[Macpartners] Mac OS X 10.3.9 update problems (unable to write to /tmp)

[Albert Willis]

On Apr 20, 2005, at 1:31 PM, Kerem B Limon wrote:

> I can also try 10.3.9 Combo Updater, downloaded manually, however, 
> that's sort
> of beside the point. If the latest combo updater, downloaded via the 
> automatic
> update mechanism, _on a fresh install_ no less, fails to work, that's 
> pretty
> bad in my book. One would expect at least a bit more quality control 
> on minor
> point releases (esp. when they are something like ~120 MB).
>
> Back to manual updates, I suppose...:(
>
> -Kerem
> Kerem B. Limon
> kerem.limon at mit.edu /e-mail

I feel there wasn't adequate testing by Apple of this particular 
release. Going from 10.3.8 to 10.3.9 is supposed to be minor, but when 
you examine what was changed, it's actually quite major.

For example, there's a new version of Safari (v. 1.3), which fixes many 
bugs and issues. It's also something like 35% faster than the previous 
version as well. In fact, it has (mostly) the same rendering engine as 
Safari 2.0 which will be shipping in Tiger.

Also, several serious kernel-level security vulnerabilities are also 
addressed. So, while this hasn't been the best handled release for Mac 
OS X, there's a decent trade-off for dealing with 10.3.9's issues.

This release is taking more time than usual to shakeout; please send 
e-mail to the list if you encounter more issues.

More on Safari 1.3: 
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/hyatt/archives/2005_04.html#007962

Security issues fixed in 10.3.9: 
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301327.

   -- Al

______________________________
Albert Willis
Macintosh Platform Coordinator - Software Release Team
Information Services and Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
awillis at mit.edu