Security Update 2007-002 (#3): Problems installing -- fixes; more

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 1:02 a.m. PT

4 min read

Problems installing -- fixes Several users are reporting problems properly applying Security Update 2007-002, one of the several updates posted by Apple on February 15th.

In many cases, it appears that the update has been properly applied (Software Update reports no errors) when it actually has not.

We previously noted a method for checking whether or not the update was properly applied: check the version of iChat that installed on your system. Navigate to the /Applications folder in the Finer and locate the iChat application, then select it. Go to the "File" menu and select "Get Info." Under the "General" section, look at the version string. It should show "3.1.7" if Security Update 2007-002 has been properly applied on a Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) system, or "2.1" on a Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther) system.

MacFixIt reader Ed Tierney writes:

"I updated Security Update 2007-2 on Feb 18 along with the other updates using Software Update(SU). After restarting, I checked for further updates and Software Update showed I needed to update with Security Update 2007-002. I did the update again, restarted, checked Software and got the same message as before. I checked iChat version, as you suggested; it is 3.1.6. I tried the standalone download from the Apple site. Same result, no update. I had dismounted and disconnected the 2 Firewire drives and the printers and scanner USB ports before attempting the updates."

In some cases the following workarounds can prove effective in resolving this issue:

UPDATE: Missing languages It appears that in some cases, Security Update 2007-002 will refuse to properly install if various languages are missing from within the iChat application. This can happen if you used tools like Monolingual or LanguageStripper to remove extraneous language files from your system.

The tediously accomplished solution for this problem is to place the language files back into the iChat application package. There are a number of routes to achieve this end. One is as follows:

Download and install Pacifist.

Download the appropriate Mac OS X 10.4.8 Combo updater [Intel or PowerPC] or Mac OS X 10.3.9 combo updater but do not install the obtained package.

Mount the combo updater disk image.

Drag the combo updater package (e.g. MacOSXUpd10.4.8Intel.pkg) over the Pacifist application icon. A list of all files contained in the combo updater will be displayed.

Navigate to the /Applications directory of the combo updater package in Pacifist and find "iChat.app." Click on it to highlight (do not click the disclosure triangle to the left).

Press the "Extract to..." button at the top of the Pacifist window, and select your Desktop or another location.

Once you have extracted the iChat application, drag it to your startup drive's /Applications folder, replacing the old iChat application from which languages were stripped. You may want to backup your old (stripped) copy of iChat to a separate folder for safety's sake.

You will now have a copy of iChat that contains all of the appropriate, default language files.

Restart your Mac.

Re-attempt installation of Security Update 2007-002.

Use the aforementioned method to ensure that the update was installed properly (ensuring that iChat's version number is 3.1.7 for Mac OS X 10.4.x systems or 2.1 for Mac OS X 10.3.x systems)

Use standalone update The first course of action should be to re-attempt application of the update via the standalone Software Update 2007-002 download, available from Apple's support page. However, the update may still not take properly, in which case you should explore the following workarounds.

Repair permissions Launch Disk Utility (located in /Applications/Utilities) and run the "Repair Permissions" routine. Note that it is not the actual repairing of permissions that fixes this issue in most cases, but rather the secondary functions automatically performed during the routine (as outlined in this article).

Delete Software Update cache Try deleting the following file:

/Library/Caches/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate

then re-running Software Update

Unount/disconnect external volumes Try unmounting or disconnecting any volumes other than the startup device where Security Update 2007-002 will be applied and re-run the updater, either from Software Update or the standalone package.

Restart In some cases, a simple restart before attempting to apply the update can result in proper installation.