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Apple Releases OS X 10.4.2 Update
kenthorvath was one of many readers to note that "Apple has quietly released an update for OS X Tiger. New features include a widget manager for dashboard and some 200 bug fixes and enhancements."
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Apple has always done that. That's one of the main reasons I can't deploy OSX in any enterprise server environment I run. I'd like to -- but they can't figure out how to treat the OS like a real enterprise company does.
The other issue is that while they give lip-service to supporting old versions, they tend not to come out with security patches for anything but the latest version -- or 1 or 2 releases back at best. Sun, Redhat and SGI would never get away with that.
I've had two hard crashes since I installed this. Hopefully it's just software and not that my iMac is dying.
I don't want to sound like Trolly McTrollpants, but I just don't see the Spotlight speed problems.
I've got an iBook 1.2GHz, standard 60GB drive and 784MB RAM, and it's always been fast and responsive for me. My system has about 300,000 files on it, which seems like a reasonable number.
I keep hearing isolated stories like this and wondering if it's more universal or just scattered anecdotes.
The easiest way to work around hotfiles_evict is to free up some space on the drive. The big catch is that the freespace must have a contiguous block large enough to store the file which is being evicted from the hotfiles area.
I had the hotfiles_evict problem on a G4 tower at work. The boot drive was about 98% full. After moving some files onto an external FireWire drive I got down to about 90% full. The problem remained. I then moved more stuff until I got down to about 80% full.
Between the 90 and 80 mark I also disabled journalling on the volume. This, I think, is the easiest way to fix it. Disabling journalling also disables hotfiles and therefore the update daemon will no longer try to manage the hotfiles store.
I haven't seen the problem resurface yet. Note that this was a DP G4 and so update only ate 100% of one CPU (barely noticeable). What I did notice was the fact that my boot drive suddenly had ZERO freespace because the system.log grew to about 6 GB. Yes, I know, this actually exacerbates the problem.
I can only hope that 10.4.2 fixes the issue. I'll probably re-enable journaling and see what happens.
Also, speaking of drive freespace: There is apparently a known flaw in HFS+ with respect to contiguous freespace. When allocating new space for the catalog a 4 MB block of contiguous freespace is required. If you don't have a 4 MB block of contiguous freespace then apparently there is a bug whereby 4 MB will be allocated potentially overtop another portion of the catalog or overtop some file's data. Not good. Best advice from what I've gathered is to never let a volume be more than 80% full. Ever.
These are my two biggest gripes with Mac 10.4 as well. They are intensely annoying issues.
Spotlight absolutely begins searching too quickly. For example, if I attempt to search for "new england", Spotfright begins searching for "n", then "ne", then "new", etc. This causes it to hang ('spinning beachball of death' OR spinning gear), which leads me to abandon my Spotlight query and return to my work. Several seconds later, Spotlight, which had continued its worthless search of all the "ne" files on my seystem, flashes a brief menu (no results) and then abrubtly vanishes before I have a chance to get my cursor anywhere near it!
In another example, I attempt to type "apparatus" into the Spotlight query box. Typing as fast I as I can, at my best I get all the way to "appa" before the damn gear starts spinning and the whole menu locks up, including the query box, not allowing me to type any more letters. And no results are produced!
Why can't Apple allow me just a mere 3 more miliseconds to finish typing my query so I'm not forced to (presumably) sort through other "appa" trash (like Zappa MP3s)? And why is a cheap little search box LOCKING UP on a G5 RAID machine with 2.5 GB of RAM??? dear God, what is going on?
Also:
* somtimes I click on Spotlight and its little magnifying glass icon just turns blue and locks up, without producing a menu.
* while Spotlight is locked up screenshots are disabled
* Splotlight doesn't seem to produce complete results.
* Spotlight results never seem to include the file I am actually looking for
And you're absolutely right about Dashboard. How can such whimsy litle applets so damn slow? It's quite ridiculous! miserably ineffective.
It's actually up to the widget to turn off (or not) when Dashboard is hidden. Apple recommends that "when Dashboard is hidden, your widget should not consume any CPU time or network resources", but you can write the widgets to keep running in the background if you wish. Widgets are able to tell if the Dashboard is active or not, but the Dashboard never really quits; like the Dock, it's running even when hidden.
See the Dashboard Programming Guide.
Little tip: Don't wait for it to finish building that list, move down to what you want immediately. Searching before you finish is a feature, not a bug, and it is brilliant. If they change it because of your post I'm going to have to find you and dunk you in onion juice or something.
Spotlight works so beautifully here that I have been telling people it is the single must-have feature with "Tiger" -- it is something that for the first time in years has actually changed the way I use the computer. For example, I don't usually even bother with the Applications folder anymore, I just hit Spotlight and type the name of the program. Works the same with any song I want to hear.
The Dashboard I could do without. Spotlight is a must-have, and I won't be using a operating system (or rather, desktop) again that doesn't have live searching.
They do communicate. I've filed bugs with Apple, had them contact me for additional information and to test fixes.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
What sucks is that I used to encourage people to check out the Macintosh platform because it was reasonably solid and I felt like folks would have a chance to discover what was good about it with minimal occurrences of bugs to scare them away; now I actually feel compelled to tell people not to bother because right now OS X 10.4.x is such a travesty.
Here's two fantastic show-stopper bugs that when working in concert would send even the most eager "Switcher" running:
- Mouse pointer disappears on main monitor
- All keyboard input other than control-keys (command, control, escape, option) is ignored.
"Yes, I realize that typing and moving the mouse doesn't actually seem to do anything; but bear with it, the Mac is really a great platform. Rather than play blind target practice, press and hold the power-button until the machine cuts power, then..."It's a sad day when the most accurate way to describe how to reproduce a bug is:
"Install Tiger. Use it for awhile."
my pet finder bug, which has existed since 10.0 and has been reported with each major release to bugreport.apple.com is as follows. it has been marked as "duplicate" and thus closed, so i know it's been seen and i'm not the only one who's complained. but, as yet, it has not been resolved.
... "copy 9"
this is a long-standing "os X finder doesn't work like classic finder" issue, and while it's not a great hardship, it would be nice to see it fixed.
Summary:
files dragged from the finder into another application, or copied from place to place, or even file listings copied and pasted from the finder never retain the order in which they were diplayed in the finder.
Steps to Reproduce:
1 - select several files or folders in a finder window, in list mode, ordered by name. select edit->copy to copy the filenames to the clipboard.
2 - open a textedit document. paste the filenames into the document. the names will be in a different order from their positions in the finder, in a seemingly random new order.
Expected Results:
one would expect that the listing in the clipboard, and thus in the document, would reflect either a: the order in which they were selected (not the case) or b: the order in which they appear in the finder (also, not the case)
Actual Results:
for example, i've created several folders via duplication in the finder, named "copy 1"
in the finder, they appear in alphabetical order, 1-9. selecting these and copy/pasting the listing into an empty textedit document, results as such:
"copy 7
copy 4
copy 3
copy 8
copy 6
copy 5
copy 1
copy 2
copy 9"
clearly not alphabetical.
Regression:
none that i know of. selecting multiple files and opening them in their associated application opens them out of order. dragging multiple files from the finder into applications that accept dragged items imports/places them out of order, etc.
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree