Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.3.x: Canon drivers; Mail issues; USB joystick "fix"; "Others" at login
Troubleshooting Mac OS X 10.3.x: Canon drivers; Mail issues; USB joystick "fix"; "Others" at login
UPDATE Several readers have notified us that the U.S. downloads page also has updated drivers, although the date on the page is September, 2003. Mail issues We've been receiving sporadic reports of problems with Mail in Panther. Unfortunately, the issues reported vary, so we haven't seen clear trends. One of the latest reports is from reader Brett Wickens:
"If I select all messages (1342 of them) in one of my client folders, and then choose 'remove attachments' from the Message menu, Mail deletes the first couple of attachments, then unexpectedly quits. When I reopen mail, the attachments are still there - and curiously my always open Mailboxes sidebar is now closed."
Fix for USB joystick issues A number of readers have reported that since installing Panther, their USB joysticks no longer work. MacFixIt reader Paul Dagleish picked up a helpful hint from the author of the X-Plane flight simulator: if you've installed Apple's Xcode/Developer Tools, start and then quit the USB Proper utility (in /Developer/Applications/Utilities) just before launching a game that uses the joystick.
"Others" item missing at login Over the past few weeks we've received a number of reports of the same bug that relates to the root user account. Ordinarily, enabling the root account in OS X -- either via Terminal or by using NetInfo Manager -- enables the "Others..." item at login when the login window is set to show a list of users. If you click on this item, you're presented with a name/password dialog that lets you log in as the root user. However, under Panther, many users have found that the Others item no longer appears. This bug appears to occur more frequently if you've enabled Fast User Switching.
Until this bug gets fixed (most likely in an update to OS X), there are two ways to get around this limitation. The first is to simply switch to the name/password display, via the Login Options window of Accounts preferences. However, if you prefer to keep the "list of users" setting, there is another workaround. When you see the list of users in the login window, press option return; then click on any user -- the display will switch to the name/password dialog, which you can then use to log in as the root user.
Panther problems? Solutions? Drop us an email at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.
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