Appeared in software update on Dec. 15th. Here's a clip from the SU window:
"
The 10.3.7 Update (26.4MB) delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther" and is recommended for all users.
Key enhancements include:
improved AFP support for saving documents with long file names
improved OpenGL technology and updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
improved FireWire device compatibility
updated Preview application
improved compatibility for third party applications
previous standalone security updates
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n300385
For detailed information on Security Updates, please visit this website:
http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798
"
I welcome reader feedback on the 10.3.7 update
Please include system info and details on any 3rd party software/hardware in reports. Thanks.
Here's some links to downloads of updaters/combo updates. (Just in case - a common tip for odd problems with updates is to reapply a "Combo" updater.)
If anyone finds 10.3.7 fixes, improves or breaks anything - let me know. Include system info and details on any 3rd party software/hardware in reports. Thanks.
Summary/tips updated 11/22/2004 (for speedtools device tuner update to fix ipod problems)
Summary of Improvements/Tips/(Common)Problems:
- Improved Lightwave 3D performance
- Improved 3D game performance (huge gains seen in Splinter Cell several reports from Diablo II owners that 10.3.7 fixed the performance bug they saw w/10.3.6 )
- A reader that had the DVD player problem after the 10.3.6 update said it was fixed by 10.3.7. (Although I did not see that problem on several 10.3.6 updated machines personally, more than a few readers did a noted here back then on the 10.3.6 feedback page.)
- Several reports that the PCI Quartz Extreme mod no longer works in 10.3.7. Early reader report noted replacing the CoreGraphics.framework from a previous version into 10.3.7 was a workaround and was going to report back if he sees any problems.
- One reader noted he can now browse windows networks (which was broken after the 10.3.6 update he said)
- Several reports of slower startup (boot time) and slower launching of some apps like Mail
Reader Reports on 10.3.7: (most recent first except for replies/updates to previous reports.) I welcome feedback on 10.3.7 (if you find it fixes or breaks anything) let me know. Include system info and details on any 3rd party software/hardware in reports. Thanks.
Belkin HS USB 2.0 PCI Card:
(added 12/20/2004)
"In September of this year I installed a Belkin HS USB 2.0 card "F5U220"
in my QS 2002 Dual 1Gig Mac and it was working great till I installed
Mac OS X 10.3.7 and now it quit working and nothing shows up in the
System Profiler at all in reference to this card. Since I was not using
any drivers, it just worked with 10.3.5-6 I'm not sure what happened.
I've re-seated the card and all attached cables on both ends but still
no luck. Nothing else has been changed and two of the peripherals, a
Belkin 8 in 1 card reader and a Wacom Tablet, still seem to be getting
power as their monitor lights are on but they don't seem to work. I
think it must be a driver problem of some sort, any suggestion?
Thanks for your help and your great web site.
Sincerely, Jim C.
"
Follow-Up from iBook G3 owner:
(added 12/20/2004 from 12/18 mail)
"Hi Mike,
Wrote yesterday to say "so far, so good" and today, after using my
iBook for almost 13 hours straight (end of the year work in my
business), I can say 10.3.7 works good and honestly feels faster. I
did some photoshop work (about 2 hours worth), the rest was
spreadsheets, word processing, PDF writing, printing, etc. preparing
for year end tax time. I even ripped a few dozen CDs and played other
MP3s simultaneously from my music collection (stored on the same
internal drive I was ripping to) while all this was going on. I
genuinely multi task quite a bit while I work so I feel like I
represent an average Mac user. I don't really ever mess with the system level workings of the machine even though I have been a Unix programmer since version 6 in the mid 70s. I do have a few add ons but I followed the instruction on installing those items including ALWAYS repairing permissions first regardless of whether it was stated to do so in those instructions or not.
And I would like to say 10.3.7 feels more stable but all the previous updates never felt unstable to me (I
got on board with Mac OS X at 10.2.4 by the way).
My only recommendation for updating is to repair permissions then
follow Apple's instructions for updating, restart then repair your
permissions again and all should go well. Personally I log out after
that second repair then log back in. But in a nutshell the I'll say
that the restart is important in that it forces the system to dump code
fragments from the updates. Even at the university we would
occasionally do system restarts (frustrating a few of the computer
geniuses in the process) but the original rules that were handed down
to us from the scientists and others who worked on the original Unix
project said to (what we call today) repair the permissions and do a
restart. Always. Yes, there are some other reason why this may be
unnecessary today but if the process is not broke, why fix it.
Besides, remember, I have NEVER had an issue with a system install or
update. Not bragging, just saying it for a reference on my point of
view.
So for what its worth my choice in computing platforms and following
the same basic maintenance instructions that I received in 1975 has
saved me a fortune in time because it just works.
Last but not least, great site. Your work is appreciated by a lot of
us who don't get a chance to say thank you often enough but the
information you and your site provides is invaluable.
Lars
"
More on Slow Startup:
(added 12/20/2004 from 12/18 mail)
"I installed a fresh Panther 10.3.0 on an external Firewire drive. I
made sure that my DSL internet connection was active and then timed
the startup. The elapsed time from appearance of the dock to
completion of startup was about 10 seconds.
I then installed the 10.3.7 updater and again timed the startup.
After 3 starts it still took almost one minute from the time the dock
appeared until the completion of startup. During most of this time
the menu bar was blue.
Compare my existing 10.3.6 installation which takes about 12 seconds
from appearance of the dock to full startup, with no blue menu bar.
Ken M.
"
Report on FTP/SSH Broken:
(added 12/20/2004)
" I'm not sure if anyone else is having this problem, but after installing the X.3.7 update, both the SSH and FTP servers simply aren't responding again. (v1.0 of the 2004-09-07 security update broke FTP but Secure FTP still worked - but ssh was still working then. Apple later released a 'v1.1' of that update that fixed the broken ftp.-Mike) I recall another major Apple update damaging tftpd (Security Update 2004-08-09), so naturally I'm wondering if this has happened again. The software firewall can be enabled or disabled; it makes no difference. Nor does the connection, either from 100 Mbit ethernet, or the AirPort Extreme card.
I do hope Apple is going to use better quality assurance for future releases of their OS updates. I understand and sympathize with the due process involved, but this is becoming increasingly unacceptable.
System stats:
- 1st generation 1.33GHz 17" G4 PowerBook, 1GB RAM
- G3 500MHz Indigo iMac, 512 MB RAM
PJ
"
It may not matter, but if you create a new user acct
and login as another user, does it still fail?
(to rule out any current user's networking/prefs, etc.
issue) I assume no other networking problems exist?
BTW - I can still ftp here in 10.3.7.
(running a quick anon. Ftp connection check)
Mac OS X 10.3.7/AlchemyTV DVR Input Problem:
(added 12/20/2004)
"The latest Apple update seems to have broken something. I get a blank
black TV window, and upon selecting "Video Input" in the Preferences, I
get this:
Thanks, Nathaniel
"
I asked him what version of the Alchemy TV/DVR software he's running and if he tried disconnecting/reconnecting the source to the card.
If anyone else with this card sees this let me know.
(added 12/20/2004)
"I have a Sawtooth with a Dual 450 processor card, 1GB RAM, an Acard
ATA-133 card w/3 HDs attached and an ATI Radeon 8500. After updating
to 10.3.6 my music sounded... fuzzy. Problem is gone with 10.3.7.
I did have one weird thing when I upgraded. Ran Disk Utility and disk
warrior before updating, repaired permissions after update ran - repair
had nothing to fix. The first time I launched Mail.app, it crashed
while launching. When I relaunched it everything in my inbox was
flagged as "unread" and the mailboxes drawer, which I always leave
open, was closed. Everything seems okay otherwise.
-Daevad
"
(added 12/20/2004)
"Hi Mike, The DVD player visual artifacts ( little white squares populating the screen ) were not repaired for me in 10.3.7, same problem as in 10.3.6. The DVD player worked well in 10.3.5.
I do have to use now (in 10.3.7) VLC .81 and that works.
I have an MDDdual 1.25GHz with an ASUS Radeon 9800XT 256MB modded into a Mac Radeon 9800XT.
(System) Boot ROM Version: 4.5.7f1
(Graphics card ASP info)
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4e48
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A14404-118
Display Type: CRT
VRAM (In Use): 256 MB
Resolution: 1600 x 1200 @ 90 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Best wishes, Willy
"
(added 12/20/2004)
"Hi Mike...
After installing 10.3.7 my Safari has been spiking to 100% CPU for about 5-8 seconds per new tab I open. Version is 1.2.4 (v125.12) and the 100% cpu only happens when tabbed browsing is enabled - disabling immediately returns it to normal use.
Resetting Safari had no effect - I haven't had time to try anything else
yet.
-Paul
"
I haven't really checked for this. (it's 4:20AM as I'm typing this
on an older PB that's not running OS X to check. Too tired to check another machine right now.)
ATI 9000/128MB Sleep Problem:
(added 12/20/2004)
"Mike, I updated my MDD dual 1.25 to 10.3.7 with the combined updater,
repaired permissions and ran DiskWarrior before and after install.
Everything is much faster -from startup to launching programs and no
firewire issues. iPod, Pioneer DVR 108 (Firewire800), Epson 3200
Scanner all work fine. No sound issues.
I put the computer to sleep. I have an ATI 9000 128mb retail display
card with a Sony Trinitron 17" and a Mitsubishi 22" attached. When I
attempted to wake up the computer, it sounded (fans and HD whirring)
like it was waking up but the monitors remained black and in sleep
mode. I tried shutting down by command+option+control+eject and comand+
eject and return. Nothing. Had to shutdown by holding the power button
for several seconds.
Tried the usual: reinstalled the combined updater, ran cocktail, zapped
the pram to no avail.
The computer is equipped with 4-512mb ram from OWC, the stock 80g HD
and WD 40g and 80g HDs and a 200g Maxtor HD. SCSI PCIcard installed at
purchase (not connected to anything at his time). A USB PCI Card and a
USB 2 PCI Card (no USB 2 devices at this time just epson printers).
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Diane P.
"
First I'd check the ATI card has the latest firmware (ati sept/oct. firmware update), re-detect the displays (using latest ati displays) and
if the problem continues - simplify the equation by removing any
unused PCI cards (like the SCSI card first) and also remove
any connected devices (other than the keyboard/mouse).
(added 12/20/2004)
"Mike, Fixed permissions, then updated 1GHz TiBook and 1.5GHz 15" AlBook to 10.3.7. No problems whatsoever! Amazing.
Bob F
"
Knock on wood all ok for me also so far.
(added 12/20/2004)
"Mike, I have the same startup delay problems reported by others using OSX 10.3.7. My computer is a Ti 667 MHz G4 with AirPort.
Solution: Turning AirPort Off prior to shutdown solves the problem.
Best regards - Bob S.
"
(added 12/20/2004 from 12/17 mail)
"I installed the 10.3.7 update on my iMac G5 1.8 17",
512ram yesterday. All seems to be ok except for
playing the UT2004 demo online. When I play it now
online every few seconds I get a stutter effect. FPS
seem to be ok but the video stutter is really
bothering me. Never happened prior to installing
10.3.7. Anyone else have this problem?
thx
"
do you have any other networking problems?
(poor browser performance, etc.) some that did created a new networking place/prefs (noted in friday's news/earlier reports here)
I'd also make sure nothing else was running in the background
and that energy saver had the CPU performance set to Highest.
(not automatic)
(added 12/20/2004 from 12/17 mails)
"And a few days later, still no issues to report.
It's a rather subjective thing, but I'd say this latest upgrade has
been the biggest speed bump yet from a point release. Quake 3 and
Firefox 1.0 are definitely much improved. I think Java is too, but I
can't say for sure as the only Java app I use is Limewire, and going
from 4.0.8 to 4.2.6 might be the reason for that one.
(he later wrote)
Just spotted an issue: Software Update crashes at launch and brings up
a 'send error report?' dialog. System Preferences.app dies at launch
with no error message.
It's a Digital Audio 533, 1gb RAM, Radeon 8500, Acard Ultra 133, and
the Kool-Aid seems a bit watered down.
Having spoken too soon,- Bryan
"
Don't see this problem here on 2 macs updated to 10.3.7.
SMB/Windows Networked Printer Fixed:
(added 12/20/2004)
"Mike, first off my condolences to you and your family on your dad's passing.
I wanted to let you know that (per past feedback to you) whereas I lost
visibility to add SMB (Windows-networked) printers in 10.3.6 (although
existing printer definitions still worked), that function was resurrected with 10.3.7.
Brian D.
"
An earlier report mentioned the update fixed his problems
browsing windows networks with 10.3.6.
(added 12/20/2004)
"Hi Mike
Just a small report from me and my MDD FW800 (Dual 1.25)
The 10.3.7 update worked and works perfect:
Safari browsing is way faster (no need for changing DNS settings)
Graphics/userinterface is faster
Boot-time just a tiny bit slower (hardly worth mentioning)
FireWire drives works/mounts perfect
Gone are the annoyancies of 10.3.6
All in all: I'm very happy with this update
Best Regards and a Merry X-mas
Chakaranda
Copenhagen, Denmark
(since it's a MDD system, I asked about audio)
No audio problems either, but:
The reason I didn't mention Audio is that I never use the built-in
sound "card": I'm using an AudioPhile 24/96 as my main Soundcard plus a
Logitech USB headphone (for VoIP phonecalls) and have had no problems
with them (including 10.3.6)
"
Another report on New Network Location Tip:
(added 12/17/2004)
"I installed 10.3.7 on a QS 2002 G4 (OWC 1.33 cpu upgraded) from 10.3.6. Initially, the re-boot was very slow to ramp up through Finder load, and web sites were very slow to load. After reading various threads at Apple support, I created a new location in Network settings, making sure that my IPv4 was set to DHCP, IPv6 configured to automatic and specific DNS entries were deleted. Re-booted and Finder and speed of browsing are better than 10.3.6.
Of course, I had run the usual maintenance routines as well (Permissions, DiskWarrior). Also, I'm using a Graphite ABS in bridged mode to a MacSense Xrouter Pro to Comcast.
Richardson
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"Well everything went well with the install until I restarted and found
my address book missing. Since I have literally NEVER had an issue
with an install since I started using Apple computers back in 1979 I
really shouldn't complain. But otherwise, so far so good!
Lars
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"Mike,...
On 10.3.7 I find it a great update. Things seem a little crisper,
the update process was flawless on my Tibook (1ghz superdrive) and on
the old 450 mhz G4 desktop.
I did the usual repair permissions and then used the combo installer.
No issues.
Chuck
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"Mike... I wanted to send you details about a very strange issue I'm having with my 15" AlBook (1st generation 1.25GHz). Using Mail.app and Safari, I sometimes get strange image corruption on my laptops screen. Its not terrible, but can be distracting. Here are the circumstances and a screenshot of the issue:
The issue seems to be that when scrolling in these two apps, the right 1 -1 1/2 inches of the window pane gets jumbled text
Happens only when I use the scroll wheel on my Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer with USB Overdrive
Only seems to happen in Mail.app and Safari (this has been an issue since at least OS X 10.3.2 and still happens with the newest OS 10.3.7 upgrade)
Only shows up on the right part of the screen (as far as I can tell
- Doesn't happen all the time (usually I can scroll just fine with the wheel mouse)
Doesn't happen when I drag the scroll handle or use the scroll buttons.
I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this or can figure out the cause. Since the issue is intermittent, its hard to prove to AppleCare that there is a problem.
Thanks for your site. I read it every day!
Regards,
Dana S.
sociableDESIGN
www.sociableDESIGN.com
"
Anyone else see this? (like a window refresh/draw bug)
PB G4/12in Ext. Display/Cursor Problem:
(added 12/17/2004)
"This is BUG report I will send Apple
Major BUG when working with a PowerBook and an external DVI display.
I have a PowerBook 12" 1GHz I use at work and at home.
At work it is connected to a 19" 1600x1200 LCD display via DVI while at
home or on the go I use its internal 12" display.
I don't use both displays simultaneously, I switch between them
depending on my location. Connections and disconnections are usually
performed in sleep mode. I almost never have to reboot.
With 10.3.7, there is now a major BUG I never encountered before:
The cursor is invisible on the display which was not the one the
PowerBook initially booted on.
For instance, if I boot from the notebook display, close the lid,
connect to the external display and resume from sleep, the external
display becomes active, but the cursor is invisible! However you can
still move the mouse around, as the dock icons magnify or the menu
lists appear, but the mouse cursor is invisible!
Result: It obliges me to reboot each time I want to work on the screen
that was not the one it initially booted on, which is in my case,
several reboot per day!
Thanks to correct this bug ASAP, this is a major annoyance in a mobile
configuration workflow such as mine.
Cheers! -Mehdi
"
More reports on slow boot/menu bar/mail/networking:
(added 12/17/2004)
"Hi Mike,
10.3.7 does not work for me. After the login window there is a very,
very long stall keeping the menu bar blue. Sometimes I have to restart.
Mail.app is very slow and does not always want to quit (also keeping
the menu bar blue). Connections in Safari are also very slow. I tried
everything. Orig. 10.3 with the combined updater and no user changes.
Still the same result. I think it has something to do with changes in
networking. I have a PM dual 2G (nov 2003) a DHCP Router connection
(cable), with no additional hardware.
Hans R.
(he later wrote)
Hereby an addition to my earlier report. When I disconnect the ethernet
connection to my router the stall is gone.
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"The delay in 10.3.7 was so long that I have returned to 10.3.6 which,
although it has a longer delay than 10.3.5, is relatively short by
comparison with 10.3.7. I am connected to the internet by way of DSL
through a router. On a hunch, I disabled my network connection in
Network Port Configurations and restarted. No delay whatsoever.
Booted right to the desktop. It would seem from this that the delay
is in making the network connection.
I am not on a network with other volumes to mount, but I am wondering
where I would turn off network volume automounts.
Ken
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"... I have a problem after installing OS 10.3.7 and it is a log time to wait for booting after I have written my pass and user name. Here is the problem:
Dec 17 08:11:46 localhost kernel: AppleSMU::PMU vers = 0x000d004c,
SPU vers = 0x15, SDB vers = 0x01,
Dec 17 08:13:47 localhost mach_init[2]: Server 0 in bootstrap d03 uid 0:
"/usr/libexec/fix_prebinding": exited with non-zero status 1 [pid 347]
as you can see I wait 2 minutes my menu bar to appear.
Before installing Os 10.3.7 this thing passes for 0 sec...
Best Regards, B. Bonev
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"Mike, just wanted to let you know that 10.3.7 BOTH Server and Standard
bring a problem for me. If there is no internet connection (DHCP down,
no DSL service, etc), the finder fails to load and Apple Remote Desktop
Hangs.
This was reproduced in an Xserve G5 DP2.0 and a PowerMac G5 DP1.8Ghz
(2003 model).
Ricardo C.
"
Sprint DSL still works fine here on a 10.3.7 updated PB G4.
one reader (below) said creating a new network location and hitting apply helped (until he re-entered his DNS severs for a VPN).
(added 12/17/2004)
"I believe that I have isolated the cause of the slow startup. It
appears to be network related. I am using a router which is always
connected to the internet by way of PPPoE. I have found the following:
1. If I bypass the router and connect the modem directly to the
computer and use connect by way of PPPoE there is no delay as there
is no internet connection at time of startup, nor is there an effort
to connect until some action is taken.
2. If I set the router to a method of connection that will not
connect such as static IP, there will still be a delay as the router
is trying to connect.
3. If I pull the ethernet cord from the computer to take it off the
network there is no delay.
4. If I have the router set up so that it connects to the internet
automatically, it maintains a constant connection and there is a
startup delay.
5. If I pull the power to the router there is no delay.
It would seem that the delay is caused by how the operating system
reacts to either an active internet connection or a router attempting
to connect to the internet.
These tests were made with 10.3.6, but this OS exhibits a delay,
although not anywhere near that of 10.3.7.
Ken M.
"
Reader report on Candybar 2.0.1 / 10.3.7 problems (updated):
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Mike, I updated everything to 10.3.7 and all my 3rd party software prog's worked fine (QS, iPulse, X Resource Graph, ShapeShifter) except Candybar 2.0.1...
I fired up CandyBar and it notified me, to it's defense, that quote:
"This version of CandyBar has not been qualified for use with Mac OS X
10.3.7 Proceed with caution. We highly recommend you check our web site for an updated version of CandyBar before continuing."
Well, there was no /new/ version of CandyBar so I tried to apply an icon
change and bam! The system blew a gasket.
Slow start ups of the Finder which required restarting the Finder before
"StartUp Items" would work. Weird voodoo that I just couldn't explain.
Sooooo update to today. Today I fire my system up after having deleted
every single last file of CandyBar of the system last night and guess what. Everything boots up correctly
fast and without problem with 10.3.7.
Have you a clue what could be going on here? Seems like a self-healing
and creeping me out ;)
-Thanks, Taylor
"
Cabel Sasser of Panic (candbar) wrote that they feel that it had nothing to do with Taylor's problems but would like to speak to him about his problem. Here's a clip from their long email:
"
..as the user is aware, we definitely don't recommended people
ignore the magical "Unqualified System" warning -- it's there for the
good of mankind. On the other hand, though, the worst that can happen
on an unqualified system is that CandyBar can't find the system icons
on disk since they've been moved -- and we haven't yet come across a
minor system update that does this. However, you never know what might
change in a future OS update. Since it only takes us about one day for
us to release a CandyBar auto-update for new Mac OS X releases, we
figure it's worth the wait for safety. :)
That said, it's important to note that CandyBar is not a haxie. It
doesn't patch. It doesn't modify memory or applications on the fly. It
really doesn't do anything that could jeopardize system stability. In
the simplest of terms, it works by replacing an icon file on disk with
a new icon file -- just like if you were to copy a file in the Finder.
Put simply, any system problems people experience when using CandyBar
are almost always entirely coincidental. That's the only downside of
being the creators of CandyBar -- you're the first e-mail stop for any
slight sign of weird system behavior. :)
I can say with certainty that CandyBar was not responsible for the
problems Taylor experienced, and I'm guessing we were most likely the
victim of some unfortunate timing -- something else changed on his
system. We've received no similar reports like this, and I've run
CandyBar 2.0.1 on 10.3.7 without any issue, both unqualified and
qualified.
I'd encourage Taylor to e-mail us so we can double check to be sure,
and we really appreciate him (and others) using CandyBar!
Best,
Cabel
Panic
"
I still stand by my personal golden rule. (in general I avoid 3rd appearance addons (or), 3rd party haxies, etc. - maybe that's one reason why I have generally had very few problems with updates. I'm sure there are many users of them and most may never have a problem, but for me (even pre-OS X) I have generally avoided that sort of OS appearance tweaks, eye candy related mods, etc.
Tip for anyone w/Safari Problems: (not had any problem
like this in 10.3.7 w/safari personally)
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Network (Safari) issues:
After the update, I noticed very sluggish Safari behavior as far as
connecting and downloading sites. Gmail, slashdot, and even
xlr8yourmac where either unreachable, or took minutes to load
correctly. Other browsers (camino, firefox) did not seem affected.
Logged on to the arstechnica forums and did some reading on the 10.3.7
thread and saw that others (very few) were having the exact same
problems.
One reader noted that an apple support forum post suggested
creating a new network location and hitting apply. This worked
perfectly for me, but I had some DNS servers set in my old location
settings for my work VPN. Upon setting those DNS servers in the new
location, I began experiencing the same exact problems.
Alex
"
10.3.7 a Fix for MDD Audio Problems in 10.3.6? (one report said yes, several others no)
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"This update also fixed the sound distortion problem that was caused in
10.3.6 with most MDD G4's. I have a Dual 867Mhz MDD.
Mike
"
Some other MDD owners said they still had audio related problems:
(added 12/20/2004)
I'm also experiencing the Audio distortion on my Dual 1 GHz PowerPC G4
MDD (Dual Boot); 1.792 GB DDR SDRAM; BTO Ultra SCSI; 2 x 80 GB internal drives; Pioneer 104 and Sony 1611 optical drives; NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600.
The output volume, which was significantly increased in 10.3.6, remains
high in 10.3.7.
I have to turn off the Altec Lansing 621 speakers before I start or
restart the machine and then reduce the volume every time.
regards, John M.
"
(added 12/20/2004 from 12/17 mail)
Re the feedback you seek, mine is a DP867(MDD) with 1.25 gb of ram.
Beginning with 10.3.6, the output volume adjusts itself all the time -- I set it
quieter and it gets louder sometime later, and vice versa. Further confusion is
added by apparent loss of correlation between volume slider position and volume, although at any given moment (i.e., regardless of what it resets itself to later), higher slider = higher volume. This problem is NOT fixed in 10.3.7.
Take care, Jeremy"
(added 12/17/2004)
"10.3.6 introduced a sound output problem on my Dual G4 1.25 GHz FW800;
the sound output is distorted and the only way to fix this problem is
to plug and unplug an stereo mini plug into the Macs built-in sound out
ports.
Well, I was hoping this problem would be acknowledged and fixed by
Apple in the next OS release 10.3.7 but apparently not.
i still have this problem and I still need to plug and unplug an stereo
mini plug in my Mac to fix this problem.
Problem posted on Apple discussion boards back in 11/9/04
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?
13@388.rhRgavrLFeY.174168@.689ec43b/9
Peter G.
"
Here's some new reports today since this was posted, noting they also still see the problem in 10.3.7:
"
I also have suffered the audio distortion problems introduced in 10.3.6
and it is still persisting in 10.3.7. Like other MDD owners,
unplugging and plugging the audio cable from my Mac to my stereo fixes
it, but the problem returns after restart.
My Mac is a MDD 1GHz G4, 768MB RAM. Another problem is very slow log in times which appeared in 10.3.6. I was hoping 10.3.7 would fix this, but it still persists.
-Liam B.
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"
I still have the same distortion on my MAC G4 MDD Dual FW400.
I always have to plug and unplug the stereo jack.
Will see if Apple will correct this problem in the future.
Thanks for the great site, Flo
"
I welcome other MDD owner Feedback on 10.3.7.
(added 12/17/2004)
"Mike...
I have four Western Digital hard drives (250, 200, 160 and 80GB) for my
2001 Quicksilver (1.47MHz OWC CPU, 1.25 GB RAM). Two drives are
mounted internally via an ACARD 6280M PCI card and two are mounted via
external firewire cases. I have been very happy with the reliability
and performance of these drives.
I was hoping OS 10.3.7 would solve the issue of a three year old
external firewire drive not mounting under OS 10.3.6. (As you know,
this issue was reported frequently in OS 10.3.6. I had no problems
with this drive in any earlier OS versions.) (there was a firmware update for some fw bridges like initio's - i noted I updated
my portable fw/usb drive with that firmware update
mentioned when 10.3.6 came out. see the initio update info on the 10.3.6 feedback page for link/details.-Mike)
The other external
firewire drive, with an Oxford 911 bridge, has not had any problems.
My problem drive does not have an Oxford 911 chipset. Following the OS
10.3.7 update, shutdown and boot, the problem drive appeared on the
desktop and functioned normally. I normally shutdown my Quicksilver at
night and upon startup this morning, the drive would not mount.
Several shutdowns and startups have not changed the symptoms.
ASP sees it and reports the following:
Capacity: 74.53 GB
Manufacturer: Wise Advanced Co., Ltd.
Model: Wise Advanced IDE Devices LUN 0
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk2
OS9 Drivers: No
Speed: 400 Mb/sec Speed
Unit Spec Id: 24734
Firmware Revision: vi e
Unit Software Version: 10483
The drive is enclosed in a BeyondMicro case and I sent an email to them
at support@beyondmicro.com asking if there was an update to the bridge
firmware. I received an automatic acknowledgment but nothing further.
Disk Utility sees it and the partitions on the drive, but they are all
grayed out and Disk Utility cannot operate on them. DiskWarrior
reports the partitions as "Unknown Disk" for each partition. (I have
traded several emails about this with tech support at Alsoft and they
have been very responsive, but it really isn't a DiskWarrior issue.
Nevertheless, many thanks and praises to them!)
Before the OS 10.3.7 update, I put the drive from the problem case into
the Oxford 911 firewire case and it appeared on the desktop and
functioned normally under OS 10.3.6. For this reason, I'm fairly
confident it's not a hard drive problem but a bridge problem.
So -- I just ordered an OWC Mercury Elite Pro FireWire Enclosure with
Oxford911+ chipset. This is the same case as my other external
firewire drive that has been ops normal throughout. Here's hoping this
fixes the problem.
It's a shame I'm out some money because of a Mac OS X update. I've
been a Mac user and advocate since I bought a 128K Mac in 1984. This
issue, plus the fact that many of us still can't use our HP All-In-Ones
with Fast User Switching enabled, has left a very bad taste in my
mouth.
Regards, Bud
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"I can vouch for the (significantly) slower boot time after applying the
10.3.7 update. No problems other than that.
-James K.
"
Windows Network/Shared Printer:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"As far as the 10.3.7 update everything has gone fine for me and my
12"PB 1.33. I haven't had time to do the other machines yet. I was very
happy to find that I could connect to a shared printer (HP1220C) on the
windows network were I am currently working. When I tried to get
connected last week I couldn't even see the printer on the network,
after the update it was there and printed no problem.
Todd
"
Command and Conquer Generals Performance Increase:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Powerbook 15" 1Ghz 1GB RAM 64MB ATI Video
Command and Conquer Generals is much faster.
I was able to turn the video quality up from "Low" to "Medium" and still had the performance gain.
Dennis G.
"
Maxtor FW drive report:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"10.3.7 fixed my problem with not being able to see/use my (firewire) Maxtor 80GB drive under Panther. The drive has always worked fine under OS9 and Jaguar, but Panther could never mount it. It would 'see' the 1394 connection under Apple System Profiler -> Firewire, but no mounting regardless of how I formatted it under OS9.
Nice to have 80GB back.
Kent I.
(I asked if this was a retail Maxtor FW cased drive)
Yes, it is in a Maxtor retail FW case.
Maxtor External Storage
Model No: FWRA080LE001
Translucent White and Blue.
Really nice to have it back online. Went through a lot of fruitless effort in vain efforts to get it to work. 10.3.7 fixed it all after zapping the PRAM.
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"the EQ in iTunes responds much faster ( ie. real time ) now on my 733
G4...where as it had significant delay before
Randy C.
"
xplane performance in 10.3.7: although some other
games were reported to have a big performance boost
in 10.3.7, one xplane user said he saw a nosedive (although
later reports noted the opposite)
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"after installing the 10.3.7 update
from Apple, I've personally noticed that frame rates
in X-plane 7.62 absolutely tanked...they went from
between 45-61 fps to 14-17. Absolutely NOT acceptable.
Repaired permissions and everything, but to no avail.
This REALLY sucks!
Jim
"
I don't have the game so I asked for other xplane/10.3.7 users to see if Jim's report was common. (It's not apparently but still waiting for jim's graphics card, etc. info in case it's a card/brand specific issue)
"
I have installed 10.3.7 and run X-Plane 7.62 G5 dual 2 ghz. 1 gig of
ram ATI 9800 pro- no frame rate drop at all-it actually feels like I am
getting improved frame rates
-Paul
"
Another 9800 Pro owner said he also noticed an improvement in 10.3.7:
"
Hi Mike!
On my configuration ( MDD G4 DUAL 1.42 GHz, 1 GIG ram, Ati 9800 PRO)
xplane 7.62 runs faster on 10.3.7 than on 10.3.6... I do not have any
numbers but it feels faster.
Thanks
Samo from Slovenia
(he later wrote)
Hi! And i forgot to mention one important thing: The sound problem is
gone! It seems that 10.3.7 fixes the sound problem that me and my
brother had with 10.3.6... Great! (I asked if he meant the distortion problem other MDD owners mentioned after the 10.3.6 update. some said they still had the problem after 10.3.7 - see MDD audio reports on this page-Mike)
"
I wish I had a dime for every uncommon problem seen with OS X updates... I could retire. (Granted there's been some universal problems at times - but it seems that's the exception rather than the rule usually.)
(added 12/17/2004)
"There's definitely a problem with 10.3.7
Launch times of some Apple applications have gone through the roof.
Mail and iChat take more than a minute (DP 2GHz G5), Apple Remote
Desktop 4 minutes!
During the delay there is no cpu or disk activity, it seems that the
application is just waiting for something.
iTunes, Safari, iPhoto, iCal, AdressBook, iSync,iMovie,iDVD are
unaffected.
Henk
"
I don't use mail.app or ARD but some others reported
slow launches with some apps like mail. ichat on my 10.3.7 PB G4
launches as fast as ever here.
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Sections of web pages in Safari overlap on some sites in my case such
as the Seattle Time, Mowat Construction, USAToday.
Wil N.
"
I didn't check all those sites but loading usatoday.com looks fine
here in safari under 10.3.7.
(added 12/17/2004)
"Firstly, sorry to hear about your Dad.
I read somewhere that people were asking about Pioneer DVR-108
support...it's not there for my drive - OEM 108 with 1.14 FW version.
Cheers, Dunc
"
I asked if he removed patcburn 3's profile as a test and he said yes. (if it's installed ASP will report vendor supported)
Note on PB G3 Lombard vram size reported incorrectly:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"on my Lombard 400 Mhz, after installing 10.3.7 and rebooting the screen
started to flicker and the graphics was all mumbled up.
After going into single-user mode and running kextcache to reset the
extensions the screen works fine again, but now the Video VRAM has
decreased to 6MB. Strange... Any ideas?
All the best, Bernhard
"
Don't own a lombard but anyone else seeing anything like this?
Lightwave 3D 7.5c Improvements:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Sorry to hear about your father and hope things get better soon.
On the 10.3.7 update regarding the OpenGL/3D performance I'm seeing
HUGE increases in speed and interactivity in Lightwave 3d v 7.5c.
Previews are rendering much faster and large poly files are spinning
like they were game models. Best update to the OS yet. (Dual G5
2.5ghz 2GB RAM OS 10.3.7 ATI Radeon 9800 XT 256mb vram)
Thanks for the site,
Mike P
"
I'm running 7.5d but have not had time to try it in 10.3.7 yet.
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Hi Mike,
October 2004 Dual 2 Ghz G5 3 gig memory NVidea FX5200 64mb
Initially this update (10.3.7) worried me as after the restart there
was a longer than usual period of beachball spinning followed
by the quite slow appearance of the top of the screen finder icons (
far right to left ) - first the current time flickered into being
followed by the sound icon, Classic icon . . etc
I repaired permissions and ran Onyx to run the cron scripts and delete
various caches and logs.
Re-booted : Startup was marginally faster but still the same slow
appearance of the finder menu bar icons.
I noted several other similar comments in the macrumors forum.
Having said that, everything seems faster, from window opening to
program launch.
None of my third party haxies have been affected.
The whole system seems more responsive, snappier. Obviously the Apple
team is on the right track.
It would seem that something in the startup process and possibly
related to video / graphics has been radically changed.
the only way to get a real assessment of the 10.3.7 upgrade would be to
do a complete virgin re-install from CD / DVD and
then apply the update and see what happens. I may be doing this in the
coming week and if so will post my findings.
We have room for two more upgrades . . :)
Mike K.
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"This is the first update to do detrimental things to my Mac Powerbook
17" 1Ghz. Network access seems to be intermittent with some type of
cycling going on. Instead of response being within a second or two
accessing e-mail and web pages, it not takes 10 seconds sometimes to
load a page. The browser downloads a bit, stops, downloads some more
and does this repeatedly until the page finally loads. It's very
annoying. (I don't see this problem here in 10.3.7-Mike)
Boot times are much slower with the machine taking at least twice as
long to come up from off.
Jp
"
Sometimes this is cache related and improves after a few reboots.
Mail.app slow to start:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"since the update, mail.app takes more than a minute to start on a G5
2ghz and a powerbook 12 867.
try to arrange it with an onyx total cleaning, but nothing better.
ficelle from france
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Dear Mike,
Just to try my hand at something I purchased a Maxtor 120gb ata 133
hard drive and a firewire enclosure by BYTECC a 5.25 height oxford 911
chipset unit, put them together and started up under 10.3.6, used disk
utility to format the drive it all worked flawlessly. Haven't seen any
issue with 10.3.7 either since upgrading. All is well...
Regards and Merry Christmas
Christopher S.
http://macguru.biz/
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Mike, Digital Audio 533, 1gb RAM, Ultra ATA 133, 80gb Desktstar, Radeon 8500
Perfect upgrade, OpenGL much improved, everything much snappier. I'm
not sure, but I think it even changed the filter in my Brita pitcher.
-Bryan
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"used the Combo Updater-runs better than ever
Safari connectivity is 100%, ran Disk Utility-no permission repairs
needed.
mostly stock SP G5 1.8 1 GB ram
great site, Mark
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"I've just upgraded my 2GHz DP G5 (rev. A) to 10.3.7, so far no
problems here. I've been testing a few home-brew OpenGL applications,
they are noticeably faster. As for the OS seem a little more stable
now, I had been experiencing a couple of weird freezes (usually after
waking from sleep or when running for extended amounts of time without
a reboot).
I also upgraded my Ti 667 DVI PowerBook, the battery life seem to have
gone up a bit. I'll have to give a more through test to make sure it
isn't just my imagination. Safari seem a lot snappier now, and pages
actually load the first time you try to access them (less time outs
when browsing to other domain you haven't visited).
Regards, Luis G.
"
Windows Networking Improvements:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"The 10.3.6 update broke my ability to browse the windoze network at work and I could no longer see networked printers. The 10.3.7 update fixed that and has also dramatically improved browsing the network. Before, the finder took its sweet time before it saw various things on the winedoze network (an Apple network has never been a problem). Now, with 10.3.7 I have almost instantaneous browsing of the network. I cant be any happier. No other big things yet.
Terry
"
Diablo II performance gain:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"I am running a PM 2.5ghz DP stock config w/ 2.5gb of ram.
As is well known, 10.3.5 and Diablo II ran as expected.
10.3.6 and Diablo II resulted in frame rate hits below 10fps in some
instances.
10.3.7 has restored FPS close to the previous highs and 30+ fps in
all situations minimum including peaks back into the 100+ fps
catagor in town and with low screen activity y (verified via <ENTER> /FPS).
Mark B.
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"The new ATI drivers/openGL drivers fix what 10.3.6 broke in Diablo II.
OpenGL mode never ran better for me than it does now (Dual MDD FW800 G4
1.25 Gz) with an Apple OEM Radeon 9000 pro card.
Joseph
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"After repairing permissions, DiskWarrior, repair permissions,
installing from downloaded stand alone installer and repairing
permissions again, Everything is a little smoother on my 1.5 Ghz AlBook
w/ 1.5GB RAM and 128MB graphics card. What I've noticed thus far is:
Slower startup
Little Snitch system prefpane disabled
Norton Parental Controls system prefpane disabled
Thanks, Dan
"
unregistered little snitch prefs pane still works for me
in 10.3.7. And this reader reported the registered version still
works fine for him in 10.3.7:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
little snitch (registered) is fine here after the update.
can browse windows networks.
Marek B."
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"Following all the usual rules, repair permissions etc., I updated a
G4 dual 1.25 MHz MDD from 10.3.6 to 10.3.7 using the combo updater.
All went well, with one exception. My startup time increased an
additional 38 seconds, most of which was represented by a menu bar
normal in every way except for its color. It was blue. Upon
completion of startup the menubar turned white and everything
appeared to function normally.
I have since returned to 10.3.6 from my backup with the exception
that I used the ATI extensions from 10.3.7. My startup is now back to
normal.
Ken M.
"
UT2003 Demo/BF1942 demo/Raven Shield report:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 email)
"Hey, I'm here with my personal little report on 10.3.7
On many of mac sites they almost bragged about a significant increase
in opengl framerate with the new update, so of course I had to try it
out. First on the list was the Unreal 2003 demo due to it being set at
1280x1024 4xaa 8xaf. So I loaded it up on my Dual 2ghz with an
overclocked Radeon 9600 Pro (470,396)... (I asked what version of the
demo was used) The intro screen surprised me with a whopping 200 colors as I watched the scene in layers of green to white. This scared me thinking Apple had forced the color bits down. I continued to load the game and found that in-game graphics still had around 16 bit colors that looked blended to appear 32 bit. Performance wise? I didn't do a time demo, but I checked my FPS and noticed only a 4FPS increase if any. I wanted to try Unreal 2004 but someone has misplaced my DVD.
I moved along displeased to Quake 3. What I noticed instantly in Quake was an octave raise in sound pitch, which was present everywhere in the game. I used the timedemo anyway and did notice a increase in FPS
there, though that game ran smoothy in the first place.
After that was the Battlefield 1942 demo where I have been suffering
bad performance on the higher settings that I have watched run on a
Radeon VE. I do not know of any FPS checker or timedemo, but I did
notice an increase as my playability went up as hoped for.
Last I checked Raven Shield which has been running so bad that I never finished, no matter what the setting. This was the best increase, I went from completely unplayable to fully playable, where I was very
happy.
So, I don't know what I really managed to prove, but maybe my issues
will be fixed soon. I don't believe anyone will be able to replicate
them, so I guess go ahead and download the update. Still a great site Mike,
Noah
(he later wrote)
I used version 2206 of ut2003, and today I have used to more
applications, Unreal 2004 and MOH Breakthrough. Unreal has made a nice
10% performance boost especially in the new editor's choice maps which
are generally bigger than the others, my framerate never goes below
30fps which before it would easily go down to 10. Also ut2k4 does not
suffer from the color problem, full 32bit color is still there.
Breakthrough I was very pleased; I have been getting horrible
performance compared to previous medal of honors (original, spearhead)
but now my performance has literally tripled(!)
On the operating system part, my network speed has slightly increased, along with opening files and in-file speed. Though I do have login wait times but don't know about startup, this computer just sleeps.
"
Huge performance boost in Splinter Cell: (all using
benchmark download from our Mac Splinter Cell FPS db entry page)
(added 12/20/2004)
"1280x1024
Before 10.3.7 update:
18.742543 (AVG), 7.571347 (Min), 40.425437 (Max)
And after 10.3.7 update:
29.729998 (AVG), 11.153358 (Min), 55.499747 (Max), 1280x1024
I believe the most dramatically-sped-up portion is when Sam switches
on his night vision goggles. No apparent frame rate hit after 10.3.7,
whereas it got pretty slow under 10.3.6. Perhaps there is some OpenGL
call with this effect that got "fixed."
Lord Vader"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 email)
"10.3.7 is amazing!
Attached is my timedemos before and after the 10.3.7 update. The
results speak for themselves. Almost 2X the FPS at the higher
resolutions!
10.3.6 640x480: 30.883424 avg, 21.406263 min, 72.551040 max
10.3.7 640x480: 39.528689 avg, 23.967423 min, 73.189297 max
10.3.6 800x600: 14.329378 avg, 8.091669 min, 70.321510 max
10.3.7 800x600: 25.228401 avg, 10.277292 min, 74.899073 max
10.3.6 1024x768: 13.451833 avg, 7.875293 min, 63.457414 max
10.3.7 1024x768: 23.944445 avg, 10.386805 min, 75.525849
10.3.6 1280x1024: 11.977852 avg, 7.353255 min, 45.794046 max
10.3.7 1280x1024: 21.657199 avg, 9.903020 min, 64.622443
10.3.6 1600x1200: 10.882531 avg, 6.668183 min, 37.552057 max
10.3.7 1600x1200: 19.729434 avg, 8.111978 min, 57.945485 max
-Hector M
G5 Dual 2GHz, Radeon 9800 128MB Retail, 2GB RAM"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 email)
"
Splinter Cell performance increase:
Before 10.3.7: (AVG, Min, Max FPS)
7.990814 3.083211 31.860629 1024x768 HIGH HIGH VERYHIGH PROJECTOR 1960 1_1_1Tbilisi Thu Dec 16 13:44:07 2004
After 10.3.7:
16.895047 4.178597 67.736910 1024x768 HIGH HIGH VERYHIGH PROJECTOR 1960 1_1_1Tbilisi Thu Dec 16 14:10:15 2004
System Specs:
PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz, 1.5GB RAM, 9600 Pro
The average frames per second has increased by 2.11 times. The update basically doubles OpenGL performance - very impressive.
Jared W.
"
Impressive. If anyone else sees this kind of increase (without any broken feature support) let me know. (Also results with other games welcome - many are often more CPU bound at least at resolutions where the card isn't the limiter, but hopefully the updated drivers provide consisent performance increases.)
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
"Hi Mike,
I get much better (splinter cell) results on my Dual 2.5 Radeon 9800 Pro with 10.3.7 also.
Thu Dec 16 08:11:01 2004
28.9 average
10.8 (min)
53.8 (max)
1280x1024
HIGH
HIGH
VERYHIGH
PROJECTOR
Normally i would get average 16-17 fps.
Sorry again for the loss of your father. Take care.
ciao
"
Problem report from FileVault user: (ever since this feature was first added I've been leery of using it personally. Some have called it 'fileLoss'.)
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"I had serious problems after installing this upgrade. I use FileVault, and I think thats why, but I am not positively sure. After the upgrade, when the machine was going down, the FileVault dialog came up asking if I wanted to reconcile some space. I answered OK to that one, and after rebooting, neither Mail, Address Book, iChat, iTunes, DragThing nor MacSOUP launched! My iTunes library was corrupted (had to revert to backup), my Address Book was corrupted (reverted to backup, which when done also fixed iChat and Mail), DragThing file was damaged (again, backup). MacSoup worked also after reverting to backup AND fixing Address Book (or a reboot, which was also done between the tests).
The biggest problem however is Mail - after Address Book was fixed, it launches, but there are a good dozen or so mail missing from my Inbox!! As far as I can tell, there are no other messages missing, but all my indexes have gone haywire, so with my good over 100.000 messages there is a good deal of cleaning up to do!
So - be cautious with this upgrade!!
-e
"
DVD Player broken in 10.3.6 Fixed:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"Hi Mike,
After updating to 10.3.7, DVD player is now working again on my Radeon
9800.
Mike L.
"
(added 12/17/2004)
"10.3.7 fixed my problems with DVD Player
and the Radeon 9800 PRO in a G4 DA 733 MHz.
Robert
"
I didn't have this problem in 10.3.6 w/9800 card equipped system, but
several readers did with various graphics card/drives, etc. -
as noted on the 10.3.6 feedback page here. not sure what the real cause was but hopefully 10.3.7 fixes that for everyone that had the problem.
PCI Extreme Hack not Working - Workaround: (several of these reports - first report included a workaround which other readers later reported worked for them also)
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 email)
"Updated to 10.3.7 today on my Beige G3 Rev. A with Radeon 7000, using
XPostFacto 3.0b12. After rebooting, Quartz Extreme over PCI was no longer enabled. (PCI Quartz Extreme mod) I edited the good old Configuration.plist by hand (the installer had overwritten it), changing IOAGPDevice to IOPCIDevice, and rebooted.
Usually this does the trick but it was still disabled on boot. I tried
removing the line entirely without any luck, as well as putting both an
IOAGPDevice and an IOPCIDevice line in, and using PCI Extreme. No dice.
I'm starting to think that this particular loophole has finally closed for us PCI Mac (radeon) users.
Matt B.
(later that night he wrote)
Addendum to the previous: I replaced the CoreGraphics.framework with the
version from the 10.3.6 combo updater, and regained QE-over-PCI
functionality. Still testing to see if there are any negative effects to
this replacement.
"
(added 12/20/2004 from 12/17 mail)
"Mike,
I replaced the 10.3.7 CoreGraphics.framework with the CoreGraphics.framework taken from the 10.3.6 Combo Updater as reported by Matt B. (above) and, after reinstalling PCI Extreme from scratch, I also regained Quartz Extreme acceleration.
A note of caution though. I initially attempted this maneuver through the finder while booted into 10.3.7. Bad move on my part - the machine would hang on startup thereafter. (may have been a permissions problem or file overwrite problem. Best to run repair permissions (on the boot drive) after manually modifying/replacing a system file. I've seen RP fix some problems I had after manually editing the Airport2.kext file (plist info) for a PCI 802.11g card ID in the past.-Mike)
Luckily, I still had 10.3.6 installed on another drive and was able to successfully accomplish the move while booted into the backup.
So far so good.
Kevin
"
Here's another reader mail with a guide to replacing the coregraphics framework:
(from 12/20/2004 email)
"It seems the Mac OS X 10.3.7 updater breaks Quartz Extreme on macs that have PCI video cards. (I.E. those with ATI PCI Radeon cards that applied the PCI Quartz Extreme mod. Pre-Radeon cards won't work regardless and
Apple by default requires an AGP card for Quartz Extreme, unless the mod noted on that page back when QE/10.2.x was first released is done.-Mike) There is a way to get back Quartz Extreme and this is how. You need to install CoreGraphics.framework but you will need the 10.3.6 combo updater and Pacifist. Drop the updater pkg into Pacifist (download from http://www.charlessoft.com) and navigate to...
System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks
And select CoreGraphics.framework. Now press Install, select Replace from the appearing dialogs, and restart. Then you can use PCI Extreme or go in manually... (clipped to save page width, as both the later released PCI Extreme utility and the original manual editing method were noted at the previous PCI Quartz Extreme mod page here.)
Repair permissions and restart. Doing this should get you Quartz Extreme while using Mac OS 10.3.7. The link to my discovery of and repair (or lack thereof earlier Sunday) is at
http://discussions.info.apple.com/webx?13@159.ZGtnacDEFX8.4@.68a18cfc/16
I hope this info helps all of us w/ legacy macs and (PCI) Radeons regain Quartz Extreme in 10.3.7.
-"Burner Dragon"
"
Any time you manually edit/replace a system file in OS X it's good to run repair permissions from disk utility.
(added 12/20/2004 from 12/18 mail)
For all users who use PCI Extreme, 10.3.7 breaks this due to an update in the CoreGraphics executable. To bring PCI Extreme back you have to delete it and replace it with one from a 10.3.4 -10.3.6 build. Once you do PCI Extreme works again. To do this you have to boot up on the other OS or you will not be able to replace the CoreGraphics file.
Dale"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/16 mail)
It worked until 10.3.7 on my B G3 w/ sonnet G4 800 and a Radeon 7000. Since the update, the hack doesn't work anymore. Any help to fix this is welcome.
Corentin B.
(he later wrote)
Reinstalling it from the 10.3.6 combo with Pacifist worked fine for me.
Thanks, Corentin. "
See original report above on replacing coregraphics framework.
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"Dear Mike
FYI I own a PowerMac B&W G4 600 with ATI PCI Radeon 9200 Mac Edition.
I just install MacOS X 10.3.7 update, after restart I found that the
display was not accelerated by Quartz Extreme. Thus I try enable the
PCI Quartz Extreme support via PCI Extreme 2.1.
But still not luck...... the PCI Quartz Extreme is still disabled.
Regards, CP
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"Seems like Quartz Extreme Hack is broken...
Can't get it enabled via the installer.
Marcus L.
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"Hey Mike,
I just updated to 10.3.7 on a Blue and White G3 500. So far so good
except that I've lost Quartz Extreme acceleration. I tried editing the
"configuration.plist" file like I have in the past but this time with
no luck. Hopefully, someone can figure out how to resolve this.
-triven
"
MYST IV/6800 Problems fixed?:
(added 12/17/2004)
"System update 10.3.7 seems to have resolved the problem with running
Myst IV. (common problem in 10.3.5 and 10.3.6 w/6800 users - game
quits at start of adventure - past tip for that was to turn off the
immersive option-Mike)
Robert D.
"
Notes on Firewire Drives:
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"Hi Mike,
From Apple how to for software updater for 10.3.7.
- If you have a third-party FireWire hard drive connected, turn it off and disconnect it before installing this update. Reconnect it and turn it back on after installation is complete and you've restarted.
This will hard for me as I've got my internal Hitachi 160 HD (in a iMac G4 1) packaged in a RAID mirror with an external firewire Hitachi 160 in an OWC enclosure. Not even sure what would happen if I disconnected the external part of the RAID mirror, much less tried to install 10.3.7 onto the internal half of the RAID with the external half shutdown.
Any thoughts? I'm running 10.3.6 and didn't have any trouble with firewire as yet.
John G.
"
(added 12/17/2004 from 12/15 mail)
"Ran Software update, downloaded 10.3.7
Installed it and rebooted.
No problems, painless install.
I don't have any external devices like firewire hd's etc.
Everything seems to work just as before.
Thanks, Kevin
"
I welcome other feedback on 10.3.7, let me know your experience with it.
|
