Re: How to downgrade to an earlier version of QuickTime?

In article <1i8f1s6.1qjr1wpl95vnN%dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Empson) wrote:

Don Bruder <dakidd@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <1i8e5rx.15655k41kr6xn0N%dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
dempson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (David Empson) wrote:
I couldn't find that 6.5.2 reinstaller so can't check it in detail. Do
you have a link to it?

For what it's worth, I started at "quicktime.apple.com", and dug back
for earlier versions, eventually finding the file
"QuickTime_6.5.2_ReInstaller.dmg".

Found it now. I had to search www.apple.com/support/downloads/ for
"QuickTime" and browse the results rather than trying to find "QuickTime
Reinstaller" or its version number.

It is for downgrading 7.0.1 to 6.5.2.

Which version of QuickTime did you install which triggered the problem,
and which earlier version were you running which did NOT have the
problem?

That's part of the problem... I'm not really sure. Since switching to
Panther back in January, I've taken any and all updates that SU offers
me without any particular concern. I honestly don't have the first clue
about exactly when the breakage happened, or which version of QT I was
at before and after it showed up.

According to the modification datestamp on the bundle, near the end of
July I had no problem compiling a long-time pet project of mine that
links against QuickTime. That one got put on the back burner for a
non-QT project, and by somewhere around the middle of August, I was up
to my armpits in alligators with a project that didn't use QT. I was
concentrating on that, so I wasn't really noticing much else. Sometime
after that - I honestly can't say for sure when - Sometime in late
September to mid October? - when I finished working on that one, I
turned to another project - trying to add .PNG recognition to the
"EtherPeg" code. That's when I first got the link failure complaining
about HIPointConvert being missing. Since then, I've been through all of
my QT projects that used to compile fine, but now choke looking for
HIPointConvert() at link time. Non-QT code is perfectly fine, but any
linkage to QT, and the project won't build because QuickTime expects
Carbon to supply HIPointConvert(). No amount of tweaking, hacking, or
otherwise doing anything has managed to get a link to work on any
project that uses any QT functionality since then. Existing QT-using
apps that are already compiled and linked run just fine, but compiling
anything new is a no-go.


In theory you could use Pacifist to manually reinstall an older version
of QuickTime (if you have the standalone installer), with reference to
the new one so you can see what it changed. This would require a fair
amount of detective work, and paying for a shareware product. It may be
less effort to reinstall the system and reapply the updates.

I hope that doesn't turn out to be needed <sigh> I'll look into this
"Pacifist" thing - Maybe it'll help me out.

Pacifist is a shareware utility which lets you open up an installer
package and examine its contents, including extracting or installing
individual files.

Yep, I've been looking at it.


Trying to do this by hand is likely to be tricky, especially if you
aren't familar with them.

What, if any, harm is likely to come from turning it loose to install
the whole darn thing, and to hell with any "leftovers" that might get
left laying around? Beyond the obvious "Well, you're wasting disk space"?

I can't see there being a HUGE problem, since the older installation
isn't going to know anything about (and therefore, isn't even slightly
likely to try using) any of the files that are "New with version X.x.x."
Or is this a hopelessly naive assumption?

It is something which I might be able to attempt (if I had a system
which was in the same state as yours). I can at least do an initial look
at the relevant installers to get an idea of the likely degree of
difficulty, if I know the "before" and "after" version numbers, and have
(or can get) the installers for both.

Never mind that Apple poisoning that process by dumping an update on me
without warning me that it would kill my entire codebase is pretty damn
underhanded...

I hope you filed a bug report?

My email to Apple got a response that basically boiled down to "<shrug>
Idunno, but you're welcome to buy a tech support incident".

If you are a registered developer (even online, which is free), you can
file an official bug report at http://bugreporter.apple.com. You will
need to provide detailed information about the problem, but it provides
a means for Apple to give you some feedback if they decide to do
anything about it, and you can examine the status of your bug report to
see if anything has happened.

I'll give that a go. Can't hurt anything, I guess, and this definitely
qualifies as a major "bug"...

I can understand, and even agree with, the idea of improving QuickTime.
But something is wrong when the improvement, whatever it is, will allow
existing code to run, but won't permit new code to be built, there's
something wrong.

At the very least, I'd like to see the HIPointConvert() dependency in QT
either removed, or resolved internally - but that's just me...
HIPointConvert() is only available on 10.4.x and later, yet whatever
version of QT it is that the dependency appears in runs just fine on
10.3.9. Which indicates to me that HIPointConvert() IS NOT critical to
QT operation - Or if it is, it's somehow dealt with in the new,
dependent code. But no new code can be linked on 10.3.9 because QT
depends on something that's only available in 10.4.x. What doesn't add
up here?

--
Don Bruder - dakidd@xxxxxxxxx - If your "From:" address isn't on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn't contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry... <http://www.sonic.net/~dakidd> for more info
.

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