Troubleshooting OS X 10.3 Panther (#4): FireWire drive problems; Up-to-Date CDs; Quark licenses; "Cube" effect; Adob

FireWire drive issues We previously covered reports of FireWire drives becoming inoperable after installing Panther. We have received a good number of similar reports, and the issue is being discussed in numerous places around the Web, including a lengthy message thread in Apple's discussion forums.

After examining these discussions and reports, it appears that there is more than one issue with FireWire-related drives. Some people are experiencing FireWire drive issues, both minor and major, that seem to be unrelated to this issue. Most of these have been reparable using utilities such as Alsoft's DiskWarrior and/or Apple's Disk Utility.

On the other hand, we have received numerous messages -- and the Apple forum thread referenced above is full of similar posts -- describing a particular situation in which the affected FireWire drive incurs severe directory damage. It will no longer mount or function on any computer, regardless of the operating system (OS 9, Jaguar, Panther, etc.), and Utilities such as DiskWarrior cannot rebuild or salvage the disk's directory. The drive is not even recoverable by installing it internally into a Mac. In most of these cases the only recourse is to use Prosoft's Data Rescue X to attempt to recover files. Reformatting the drive allows it to be used again. One MacFixIt staffer was in fact affected by this issue and lost a FireWire drive.

The constant in this latter group of reports is that the user had installed Panther on an internal drive, and then restarted with FireWire drive(s) connected. The drive(s) worked fine in Panther before the restart; it was only after the restart that the drive became unusable. So far, the issue doesn't seem to be related to manufacturer, drive size, FireWire 400 vs. 800, or how the user installed Panther (clean vs. update vs. archive) -- a wide variety of such configurations have experienced the same problem. Apple is apparently asking users affected by the problem for more details on their systems, including machine model/configuration, peripherals, and the FireWire bridge chipsets used in their FireWire drive enclosures. One reader speculated that the issue may be related to Apple's iSight, which was implicated in FireWire problems soon after its release. However, we haven't confirmed that an iSight was present with all of the reported drive failures (although our system did indeed have an iSight attached at the time). As we get more information about this issue, we'll pass it on immediately.

To be clear, this problem isn't happening to every Panther user with an external FireWire drive. However, until more information on the exact combination of factors that contributes to this issue is discovered, if you have Panther installed on your internal drive, and have one or more external Firewire hard drives connected to your Mac, we recommend unmounting and disconnecting FireWire drives before shutting down or restarting. This may be a hassle, but it seems a prudent course of action to take until Apple is able to identify the precise cause. (It appears as though reconnecting your FireWire drives after startup is safe, as we have no reports of drives being damaged at that time.)

Up-to-Date CDs require existing installation of OS X We've received a few emails pointing out that if you do not have some version of Mac OS X already installed on your Mac, the Panther "Up-to-Date" CDs will not allow you to install Panther. This makes sense, since the "Up-to-Date" CDs are specifically provided to allow users to update their Jaguar installation to Panther. In most cases, this is only an issue for those users who want to do a "clean" install -- formatting their drive first -- of Panther. In order to do this using the Up-to-Date CDs, you need to first install a clean copy of Jaguar, then use the Up-to-Date CDs to update that installation to Panther. (Note, however, that the Panther Up-To-Date CDs do allow you to perform an Archive and Install, unlike the Jaguar versions last year.)

RAM and Panther installation problems We previously covered problems installing Panther when additional RAM is installed. We've since received a number of additional reports confirming that removing the extra RAM often allows installation to proceed. Some users have had success replacing the "bad" RAM with other RAM, but other users report that simply re-inserting the extra ("bad") RAM after installation works fine -- it's only installation itself that is the problem.

Quark License Issues Rick Camp submitted the following tip regarding issues with QuarkXpress 6 Activation after installing Panther (he mentioned a "clean install," but we're not sure which type of install he meant by that):

"When [QuarkXpress 6 is] launched, you will probably get a dialogue box telling you that the Activation file is corrupt and you need to reinstall Quark 6. Quark will proceed to load, but it will be in Demo mode where saving is disabled. Reinstalling will not, however, correct the problem, because no matter how many times you reinstall (I did it 4 times before calling India), you'll get the same dialogue box about a corrupted Activation file. What I learned for Quark tech support was that a) this is a very common problems and Quark is being flooded with calls. b) the solution is to delete all Quark files, and specifically the Quark preferences folders in both the general Library/Preferences and your user Library/Preferences. c) reinstall Quark 6 and launch it. You will now get a new activation screen where you can either reactivate via Internet or phone.

"This does not count as your one call only for free tech support. Also, I suggest you may want to save the Full Res Preview extension before you delete all your Quark files, otherwise you will have to reregister your Quark to have access to the Full Res download site."

Fast User Switching: "cube" effect not appearing, and scanning issues Several MacFixIt readers have reported that when using Fast User Switching, the much-hyped "rotating cube" effect does not show up on their computers. Usually the reason for this is that their video card simply can't handle it. OS X automatically disables the "cube" effect on older video cards, so you still get the functionality, but you lose the eye candy.

Also related to Fast User Switching, a reader with an HP PSC 2510 all-in-one scanner/printer reports that when more than one user is logged in, the scanner becomes usable: "I am unable to use the scan features of the HP if there is more than one active user session (using Panther's fast-user-switching). With more than one active user session, the scan software becomes unable to connect to the printer. Workaround: don't use fast-user-switching, and scan features are available."

Adobe PDF Printer missing William Duckworth writes "I erased my hard drive and installed Panther 'fresh'. I then installed Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Pro version from the original CD. All works well with the apps, but the virtual printer "Adobe PDF Printer" doesn't show up in my printer list."

This is actually a fairly common issue with users of Acrobat 6.0 -- Adobe PDF Printer doesn't work after installing Panther. However, Adobe has posted a fix for this issue on this page on the Adobe User Forums (forum registration required). From there you can download a shell script that enables Adobe PDF Printer to work with Panther.

Fax settings prevent sleep? A MacFixIt reader reported problems getting an iMac to sleep after installing Panther:

"Since my Archive and Install from 10.2.8 to 10.3, my iMac 17" FP Feb'03 would not deep sleep anymore. I could get the display and the external FW drive to sleep, but that was all. Automatic sleep didn't have any effect. Manual sleep would power down the harddrive and put my iMac into deep sleep (yellow pulsing light appears) for 1/2 a second, after which the iMac , display and external FW harddrive would awake all chirpy and flash the 'enter password screen'."

The solution was apparently to open the Print & Fax pane of System Preferences and uncheck the "receive faxes on this computer" box. Having fax reception enabled prevents sleep mode.

AppleTalk volumes not appearing in Network MacFixIt reader Matthew Kelly points out one reason many users are unable to see AppleTalk volumes in the "Network" browser: installing Panther evidently disables AppleTalk in Directory Services. To enable AppleTalk, open the Directory Access utility (in /Utilities) and enable AppleTalk. (You should also make sure that you've enabled AppleTalk for the network port over which you access your local network.)

Backup unable to schedule operations A number of posts on the Apple Discussion Forums have reported problems with using Apple's Backup software to perform scheduled backups under Panther. Reader Danny Skarka forwarded a message he received from Apple confirming this problem:

"We are aware of an issue with Scheduled backups not working with Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther). We will post more information as it becomes available. If you currently have a scheduled backup and have Panther installed, you should disable the scheduled backup and manually perform backups."

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