iChat - in a conference from the UK to Australia the frame-rate from my machine would drop reproducibly from about 16fps to 1.0fps over the course of about 15 seconds. The frame rate from the other end still running Panther was fine at 20 fps."

In some cases, it appears that uninstalling Virex 7.5.x, which has numerous other issues with Mac OS X 10.4, can resolve this issue.

More problems solved by removing Virex As noted above, uninstalling Virex 7.5.x can resolve some performance issues with iChat AV 3.0 and other applications.

MacFixIt reader Andy Halbert reports another issue for which removal of Virex is the solution:

"I installed Tiger on a PowerBook G4 867 MHz. Since that time, the fan has been running constantly, whether plugged in, or not. Needless to say, battery life was poor. I called Apple Tech support, and they advised m e to uninstall Virex, even though it was not running at that time. I did as they prescribed, and it is fine."

Third-party applications

Norton SystemWorks and Norton Utilities will not be updated for Mac OS X 10.4 MacFixIt reader Gabriel Dorado reports receiving a message from Symantec indicating that there are no plans to develop updated, Tiger-compatible versions of Norton Utilities or its parent suite Norton SystemWorks.

A note from Symantec reads:

"The original releases of Symantec 2003 -2004 Macintosh products are not compatible with Mac OS X 10.4. Symantec is working on solutions to allow compatibility between Mac OS X 10.4 and the following products:

Norton AntiVirus for Macintosh

Norton Personal Firewall for Macintosh

Norton Internet Security for Macintosh

"Norton SystemWorks and Norton Utilities will not be updated for compatibility with Mac OS X 10.4."

Entourage 2004: Attachment corruption After yesterday's initial report, we've received several notes from readers corroborating an issue where Entourage 2004 attachments become corrupt under Mac OS X 10.4 -- particularly when outgoing.

One reader writes: "I have been experiencing a similar problem with Entourage...all of my outgoing attachments (mostly PDFs) arrive at the sender's address corrupted and unusable."

Philippe Carignan adds:

"For me, it corrupted every type of file. I sent ZIP files, they can't be decompressed. I sent JPG files, they arrived in garbage at the sender (image was flipped, readable, but the image was changed),. I also sent SITX files that came out corrupted."

At this point, two viable options have presented themselves: using an alternative e-mail application (like Apple's own Mail.app or Thunderbird), or less consistent, using a different file format for the attachment.

MacFixIt reader Maurice Coombs writes:

"If I send a Word 2004 .doc document under Entourage 2004 to enterprise systems running Windows XP and Word, the recipients cannot open the received attached documents. On one recipient system, the email is identified as having a virus attached or embedded. On the other system, Word XP gives an error message about being unable to access the document?s path.

"If, however, I send the same document, saved under Word 2004 as an RTF document, the Windows recipients can (usually) open the RTF version.

"I have now tried sending the same .doc document to the same recipients using Mail, instead of Entourage. The attachment sent by way of Mail.app can be opened under Word and Windows XP."

EyeTV Some readers have reported that EyeTV windows sometimes disappear under Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. MacFixIt reader John Carr received the following note from Elgato Systems (developer of EyeTV) regarding Tiger compatibility:

"The only main bug we know about with EyeTV 1.7.1 and 10.4 is that sometimes the application windows will stick together, and move as an unit, or temporarily disappear.

"We are almost finished with the next version of EyeTV, which should come out any day now. That will take care of Mac OS X 10.4 support, and will have many new features."