Leopard

I posted a little video of me running Windows XP in a VMWare Fusion session. It's on my journal site:

http://echeng.com/journal/2007/12/07/video...-vmware-fusion/

I can't post it here because it's a Flash video, and the full-res version has a legible e-mail from Simon Rogerson in it.

I have never deinstalled an OS and installed an earlier version; is it as simple as reinstalling the Tiger disc and running updates, or are there other things to take care of.

I always do a full backup before I install. I just do a full restore. My work files are never on the main partition where the OS is. I keep all email on my server so the only I lose is internet cache and hair for being stupid to spend the money on Leopard. I believe the Archive and Install does work but I've never tried it.

10.5.2 is already coming out, maybe they'll finally fix the problems.

I wouldn't call it Vista but it isn't Tiger either.

I agree quicklook is cool and I also love iCal. But with the problems with the trackpad and keyboard (it worked then it didn't work), little quirks that pop in and out. Like the airport connection, can't sign on after a reboot or wake from sleep until you get closer to the source, then you can walk back to where you failed to sign on before and it shows 4 bars!

I don't mind it on my non-essential computer which does internet and backups etc but can't risk it on my work computer just yet. As boring as this sounds, I have a very solid machine with no problems in X.4.11. Why mess with what works for now? I'm sure I'll upgrade at X.5.5 or so

Eric, my network share still popped up with the Dialog occasionally even though I've saved it to keychain numerous times! But I've never had a machine freeze when disconnect from my servers share mounted either. It just scolds you for doing that and gets on with life.

Oh and have you tried repair permissions? SLLLLLOOOOWWWW one time then normal another then back to slow.

I seem to have things back to normal with Leopard, but not using Spaces for now. Does not seem like Time Machine will point to a network drive.

I sure was hoping it would be easy and I could just backup all the home computers to one network drive automatically. Will Super Duper do this? - I cannot seem to see any mention of this on their website.

I use Carbon Copy Cloner. The latest version does allow backup to a network, which on 1000enet is still very slow but can be done overnight.

As boring as this sounds, I have a very solid machine with no problems in X.4.11. Why mess with what works for now?

Quoted for truth, as they say.

10.4.11 has been rock solid, and I've learned (eventually ) to detach network volumes before I leave home/work, so I'm not seeing a great deal compelling in Leopard at the moment. Now if TimeMachine worked wirelessly to a NAS I might think differently, I suppose there is always a chance that this functionality will appear in 10.5.2 or later. For now I'm planning to upgrade to Leopard as the machines get changed out, but probably not sooner.

I changed back to 10.4.11 yesterday on my desktop. Leopard still seems to be OK on my laptop, but my uses on the laptop are fewer.

BTW, I found a nice mail archiving utility, my kind of simple - Mail Steward

Time Machine works for me, but Firefox crashes at least once per day (never used to crash), and apparently I fell victim to a broken DivX Quicktime plugin I had installed for Tiger, which caused my entire login to hang for certain users. VLC also has some quirks (I need to check if there is an upgrade or not)

Also, Final Cut Express -- if you try to save to a file that's Read only or some other "error" in the Save dialog, you cannot exit that dialog (cancel or save have no effect) -- I have to kill Final cut from the Activity monitor or from Dock

Other than that, it seems to work OK, except a lot of apps crash more often (subjectively). I suspect this is an app problem where Tiger let them get away with it, rather than a Leopard issue though.

Well the peripheral cards I have have no Leopard drives yet. So I can't upgrade even if I wanted to.

Guys,

I don't want to start another topic on this so I'll just put it here as it sort of applies.

I've never had problems like the problems I had today and it is with OS X.4.11 and my cinema display that I've never had any problems w/before. I haven't even considered Leopard yet and I thought I was "safe"..... ha!

I've posted to Apple Docs site but I'm going to paste my commentary below in case any of you knowledgeable in apple computer stuff and make heads/tails of it. It is long but it has to be because it is step by step of everything I've tried for the last 8 hours (I'm exhausted but very thorough). Any ideas appreciated. I wonder if "Leopard" problems are fanning over into the OS X.4.11 update because in addition to the problems here I've had wireless issues with.10 and .11 - ever since I got the MBP.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

Quote from Docs site just posted:

I've read some of the recent display problems. Here is my problem and what I've tried, my problem just started 6 hrs ago. I updated to OSX.4.11 a few days ago - everything worked fine, yesterday I reinstalled epson printer driver as it was crashing and also yesterday I worked for several hours in iMovie 08. Nothing else unusual. This is STRANGE!

Today went to wake my MBP, 2.4 GHZ, 4GB ram, Cinema display 20", wireless keyboard/mouse up from sleep to check mail. Cinema display flickered and then changed to dark blue solid - and unresponsive. Couldn't get external display to function. Never had any problems with it. Tried to restart everything, unplug all cords, etc. Everything started up I got the log in password screen on my external cinema display - typed in my password - then saw my desktop photo for a second and the cinema display flickered to dark blue again and wouldn't change. It was unable to mount the desktop.

I went to my MPB while still connected got the screen on the MBP and saw the desktop but there were sort of black lines through the names of my folder files on my desktop. I then disconnected the cinema display, restarted just the MBP and the screen (of the MBP) that mounted was perfectly normal - no black lines through file folder names.

Then I tried various things. I assumed my cinema display was broken (almost 3 years old). But then I hooked my MBP up to an old 20" cinema display (the kind with 4:5 ratio and plastic all around), I think it uses some kind of converter to the DVI port anyway (maybe ADC to DVI?? it is a big adapter assembly not small like VGA) my MPB worked with that old display fine, desktop fine, but it would not stay asleep - no matter what I tried. I've never had that problem ever before.

Then I took the "newer" 3 year old cinema display (aluminum one) that I use all the time that I had suspected was busted and hooked it up to my old Powerbook G4. And it mounted the desktop and worked fine!! The G4 just got updated to 10.4.11. Interesting thing is though when I closed the lid which usually made the G4 PB sleep it shut it down instead of making it sleep. Very odd.

Then I ran down to Apple store and bought new version of Disk Warrior and ran it on my MBP. I've never had anything Disk Warrior couldn't fix. It rebuilt my directory. I then hooked the MBP back up to the cinema display (aluminum) and the same thing happened I got my log in screen after startup, logged in password saw the photo desktop for a second then the cinema display went back to a dark blue screen that was unresponsive. I then ran Disk Warrior again with the cinema display attached to see what would happen. Disk Warrior mounted and I saw the whole process on the cinema display. The cinema display will mount disk warrior but it will not mount the MBP desktop as of 6 hours ago.

I then read these recent posts and tried a "safe" boot. I got my MBP desktop on the cinema display (aluminum) but as soon as I clicked on system prefs the cinema display went to dark blue unresponsive screen.

But the same cinema display (aluminum) works fine with the Powerbook G4 except for some issue with sleep

And the MBP works with an old plastic cinema display except again, it won't stay asleep.

But the MBP and the aluminum cinema display that I've been using together for my photo/video editing for 4 months straight now and I've never had any problems with - they won't work together as of 6 hours ago. That is when I get the dark blue unresponsive screen on the cinema display (aluminum).

Upshot is:

1) Something is up with sleep mode and the OS X.4.11 update on 2 different machines (G4 PB and MBP)

2) Something is affecting the way both the MBP and the Powerbook react with both my cinema displays. The MBP and the 20" aluminum Cinema display are the ones I need to work with and the ones that as of 6 hours ago just lock up in cinema display dark blue screen (almost black but not quite).

Is this a problem with sleep, startup or DVI output and OS X.4.11?

What can I do about it? I need to use my 20" aluminum cinema display it is clearly the better one of my 2 cinema displays. And even if I switch to my 20" older plastic apple cinema display the computer (the MBP) won't stay asleep any longer?

Please, Please I need some help.

Also since this is happening on 2 separate machines and 2 separate monitors there is something odd going on.

Apple tech people, is there a major problem with .11 and sleep and external displays?

Sincere Thanks, Carol

PS Note, I tried all this numerous times with both bluetooth and regular wired keyboards/mice along with MBP and PB keypads.

Two things to try to fix your external DVI monitor problem:

-zap PRAM (hold down command-option-P-R all at the same time after you hear the startup sound on reboot, wait until you hear the startup sound repeat again)

-reset the PMU (Power Management Unit) You'll have to lookup how to do that on the Apple support site.

Take Care,

ChrisS

Carol - after reading your post, it is still hard to tell what you are doing. You need to isolate the problem. Test methodically, and document in a coherent form.

You have 2 machines and 2 monitors. Test in all combinations, and list what happens in a concise way (a grid helps). In each case, document everything you did, in order, before the monitor problem happened. Is each case reproducible?

Do something like this:

(just an example -- it doesn't reflect what is happening in your post)

If the problem happens in all cases, try swapping the cable?

I love that term 'Zapping the PRAM'

You reset the Power management on a MacBook Pro by shutting down, then removing and replacing the battery.

after all that advice if it's still buggy, try starting in safe mode.

Before you think it's hardware, also reinstall X.4.11 using the combo installer instead of the Software Update.

Then if all else fails... go back to a backup copy when it all worked

Thanks guys I apologize for not being methodical enough in my testing and explanation style. Eric your chart was great and I'll try to implement that sort of chart. I have more of a conversational style of writing that can be a problem because it isn't concise enough at times but at least I'm thorough! Of course I know almost zip about computers except what I've taught myself and read and experienced.

For everyone's info the computer is with my computer guy now and early analysis is:

1) Bad DVI port possibly (most likely)

2) also a bad wireless card (wireless problems aren't just Leopard related as I don't run Leopard so this data might be of interest in this thread)

3) also something wrong with the MBP display screen (pink tint)

There may also be something with the software and he will do the PRAM thing and PMU - I would have thought Disk Warrior would have addressed that but maybe not. I was surprised to find 30% of my files out of order in the initial Disk Warrior graph - with a computer that is only 3 months old?

So it probably is a combination of hardware and some software issues.

If it has to go back to apple with the holidays it will take some time but at least I didn't lose anything important on the bright side.

Interesting Note: When the MBP worked with the old plastic Cinema display and not the new one it is probably because the old ones uses the DVI to ADC converter (I think that is the name of it). So it worked better than the straight DVI aluminum cinema display but still did not work fully because I probably have a bad DVI port on the mother board I'm told.

Thanks for the help and bearing with me,

Sincerely, Carol

Just thought I'd add a little report on my experience with Leopard and Aperture over the last few days.

I spent the last few days frustrated again with my Leopard upgrade on my Mac Pro; I previously had to go back to Tiger after the initial Leopard release and then thought I'd try again when 10.5.2 came out and Aperture 2, especially as my laptop ran these apps flawlessly.

I spent most of the day Friday trying various things with tech support for problems related to system freezes (never happened before with OS X), Aperture painfully slow to load, weird lines and graphics on screens particularly in Aperture etc.

I reinstalled software twice, once with archived install, and then an erase and install reloading ALL my software. What a pain in the ass. I ran all the diagnostic software I had, Techtool Pro and Disc Warrior. All seemed to be better, but then the gremlins started again pretty quickly. No system freezes but Aperture very slow to load, still weird lines etc on the screen.

I began to suspect more strongly this was a graphics card problem, so I researched it online and found a few other complaints with the MacPro, Leopard, and the ATI 1900 graphics card which I have.

Then I came upon a neat little program suggested in one of the forums called smcFanControl which allows you to set the baseline fan speed for the various fans in the machine - particularly the graphics card fan. I set the base speed up from 500rpm to 1500rpm as suggested in the forum, and voila, no lines, Aperture loads fast, and image loads fly as they should.

I'm thinking of upgrading my video card, anyone with a MacPro have any opinions on graphics cards?

Just thought I'd add a little report on my experience with Leopard and Aperture over the last few days.

I spent the last few days frustrated again with my Leopard upgrade on my Mac Pro; I previously had to go back to Tiger after the initial Leopard release and then thought I'd try again when 10.5.2 came out and Aperture 2, especially as my laptop ran these apps flawlessly.

I spent most of the day Friday trying various things with tech support for problems related to system freezes (never happened before with OS X), Aperture painfully slow to load, weird lines and graphics on screens particularly in Aperture etc.

I reinstalled software twice, once with archived install, and then an erase and install reloading ALL my software. What a pain in the ass. I ran all the diagnostic software I had, Techtool Pro and Disc Warrior. All seemed to be better, but then the gremlins started again pretty quickly. No system freezes but Aperture very slow to load, still weird lines etc on the screen.

I began to suspect more strongly this was a graphics card problem, so I researched it online and found a few other complaints with the MacPro, Leopard, and the ATI 1900 graphics card which I have.

Then I came upon a neat little program suggested in one of the forums called smcFanControl which allows you to set the baseline fan speed for the various fans in the machine - particularly the graphics card fan. I set the base speed up from 500rpm to 1500rpm as suggested in the forum, and voila, no lines, Aperture loads fast, and image loads fly as they should.

I'm thinking of upgrading my video card, anyone with a MacPro have any opinions on graphics cards?

Just got my MacPro and installed things today so started to put it through the paces...thing smokes so far. Got the 8800 but the drivers not fully implemented yet (expect better results when they get it going, Apple writes them) and it is unreal so far. Poking around and playing with the new toy still, so take it with a grain of salt. The 8800 should work with older MacPros based on reports (at first they said no, but then it became available as seperate kit, a few week wait still.)

Also Leopard should be done as clean install (as you did) which helps with Gremlins. Do not migrate or copy old settings. Install and do things from scratch. A pain, but cuts out some issues from all reports. Aslo did not know if you are running DW 4.1 and TechTool ran into some issues in Tiger (actually had deinstall it because it had some conflicts/bugs). Have not checked to see if TechTool issues resolved.

I have the ATI 1900, and it has been working fine.

It looks like the card to get if you don't want to stick with your card is the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro:

http://tinyurl.com/2ck3ek

I'm not sure if it's any faster, though. It's around the same price.

I wouldn't recommend going outside the stuff Apple sells and supports...

I have the ATI 1900, and it has been working fine.

 

It looks like the card to get if you don't want to stick with your card is the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT Graphics Upgrade Kit for Mac Pro:

http://tinyurl.com/2ck3ek

 

I'm not sure if it's any faster, though. It's around the same price.

 

I wouldn't recommend going outside the stuff Apple sells and supports...

The 8800 specs out better overall, and on the PCs where the drivers are more developed it is suppossed to be a great card. Even with the lesser drivers for some things, such as gaming, it is a good card on the Mac. With the newest updates it is doing better than it did a few week ago, and once the drivers are brought fully in line in should be real good. (At least that is what they say now and what I am hoping since I dropped it in my machine as BTO )

So far so good and will post if I run into good or bad things. If anyone wants me to try something, let me know. Running on 10.5.2, January 2008 MacPrp though.

The smcFanControl really seems to have done the job by keeping the card cooler. I'll probably stick with this for now. Interesting though how what looked like a software problem turns out to be a hardware problem (limitation)

Actually it may be a problem with how the temperature sensor is bad... you may want to send it back to Apple. Why put more wear on the fans if it's busted and you can get one that works?