Re: Security Update 2006-003: What a disaster?
- From: Derek Currie <derekcurrie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 16:33:37 GMT
In article <KuPcg.343$1i1.309@attbi_s72>,
"William R. Walsh"
<newsgroups1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello all...
Has anyone else had trouble with Security Update 2006-003 on their *Intel*
based Macintosh?
1) An advocacy group is not exactly the best place to ask this question.
I suggest: comp.sys.mac.system
2) You need to keep up with my 'Mac Security: Weekly Summary' articles.
I discussed this in somewhat gory detail over a week ago.
3) The best free location to read about the issues that have come up is:
<http://www.macintouch.com/>
They have a section of the website dedicated to the update. Another
great site for HELP as well as reports is MacFixIt. But they only give
you one or two days worth of news on their site for free. To get deeper
into their site where they have their collections of past posts and
their tutorials, etc., you have to join up. As a Mac geek I have been a
member for several years and like it. You get free membership if you are
a DotMac member. It's well worth it.
My general impression is that the problems people are having with this
security update are typical, which is to say they are scattered all over
the map, with no single prominent problem. Therefore, the update is
bringing out the consequences of a pre-existing condition, or the
computer is left in an unstable state after the update and may be
salvageable.
So here is my usual litany of things to do BEFORE and AFTER you perform
any update of any kind:
BEFORE:
-------
A) Make a backup. (This is the #1 rule of computing. You snooze, you
lose).
B) Repair your hard drive. There are lots of ways:
1) Run Disk Utility. While you're there, jump to C and repair your
permissions.
2) Boot off your Mac OS X installation CD/DVD and run Disk Utility
3) Boot into single user mode (command-s) held down at boot, and run
fsck.
4) Get the FREE CLI application Applejack. Once installed you boot
into single user mode (command-s held down at boot) and follow the
instructions on the screen. It is dirt easy. What is brilliant about
this application is that it not only does fsck, and repairs your
permissions, but it segregates bad permission files, dumps your cache
files (which are often a source of system chaos) and all your virtual
memory. I love it.
5) There are commercial repair programs like TechTool Pro and
Drive10. But my favorite is DiskWarrior. Buy it with a bootable CD. Then
you can boot off the CD and repair all your volumes, including your boot
volume. It will fix things nothing else can.
C) Repair your permissions. It is amazing what a mess your permissions
can be in, and the chaos that can result when you install an update on
top of it. Options:
1) Run Disk Utility.
2) Boot from your installation CD/DVD and run Disk Utility.
3) Do it inside Applejack.
---------------
Reboot into safe mode. (Hold down the shift key when booting and logging
in).
---------------
Run the updater. The updater may itself force a reboot. Let it. Don't
bother with safe mode at that point.
---------------
AFTER:
------
Reboot again. I keep reading about folks who have their problems solved
simply by one more reboot. It can't hurt.
---------------
1) IMMEDIATELY repair your permissions again. It is so common for
installations of any kind to damage permissions. I don't know why. It
seems to be a price of having the security built into Unix, for now.
Wrecked permissions can cause major system problems.
2) If problems still exist, try a disk repair.
3) If all else fails: Restore your system with your backup.
---------------
Sometimes the problem after an update is a single corrupted system
component. There is no way you are going to test the actual Mac OS X
system. But you can certainly test things you have added on, such as
startup items, contextual menu modules, fonts, preference panes,
internet plugins, iTunes plug-ins, menu extras, screensavers and
QuickTime modules. Happily you can control all of these items with a
freeware application called Diablotin. Similar to old Conflict Catcher
from classic Mac OS, you turn stuff off, reboot or relogin, depending on
when the item loads, see if the problem is gone, etc.
For deeper stuff, again check out Macintouch and MacFixIt.
Hope that helps.
:-Derek
--
Fortune Magazine, 11-29-05: What's your computer setup today?
Frederick Brooks: I happily use a Macintosh. It's not been equalled for ease
of use, and I want my computer to be a tool, not a challenge.
<http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/12/12/8363107/>
[Frederick Brooks is the author of 'The Mythical Man Month'. He spearheaded
the movement to modernize computer software engineering in 1975]
.
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