Mac OS X 10.4.3 (#2): First restart may be longer than usual; General purpose fixes (try these first); Mail 2.0.5 issues; more

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 8:11 a.m. PT

6 min read

First restart may be longer than usual Note that your first restart after installing Mac OS X 10.4.3 may be longer than usual -- up to 10 minutes or more on some system installations.

The stall is most likely to occur after the startup progress bar shows completion, but fails to proceed to user login.

In some of these cases, the startup process is only temporarily frozen, and will continue after several minutes of waiting. After the first, abnormally long restart process, future restarts may return to normal speed.

General purpose workarounds (try these first) Two workaround routines will solve many of the issues that are indirectly caused by Mac OS X 10.4.3 installation (i.e. not due to bugs or flaws in the update, but pre-existing system conditions that may be triggered by the updater process).

The routines are as follows:

Delete kernel extension caches, other caches for some issues A number of common issues that crop up after incremental Mac OS X updates can be resolved by deleting specific cache files -- specifically kernel extension caches -- and restarting.

This can most easily be accomplished with a shareware utility like Tiger Cache Cleaner, but also bears a manual process which involves dragging the following files to the trash:

com.apple.kernelcaches (a folder in /System/Library/Caches)

Extensions.kextcache (a file in /System/Library)

Extensions.mkext (a file in /System/Library/)

com.apple.ATS (a folder in /Library/Caches/)

Files that start with com.apple.LaunchServices (in /Library/Caches)

You will be prompted to enter your administrator password when dragging these files to the trash. You may need to restart after moving them to the trash.

Re-apply the Mac OS X 10.4.3 combo updater A workaround that has proved successful for various problems caused by previous incremental Mac OS X updaters is re-application of the current combination updater. Doing so overwrites potentially problem-causing files that were not replaced by the "Delta" (adjacent version-to-version) update available through Software Update or as a standalone download.

Mail.app 2.0.5 issues The new version of Mail.app, 2.0.5, included with Mac OS X 10.4.3 is exhibiting a variety of issues for upgraders.

MacFixIt reader Brian Burrow reports issues with Junk mail filtering after the update:

"After the Mac OS X 10.4.3 Update, the Junk mail filtering doesn't work properly.. While it does correctly mark all the right messages as junk, mine is set on automatic, which normally moves the junk mail to the junk folder.. Only about half of the messages actually get moved and the rest stay in the Inbox. I can't see anything in common with what stays and what does get moved."

Remove Mail.app plug-ins/add-ons Some issues apparent in Mail.app 2.0.5 are due to incompatibilities with third-party plug-ins or add-ons for the application. Try temporarily removing third-party files from the following folders:

~/Library/Mail/Bundles

/Library/Mail/Bundles

and re-launch Mail.app to check for persistence of the issue.

For instance, MacFixIt reader Tom reports an issue with the MailTags add-on:

"(I had a number of problems with Mail.app 2.0.5) and it turned out to be an incompatibility with MailTags 1.0 I was still using -- removing it (and rebuilding the mailboxes) resolved the problem."

Increased fan activity A surprisingly high number of users are reporting dramatically increased fan activity after installing Mac OS X 10.4.3. In some cases, these increases in fan speed and audible volume are only temporary, and will diminish during subsequent operation.

MacFixIt reader Wayne Barber writes:

"Installed Mac OS X 10.4.3 tonight through Software Update. Fans went nuts following the update (Powermac G5 Dual 1.8Ghz with 2Mb memory). At first, I thought the fan activity was caused by Spotlight indexing the computer, which includes the boot drive and two external firewire drives. But no, the increased fan activity continued. Very high-speed fans when opening Firefox, surfing to certain web pages (no discernible pattern or reason). When I say "very high speed fans," I'm talking jet-engine stuff, howlingly fast."

Mark Oliver adds:

"With the 10.4.3 update it is back to the 10.3 days when my legacy G5 Tower dual 2GHz fan would rev up for a few seconds for no apparent reason. Did the usual steps to see if I could fix it with no luck."

Another reader reports the same issue with an iMac G5:

"Updated G5 iMac and now the fan runs at high speed constantly, great for cooling the processor, now approximately 31deg celsius. But extremely noisy. Did all the usual repair permissions before and after, no luck there."

Resetting the SMU In some cases, resetting your Mac's SMU -- system management unit (per Knowledge Base article #301733 for the iMac G5 or Knowledge Base article #300341 for the Power Mac G5) -- can return fans to normal operation.

MacFixIt reader Ian Williams writes:

"I have just applied the 10.4.3 combo update on my iMac G5. Repaired permissions before and after. The iMac is now starting normally but the fans are spinning very noisily and won't settle down. [...] Follow-up on my last report of fan noise and keychain problems after updating to 10.4.3. Resetting the SMU appears to have resolved both problems."

Failing an SMU reset, try starting up in Open Firmware mode (by restarting your Mac then immediately holding down the Command, Option, O and F keys simultaneously) then entering the following commands, pressing return after each:

reset-nvram

set-defaults

reset-all

Disk Utility changes: Now has live verification; Ignorable permissions alerts Mac OS X 10.4.3 includes a fairly significant update to Apple's Disk Utility (located in Applications/Utilities).

First, the new release can verify your computer's startup disk (volume) without requiring you to start up from another volume. This feature is called "Live Verification." However, if Disk Utility discovers any issues that require a repair, you will need to start up from your Mac OS X Tiger DVD or CD and use Disk Utility on that disc to make repairs.

Second, there are some new permissions alerts that will be generated by Disk Utility under normal circumstances, and can be safely ignored. These include any error messages that look like:

"Incorrect size for file temp(number) (It should be 000 instead of 999)"

and another alert concerning special permissions the Library/Widgets folder.

EyeHome Elgato Systems has confirmed that its EyeHome Mac-to-television streaming software is broken by Mac OS X 10.4.3.

Several MacFixIt reader also reported the issue.

One reader writes:

"After installing the 10.4.3 update, EyeHome 1.6 will no longer run. It starts but then crashes within a few seconds. The system is a dual G5 2.0 GHz (summer 2005 edition) with 2.5 GB memory and two internal hard drives. An EyeTV 200 is also attached and seems to work fine."

Another adds:

"Since upgrading my G5 imac to 10.4.3 Eyehome 1.6 crashes as soon as I try to launch it seems to run for a few seconds then it crashes (I get the this app has quit...report box form os x). Eyehome was working fine with 10.4.2."

The company is working on an update which should be available shortly.

Onyx broken One reader reports that the Onyx system maintenance utility is broken after the Mac OS X 10.4.3 update:

"After update the application ONYX (ver 1.6.5b1) seems to be broken Application runs but keeps coming up with the error message 'Applescript Error ?1762' Tried on two machines and different versions of Onyx ? same result."

M-Audio drivers broken, fix It appears that the M-Audio Delta drivers 2.04 are also broken by Mac OS X 10.4.3

MacFixIt reader Robert Hancock reports a fix:

"The fix discovered by a reader on the Apple Discussions is to roll back the drivers to 2.01 (found under the 10.3.8 OS X drivers at the M-Audio website). These date from May 2005 and have sleep issues but at least no kernel panics or endless audio loops."

PithHelmet broken, fix It appears that PithHelmet, the content filtering/add-on tool for Safari is once again broken under Mac OS X 10.4.3. Until the developer updates the software, a poster to VersionTracker's discussion boards has found a workaround: