May 16, 2005 12:29 AM PDT

Special Report: Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

by CNET staff

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Covering these and other topics:

Spotlight: Invisible files limitation; Processor usage and performance problems

Invisible files functionality lacking, alternatives Spotlight, in its current form, refuses to find invisible files. Although the user can set a criterion to search for both visible and invisible files, or invisible files only (through the Finder-based method of accessing Spotlight), no files are found.

While we haven't yet found a solution to this issue, you can still view invisible files with the aid of an file browser like Kilometre or Invisible Finder.

Places Spotlight does not search Readers should note that there are some limitations to where Spotlight will search. For instance, Spotlight will not search in bundles such as frameworks and application packages.
Processor usage and performance problems For some users, Mac OS X 10.4's Spotlight function consumes inordinate amounts of processor time, resulting in slower overall system performance or seemingly complete systems stalls.

Note that issue is separate from general, expected stalls within Spotlight itself, such as the normal function where Spotlight begins a search during the string typing process, resulting in system unresponsiveness for a few seconds.

Solutions

Giving Spotlight processes less priority via "renice" For some users, giving Spotlight processes less system priority via the "renice" command results in better overall system performance, though performance from Spotlight itself may suffer.

The easiest way to perform this process is to enter the following command in the Terminal:

renice -n (new renice setting number) -p (process ID number)

The higher the renice setting number (up to 20), the lower the process priority. The process ID number for various Spotlight operations can be found using Activity Monitor (located in Applications/Utilities). The most implicated process is "mds" -- launch Activity Monitor, and note the process number next to "mds."

renice -n 19 -p NNN

(where NNN is the process number received from Activity Monitor. You can also get the process ID for "mds" with the Terminal command "ps -acx | grep mds")
This can also be accomplished with the freeware utility BeNicer. After downloading an launching this application, enter "root" as the user and select the "mds" process, then change its renice setting to a higher number (18 or 19).

Temporarily disabling Spotlight and re-launching Another workaround that has proved successful for some users is simply turning off the Spotlight indexing process for installed volumes then turning it back on.

MacFixIt reader Jeff Hirsch has instructions for doing so in the Terminal:

1) Using the mdutil command-line utility in Terminal, turn off indexing for each of your drives. Example:

$ sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1

$ sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_2

2) Then use mdutil to remove the indexes from each drive

$ sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1

$ sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_2

3) Physically remove the .Spotlight directories from the root of each drive.

$ cd /

$ sudo rm -fr .Spotlight-V100

(do the same for your second or third drive)

Make sure to carefully type the "rm" command -- a typo could result in deletion of critical files.

4) Use mdutil again to turn indexing back on for each drive

$ sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_1

$ sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/your_hard_drive_name_2

5) Spotlight will now re-index all drives and should behave in a normal fashion. (No longer uses 60%-80% of your CPU)

Turning Spotlight off completely Simply killing the mds process or other Spotlight-related processes in Activity Viewer, or using the above disabling process, will not keep Spotlight components from continuing use of excessive system resources for some affected users.

In this case, you can turn Spotlight off completely by editing Mac OS X's hostconfig file, which determines the system components that are loaded at startup.

First, enter the Terminal and use the command:

sudo pico /etc/hostconfig

to open the hostconfig file in the "pico" text editor. (For more information about using pico, type the command "man pico" in the Terminal).

Scroll down the hostconfig file and file the line that says "SPOTLIGHT=-YES-" and change it to: "SPOTLIGHT=-NO-" (without quotes).

Exit pico, saving the file, and restart Mac OS X. Spotlight will no longer launch at startup.

To go one step further and remove Spotlight from the menu bar, remove the file "Search.bundle" from the folder /System/Library/CoreServices (move it to the Desktop or another external location) and again restart.

Disabling indexing for certain folders For some users, simply turning off Spotlight indexing for particular problem folders will resolve performance issues.

For instance, the mailbox folders used by some e-mail applications will be re-indexed every time a small change is made, resulting in spikes in processor usage.

MacFixIt reader Johan Solve writes:

"I'm also experiencing high processor usage and much hard disk grinding in Tiger, and I think it's Spotlight-related. It got a bit better when I excluded my Eudora folder from Spotlight indexing, where large mailbox files would get reindexed every time a mailbox was modified by new messages."

Folders can be excluded in the "Spotlight" pane of System Preferences in the "Privacy" tab. Simply click the "+" button in the lower left corner and select the folder to be excluded, or drag the desired folder to the list.

It also appears that folders containing device drivers or related files, such as those for some printers, can cause similar problems.

MacFixIt reader RL Cooley, for instance, writes:

"I Blocked a file -- Hewlett-Packard -- whih stopped all excess processor use This file has Three folders Memories Disk, Webupdate and Plug-ins. It also has the HP un-installer. I find everything works very well so I am not looking further at this time."
Killing the mdimport process MacFixIt reader Lorin Rivers reports that killing the "mdimport" process via the Terminal commands:

ps -auxwww | grep mdimport

followed by

kill -9 theprocess#returned

reduces processor monopolization by Spotlight.

Future creation/modification dates causing problems, workaround Spotlight apparently has some serious issues dealing with files that have creation dates in the future.

As noted by one reader:

"My initial indexing process after installing Tiger was interrupted by a couple of reboots I had to do while installing third-party apps. This may have left me with a funky index when Spotlight tried to pick up where it had left off. I suggest letting it fully index your drives before rebooting the machine at all.

"A few users in the Discussions over at Apple noticed that they had files on their hard drive with modification dates after the current date. i.e. days/months/weeks into the future. These files may have been causing Spotlight to choke as it tried to make sense of a date that hadn't happened yet."

MacFixIt reader Gabriel Dorado notes a workaround for users who have not yet applied the Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) update:

"Spotlight may generate all sorts of problems if the Mac contains files with wrong dates; specially dates in the future. To prevent it, run Norton Disk Doctor 8.02 (which has a feature that corrects these files dates) to fix such wrong dates before installing Tiger. Beware that Norton Disk Doctor is not compatible with Tiger, so it should be run before upgrading to Tiger."

Do not attempt to use Spotlight before other menu items load Scott Rose notes that if you attempt to perform a Spotlight search from the Mac OS X menu bar before other, third-party menu bar items have loaded, it will not function properly.

Scott writes:

"We've noticed that immediately after we log into our account, if we click on the Spotlight icon in the menu bar before all the 3rd-party menu bar icons have finished loading, the Spotlight icon will not be clickable at all (i.e. it does nothing when you click on it). You have to log out/log back in again to make the spotlight icon start working again."

DHCP Problems: AirPort networking dropouts, D-Link router problems, more

Solutions
Shortening the computer name Shortening the Computer Name (to less than 6 characters) in the Sharing pane of System Preferences can underlying DHCP issues that affect D-Link routers and some AirPort configurations.

MacFixIt reader Al Spiegleman writes:

"Wrote earlier about a DHCP issue with Tiger - Seemed to affect some machines and not others. After talking to Apple tech support at length the only thing that they could offer is to change the computers share name. I was a little skeptical at the time, but I actually did it on a desktop and a couple of powerbooks, and lo and behold - they started getting DHCP addresses again.

"The actual fix involves going into the sharing preference pane and changing the computers name to a single word (I have kept it less than 6 characters, but I have no idea what the limit is) and closing the pref pane. DHCP will start to work immediately - either hard-wire or wireless. Don't even have to reboot.

"Trying to analyze what has changed - it appears that Tiger issues the DHCP request with a host name, which Panther did not. Appears that most implementations of DHCP have a limit on the number of characters (or words - not sure which) in the host name. The real problem of course, is with computers that have been set up with a long computer name because when you set up your Mac, the default is simply your name as typed in your log on, with "'s computer" added at the end. My partner's powerbook share name was 'Bruce LeVasseur's Computer". Changed it to blpbg4, and it magically started working again. My powerbook's name was G3400, so of course it worked fine without a change. This was a really tough one to diagnose, as it affected some machines consistently, and some not at all.

"Not sure if this is an Apple problem, or a DHCP problem, or a DHCP implementation problem, but this seems to fix the issue across the board - WAPs - DSL modems - Routers - you name it. Solved at least 12 customers' problems today with this."

Entering DNS server addresses MacFixIt reader Nico Oberbanscheidt reports that entering valid DNS server addresses (which can be obtained from your ISP) in the TCP/IP section of the Network pane of System Preferences resolves similar issues where the name-shortening workaround does not work.

In Nico's case, a PowerBook upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4 was not able to access the Internet via a previously functional AirPort connection, also breaking access for other machines.

Nico writes:

"I talked to an Apple-Care tech and he immediately suggested to fill in dedicated DNS-Addresses into the field 'DNS-Server (optional)' of Network-Preference-Pane / Environment Name / Show Airport (or Ethernet or others) / TCP/IP of the OS 10.4 Powerbook. After I had filled in two DNS-Addresses (in this german case 194.77.8.1 and 194.25.2.129) and connected to the airport-network, both the powerbook and the iBook where able to regain normal internet-access."

AirPort: No auto-reconnect after sleep; Connections dropping when switching from one base station to another

No auto-reconnect after sleep, solutioins Deleting, then re-establishing keychain sets can resolve a number of networking issues in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

MacFixIt reader Tom Morris reports that deleting the AirPort keychain entry can resolve previously reported issues where Mac OS X 10.4 will not automatically re-connect to AirPort networks after waking from sleep.

Tom writes:

"After installing Tiger I experienced the same reconnect issue in AirPort where it won't reconnect after waking from sleep. The fix for me was to delete the airport keychain entry in the keychain application. After that all is back to normal."

Meanwhile, David Hawley reports that in his case, simply re-entering the AirPort network password solves the issue.

David writes:

"I had this problem. After installing Tiger it would not automatically connect to the airport network on startup or after sleep. I went to System Preferences>Network>Airport>Configure and re-entered the password. It works fine now."

Users experiencing this problem with an AirPort Base station may also want to try resetting the unit as described in the following Knowledge Base articles:

Resetting the AirPort Base Station (Dual Ethernet)

Resetting the AirPort Extreme Base Station

Resetting the AirPort Base Station (Graphite)

Connections dropping when switching from one base station to another Several readers have noted that, under Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), the wireless AirPort connection drops when a system is moved from the range of one access point into the range of another access point -- even if the second access point is set up to be a wireless repeater, or vice versa.

Apple acknowledges this issue in Knowledge Base document #301322, and says users in this situation should renew their IP address to restore access via on of the following methods:

Put the Mac to sleep then wake it back up

In the "Network" pane of System Preferences, choose AirPort from the "Show" menu, click the TCP/IP tab, then click the Renew DHCP Lease button.

Widgets: Possible security exploit; Excessive memory usage; more

Possible security exploit, vulnerability to malicious widgets Mac OS X 10.4.0, installed and run in its default state, contains a vulnerability based on a number of factors -- including Safari's method for handling automatic Widget installation -- where malicious, or at least annoying Dashboard Widgets could be installed, without the user's knowledge to be activated the next time Dashboard is accessed.

The scenario goes like this:

You click on a seemingly innocuous link, and view the resulting page's content. Meanwhile, a meta tag embedded in the page (META HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh") downloads a Widget in the background, and Safari -- which is, by default, set to automatically open "trusted" files, including Widgets -- quietly places the newly downloaded Widget in the ~/Library/Widgets folder. The next time you access Dashboard, the Widget is loaded in the Dashboard storage bar, and accessed when you click it or drag it out of the bar. The only indication you will receive in Safari indicating that this process is happening is a generally unnoticeable refresh of the URL address bar.

There has been some debate about how much damage Widgets installed in this fashion can actually do to your system. Theoretically, any Widget that request system access will require a user prompt ("Are you sure...") before gaining access -- in itself not a tremendous security measure for average users. However, some reports have suggested that there are Widgets with means to system access that don't require administrator or individual user authentication.

There is also another threat that doesn't involve damage of data, but can result in hogging of system resources. Widgets have been known to be extremely memory intensive in some cases (see section below on Widget memory usage), and the presence of many extra Widgets installed without the user's knowledge can result in an otherwise inexplicable system slow-down.

There are some quick measures you can enact that will seal out this vulnerability.

Turn off "Open 'safe' files after downloading" First and foremost, turn off the option to "Open 'safe' files after downloading" in Safari's preferences (under the "General" tab).

After unchecking this option (which is turned on by default, a potential security lapse on Apple's part), Widgets adhering to the aforementioned "exploit" will simply be downloaded to the location designated in Safari's preferences, requiring the user to double click them or drag them to the ~/Library/Widgets folder for installation.

It goes without saying that you should not manually install any Widget that is not from a trusted source.

Use Little Snitch In order to check for potentially malicious activity from Widgets that have already been installed, use a utility like Little Snitch. After installing this utility, when a Widget tries to establish a network connection, Little Snitch intercepts the attempt and brings up an alert panel giving you all the connection details including the name of the application, which initiated the connection. You either choose to allow the connection, to deny it or to add a permanent rule for similar future connections.

Use Folder Spy A small utility called Folder Spy can alert you when changes are made to a specific folder in Mac OS X. Set this utility to monitor your ~/Library/Widgets folder. Then, when an alert appears, check the folder and remove the added Widget(s) if necessary before launching Dashboard again. Remember, for a Widget to take any malicious action, you must access Dashboard after it is placed in the ~/Library/Widgets folder (the root /Library/Widgets folder is for Apple-installed Widgets only).

Delete Widgets from the ~/Library/Widgets folder As noted above, any user-installed Widgets should be located in the ~/Library/Widgets folder. Therefore, any files in this location can be deleted without affecting any default Apple Widgets, which are located in the /Library/Widgets folder at the root level of your Mac OS X startup volume.

Alternatively, you can use the freeware utility Widget Manager to inspect, remove, and disable Dashboard Widgets.

You can also monitor any additions to this folder (introduction of new Widgets) through the use of Mac OS X's built-in Folder Actions via the following process:

Control-click (accessing the contextual menu) anywhere in a Mac OS X Finder window or on any folder and select "Enable Folder Actions."

Navigate to the ~/Library folder and select the "Widgets" folder.

Control-click on the "Widgets" folder and select "Attach a folder action."

Select the script "add - new item alert.scpt" (located in the folder /Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts/ which should appear immediately by default) and press the "Choose..." button.

You will now be presented with an alert whenever a new Widget is added to the ~/Library/Widgets folder. If this happens when visiting a new Web page, do not access Dashboard again until verifying the Widgets trustworthiness, and removing it (if necessary) from the ~/Library/Widgets folder manually or using a utility like Widget Manager.

Widget memory usage Widgets, though generally limited in functionality and presented as periphery applications, can use surprisingly high amounts of RAM.

For instance, a recent check of Activity Monitor on an in-house test Mac OS X 10.4 system with 640 MB of RAM installed revealed the following real memory usage for some of Apple's default Widgets:

Stocks DashboardClient: 19.23 MB

Weather DashboardClient: 18.55 MB

Calendar DashboardClient: 13.11 MB

These figures do not change significantly when the Widgets are in active use (fluctuating by 2-3 MB), indicating that the drain on system resources takes place consistently, as long as Dashboard is an active item in the Dock.

At least initially, this should not be a cause for major concern. Mac OS X has advanced methods of dealing with memory usage from such applications, and the figure reported by Activity Monitor merely represents the requested memory for a specific process, which can be lessened when other process request memory.

If, however, you are experiencing significant system slow-down that can be realistically attributed to Widgets, you can end all Widget processes by temporarily killing the Dock. This can be accomplished by opening Activity Monitor (located in Applications/Utilities) and looking for the "Dock" process, then clicking the "Quit Process" button.

This will end all currently running Widget processes, which will not be re-activated until you again click the Dashboard icon and re-display active Widgets.

This process can also be accomplished with the Widget Manager freeware utility.

CD/DVD burning problems: Errors, blank discs not recognized, more

No more temporary backups resulting in failed burns Mac OS X 10.4 no longer creates temporary backups of the data that is being burned to media. This saves time, but also results in more failed burns (and wasted media), as well as errors such as the following:

"The operation could not be completed because one or more required items could not be found. (Error code -43). Could not open the data fork of '' (-43)"

MacFixIt reader Drew Saur notes a couple of potential solutions to this problematic new set-up:

"If you want to burn a backup of a user's folder, log that user out, make a copy of his or her home folder in another (preferably administrative) account, and burn the disc using that folder in this account.

"If you only have one account and you want to burn a backup of your own account's home folder, copy files to a disk image using Disk Utility first ( you can't copy files to your own desktop, because that would be a self-referential, infinitely recursive disaster, of course), and then burn that to a CD or DVD as appropriate."

Another workaround involves holding down the "Option" key while you are dragging files to the media for burning. This will create an on-the-fly copy, eliminating some of the aforementioned burn-error problems.

Error message when attempting burns Under some circumstances, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) generates the error message "The disc cannot be used because the disc drive is not supported. (Error Code 0x80020025)" when a blank disc is inserted into a CD or DVD recorder and accessed via the Finder.

One solution involves inserting the CD, allowing the error message to pop up, then force quitting the Finder (either via the Apple menu "Force Quit" option, or by holding down the "option" and "control" keys in tandem, clicking on the Finder icon in the Dock and selecting "Relaunch"). After relaunching the Finder, some users report that the media shows up appropriately and can be successfully recorded.

Some readers experiencing this problem have noted that resetting PRAM and NVRAM via the following process (as described in Apple Knowledge Base article #2238):

Shut down the computer.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Despite the deficiency in the Finder, several readers have reported that they are still able to burn media using third-party utilities like Toast or Apple's own Disk Utility (located in Applications/Utilities).

MacFixIt reader Tom writes:

"Saw a post about people having trouble burning in Tiger. I have a Mac mini 1.42 Combo drive. I am also having a problem burning with the finder. When I insert a CD it tells me my drive is unsupported. System profiler says it is supported, but it is a no go. I can burn with Toast 6.0.9, but not with the Finder."

Classic: Problems starting, more

Problems starting -- possible fix A number of readers have reported problems starting Classic under Mac OS X 10.4.

MacFixIt reader Adam North, for instance, writes:

"I had a Classic installation that was fine under 10.3.x Upgraded to Tiger tonight and classic will not startup. I get the updating system components message after which I get the OS 9.2 splash screen and then a big stall. No extensions appear to load along the bottom of screen. Tried all the recommended tricks: fixed OS 9 permissions, fixed permissions on boot drive, tried to boot classic with extensions off via system preferences, tried to boot classic by calling extensions manager, reinstalled classic startup.app with pacifist off of Tiger DVD"

Some users experiencing this issue may be subject to a conflict caused by the QuickTime DiVX 5.2 component.

This file is located in the /Library/QuickTime folder. If you are having problems starting Classic, try removing the DiVX component from this folder, and attempt to re-launch Classic.

SCSI Issues: Fix for Adaptec cards; Drives causing startup/shut down problems, more

Adaptec SCSI fix Several users have reported issues with Adaptec SCSI cards after updating to Mac OS X 10.4, including an inability to recognize SCSI devices, problems starting up or shutting down with the card installed, and more.

A workaround, successful for many users, involves removing the following files from the /System/Library/Extensions folder:

Adaptec 290X-2930.kext

Adaptec 29160x.kext

Adaptec 39160x.kext

Adaptec 78XXSCSI.kext

but leaving the file

Adaptec 78XXSCSI.kext

in place, then restarting.

MacFixIt reader Steve Morris writes:

"I left Adaptec78XXSCSI.kext as the only SCSI Adaptec driver (had the newest date) and that restored my 2906 card and scanner. Also now when I look in system profiler, I see one UMAX Scanner in the Parallel SCSI device tree not multiples I had seen before."

Other SCSI issues Despite success of the Adaptec workaround above, various SCSI devices are still causing major problems with Mac OS X 10.4 including problems installing the OS, starting up, shutting down, or using other devices. If you are having such problems, disconnect any SCSI devices or SCSI PCI expansion cards and check for persistence of the issue.

MacFixIt reader Norm Gan reports an issue where other devices' functionality is affected by the presence of SCSI expansion cards:

Norm writes:

"I have had a strange problem in Mac OS X 10.4 that appears to be related to the presence of my Adaptec 2930 SCSI card. Printer Setup Utility will not let me select Epson AppleTalk to add my Stylus Color 980N connected via EtherNet. As soon as I select Epson AppleTalk from More Printers in PSU, I get a non-quittable hang (cannot quit even from Activity Monitor, which also hangs).

"I have removed all the Adaptec Extensions from /System/Library/Extensions, but it does not help. I have done all the various Installations (started with Archive and Install, followed by Upgrade Install, and finally an Erase and Install on my G4 450DP/1.5GB) with no change to the problem. Card must be removed to get to my networked Epson Stylus Color 980N."

Dave Manning reports a similar issue, where Mac OS X 10.4 refused to install until a SCSI card was removed.

David writes:

"I too have had problems with my SCSI card from Adaptec. The card had to be removed prior to installing OSX 10.4. The DVD would stall during startup. When I removed the card, the installation went flawlessly."

Keith Young reports that SCSI cards from manufacturers other than Adaptec are affected:

"I use an Initio Miles Bluenote card in my Quicksilver dual 1 GHz G4 to run my Microtek Scanmaker 5. With 'Tiger' it no longer works although the card is visible to the system profiler. Initio are working on a fix."

AFP access problems: AppleTalk no longer supported, workaround; Norton Firewall conflict, more

There are a number of new issues with AFP (Apple fileshare protocol) access under Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). 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.

As noted by MacFixIt reader Michael Lettini:

"On the OS 9 server, go to the File Sharing Control Panel and turn on File Sharing with TCP/IP. Just click the box and Tiger will connect with it. It's that simple."

Chris Wiley adds:

"Just thought I'd mention that according to my tests here, If your client computer is running Tiger and you want to connect to a pre-Mac OS X file server, on the file server you'll need turn on the option in the File Sharing control panel which says, 'Enable File Sharing clients to connect over TCP/IP.' If the version of the classic Mac OS you are running as a file server doesn't support the TCP/IP option -- previous to Mac OS 9 I believe -- than you may need to upgrade the file server's OS."

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)."

If you are still having problems after switching to TCP/IP, there may be another factor at play -- such as an errant Mac OS 9 extension, as in MacFixIt reader Joseph Finnel's case:

"After about 2.5 hours of phone time with AppleCare Support, (and reinstalling Tiger with no improvement) the technician finally had me revert the Extensions on the Mac OS 9 system to the 'locked' Mac OS 9.2.2 All configuration. It worked! I was then able to connect and log on to the Mac OS 9 system from the G5 just like before.

"After comparing the original OS 9 system extensions with the 'All' configuration, I discovered my problem was Norton's Personal Firewall on the Mac OS 9 system. I disabled the firewall to permit all Appletalk/TCP/ IP access and problem solved."

Deleting aliases and re-creating MacFixIt reader Tracy Valleu reports that deleting, then re-creating any AFP aliases restores access for initially problematic shares in some cases

"I had been accessing my other computers via Alias icons on my main computer's desktop. Trashing those; using the 'Go..' menu, and re-creating them solved all my problems."

Possible solution: Re-establishing Keychain authentication Jeff Silvestris, meanwhile, reports that re-establishing keychain passwords (deleting then re-entering them) resolved the issue in his case:

"Every time I tried to connect to the SMB/CIFS file share here at work this morning it kept defaulting to my old username... even though I would make the manual change as I logged in, I kept getting a read/ write error -36.

"I fixed the problem by using Keychain Access to remove any keys associated with my old login. (Not sure, delete all the keys for that share). This fixed it and everything is working again."

Problems caused by QuickTime codecs

MacFixIt reader Miguel Muelle reports some fairly serious system issues caused by the presence of apparently incompatible QuickTime add-on codes:

Miguel writes:

"I did an 'Archive and Install' of Mac OS X 10.4 and all seemed well until I copied the Quicktime codecs that I use often, Avid and Blackmagic. After copying them into /Library/Quicktime I rebooted and then all hell broke loose with the finder. After that when the Finder comes up it keeps crashing repeatedly so that the result is a Finder that keeps appearing and disappearing, ad nauseam. On my Powerbook, I first did an Upgrade, which did not resolve it, and then just re-installed another 'Archive and Install' and that was fine.

"It didn't occur to me that the codecs (actually Quicktime Components) could be the cause until later on when, after creating a bootable backup of my G5 Dual 2.5. I installed Tiger in the same way. Again, all was well until I copied my QuickTime Components over and then the same on-and-off Finder happened. I went into Terminal, removed the Components and immediately the Finder settled down. All seems well now. I should try installing them one at a time until I get the problem back, but I may just wait until Avid and Blackmagic update their QuickTime Components."

M-Audio device issues, workarounds

We previously noted issues -- apparently caused by Apple's transition to Core Audio -- with a number of M-Audio devices under Mac OS X 10.4.

MacFixIt reader Myriam reports that changing permissions on the M-Audio Firmware Loader startup item resolved the issues with her M-Audio Transit USB card:

"I looked in the system log and noticed this message: 'SystemStarter[203]: '/Library/StartupItems/M-Audio Firmware Loader' failed security check: permissions'

"After some trial and error changing permissions in Terminal without progress, I located this page on the Apple Web site.

"Apparently, the proper permissions for startup items in Tiger are 0755...

"So I used the following command in Terminal:

sudo chmod -v 0755 /Library/StartupItems/M-Audio Firmware Loader/M-Audio Firmware Loader

"And that fixed the problem! My Transit card is now working fine in Tiger using beta Transit drivers v1.6. This fix will probably also work with Transit drivers v1.59. [...] You may have to disconnect/reconnect your Transit card for this to work."

Bonjour issue and fix

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.

Sseveral notes confirm this workaround.

MacFixIt reader Andy Watts, for instance, writes:

"Just a quick email to say that I also upgraded from Mac OS X 10.3.9 to 10.4 and have a printer connected to an Airport Express - I also had the same problems, and removing the printer and adding it again fixed it."

SMB connection problems, solutions

Some users experience issues connecting to SMB (Samba) shares under Mac OS X 10.4 -- usually resultant in error -36.

Solutions
Changing the SMB configuration file 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".

Re-establishing keychain passwords Resetting keychain passwords (deleting then re-entering them) can resolve some SMB networking issues introduced by Mac OS X 10.4. We've since received several notes of confirmation for the fix.

MacFixIt reader Stewart writes:

"I could connect to other Windows machines successfully under Tiger, however, with one particular Windows machine, I get the following error: 'The finder cannot complete the operation because some data in 'smb://(windows machine' could not be read or written Error Code -36 )'."

"It was Keychain. I reset my keychain and everything worked. I can now logon to a share in that windows machine. I had copied the keychain from Panther to Tiger installation for my main user. I found this by logging into another user on my Mac and found that I could connect to a share ( and this one had the default tiger keychain ). I found the keychain item that was problematic, removed it and now everything is fine."

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."

Removable media devices not mounting, fixes

Some users experience problems with recognition of a removable media devices (particularly CD and DVD optical drives) under Mac OS X 10.4.

In some cases resetting NVRAM can resolve this issue. This is accomplished via the following procedure:

Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command, Option, O and F keys simultaneously combination during startup.

At the prompt, type the following commands, one by one, pressing the return key after each (your system will automatically restart after pressing return the last time):

reset-nvram
set-defaults
reset-all

MacFixIt reader M. Shon Hall writes:

"I was having this same issue (SuperDrive in my iBook not a recognized drive)

"I just tried doing the 'Resetting NVRAM' procedure, and while I don't have any of my DVD-R discs here to test officially, my drive is recognizing a CD-R I just inserted."

Wake-from-sleep issues

Some users' Mac OS X 10.4-upgraded systems will not wake properly from sleep, either refusing to wake completely or freezing upon wake-up.

Solutions

Device removal Errant devices (or devices, one way or another, in conflict with a Mac OS X 10.4 installation) can cause problems with waking from sleep.

One reader describes a case in which removing an internal 160 GB drive connected via SATA resolved wake-from-sleep issues:

The reader writes:

"I have a Dual 2.5 G5 and I just installed Tiger onto a new 74GB Western Digital 10,000 rpm Raptor drive. I left the original 160GB Seagate Barracuda in the other drive bay (it still has 10.2.9 installed on it). The problem I have is now when I put the G5 to sleep in Tiger and then wake it up, the screen comes on but I get the dreaded spinning beach ball. The only thing I can do to get it working again is to do a hard reset. If I remove the original 160GB drive and boot from only the 74GB drive, I can put it to sleep and wake it with no problem. If I boot from the 160GB drive in 10.2.9, I can also put it to sleep and wake it with no problem (this is with both drives installed)."

Dylan Menges describes a case in which a FireWire/USB PCI card was causing similar issues:

Dylan writes:

"I had a similar experience where Tiger wouldn?t wake from sleep after an erase/clean install. Remembering that I had a media card reader plugged into an internal Orange Micro Firewire/USB board, I pulled the device from the board and restarted. Put Tiger to sleep and was able to wake immediately without any problems."

Finally, MacFixIt reader JD was able to resolve wake-from-sleep issues by unpairing a Bluetooth mouse manufactured by Kensington from his system.

JD writes:

"Since installing Mac OS X 10.4, I've had about five hard crashes of my system. The system becomes totally unresponsive, where not even the force-quit window can be launched. [...] This generally happens when the computer wakes from sleep. [...] However, I found that after removing my Kensington Bluetooth PilotMouse (actually taking the batteries out), the problem seems to have disappeared. Also, the problem occurred whether or not the Kensington MouseWorks software was installed. When I power the mouse back up, and re-pair it with my system, the problem returns. So, for now, I'm back to using a corded mouse (along with an Apple bluetooth keyboard, which works just fine)."

Resetting the PMU/SMU Another procedure that has resolved wake-from-sleep issues for some users is resetting of the PMU (power management unit) or SMU (system management unit) dependent on the Mac model.

Instructions for doing so are as follows for several systems:

Mac mini

PowerBook and iBook

PowerMac G4

PowerMac G5

Simply disconnecting your Mac from its power source (the method for resetting the Mac mini's PMU) may have similar beneficial results.

.plist files to blame? In some cases, it appears that problematic .plist files, particularly those located in the "ByHost" folder located in ~/Library/Preferences (your user-level Library folder) are to blame for wake-from-sleep issues.

MacFixIt reader Ernst Mulder provides a case example:

"I found out it (my wake-from-sleep issue) was a user-specific problem, with another newly created problem I didn't experience it.

"In the end I just deleted many old and suspect preference files from my ~/Library/Preferences folder. I deleted all 'ByHost' prefs, and all of the usual suspects. I also deleted a lot of very old preference files. After that the problem went away."

Speakable Items fails; workaround

Several users have reported that Speakable Items fails under Mac OS X 10.4.

MacFixIt reader Paul Derby offers a temporary workaround:

"Bring up the Speech preferences in System PReferences. Go to the 'Commands' tab and turn off all the selected items in the ''select a command set' area. Turn speakable items off. Turn speakable items on. Then reselect the items that were previously turned off in the 'select a command set' area. Like magic, the 'speech commands' window suddenly fills with the commands and Speakable Items starts to work."

Keychain import issue and fix

MacFixIt reader Eli Block reports a permissions issue with importing an old Keychain into Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), as well as a solution:

"What happens is that, when following Apple's instructions on how to get a backed up keychain into a new install of Tiger, the keychain is imported and sits nicely in the keychain portion of the window, until I quit and reopen and then it is no longer there. Seemed to be an issue of settings not sticking or something.

"So I ran Keychain first aid and lo and behold, it told me that ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.plist should be owner 501 but is zero. So I changed that by enabling root and it didn't work. Then, I changed the group to read/write permissions and then my keychain stuck. Thats all I did, and permissions repair did nothing to help during the process and still wont report that any permissions are off even after my manual fix."

Reverting to Mac OS X 10.3.x

If you find any problems presented by Mac OS X 10.4 too severe or disruptive to critical workflow processes, you may want to consider reverting to Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther) as described in our tutorial "Reverting to an earlier version of Mac OS X."

Freezes during shutdown or startup, fixes

One of the most commonly reported significant issues with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) is a freeze at startup or during shutdown. In most cases, only selecting a shutdown or restart through the Finder causes problems -- forcing a restart or shutdown through the Terminal does not exhibit the problematic behavior.

There are a number of potential culprits for this issue.

Disconnect external devices, check for problematic drivers In some cases, an errant external FireWire drive or another device can cause these issues -- particularly at startup.

In the case of external storage devices, issues can often be resolved by temporarily disconnecting the drive, restarting the Mac then re-connecting the drive once the startup process is complete, and obtaining applying updated firmware (check the manufacturer's Web site).

In other cases, the drivers linked to problematic devices can cause startup or shutdown problems.

For instance, Apple's structural changes to the way that Mac OS X handles audio and audio-based applications (Core Audio) has rendered some devices in conflict normal system routines. Removing, or downgrading device drivers can sometimes resolve these issues.

One reader describes a startup/shutdown issue that was resolved by removing the drivers for his M-Audio devices:

"I identified as responsible (after doing an archive and install installation) the package of drivers m-audio revolution 1.4 for m-audio 7.1 revolution. With these installed, my Mac wouldn't restart or shutdown. Without them, or uninstalling them, the problems are completely solved (but I've no audio card anymore.)

"Re-installing the old m-audio driver (1.2.9) allows normal system functioning (mac shutdowns and restarts) but surround sound is not working well, driver update absolutely needed.

Check for bad login/startup items

Both login items and startup items can cause problems when exposed to a new Mac OS X release.

To check if any login items are causing your startup/shutdown issues, go to the "Accounts" pane of System Preferences and click on the "Login Items" tab. Deselect any third-party items (and even Apple-originated items in some cases), restart, and check for persistence of the issue.

To check if any startup items are causing the issues, go to the /Library/StartupItems folder (that's the Library folder at the root level of your startup volume, not the user-level Library folder located at ~/Library) and, again, remove any third-party items, restart, and check for persistence of the issue.

MacFixIt reader Todd Koltis describes his case of stalled shutdown, which was resolved by removing a startup item.

Todd writes:

"There is a problem with the QuickBack component of Speedtools Utilities that can cause a stall at shutdown. To fix it, go to Hardrive/Library/StartupItems and remove the item with QuickBack in it's name (sorry, i don't remember the whole name anymore). You will probably have to force shutdown once more after this before it will take effect (as it is already loaded). Also, please note that this will mean that scheduling in the QuickBack application won't work until there's an update to SpeedTools."

General tip: Checking your user Library folder

Many individual application issues that occur during a major Mac OS X upgrade can be solved via a process similar to the method used for troubleshooting Extension conflicts under Mac OS 7, 8 and 9. It's a shotgun technique, but one that has proved fruitful in many cases.

The process is as follows:

Move your User library folder (~/Library) to a different location, such as the Desktop
Log out of your account, then log back in. A new user library folder without any customization you may have performed will be created.
Perform the task that was previously causing issues (e.g. launching an application, etc.), which should now work as expected.
Move a few folders from the old user Library folder (on your Desktop, or wherever you placed it) back into the new Library folder.
Again, log out and back in.
Perform the task that was previously causing issues and check for persistence of the issue.
Repeat steps 4-6 until the problem returns. At this point you will have narrowed down the potential culprits. When a batch of folders causes the problem to return, examine the just re-added folders for user added elements that could be causing the issue, and eliminate them.

Priner problems: Deleting, then re-adding

A number of readers report issues with Epson printers that, in some cases, can be resolved by simply re-adding the devices using the Apple Printer Setup Utility (located in Applications/Utilities):

Gerry Cox writes:

"I have done the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.4 'Tiger' without to many problems. I found that in Printer Setup Utility that my two Epson printers were no longer there (An Epson Photo 870 and an Epson Photo R300) Oddly enough my CUPS version of the 870 was still there. I tried to reinstall both printers which appeared to work but only installed the 'standard' version of the R300 (not the borderless printing version). I found that if I selected 'More Printers' when I selected 'Add' in the printer list I could select 'All', 'Standard' or 'Sheet Feeder - Borderless' as I was expecting. Hope this may help someone else. My main problem is that the 'Utility' function does not work with either of the Epson Printers (Utility version 2.14). It shows the version splash screen then crashes. I thought perhaps I had remnant files from OS X 10.3 so I used the Printer setup Utility to remove all printers by selecting "Reset Printing System" from the menu. I then reinstalled all the printers but still the Utility application crashes. I have sent a crash report to Apple. I will also send an email to Epson."

Meanwhile, Brett Wickens received a terse response from Epson technical support regarding Tiger compatibility:

"Thank you for contacting the Epson Connection. There are no drivers available for this OS at this time."

Wickens adds:

"There are beta Gimp Print drivers for the 2200 included in the Tiger install, but they do not (elegantly) cover the feature set of this printer. I also reinstalled the latest Epson drivers (an arduous process) and while the printer and features do appear, I have had spotty performance with them. Epson has never properly supported this printer (and many others) under Mac OS X. It's surprising the the online Apple Store continues to promote their products so vigorously, especially in the shadow of the massive Tiger launch."

Deleting .plist files for individual application problems

Many problems with individual applications that occur after a major Mac OS X update can be solved by deleting corrupt .plist files. It appears that this is the case for several apps that are not functioning properly under Mac OS X 10.4 (see AbiWord, Extensis Suitcase, CodeTek Virtual Desktop below, specifically).

Such .plist files will generally be located in the ~/Library/Preferences folder, and labeled as follows:

com.(name of developer).(name of product).plist [For instance, com.adobe.Reader7.0.plist for Adobe Reader 7.0].

Simply drag the potentially offending .plist file to the trash, re-launch the hampered application, and check for continuation of problems. In some cases, applications will have several .plist files, so make sure you check for any that contain the product name. Also, note that you may lose some settings or other personal data used by specific applications when these files are deleted.

Alternatively, if you're not sure which application is slowing down your Mac or you'd like to check for any existing, but unnoticeable issues, there is a freeware utility called "Preferential Treatment" that will check for some elements of .plist file corruption.

Font issues: "Fuzzy" type, more

Several readers have reported issues with fonts and font management utilities after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

The most common issue is distortion of type displayed on screen, particularly in Safari and Mail.app. When the issue manifests, characters begin to overlap, and often cannot be seen clearly below a certain font size.

MacFixIt reader TJ reports an issue with Extensis Suitcase, as well as a possible solution.

TJ writes:

"I dad huge issues with Suitcase after installing Tiger. Issue: Adobe products would not recognize typefaces installed with suitcase. I did an 'upgrade' install. Would get multiple 'warnings' regarding 'font ID' conflicts. Fonts would show up in 'text reader' but not in Photoshop for example. Indesign would act very erratically.

"The solution was to search and delete all Suitcase files on your computer (especially those in your system 9 folder if you still have it). Reinstall Suitcase from scratch. Install your typefaces without using the 'check for corrupt fonts' option.

"Restart, then go to suitcase and check for corrupt fonts and enjoy Tiger, Suitcase and Adobe applications working in harmony again."

Remove Virex 7.5.x

The presence of Virex 7.5.x can cause a variety of issues under Mac OS X 10.4, including slow overall system performance, constant fan activity, and degraded performance in some applications.

Instructions for uninstalling Virex 7.5.x are contained in an Apple Knowledge Base document. However, these instructions require that the user obtain the original Virex 7.5.x installation disk image, which can be difficult to locate.

Another option is to use the command line uninstallation utility from Network Associates.

"Beeping" or "Chirping" noise back for some G5s

Some PowerMac G5s exhibit a "beeping" or "chirping" noise under heavy processor loads after being upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

We previously reported this issue in December of 2003, but there has been a dramatic re-emergence of the problem since the release of Mac OS X 10.4. Several users have cited the new PowerMac G5s introduced in late April as exhibiting this problem, though the correlation is likely based on the fact that these are the first G5s to ship with Mac OS X 10.4 installed.

Setting processor performance to "Automatic" or "Reduced" rather than "Highest" in the Energy Saver pane of System Preferences seems to eliminate the noise for some users, though obviously a noticeable performance penalty becomes apparent in some applications.

MacFixIt reader Frans van der Geest writes:

"After a install of OS X 10.4, I noticed a 'Chirp sound' when scrolling a document on my Dual 2 GHz G5. Setting the Energy Saver option for processor speed to 'Automatic' and the chirp is gone. Setting it to 'High' and its back again. This did not happen in Mac OS X 10.3.9 when scrolling."

Another solution that was successful when this issue appeared in 2003 involves using Apple's CHUD tools and disabling the "Nap" feature.

This is accomplished by first downloading and installing the Apple CHUD tools, restarting, then using the newly available "Processor" pane of System Preferences to disable CPU Nap.

Obtaining Mac OS X 10.4 on CD

As previously noted, Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) ships on DVD media. For users with drives capable only of reading CDs, Apple offers a Media Exchange program for US$9.95 that will ship Tiger on a set of CDs.

Safari 2.0

Eliminating problematic plug-ins Plug-ins incompatible with Safari 2.0 can cause the application to repeatedly crash. Most of these add-ons are located in the folders:

~/Library/Safari or

~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins

Try removing any user-installed items from these folders, and check for persisting unexpected quits in Safari.

Some plug-ins, like iGetter, were initially problematic under Mac OS X 10.4 but have now been updated for compatibility.

Copy/Paste issues MacFixIt reader Scott Rose reports a deficiency in the copy/paste mechanism in Safari 2.0, as well