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MacFixIt Details Mac OS X 10.2.8 Bugs

Posted by michael on from the pioneers-get-arrows-in-back dept.

mneptok writes "Premier Macintosh troubleshooting site MacFixIt has just posted a detailed report on the bugs and broken features in Apple's latest point release for MacOSX. As reported previously on Slashdot, the 10.2.8 update was released and pulled within hours earlier this week. Many users upgraded before the update was pulled and are being bitten, and MacFixIt has run down the behavior you can attribute to Apple's goof."

12 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Most upgraders have no problems by sakusha · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My system works fine on 10.2.8, it seems to be an extremely small (but vocal) minority with problems.

    1. Re:Most upgraders have no problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting


      You have to wonder if this would happen if Apple was a privately owned company. Quarterly, pressure-filled deadlines in the name of stockholder profit are the cause of countless software bugs. I'd be surprised if this just wasn't another example.

    2. Re:Most upgraders have no problems by Artemis · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Exactly. I upgraded to 10.2.8 almost immediately after it was released and have yet to have any problems on the machines I have installed it on. It is too bad that a fairly large amount of people (although by far still the minority) are having problems. Hopefully this will lead to better QA in Apple's part in the future.

      --
      mcox.com - Useful Information re: IT, Running, Fitness, Finance, or Ann Arbor!
    3. Re:Most upgraders have no problems by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Torx screws are the only way to go.

      First of all, it helps keep idiots who don't need to be in there out. This, I imagine, is especially important to Apple. If you have a good torx screwdriver set, chances are much better that you're not a doof.

      Second, the screws have more surface area, and can't slip unless your driver is bad. This means they can make the heads much much thinner--something that is obviously very desireable on a laptop, where space is very limited.

      Remember, Phillips screws were developed as a replacement to slotted screws--to limit the torque one could put on them, because materials of the period couldn't take the pressure.

  2. five to one by tgibbs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I upgraded 6 systems to 10.2.8, including a Beige G3, an early iMac and a TiBook. Five are fine, one--a dual 450, the most common source of problems--couldn't access the internet until I downgraded the AppleGMACEthernet.kext file.

  3. Another reason to end developer seeds? by buckhead_buddy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apple has been hinting of late that it's becoming more uncomfortable with seeding pre-release software to developers. Routinely, leaks of the new features and builds in the latest versions of the software make it to the mac rumor sites within hours of being made available in the seed channels.

    Of course the argument was that it was a necessary evil to put up with this stuff because the feedback that Apple received from developers (both in quality and quantity) helped catch glaring bugs.

    10.2.8 news has been rampant through the rumor channels for a LONG time. Now that it's finally out, there are quick glaring holes that cause the recall of the update and lots of bad publicity for Apple.

    I certainly hope Apple doesn't get paranoid about the release of new software to paying seed developers, but this is just another reason that the scale may be tipping toward the paranoid, closed-testing route than the limited open-seeding way it is today.

    1. Re:Another reason to end developer seeds? by King_TJ · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, what disturbed me most was the comment someone made over on MacFixIt when 10.2.8 was first released. He claimed he had good friends working at Apple who told him that the "in house" word was, the new 10.2.8 release still needed some tweaking, and wasn't really quite ready for public release.

      Since it turned out to have all these issues and got recalled, it looks like this guy was correct.

      Assuming this is true, why did Apple go ahead and push 10.2.8 out the door when their own employees knew it wasn't ready yet?

      My theory is, it contained security fixes such as patches for SSH - and Apple felt they couldn't risk waiting any longer to roll it out, and have a Microsoft-like fiasco develop where OS X got exploited before fixes were available.

      This probably begs the question: Should security patches/fixes always be released by themselves, instead of rolled into general system updates? It may not be a bad idea.

      As far as Apple getting paranoid about giving out pre-release software to developers, I think that's mainly due to all the Safari builds that leaked onto Usenet. Apple hates not being able to surprise people with cool new features, and that element of surprise keeps getting stolen out from under them when code gets leaked. (We all knew about Safari adding tabbed browsing long before Apple announced it, for example.)

      Still, you have to balance those concerns with the risk of not having enough people testing/pre-screening your code for serious problems. In the end, writing a solid, bug-free product is the most important goal.

  4. Apple's patch strategy needs work by Otterley · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I run a lab with an OS X server which relies on ssh for remote access, and all I wanted was a point patch to fix the ssh security hole announced two weeks ago.

    However, Apple failed to provide us one. Instead, they rolled the patch into the 10.2.8 release, thus exposing anyone who upgraded solely for the security fix to additional instability caused by changes to other OS components.

    I feel sorry for those server administrators who were unable to upgrade to 10.2.8 because it means the server is still vulnerable to the ssh security hole.

  5. Not true by SuperBanana · · Score: 1, Interesting
    My system works fine on 10.2.8, it seems to be an extremely small (but vocal) minority with problems.

    Obviously you don't own an Xserve, a PowerMac G4, or use any Bluetooth devices, for starters. All those pesky iMac/eMac users(hint: educational market) don't matter either, eh?

    I use Bluetooth to sync the Address Book to the phone, and as a result of 10.2.8, Bluetooth no longer works properly. Many users with bluetooth keyboards+mice report similar problems with those devices.

    It doesn't matter how "minor" the problems are- Apple has no excuse for not doing better QA. Whereas Windows must run on what must number well over a million different combinations of hardware- MacOS doesn't really have a very diverse set of hardware(there are only a limited # of ethernet chipsets/video cards/etc, only 3 current 'major' families of processors, etc). Why can't Apple do a better QA job?

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
  6. Unstable branch by porp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why doesn't Apple take a similar approach to, let's say, Debian, and apply an 'unstable branch' to OS X. That way users get to see what Apple is cooking up for their next release, and Apple gets a pool of danger-seeking users to test their code. Maybe Apple already does this--I don't know. But they are a proponent of Free software, and I don't see the harm.

    Please enlighten me.

    porp

  7. What's with the function keys and OS X updates? by phch · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I didn't really have any serious problems with 10.2.8. The only odd thing was that I had to reboot one extra time because the screensaver kicked in and somehow hanged the machine. After that I repaired permissions (don't know why this helps, but it does) and everything was fine.

    Except the function keys. For some reason, Apple insists on using the function keys for things like changing sound volume and turning up and down the screen brightness. I prefer being able to remap the function keys for applications, especially Emacs. The only way I know of to reclaim the function keys is to reboot into OS 9, toggle the boxes in the keyboard control panel, and then reboot into OS X. However, every software update of OS X forces me to repeat this process. That means three reboots on average for each software update (four this time, due to the problem above), which is pretty irritating given how slow my PowerBook starts up.

    What I find curious is that although this is a longstanding issue, relatively few Mac users complain about it. I suppose it has something to do with most Mac users being accustomed to a mouse-centric experience rather than a keyboard-centric user interface. Or do people really need to change their screen brightness that often?

  8. Re:Works fine here by pcardoso · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am on a 700mhz iBook and I had no such problems with the 10.2.8 update too. My systems is even faster than ever.

    I usually had to reboot my 'book because of a major slowdown in the genie effect and the dock, as it over time degraded, and was more and more not-so-smooth, and a reboot fixed that for a few more days. .8 fixed that, at least over the course of a week, since I did the needed reboot the system is still like it was freshly rebooted.

    Even in the light of this bug ridden update, I am looking forward to the Panther update... My system is faster with each update.