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Mac OS X 10.3.3 Update Released
joelhayhurst writes "Mac OS X 10.3.3 is now available via Software Update. Full details are available on the Apple site - key enhancements include: 'Network volumes are now available in the Finder sidebar and Desktop for easier access... Improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS) and PC (SMB/CIFS) networks... Improved PostScript and USB printing... Updated Disk Utility, DVD Player, Image Capture, Mail and Safari applications... Additional support for FireWire and USB devices... Improved compatibility for third party applications... Previous standalone security updates and Bluetooth Update 1.5."
Funny. I was downloading the update only a few minutes before this article was posted.
:(
I sure do hope the improvements to the SMB protocol are substantial. I've had no end of problems using it to access SMB shares on Windows and Unix.
You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
When ever I used a network share and I changed something from the server or from another computer I'd have to play with the finder for a long time to get it to refresh.
I happen to like the icon preview and I had it on globally by default. The first time I hooked up my digital camera the finder jumped to 100% cpu usage and stayed that way even after generating all the thumbnails.
I'm glad they're fixing these bugs.
-Francis
I'm just this guy, you know?
They STILL haven't fixed the Mail.app bug that i probably submitted in October last year. If you use a mail server with imap-ssl that doesn't have a verified certificate, you get a pop up complaining whenever you open mail. If you click show certificate, there's a certificate icon you can supposedly drag to the desktop and then use in keychain according to apple's support webpages. Well, dragging that image still crashes Mail.app (and hard).
I always figured "complete crash" bugs were high priority. sigh.
- tristan
Nothing broken so far in this update...
Yeah, I know, I know. You were expecting a 20th Anniversary Mac, but this will have to do. I'm sure Steve had a keynote presentation in Moscone Center solemnly unvealing a 10.3.3 box raising out of the stage floor ... OK, I'll stop now.
Any chance you ran something (game, iTunes visuals) that changes screen resolution? Plus having activated a screensaver? There was an article in the knowledge base recently, covering something like that, where it said the field to enter your password is actually there but you won't see it. Don't remember exactly what you had to do though, hitting escape or something ...
i dont know if a posting on /. counts as filling a bug report.
-- ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space!
Had a similar problem with my 12" AlBook, but a call to AppleCare told me I could probably fix it myself by resetting the PRAM. Instructions.
You can also try resetting the PMU.
got standards? --- http://www.w3.org/
The 10.3 Finder's Network Browser now seems to be finished:
1 - Connected servers now appear on the Desktop and in the Sidebar when the preferences have been set for this option.
2 - Connected servers can be ejected via normal means.
3 - Password options are now present including Keychain functions.
4 - User folders no longer appear twice.
I'm a happy camper.
Also, a blurring problem when in edit mode in iPhoto 4 appears to be fixed as well.
My 12inch pb 1ghz does not boot anymore, just boots to a kernel panic. Time for a fresh install.. good thing i was a windoze user before a mac user.
--
A little nonsense now and then is cherished by the wisest men. -Willy Wonka
The only way to get these issues into Apple's queue is to file a bug report at bugreporter.apple.com. Don't worry about filing duplicate reports, there are people who spot and count them.
Posting on Slashdot, Apple mailing lists, or just telling an Apple employee does *not* generate a bug report.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
For all those not in the know VersionTracker is THE place to go for update info. Anything that goes wrong can generally be found there. http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/ 8848
Wohoo!
I was actually a beta tester, so this has been working for me for a while, but my number one bug in Jaguar and Panther is officially fixed. WINS resolution now works for SMB network browsing!
It is cowardly, and a betrayal of whatever it means to be a Jew, to act as a white man
-James Baldwin
Maximum volume and file size is 2 terrabytes (MacOS X 10.0-10.1), 8 terrabytes (MacOS X 10.2), and 16 terrabytes (MacOS X 10.3).
Maximum number of files and folders in a folder is 4 billion. This depends on the volume size - bigger hard disks store more files.
I know that doesn't address the other poster's NFS issue, but it's not a problem with HFS. It MIGHT be a problem with OSX's implementation of NFS though.
- Vincit qui patitur.
Here's hoping the mysterious freezing bug a lot of people have experienced, including me, is fixed. It was evidently introduced in 10.3.2.
I have updated, and everything seems to be going ok. I use java a lot - for both development and usage. I still get an error with jEdit that tells me that the Mac OS Plugin requires a newer version (happened ever since I upgraded Java to the latest and greatest version).
Everything else - including JBoss - works as it should.
You should check the logs (/Applications/Utilities/Console.app) that may be able to provide some insight into what is going on inside the java apps.
This is NOT the best sig in the world, but this IS a tribute to the best sig in the world.
if you push the power button (but don't hold it) the computer asks if you want to shut down. all 4 of the choices are hot keyed... return for shut down, escape for cancel, 'r' for restart and 's' for sleep. next time your 'book does that (i've seen it on every model PowerBook that Mac OS X runs on, and i would assume that iBooks with the OF hack do it as well) just push the power button, count to 5 (some times it takes a while for that window to show up) and simply push 's'. problem solved.
what is even stranger is when you don't attach/detach any devices and it does this. i can only assume that it's having a bad dream and the PMU wakes it long enough to see that the screen is still closed.
i actually have these directions printed and attached to the palm rest of a client's Lombard because his does it twice a month. frequently enough to be annoying, but not frequently enough to remember the steps to get out of it.
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
this is less of a but and more of the finder being stupid.
i NEVER, EVER trust what the finder says because it only updates that figure once every 10 minutes or so. a much more reliable option is to open up the terminal and run df -h. this tells you the current usage information for all mounted disks. (rather than the free space of the disk that is up to 10 minutes out of date) just like in every other unix environment.
the good news is that this update does have the finder updating other stuff correctly, so this may be covered. i still won't ever trust it again.
Don't call me back. Give me a call back. Bye. So yeah. But bye our, well, but alright we are on a shirt this chill.
Updated, rebooted, working fine. Network shares seem to be working well (Samba and W2k/XP boxes), Mail, Safari are both running, no sirens are going off... I remain a happy Mac user. ;)
Enhancements
.Mac enhancements
/Network browsing include: Servers appear on the desktop and in Finder window Sidebars, AFP Authentication options are available, and you can disconnect a server by dragging its icon on the desktop to the Trash or by clicking the Eject icon in the Sidebar. .Mac and your computer. .Mac no longer attempts to automatically sync files over a wireless network (or "hotspot") before the computer is authorized to use the network.
.
These are some of the enhancements that are part of Mac OS X 10.3.3 Update.
Networking and
Addresses issues, such as a lost network connection, that could occur when connecting to a network device that forces the network speed and/or duplex setting (known as a "locked" device).
AppleTalk Browsing is now on by default.
Resolves an issue in which name conflicts could occur among Network Service Entities.
Available servers can be seen when browsing Windows Workgroups or Domains.
Enhancements to
Improves synchronization between
Enhances an Open directory plug-in, which is used in network environments: The Active Directory plug-in is no longer sensitive to the case of the domain; the plug-in now works in ".local" domain environments; the plug-in is now less sensitive to DNS records that don't have matching reverse lookup.
Improves compatibility with certain third-party wireless networking PC cards, such as the Honda AH-G10. More...
Enhances the IrDA menu item when IrDA networking is active.
Finder and applications that allow you to browse the file system will now refresh the contents of a remote network volume's folder or directory when the folder's contents change.
DVD Player enhancements
DVD Player will no longer quit if an unsupported PCI video card is installed in your computer. More...
DVD Player supports more DVD video discs that are designed to play automatically.
Improved DVD playback when "Digital Audio Output" is selected in DVD Player preferences.
DVD Player now recognizes and plays DVD+R media.
Application enhancements
Images retain their characteristics when you import them in iPhoto. More...
Addresses an issue in which Mail could unexpectedly quit when marking some types of unsolicited messages (or "spam") as Junk.
Addresses issues that may cause Address Book and other applications to unexpectedly quit if the Classic Mac OS fonts are disabled in Font Book.
Text shadow opacity and color are saved in RTF documents and preserved when you copy or paste.
Image Capture can now import files whose names begins with an underscore character ("_")
Finder enhancements
Improves security by requiring an administrator to authenticate for each Finder action that needs authentication, such as installing software. In earlier Mac OS X Panther versions, an administrator who authenticated may have unknowingly given elevated priviledges to the non-admin user for 5 minutes. This change also prevents a normal user from performing administrator actions if an administrator user has authenticated during their session.
When you use an Open menu command to choose a file in Finder or an application, the flashing button now says "Choose" instead of "Open".
Addresses an issue in which Finder unexpectedly quits if the View menu option "Show icon preview" is enabled while dragging a significant number of icons to another location.
Other enhancements
Improvements in start up time that some computers experienced under some installations of Mac OS X 10.3.2 Update. More...
Improves print operations when a pending print jobs is moved to the queue of a printer that has different capabilities. More...
Improves recognition of Hi-Speed USB devices by PowerBook G4 and iBook G4 computers when woken from sleep.
A UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) panel is available in Energy Saver preferences, as well as a UPS menu bar item, when a UPS power management system
This is a nice detail for PowerBook users. One persistant annoyance with OS X on PowerBooks for programmers has been the way it forces you to hold down the fn key to use the function keys. If you don't hold it down then you get, for example, the brightness or volume controls. This is really annoying to programmers, who typically have macros bound to function keys and need them infinitely more often than the brightness controls. There have been a variety of hacks, such as uControl, to enable "real" function keys.
With the 10.3.3 update there's a new checkbox in the keyboard preferences pane labeled "Use the F1-F12 keys for custom actions". If you check it then you get "real" function keys, where holding down fn gives you the brightness, sound, etc controls. Kudos to Apple for this -- it's always nice to be able to drop a hack in favor of an official feature!
Sure it would be nice to sort by date in column view - but there has to be something to "invent" in 10.4, right?
1) Sometimes (10% of the time?) I just get a black screen on wake and have to reboot (CAPSLOCK key LED turns on/off though...so it ain't "dead").
I've seen this happen once on my PowerBook as well. You're right, your machine isn't dead and it doesn't need to be rebooted.
What you need to do is to increase the brightness by pressing f2, that's all. For some reason sometimes after waking from a sleep the brightness stays turned all the way down.
I discovered this because my PowerBook was sitting in front of the window and it was sunny out. You know how the Apple logo glows when the screen is lit? Well, it works both ways - when the backlight is off light can shine through the Apple logo as well and you can see an Apple-logo shaped area of your screen that's readable. So I could tell that there was still stuff on the screen. I moved the cursor around till it showed up in that small lit region. Then I tried turning up the brightness and it worked.
No need to reboot.
If you use MySQL on OS X Server, you might want to read the Knowledge Base article about the
update before you install it. Here it is:
Additional Information for MySQL
Data stored in MySQL databases with the version of MySQL that is pre-
installed Mac OS X Server 10.3.2 or earlier must be exported and re-imported
in order to be compatible with version of MySQL that is pre-installed on Mac
OS X Server 10.3.3, in which a byte-ordering issue is fixed.
As with any upgrade install, you should back up your old data. In this
particular upgrade, the following process is recommended to convert the data
to the correct byte ordering:
Before the upgrade, use the terminal to export the data from your pre-10.3.3
database:
# mysqldump -p table > backup-file.sql
or
# mysqldump --opt database > backup-file.sql
After the upgrade, and after initializing the MySQL database, import the data:
# mysql -p table backup-file.sql
or
# mysql database backup-file.sql
Of particular interest to audio professionals, this update includes native mLAN support.
mLAN is a standard developed by Yamaha which allows lots of audio and MIDI info to travel over FireWire.
Yamaha's hottest new box, the 01X, has been without OS X drivers since it began shipping a month ago, and as of today it will finally work (in theory anyway)...
Of course time will tell how effective this new version of mLAN will be in terms of latency and stability. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some downloading to do!
I've been burned by this one too many times on a variety of UNIX systems. I've had a policy for some time now that all edits to precious config files (regardless of where they reside) are done against an RCS archive.
A simple rcsdiff now tells you exactly what has changed so you can accept or edit, lock, and checkin your munged changes to the archive. A bit more straight-forward than trying to figure out which installer-created backup copy is the last "good" one.
Guards against accidental deletion, as well. Also especially helpful when testing with a variety of settings for a new daemon you are configuring. You can always go back to a known good condition, and/or save those clever tweaks for posterity!
Remember kids: ci -u is your friend.
-- clvrmnky
In case any one is interested, you can run Software Update (remotely, if you wish) just by running the "softwareupdate" command from your terminal window.
(hehe)
Anti-aliased lines have long been borq'n under Panther, but no longer! AA lines now work properly with both my GF4MX card and Powerbooks Radeon 9600 (Maya & C4D).
The Finder does update correctly now, but you're right - don't ever, ever trust it again. The Finder has betrayed you before, and it won't hesitate to stab you in the back again, given half a chance. And then where will you be? Sitting at home alone, drinking bourbon, weeping softly into a cracked mirror.
With the wrong file sizes.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.