Troubleshooting Security Update 2003-07-14 (#2): Problems with Norton Firewall; No Finder after restart

Reports of problems with Apple's latest Security Update are scattered and lack consistency, but we are scrambling to organize the main problems and target some potential solutions. Again, as stated our troubleshooting report on the subject yesterday, we have installed the update in-house without any major problems on a variety of Macs.

Problems with Norton Personal Firewall The Norton Personal Firewall, part of Symantec's Internet Security 3.0 package, is part of a strange but corroborated conflict that will cause some systems to lose startup capability after applying Security Update 2003-07-14.

In order to work around this problem, you can start up from a separate volume (such as the Mac OS X 10.2.x CD or another drive) and manually delete all elements of the Norton Personal Firewall.

No Finder after restart Several readers report that after applying the Security Update and restarting, they are able to access items in the dock, but the rest of the Finder is nowhere to be seen.

In this scenario, users can mount disks, but are unable to see their contents outside of an open application's save/open dialog boxes.

Some readers may have success using a utility like Path Finder - an alternative to Apple's Finder - to navigate and install the Mac OS X 10.2.6 combo updater, after which the standard Finder appears.

Unfortunately, some users have been forced to perform an Archive and Install procedure (in the process losing valuable settings and other data) in order to resume normal operation after applying this Security Update.

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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