Reminder: Potential pitfalls associated with system migration

On numerous occasions we've noted potential issues that can arise as a result of Mac OS X's system migration functionality, e.g.:

• Problems can be caused by System migration -- printer drivers [generally resolved by removing the current printer driver directory and replacing it with the Intel-based drivers from the "Optional Installs" package on the Mac OS X installer DVD.]
• iLife application, Help viewer problems after migration

Apple later some of these issues in a Knowledge Base document, stating "After using Migration Assistant or Setup Assistant to migrate applications from a PowerPC-based Mac to an Intel-based Mac, some of the migrated applications may not launch or function correctly. [...]"

MacFixIt reader Marc provides a stark reminder of these problems:

"Two MacBook Pro Core 2 Duos (17 and 15") have been setup using migration assistant and both show very very slow airport traffic with some applications (Safari 3 minutes to load a page, googleearth - unusable, systemupdate failed to connect because server does not respond) but not with others (firefox, fetch). Another MacBook Core 2 Duo (13") does not exhibit this problem and was not setup using migration assistant.

"I completely reloaded the system on the MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 15" (not keeping the current users and network configuration) and it proves to correct the Airport problem.

"On the MacBook Pro 17" I took a different tack and replaced the following files with the same ones from the MacBook Pro 15":

• /Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist
• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist
• /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

"After checking the new configuration, the AirPort connectivity has been completely restored."

So if you are having problems after performing a system migration (especially when moving from a PowerPC-based Mac to and Intel-based Mac or vice-versa), there are two options:

• Replace specific implicated files with copies from known working system with the same processor architecture.
• Re-install certain components, or the entire system, from platform-appropriate Mac OS X install media.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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