Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) Compatibility Reports

Repair Permissions A thread in Apple's discussion boards discusses the topic of repairing permissions in Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar), which may resolve a number of incompatibilities, minimize application launch times, and improve overall system stability. The process for repairing permissions is as follows:

• Boot using the Mac OS X 10.2 Install CD (by holding down the "C" key during startup)
• Choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu
• Choose Repair Permissions from the First Aid screen
• Restart (quit Disk Utility then quit Installer)

One forum poster writes:

"Thanks for the suggestion. I did it and not only does the system appear somewhat more responsive, especially boot times, but now the HP Deskjet Drivers version 2.0 seem to work better: there are fewer JetDirect connected 970 printer disconnections when not using default presets."

Unmounting network drives MacFixIt reader Emery reports problems unmounting network volumes under Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) when they have been accessed once or more. The only current solution seems to be restarting the Finder:

"When any of the hard drives on my network are mounted using IP Protocols they cannot be un-mounted. I am met with the error message: 'The operation could not be completed because the disk 'Macintosh Hard Drive' is in use.' You must at least open the mounted network drive once for the error to occur. If you simply mount, then un-mount the drive, it will work fine. But then, who is doing that?

"I tried quitting all applications but no luck. Then with only the Finder running, I used the force quit feature to re-launch the finder and viola, I was able to un-mount the network drive. This was the only work around I could find."

PostScript fonts Steve Englehart alerted us regarding problems with Mac OS X 10.2's handling of PostScript fonts, which has been subsequently confirmed by Diamond Soft (makers of the Font Reserve utility). Englehart writes:

"At least some PostScript dingbat fonts do not print correctly under Jaguar. Sibelius, a music notation program, says their music font, Opus, will not print in its PostScript version in under Mac OS X 10.2 because the current operating system does not print PostScript 'symbol fonts,' which is what the notation font is. They add that this problem does not exist with all PostScript fonts, just symbol fonts. They provide TrueType versions so their customers can print."

Diamond Soft representatives state the following in Font Reserve's recently revamped Read Me file:

"As with much of the underlying system code in Mac OS X, Apple has made tremendous changes and improvements in the way the operating system deals with and manages fonts. For example, the ability to render PostScript fonts directly in Mac OS X - without the need for ATM Light - is a vast improvement. Due to the nature of this new development, some areas may not work as you expect, some bugs may still need to be worked out, and some things are not yet supported. You may also notice that certain fonts that worked fine with Mac OS 9, specifically some picture or symbol fonts, may not render correctly in Mac OS X."

Dreamweaver MX custom menus MacFixIt reader Maxx writes that attempting to customize menus in Dreamweaver MX using the Behaviors Panel causes the application to quit under Jaguar. He suggest using BBEdit to manually modify the menus:

"The problem I've run into is that when opening the behaviors panel to modify a pop-up menu item in Dreamweaver MX, the application quits. Even if I don't modify anything, it quits when I click on the cancel button. It happens on both my machines but what is frustrating is that it doesn't happen on all file (smaller menus seem to be exempt). This did not occur under 10.1.5. My workaround is to modify my menus with BBedit instead."

FireWire target disk mode workaround On Friday we detailed Mac OS X 10.2's inability to boot a system in FireWire target disk mode when both systems are connected, and booted at the same time. Tony Manzo and several other readers note that despite Apple's warning to the contrary, unplugging and reconnecting the FireWire cable to the host computer after both system have booted seems to allow FireWire disk mode operation:

"The solution is to put the target computer in slave mode (hold 'T' on startup) and then disconnect the firewire from the host computer and then plug it back in. Apple warns against this in a Knowledge Base article, but it seems to work."

Entourage X bug fixed Scott Rose notes that a minor bug in Entourage X has been resolved under Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar):

"Under Mac OS X 10.1.5, when you receive an email with a URL in it, and that URL contains a # sign (for example, the URL http://store.filemaker.com/r1.html#fm), when Entourage X sends this URL to Internet Explorer, it changes the # sign into a #, and therefore doesn't take the user to the appropriate URL. This bug doesn't seem to exist under Jaguar."

Jaguar Special Report in HTML Our Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) Special Report, which consists of extensive troubleshooting insight and commentary from Macintosh industry figureheads including Microsoft and Tenon Intersystems, is now available in updated HTML format for Pro subscribers. More.