[Macpartners] Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" Update

[Gerald D Burke]

hi al,

will is&t have a verions of 10.3 available for those new macs 
that come with tiger? how will departments get this version?

can they format and go back to the older versions. i have three new
macs arriving and noticed they all will come with tiger.

all use sap, and need ceritificates for stellar, and of course
kerberos. 

i have one already installed and not having a problem with
a kerberos version i downloaded fron the software distribution
link, user in citrix for sap and some other mit apps.

do we take this up will Apple or does IS&T help get us a working
macos for Campus. 



                thanks, jerry





        thanks, jerry


Quoting Albert Willis <awillis at MIT.EDU>:

> Summary
> -------
> Since the release of Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" on April 29, IS&T, in  
> collaboration with other departments, labs and centers, has done a  
> thorough investigation of what it offers, which is quite a lot.  
> Spotlight, Dashboard, VoiceOver and Automator are some of the  
> features that will prove to be very useful in the MIT environment as  
> Tiger matures.
> 
> With any new operating system, especially one that has as many under- 
> the-hood changes as Tiger, there are going to incompatibilities and  
> bugs. About two weeks after Tiger was released, Apple released Mac OS  
> X 10.4.1, which fixed many issues (see below). It's likely that Apple  
> will release frequent updates as they did when 10.2 and 10.3 were  
> initially released.
> 
> Information Services and Technology recommends that administrative  
> users, especially those that depend on SAPgui for Mac OS X should not  
> upgrade to Tiger at this time. No version of SAPgui functions  
> properly on Tiger--some transactions don't work or can cause SAPgui  
> to crash or corrupt data. While Apple and SAP are working on the  
> issues, no one has offered an estimate for when the issues will be  
> resolved. Some SAP users can use SAPweb or Citrix (to access the  
> Windows version of SAP) until SAP works properly on Tiger; please see  
> the Mac OS X release notebook (http://web.mit.edu/swrt/releases/ 
> macosx10.4/) for additional information.
> 
> In addition, departments, labs and centers that rely on VPN, Kerberos  
> authentication at login or OpenAFS should not upgrade to Mac OS X  
> 10.4 at this time, as these applications and features don't currently  
> work and we don't have a timeframe when they will.
> 
> IS&T continues to gear up support for Mac OS X 10.4. Support from the  
> Computing Help Desk is currently limited to help getting connected to  
> MITnet and basic configuration issues. As supported application  
> issues become resolved, more in-depth support will be available.
> 
> Below are details on application and operating system issues in  
> Tiger. Please contact the Mac OS X release team at macosx- 
> release at mit.edu if you have further questions.
> 
> Supported Application Issues
> ----------------------------
> * SAPgui
> We expect a future version of Mac OS X 10.4's Java Runtime  
> Environment to
> address some reported problems and allow SAP to release SAPgui 6.40  
> for Tiger.
> (It is possible that Apple could correct problems in a different  
> version of the
> Mac OS X 10.4 Java Runtime Environment which would allow an earlier  
> version of
> the SAPgui to run on Tiger - but neither Apple nor SAP have committed  
> that they
> will do this.)
> 
> * Virex
> Virex 7.2.1 works on Mac OS X 10.4. However, the newest versions  
> (7.5.1 and 7.6) are not compatible with Mac OS X 10.4. McAfee has  
> indicated that version 7.7 will be compatible, but has not announced  
> when it will be available.
> 
> * VPN
> Cisco has released version 4.6.03 of their virtual private network  
> (VPN) client, which is now compatible with Mac OS X 10.4. However,  
> this version works only on single processor machines--dual processor  
> machines are not supported. IS&T expects to release this version of  
> the VPN client soon and will follow up with the dual processor  
> version when it is available.
> 
> 
> Operating System Update and Issues
> ----------------------------------
> * Kerberos authentication at login
> Several departments take advantage of a feature of Mac OS X (10.2 or  
> greater) that grants Kerberos tickets to a user upon a successful  
> login when using their Kerberos principal and password. This feature  
> isn't currently available in Mac OS X 10.4. In addition, upgrading a  
> 10.3 machine that uses this feature to 10.4 disables the ability to  
> login to the machine at all. MIT's Kerberos development team and  
> Apple are working to resolve this problem.
> 
> * Certificates
> Mac OS X 10.4 adds more stringent handling of certificates compared  
> to previous versions of Mac OS X. As a result, while certificates  
> work, enabling Safari and Mail to work securely, the default behavior  
> is not to recognize the MIT Certificate Authority (also known as the  
> MIT CA) as trusted. We are investigating methods for resolving this  
> issue.
> 
> * OpenAFS
> OpenAFS is an open-source software project that enables Mac OS X  
> users to use AFS, a network filesystem. MIT's Athena uses AFS;  
> OpenAFS allows users to easily access their Athena home directories,  
> for example. At this time, OpenAFS doesn't work on Mac OS X 10.4. A  
> future version of OpenAFS is expected to function properly on 10.4.
> 
> * 10.4.1
> On May 16, Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.1 which includes improvement  
> for:
>      - file sharing using AFP and SMB/CIFS network file services
>      - using DHCP in wireless networks
>      - user login when accessing LDAP and Active Directory servers
>      - core graphics including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
>      - synchronization with .Mac
>      - Address Book, iCal, Font Book, Mail, and Preview applications
>      - Dashboard widgets: Address Book, Flight Tracker, Phone Book, and
>        World Clock
>      - compatibility with third party applications and devices
> 
> Detailed information on 10.4.1 is available at http:// 
> www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n301517.
> 
> 
> Al Willis, for the Mac OS X release team
> 
>      Deb Bowser
>      Joey Gottinger
>      Jonathan Reed
>      Lee Ridgway
>      Helen Rose
>      Matthias Thorn
>      Karl Witt
> 
> 
> 
> ______________________________
> Albert Willis
> Macintosh Platform Coordinator - Software Release Team
> Information Services and Technology
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> awillis at mit.edu
> 
>