Mac OS X 10.3.8 (#3): FireWire warning message; positive reports; updating moved applications; Software Update; fans; more

Today we continue our coverage of Wednesday's Mac OS X 10.3.8 Update, including an update to information on FireWire warnings provided by the update.

FireWire warning only provided for Combo update Yesterday we stated that the 10.3.8 Update's release notes did not include the warning -- found in the notes for previous 10.3 Updates -- to disconnect all FireWire devices before installing the update. Several readers wrote in to report that they did see such a warning in the release notes. However, this is because they were installing the Combo update; the warning does not appear if you're installing the Patch or Delta versions because the issue precipitating this warning was fixed in OS X 10.3.7. The Combo update includes this warning because Apple assumes that individuals using the Combo update aren't yet running OS X 10.3.7 (or they'd be using the Delta or Patch update) and thus don't yet have the "fix."

That being said, given the various FireWire issues that have arisen with updates to Mac OS X 10.3, MacFixIt staff always unplug our FireWire devices before installing an update and then reconnect them after restarting.

Positive reports Lest readers think that we've only heard bad things about 10.3.8, we should point out that we've received many, many positive reports -- possibly more than with any recent OS X Update. Below is a representative sample of the praise:

• Gulliver: "I have a G5/Dual 2.5 GHz. When I ran SETI@Home with previous versions the fans would continuously cycle on and off -- extremely annoying. This was completely fixed with the 10.3.8 Update. My G5 was never so quiet like after this update."
• Doug Stringham: "My experience has been 180° the opposite of the [bad fan reports of] G5 owners you have posted on your site. The fans on my dual 2.5Ghz G5 would do exactly what they describe is happening... but since the 10.3.8 update they have ceased their revving."
• Spencer: "I installed the 10.3.8 combo update this morning, and rebooted. I'd become quite used to the on and off fan while running BOINC/SETI@Home. After the update the fan was still cycling in the same way, but at a much lower (and quieter) speed. It's a great improvement!"
• Hessel Haak: "For me the best news so far is: Myst IV Revelation is working properly again!"
• Tony Martin: "Ever since 10.3.6, my 1 Ghz PowerBook has had extremely noisey and erratic behaviour of its fan. 10.3.7 only slightly improved it. 10.3.8 seems to finally fix it for good."
• Patrick Barsby: "Original problem [since 10.3.5]: If you set the device for sound output to Digital Out (Optical digital-out port) and then send the G5 to Sleep, when it wakes up, the Output device is switched back to Internal speakers (Built-in audio). The problem is now fixed with 10.3.8 (for me at least). Digital Out (Optical digital-out port) stays as Digital Out after Sleep."
• Robert Shaye: "10.3.8 resolved my Safari problems. The most recent security update had caused a 50+ second loading time for the Citibank website on my 1.25GHz Aluminum PowerBook and my Power Mac G4 B/W. With 10.3.8, the loading time is faster than ever on both units."
• Michiel Houtman: "The update solved very slow access of Mail to mailbox (receiving and sending mail); Quicktime player not loading 'hot picks'; very slow access to iTunes Store; and very slow access to all Apple servers."

Despite our focus on troubleshooting, we're always happy to hear that an update works as advertised.

Moving Apple's installed applications prevents them from being updated A number of readers have let us know that if you previously moved any Apple-installed applications from their original location in /Applications or /Applications/Utilities, the 10.3.8 Update will not update them properly.

This has been an on-again, off-again issue with OS X updates -- some will successfully update moved Apple apps, but others won't. Since you never know until after you've installed the update, our previous advice bears repeating: Leave OS X's applications in their default locations. We realize that some people would rather use their own organizational scheme, and it's fair to argue that Apple's Installer should be able to find moved apps and update them. But until the latter happens, leaving these apps in place is the only solution. You can organize non-Apple/OS X applications all you want, but leave the Apple ones alone.

Problems installing via Software Update Yesterday we noted that some users are having trouble installing the update using Software Update, getting a permissions error related to the /tmp directory (and sub-directories within it). Running Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions function may fix this issue. If not, we recommended downloading the Update from Apple's Downloads page; many users have successfully installed the update this way.

Alternatively, Meg Hopper found that using Software Update to download the update manually allowed it to then install the update:

"I had the issue where SW Update complains it can't expand the 10.3.8 update because of the /tmp/501/temporaryitems/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate permissions problem. I was able to resolve this by highlighting the update [in Software Update] and choosing 'Download Only' from the Update menu, then selecting 'Install' from the same menu once it had downloaded. It...installed without issue after I did that."

The reason this workaround is effective is that when you use the Download Only option, the update package is downloaded to /Library/Packages instead of to the /tmp directory.

Power Mac G5 fan problems The most widespread problem we're seeing with the update -- by a significant margin -- is increased fan activity on Power Mac G5 computers (ironic considering that the update was supposed to improve fan functionality on G5 models). Affected users report that their fans either run all the time or ramp up and down much more frequently than in the past. Below is a sample of such reports:

• Justin Menchen: "If I open 2 or 3 apps at the same time the Fan start to rev-up for about 5-10 sec's then drops off again. G5 Dual 2Ghz, 1.5 Gig Ram"
• Garry Bradley: "G5 1.8 Dual...The fans are now going crazy whenever apps are started, this has never happened before under any combi update. I think it?s taxing for a take off!"
• Ashley Karyl: "I am experiencing all the same symptoms as other users reported on my dual processor 1.8GHz G5 since installing the combo of 10.3.8 and having repaired permissions both before and after the install. The fans will rev up in a way that they never did before every few minutes and then fade away after a few seconds even when the computer is apparently idle. There are no issues with speed or stability that I can see however."
• Leonard Ferraro: "After installing Mac OS 10.3.8 my G5 dual 2 sounds like its turbo charged! It's reminiscent of the first generation dual drive door G4."
• Len Wines: "One or more of my fans now activate when then didn't before. Moreover, it can happen when there is nothing else going on (at least as far as I can tell) on the G5."
• Scott McCulloch: "Just wanted to add another voice to the reports of significantly increased fan activity on a Dual 2Ghz G5. I'm finding my fans revving up at least once every half hour. It does not seem to be directly related to any activity that I'm doing -- I don't have to be doing anything particularly intensive, nor launching any apps at the time, it just sort of happens. I'm not even running as many apps at a time as I often do. The fans will rev up higher than I think I've heard them before, and then settle down again within a few seconds."

The only effective workaround we've seen is to change the Processor Performance setting (in the Options tab of Energy Saver preferences) from Automatic to Highest -- a number of readers have reported that this "fixes" the increased fan activity. (It's odd that this results in reduced fan activity, considering that the Highest setting should make the processors run hotter.) However, note that by doing this you're circumventing your Power Mac's built-in processor regulation system -- instead of running at full speed only when necessary, your G5 processors will be running at full speed all the time. We wouldn't consider this a prudent long-term workaround.

PowerBook fan issues? In addition to the many reports of fan issues with Power Mac G5 computers, we've also received a few reports of increased fan activity on Aluminum PowerBook G4 models. For example, reader Dan White writes, "I have noticed constant fan activity on my 17" Powerbook after installing through Software Update. The fan is running like it is under heavy load but Mail and Safari are the only apps running. Repairing permissions has not resolved the issue."

Isolated FireWire problem reports We noted yesterday that we hadn't yet received any reports of FireWire issues with the 10.3.8 Update. Since then, we've only received two -- overall a good sign. However, both of those were serious enough that we want to cover them in case other users are having similar experiences. Richard Lane writes:

"I updated using the Delta updater. I have lost my built-in FireWire ports after the update. My PCI FireWire card seems to be functioning just fine. I have tried all of the standard tricks. I did unplug all external devices before the update, ran repair permissions before and after the update, unplugged from the power when the firewire ports didn't show up etc."

And David Steward reports, "I have an external FireWire box containing two DVD drives and two removable hard drives. Under 10.3.7 the drives worked perfectly, even though they were restricted to 120GB (perhaps 160) or less. Now under 10.3.8 any attempt to access the hard drives causes a kernel panic."

iBook Eject key not working We've received a few reports of the Eject key (F12) no longer working on white iBooks. We haven't seen this issue in house, so we welcome feedback from readers.

Issues with individual products

uControl incompatible Quite a few readers have discovered that after installing OS X 10.3.8, the excellent keyboard modification utility uControl no longer functions. (It was also officially incompatible with 10.3.7 -- it wouldn't install -- but if you had installed it under a previous version of OS X 10.3 it would still function under 10.3.7.) An official bug report has been filed on the SourceForge Bug Tracker. As an alternative for some of uControl's functionality, consider DoubleCommand.

Confirmations of MacAlly iShockXDriver problem Yesterday we covered George Wagner's report on a major conflict between OS X 10.3.8 and the driver for the MacAlly iShock game controller where, after restarting, hard drive space would be filled up very quickly -- GBs in a matter of minutes -- and CPU usage would be near 100%. The cause was the iShockXDriver startup item, which is apparently incompatible with 10.3.8 -- it not only monopolized the CPU but also caused thousands of error messages to be written to the system.log file, leading the log to increase in size substantially (and quickly!). Since then we've received many confirming reports. For example, Frank Condello writes:

"Within minutes of updating to OS X 10.3.8 I noticed increased drive activity and my system becoming less and less responsive. OS X then popped up a 'low drive space on the startup drive' warning message. Well, I knew I had at around 8GB free so something was seriously wrong. I checked my drive, and sure enough it only had around 200MB free, and that was quickly shrinking -- not good. I popped open Activity Viewer and noticed that iShockXDriver was using 99% CPU, I promptly quit the application and began digging around to reclaim my drive space. Turns out that a log file (./private/var/log/system.log) had grown to nearly 8 GB. After deleting the log file and disabling the iShockXDriver in Startup Items all is well."

As a side note, in the original story's comments section Fernando Gonzalez noted a slightly different configuration: "I had a customer who also had problems with the iShock driver. His hard drive space was also disappearing. His circumstances are different in that he did a user-level installation of the iShock driver so his startup items was not in /Library but in his home directory, ~/Library...the file that became bloated was his console.log file in /Library/Logs/Console/ and not his system.log file in /var/log."

iChat/AIM connection issue Reader Ric Wilson reports an issue connecting to AIM via iChat:

"I downloaded the Combo updater (I have several machines to update so it is easier) and upgraded my main machine. Overall things are going great, but there is one odd issue. When I open iChat, it cannot connect to AIM. The Rendezvous side works fine, but no AIM. I went to an un-updated machine and iChat/AIM works just fine, so its not a service issue. Is anyone else having this problem?"

What are your experiences with the Update? Drop us an email at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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