the honeymoon is over, the new car smell has faded

[rone]

My Mac experience has quickly turned to shit.

• The M$ Office updater downloaded a huge update and then failed to install it.  I tried again and the result was the same.  Also, the file was nowhere to be found.  I ended up downloading and installing it manually.
• The OS X 10.4.6 update downloaded and failed about a quarter through the installation.  The file was nowhere to be found even though the failure message claimed i could locate it in the Finder.  I tried the updater again and now it hangs during "Checking for updates...", with the progress bar about 25% full.  I downloaded the update manually, but when it says "Select a volume for installation", my hard drive never appears.  It's just blank.
• I downloaded and installed the latest iPod update.  After a reboot, iTunes ran fine.  After another reboot, iTunes crashed when i ran it, and when i reopened it, it ate my library.

Needless to say, none of this ever happened to me on Windows.  So if any of you Macheads have any tips for dealing with getting the OS update to work, that would be swell.

Comments

[talus21.livejournal.com]

WOW. I have never had those kind of problems with updating. So I have no idea how to help you.

Try running a permissions fix then see if it works. It in the disk utilit.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

"Disk Utility started, but a background process needed in Disk Utility didn't start properly. Please quit and restart Disk Utility."

I'm clicking on the Quit button and nothing is happening. This is fantastic stuff.

[talus21.livejournal.com]

Have you recently installed any new fonts?

If so this may cause it. Seems strange fonts, sometimes make it do crazy things, but when you remove them it fixes it.

Now I suspect that when the OS update failed something messed up really bad.

But I place the blame on your M$ update.

Really the last resort is to reinstall the OS from scratch. But I would maybe wait to see if some other knowledgeable person gives you a better answer.

Sorry.

[iayork.livejournal.com]

WHen you have trouble with OS updates, it's always worth skipping Software Update and trying the Combo Updater. You can get the PPC version at <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1046forppc.html>, the Intel version at <http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macosx1046forintel.html>.

Beforing updating, for what it's worth, I always repair permission (Disk Utility), and then log off/on again before starting the install.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what i downloaded and can't find my hard drive when i run the installer.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Argh. Why is the Mac community so prone to voodoo systems administration?

http://daringfireball.net/2006/04/repair_permissions

[iayork.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd seen the recommendation to run permissions repair on MacFixit, but I don't see it on their list of suggestions for 10.4.6. Maybe I misread or misremembered, or maybe they've changed their suggestions. In any case, repairing permissions can't possibly do any harm, and may possibly help, so parroting Daring Fireball as rationale for not doing it, is at least as voodoo as the rationale for doing it.

[omarius.livejournal.com]

Macintosh: the alternative problem set!

[pootrootbeer.livejournal.com]

GET A MA- ... oh.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Well, that sucks.

No idea what is specifically causing the problem (although I'll bet you anything that the iTunes problem is a side-effect of the botched 10.4.6 update), but I can at least make some suggestions for finding out:

In the "Utilities" folder, there's a "Console" app. Open it up: hey look, syslog!

You might want to try running the combo app installer from the command line, and see if it's spitting out any useful diagnostics there while it's failing to see your hard drive. OSX application bundles are represented by icons in the finder, but are actually just directories when you look at them in the shell: the actual executable will be under DIRNAME/Contents/MacOS/.

Last but not least, you could try re-installing the 10.4.5 combo update, but that's serious voodoo/make-backups-first territory.

And of course, you can try contacting apple support. :)

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

This is what i found in the console and app logs:

dyld: lazy symbol binding failed: Symbol not found: _GPTuuidType2Human
Referenced from: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Resources/DiskManagementTool
Expected in: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MediaKit.framework/Versions/A/MediaKit

dyld: Symbol not found: _GPTuuidType2Human
Referenced from: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskManagement.framework/Resources/DiskManagementTool
Expected in: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MediaKit.framework/Versions/A/MediaKit

Someone suggested running the disk utility from the command line while in single-user mode, but that yields the same errors. I'll try running the combo installer from the command line when i reboot into multi-user mode. How do you extract a .dmg file from the command line, anyway?

I really don't want to contact Apple Support because i'm afraid it's going to be a huge disaster and it'll just make me pissier.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

So is there something like strace or truss on OS X? This repairPermissions thing has been "running" for about an hour and i suspect it's just hosed.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the first sign of discord was when i tried installing Virtual PC and it bailed out of the installation process about 20% in (again, with an unspecified "error"). Maybe that's what broke it all.

[iayork.livejournal.com]

There are some general suggestions for fixing problems at MacFixit (http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060403142321217), that are worth looking into if you haven't already tried them.

[ptomblin-lj.livejournal.com]

The iPod updater doesn't touch iTunes. Whatever you're seeing isn't anything to do with the iPod updater.

We're a 6 Macintosh family (7 if you count the iBook in pieces on the floor with a bad logic board) and I've never seen any of the sorts of problems you're having. But then again we don't have MS Office.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

INSTALL LINUX PORBLEM SOLVED

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

You and me, we're going to have some words.

[haineux.livejournal.com]

Attempting to debug via email with Ron.

Short answer: EITHER 10.4.6 update can be convinced to work, OR you will have to "archive and install" the system that came with your machine, and then re-software-update.

To determine if 10.4.6 can be made to go, I need to look at /var/log/install.log. There might be some kind of obvious error reported there (ie. blow away some crap or twiddle some version numbers to trick it into installing).

"Archive and Install" is pretty easy to do, but it takes like, most of an hour, including all the software updates that will need re-running.

Yeah, this sucks. Alas. If it makes you feel better, this is not a common occurrence. As your brother would say, "you're special!"

[ltempt.livejournal.com]

Chuck it. I've had my "Mac Experience". At the end of it, I've got a 13 month old Powerbook that is too slow, a lot of frustrations and an interesting collection switches (2924, 3550, 3750, 5000, a Procurve) used to try and get the ethernet stable for sustained file transfers.

Solaris (Blade 1000) for work, Windows (Ultra 20) for games. My next purchase will be a Zaurus for mobility again.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Sadly, i specifically asked for a Mac laptop when i signed on at ProTrade two months ago. It would not be well received if i chucked it, especially because my laptop impelled two of our execs to get their own Macs (which support now falls by default to me).

Hmm, and the execs have MacBook Pros... i wonder if they'll want to install Boot Camp. That should be good for a laugh.

Wait a second.

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

The OS X and iTunes complaints I understand, but you're blaming Mac for the failure of MS's updater?

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I'm not blaming Mac. I'm just saying my Mac experience sucks ass now, and that this sort of breakage didn't happen on Windows.

Archive reinstalls are your Mac equivalent

[mouseworks.livejournal.com]

...to reinstalling the sucker on Windows.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

out of curiosity, was there any resolution to this?

Some followups on the "Repair Permissions" issue here (http://www.unsanity.org/archives/000410.php) and here (http://daringfireball.net/2006/04/repair_permissions_voodoo). (Short form: macfixit are well-meaning morons and really, truly and for real, "repair permissions" is useless as a prophylactic tool.)

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

It looks like it's time to Archive and Install. I tried Repair Permissions after booting from CD for shits and giggles and it corrected a bunch of stuff in DVD Player, and it also "helpfully" removed the setuid bit from screen.