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Apple Pulls 10.2.8 Update
physicsnerd writes "Apple has apparently pulled the Mac OS X 10.2.8 update from Software Update. The standalone updates have also been pulled. There have been reports of problems with 10.2.8 on iMacs and eMacs." People have also reported network problems.
Maybe they will re-release it with the new ssh fix!
I just installed the updates this morning on two computers. PowerMac Dual G4 1Ghz MDD and a PowerBook G4 550Mhz.
No problems, encountered but I installed the updates and ran a Repair Permissions afterwards.
The only problem:
The PowerMac screen saver went to sleep and would not wake up after the Software Update mandatory reboot. I had walked away from the machine after telling it to reboot and did not even login to it. It froze with the screen blanked. I ended up SSHing into it from another computer and doing a sudo shutdown -h now then powered it back up. This is when I ran the Repair Permissions.
The PowerBook was upgraded after this and it didn't have a single problem. I didn't have a chance to test it though.
Hope they roll out an updated 10.2.8 soon so whatever major bug(s) were let loose; would get reined in quickly.
Serves me right in not waiting 2 days before I applied the updates. Some were having problems but most were do to people running haxies.
As far as I know, the problem is limited to a few iMacs/eMacs. I have no problems on the iBook, powerbook g4, or powermac G4 in my house... all on 10.2.8. I would expect Apple to put it back up as soon as they fix the apparent failure, either through a modified 10.2.8 or a patch for the systems affected. This update is nothing all that exciting, so it's not a mistake that it ever went up. In other words, don't worry if you have 10.2.8. You'll be fine.
My only hand-input device is a Wacom Intuos 2 tablet & mouse. It seems that if you don't have a traditional USB mouse attached, Mac OS X 10.2.8 "helpfully" assumes that you must be trying to connect a bluetooth mouth and launches a Bluetooth configurator for you.
Every.
Time.
I log in, and
Every.
Time.
I log out.
Man, this sucks. Not as bad as not booting, but it's a constant annoyance.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
I fear Apple's tried to hurry this update through to make a package of all the recent security fixes along with standard updates. Mistake! They should have released the security fixes asap and separately, and spent as long as required to test the rest.
The biggest "feature" of 10.2.8 for me was the battery timer was completely messed up. I removed the plug and the timer indicated there was 1:50 left, however, the battery actually lasted over 3 hours while multi-tasking AND charging my iPod. I let the battery run all the way down to let it recalibrate - and though the timer indicator is higher than it was last night, it is still not as high as before I installed the update. I have read that other people have had similar problems, too.
It doesn't appear that the battery time itself was affected, just the way it calculates how much time is left.
That'll be 10.2.X version 10.0.
Er... doing fine on 2 older G4 towers...
"We have temporarily removed the Mac OS X v10.2.8 software update while we resolve an issue affecting Ethernet networking on small number of Power Mac G4 desktop systems. We anticipate that the issue will be resolved soon," said the statement in its entirety.
The full article can be found here:2 8pulled/index.php?redirect=1064334986000
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2003/09/23/10
Physicsnerd
Like a lot of other people, this update seems to have completely screwed up ethernet networking for me. A lot of the reports I've read (Apple's site Slashdot comment, MacFixit article, MacSlash, etc) suggest that people with dual processor G4s running 400-500mhz are having a lot of problems, and a broken driver for the Intel gigabit ethernet chipset has been blamed -- though I haven't seen anything that conclusively says that this component is at fault. Other reports have come from people running faster G4s & PowerBooks, so if the Intel ethernet driver is a cause, it doesn't seem to be the only cause. All I can say personally is that my dual G4/450mhz is definitely messed up right now.
The best remedy I've seen so far is to restore the pre-10.2.8 version of the AppleGMACEthernet ethernet driver. If you can -- and for most people it'll be too late for this advice to do any good -- make a backup of the .kext driver before updgrading to 10.2.8, then use that to rebuild is things go awry. For everyone else, your best bet is to download it from Andrew McPherson's MIT site, either by establishing a dialup connection, by booting into OS9 and getting it from there, or by grabbing it with another machine and transferring it to your broken Mac by e.g. a burned CD, a Zip disc, etc.
Here are the repair steps, as slightly modified from McPherson's suggestion at Apple's site:
This advice is close to that which McPherson suggested, but he recommended deleting the broken driver, and the commands I give above make a backup just in case. If all goes well you may remove that ~/enet_backup directory, but I have a hunch that somehow you're going to have to end up re-installing it, so keeping a copy around seems prudent to me -- and it's not like it even takes up that much space (well under a megabyte).
Other people have reported success with other solutions. One proposal was to run the command "ifconfig en0 media autoselect", but in my case that didn't work. Others have suggested rebooting, zapping the PRAM a few times, then letting the machine boot again; others have said that that didn't work either.
Replacing the driver, as described above, seems to be the remedy that has had the most success for the most users -- but even still, it isn't working for everybody. In my case, it has allowed me to reconnect to my PPPoE/
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Fuuny thing is, on one of the runor sites a day or two ago, there was an article about 10.2.8 getting released internally to Apple, and that public release might be delayed because some unspecified problems cropping up. Makes you wonder if whoever is supposed to say "stop the presses!" called in sick on the wrong day.
Any wise Mac user who has seen the crippling tendencies of at least two prior OS X updates knows better than to crow about them, let alone apply them on the same day they're released. Except in the mind of fanboys, the age of the 100% trustworthy Software Update has yet to arrive.
It's pretty easy to avoid getting burned. Ask yourself: is my Mac working? Do I need this update today? Have I waited a few days to see what happened to the early adopters and, er, the glee club? ;-)
DO NOT INSTALL IF YOU HAVE A REVOLUTION 7.1 SOUND CARD INSTALLED! The update disables the driver, because the .kext driver specifies a Darwin version below that of OS 10.2.8
I wonder what they'll call the 10.2.8 update when they re-release it? 10.2.8.1? This brings them awfully close to 10.3, and they usually roll some fixes in to the old OS when they release a new one.
Yes, I warned Steve Jobs that hiring the young man, Murphy Law as the new head of quality assurance was a bad idea but of course he assured me that Murphy was an optimist ;-)
Damn you Murphy!
"The difference between pornography and erotica is the lighting" - Woody Allen