[Macpartners] More on Mac OS X 10.2.8

[Albert Willis]

Here's the latest on Mac OS X 10.2.8:

- a small number of users have experienced networking issues related to 
the updated--the version of the Ethernet driver that's used on some 
Power Mac G4 systems doesn't work correctly, leaving the Mac unable to 
use Ethernet networking.

- Apple has pulled the Mac OS X 10.2.8 update from their website; it's 
also no longer available using Software Update. Apple released this 
statement: "We have temporarily removed the Mac OS X v10.2.8 software 
update while we resolve an issue affecting Ethernet networking on small 
number of Power Mac G4 desktop systems. We anticipate that the issue 
will be resolved soon." It seems that we can expected an updated 
installer within a day or so.

- As with any update, some people are going to run into problems that 
are not related to the update itself. Updating the operating system 
often reveals problems that otherwise go undetected. Booting from a Mac 
OS X CD and running Disk Utility > First Aid > Repair Disk before 
installing any update is a method to fix possible problems before 
attempting an operating system update. After installing an update, boot 
the system and run Disk Utility > First Aid > Repair Permissions to fix 
any file permissions that may have changed during the install process, 
which sometimes happens If you run into a problem that Disk Utility 
can't fix, you should use Disk Warrior 3.0 to create a new directory on 
the hard drive. BTW, if you are a system administrator, you absolutely 
need to own a copy of Disk Warrior. See 
http://www.alsoftinc.com/DiskWarrior/ for more information.

- You should have a current backup before attempting any operating 
system update, in the event something unexpected happens.

- If you were to run into a serious problem, you would do a clean 
install of Mac OS X 10.2 using the CD that came with your machine (or 
with the Mac OS X 10.2 CD from I/S) using the Archive and Install 
option, which disables the existing version of Mac OS X and installs a 
new copy while preserving network settings, user accounts, etc. Of 
course, you would do the install AFTER running Disk Utility > First Aid 
 > Repair Disk (or Disk Warrior if needed). Then use Software Update to 
update to Mac OS X 10.2.6. See "Mac OS X 10.2: About the Archive and 
Install Feature" at 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107120.

- Finally, most people who update to Mac OS X 10.2.8 will have no 
problems at all. I've updated two machines (my personal 500 MHz 
PowerBook G4 and a 400 MHz Power Mac G4) and have experienced no 
problems.

   -- Al

______________________________
Albert Willis
Macintosh Platform Coordinator
Software Release Team
MIT Information Systems