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Apple OS X 10.5.6 Update Breaks Some MacBook Pros
Newscloud writes "As PC Mag reported last week, Apple OS X 10.5.6 can break some MacBook Pros leaving some users (like me) with a dead backlit black screen after the Apple logo appears. While I initially thought I had a hardware failure, it turns out that there is a fix as long as you have an external display, keyboard and mouse. The problem only appears on the second restart, so if you sleep your MacBook a lot as I do, you might not realize the problem is related to the OS update you did the week before. The problem was related to older, incompatible firmware that Software Update wasn't flagging before the upgrade. This definitely gives weight to the argument for waiting a bit to run software upgrades."
Except after two months you still can't get the dual link dvi adapters. Those with 30" monitors were already pretty peeved that they haven't been able to use them. Now you have to buy a useless $30 attachment or go to the Apple store to fix your mac after a firmware bug. No thanks.
Get a USB patch stick (search on google code), which includes SSH as an install... then do a search for "downgrade apple tv" and you'll find a little script which will download and install the 2.2 firmware for you (or 2.1 if you're so inclined)... then we it reboots, go and turn off the auto-update feature under settings.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Exactly â"Âalmost never â" bricking is a very rare occurrence, and it's not happening in this case.
Typically it is advisable to download and run the Combo update installer for these point releases. While Software Update is great for the little things, these bigger updates can cause issues for a variety of reasons if done through Software Update (sometimes files don't get updated that should be updated due to permissions or corruption or some other random change the update is not expecting to see).
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Yeah...it seems when they sent their people out to check every purchased machine to make sure the user had updated their firmware they missed a few addresses. I bet those people didn't register their hardware or something...
This wasn't a hardware problem, it was an obscure firmware issue. My MBP updated its firmware on its own many months ago and then took 10.5.6 with no problems.
Also...Linux FAILS on TONS of hardware, Windows FAILS on TONS of hardware. With the exception of my laptop here and a throwaway windows install for games (Fallout 3 was just too much to resist) all of my PCs run some variety of linux. I have had infinitely more headaches following Linux/Windows updates than I have with OS X updates. I mean really...pause and think for a moment. If it was all handled perfectly the first time around would there even be software updates? Of course none of it is perfect, which is why all of these systems have updates. To think any given update is going to be the perfect update to end all future updates is pretty goofy.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
Perhaps at the "Reality Distortion Field" level the culture is different. But I don't see a hell of lot of difference between the 'user experience' of a BSOD and the failure of a point upgrade that would require a non technical user to return the computer to the store / factory. The OS X kernel panic screen has nifty graphics but also has even more incomprehensible babble than the typical BSOD screen (really, I don't understand Mandarin Chinese, I don't). That's not the user experience you're looking for....
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I'd say both of you were wrong.
Machines NOT on the internet (or, completely firewalled off) do not need to be updated as religiously as machines getting direct exposure. Simple as that.
Secondly, if you're running Unix-like systems, you can directly see what is being changed and back it up specifically, using any assortment of services. If an update doesnt work, just delete/restore from backup. Simple.
On Windows, updates are inherently scary. Yes, there are single-issue updates, but they're a PITA do deal with in normal cases. And any update can potentially cause issues with your provided service. The only way to properly do a Windows update is to make a server with exact hardware/software and implement the update on that machine (and test with your testbed). Only then, after the updates show no side effects can you attempt to touch the production server.. and it still might screw up.
That's when you think about switching to a system that doesnt send updates in 200MB patches. I heard on the BSD's and Linux systems you can see whatc specific packages are going to be updated and control which ones do and dont.
CUPS is easy to configure if you know what you're doing. So it might not be the service that is the unwilling participant in your scenario.
FYI, OSX uses CUPS as it's printing backend. It's just generally transparent if you're not doing anything crazy.
Actually OSX error messages are in pretty verbose. Especially for kernel panics. /Library/Logs/PanicReporter/ /Library/Logs/HangReporter /Library/Logs/CrashReporter
Diagnosing problems is much easier than Windows since the files are in plain-text and usually give you a clear indication of what the problem is. Event logs aside from being binary format (which if corrupted will negate readability in any of the standard utilities) are the _real_ villains when it comes to cryptic error codes that require an internet connection to look up..
Unless, of course, your macbook is your only computer; and you have no way of knowing how to fix it. In that case, I'd say it's effectively bricked.
Unless, of course, you take it to your local Apple store, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. Then they'll likely have it fixed for you in fifteen minutes. But, yes, it's a PITA.
But sometimes, very rarely it does. Used to be you could destroy the TRS-80 video driver hardware from assembly language; some monitors still have similar problems. Likewise, some devices if disconnected during a firmware update will never come back. And if it can be fixed with a debug cable, it is not bricked. If you have to swap some ROM chip to fix it, it is bricked.
I'd argue that OS X was a unix playground since the public beta - probably because by that time, I was used to pure BSD and pure AT&T UNIX and many, many variants and pre-Novell, pre-SCO and pre-whatever nobuddy I knew gave a toot about certs - so long as we knew how to manage the beast, it was just another nix.
Is it true that this rev is the first to be certified as UNIX? I'll take your word for it.
But certified or not - it's core has always been UNIX. Today Apple gives credit to its FreeBSD heritage, but in the early OS X days they noted the OpenBSD and NetBSD components that were part of the effort. I think that all the hoo-hah has come from the non-BSD kernel being a part of it all.
Even if it had had a BSD kernel, I don't think it would stop unintelligent or uniformed opinions about OS X. Non-unix guys and non-OS X experienced guys don't get that in the early OS X days, many of us would run an X desktop in addition to our Aqua desktops (many of the tools for that have fallen by my wayside) and unless you were doing kernel mods or kernel programming, it was indistinguishable from BSD. When fink came out, one guy I corresponded with regularly at the Apple form posted his Gnome desktop running on his Mac.
Your link was for OS X server. For those that don't know, simply install the BSD subsystem and devel tools with the desktop version and you get X and gcc and from there, just about anything useful that you might like.
By 10.0, you could finagle NetInfo to manage your desktop as an NFS server and many other server tasks. As memory serves, the Apple mods removed my instructions on how to do that from the Apple forums. Can't say I blamed them - the guys that could wrench a desktop rev into a server rev didn't my advice and the guys that did were prolly better off paying for the server and getting Apple support (that group being mutually exclusive to those that were comfortable running a free nix server in the first place).
I don't really have a point, so I'll stop. :)
Pathological kinda promises Path + Logical - but instead, you get stuck with pathetic.
But why should any user have to know how to configure CUPS? Yes OS X uses CUPS but as a user you don't even generally know that. You can access the web interface but the vast majority of users have no idea this is even happening. OS X does all the configuration for you and all you really have to do is plug the printer in.