Mac OS X Update 10.2.4 Resets

Oculus Habent writes "It may just be me, but 10.2.4 reset a number of settings on my computer, including icon sizes, window positions, and dock size and contents. Minor annoyances, but completely unnecessary. Is anyone else experiencing this?" As for me, Apple re-added some apps to my Dock and overwrote all my changes to httpd.conf (though it did back it up first) to add mod_rendezvous_apple. But those problems pale in comparison to some others: Anonymous Coward writes "If you upgraded your Mac desktop to 10.2.4 last weekend, check your date and time. Many users have suddenly found it to be 4:00 PM, December 31, 1969 again. Apparently, this happens whenever they are shut down or restarted, and resetting the motherboard and/or the PRAM doesn't fix it. Complaints have been piling up at Apple.com and prices for batteries have been skyrocketing - but relax. It's not your battery!"

Comments

No such panic for me...sky is still up

[djupedal]

I updated two computers.... G4 and an iBook. The only issue I had was needing to modify my httpd conf for on the G4 for PHP. No date issues....no moved icons..no lost internet...no droppy socks and the cat still has two different colored eyes.

I submit that as usual, the majority of issues are not directly related to 10.2.4. If you move apps where Apple's installer doesn't expect them to be (and don't whine how it is your computer and not Apple's), you'll have boinked links, and dock icon issues. If you've done a poor original install, you'll have issues with system updates, whether the bad install was your gift to the afternoon or not. Get over it...the sky hasn't fallen...this is not OS 9, and the sooner we all get used to a modern OS the happier we will be.

Re:No such panic for me...sky is still up

[Mononoke]

If the goddamn OS *lets* me move things around, then it bloody well better recognize that I've done so, and honor those changes.

You're one of those that used to move vital things out of the System Folder in the pre-OSX days, aren't you.

If so, thank you. I made quite a bit of money cleaning up other people's silly messes back then.

Re:Works for Me

[cyb97]

even before it was mentioned on Slashdot! I have not seen any of the problems mentioned.

So now it's proven, Slashdot is the cause of all problems!

zero problems for me

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything worked fine for me. Nothing reset, no changes to the Dock. I don't know if it makes a difference but I downloaded the tar file directly and ran the update later, rather than using Software Update.

Haven't seen any time/date changes, but my clock is set by NTP anyway.

PS: One thing I like to do before any major update is run something like "find -s / > /tmp/filelist" to get a list of all files and dates. Then run it again after the update and diff the two lists. That will show you httpd.conf changed, for instance. Also it's just interesting to see what files change on the machine as I learn about the OS. You can also get lists of files from the archive itself or from the "bill of materials" file ("man lsbom") after installation.

PPS: does anybody know what the file /iNode12022737 is for? I keep seeing files like that in the root dir...

Re:Protecting your OS from changes

[Visigothe]

I'm guessing the installer/updater plays along with the *NIX user system, right? So what about "chmod a-w httpd.conf" for protecting your httpd settings? If you don't want your settings modified by Apple, use the power of *NIX against it!

That won't work, as in order to update the system, you must supply the admin password. The admin [root, but not exactly] can do anything.

Re:why does everyone jump all over upgrades?

[MalleusEBHC]

First, you must remember that a large majority of Mac users (usually those who were around before OS X) know little or nothing about BSD or *nix. And they shouldn't have to. The sysadmin "don't fix it unless it's broke" philosophy is not the consumer "I want the latest and greatest" philosophy. These people buy Macs so they won't have any hassles. When Software Update pops up, they just want to click install and be done with it. Most of the time, this is fine and there are no problems.

On the other hand, you do have geeks who will take a more "wait and see" approach, many of whom have the advantage testing it on one machine before putting it on their other boxes. This is fine, but I've found that with OS X it is usually not necessary. I've tried every update on my Powerbook before throwing it on my Cube, and never have I had to wait long because there haven't been any problems. Despite the inevitable horror stories that come with each update, the grand majority of OS X users don't have any problems.

It's like the Y2K bug...

[wirelessbuzzers]

The cause of all these problems is simple, and I'm amazed that Apple overlooked it. The new version number, 10.2.4, overruns the 11-bit signed integer field that Apple devotes to the version numbers for their operating systems. This causes the system to think it's version -10.2.4, and extrapolating on the rate of Apple software releases allows one to easily calculate the date that this release should have taken place: Version 1.0.0 in 1984 and Version 10.2.3 in 2003 gives version -10.2.4 to be precisely January 1, 1970. The 1969 dates are due to a roundoff error, and only occur in G3s without Altivec support.

As no version earlier than OS 8 has network time support, the new "old" system does not attempt to update from a network time server. The reverted files and dock icons are simply the computer's attempt to show the files as they exist at the "current" time.

A patch may take awhile, due to the difficulty of updating all the old system routines that use the 11-bit signed int format.