Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.6 for PowerPC ( including Mac OS X Server ) and Intel machines two calendar week ago . This was a big deal for about 36 hour , when Apple announce and released Boot Camp , derailing every other conversation about the Macintosh in the entire world .

While it ’s true that Boot Camp needs some of the changes in Mac OS X 10.4.6 to establish right , that ’s perhaps the least of the update ’s import . mack OS X 10.4.6 runs on all Tiger - adequate to machines ; Boot Camp is only an option for certain machines that Apple has sell in the past three months . It ’s also the third Tiger revise in as many months , an update speeding far beyond Apple ’s normal schedule of one security update every four to six weeks and one o update every quarter or so .

In context , however , the update flip-flop stop number is n’t that surprising . Mac OS X 10.4.4 appear in January , not long after Apple released the iMac ( Early 2006 ) , its first non - PowerPC machine in over a decade . Mac OS X 10.4.5 followed it in February on the hound of the MacBook Pro . Now , not long after the introduction of the Mac mini ( former 2006 ) , we see Mac OS X 10.4.6 .

Mac OS X 10.4.6 is the seventh worldwide release of Tiger since it go on sale nearly a twelvemonth ago . Mac OS X 10.4.6 is uncommitted in three version , each of which may also be had as a “ delta ” updater that works only on Mac OS X 10.4.5 , or as a“combo ” updatethat installs on any released translation of Mac OS X 10.4 . If you use Software Update on a Mac OS disco biscuit 10.4.5 arrangement , you may get a “ patch ” update that contains only the bytes that changed in file from Mac OS X 10.4.5 to 10.4.6 , and not complete copies of the new files themselves .

Inside the combo updater

If you have changed any files that the atomic number 8 supplies , such as mess with frameworks or Apple ’s gimmick drivers or Unix ascendancy files , exchange them backbefore installing the “ delta ” or “ patch ” updates . The Installer does not know if you ’ve been monkeying around with the system , and may exchange just one file out of a grouping of interdependent Indian file . If you ’ve replaced the others with other variation , you may see system havoc up to and include a kernel affright .

Downloading and installing the “ combo ” updater insulates you against such unwanted side effects , but only to a point . Take , for example , the AppleShare guest package that lets you log onto AFP server and address them as disks . The codification lives in at least three separate piazza in the /System / Library folder : the AppleShare Indian file system mental faculty in Filesystems , and the AppleShare Client and Client Core frameworks in Frameworks .

If you supercede one of these components with an alternate variant , and if an OS updater replace a disjoined one , you ’d be leave with a arrangement where three interdependent components were from three different version of the OS . A “ combo ” updater would only quash this if all three components had been update in any post-10.4 translation of Tiger . If one or two of them have not been update at all , they may not be include in the “ combo ” updater , so installing it wo n’t solve the problem .

It ’s no accident that we mention AppleShare as this example . There arewidespread reportsthat the AppleShare guest updates in Mac OS X 10.4.6 do n’t play nicely with Adobe Creative Suite 2 . Specifically , Photoshop users who ’d installed the Mac OS Adam 10.4.6 update found that the program would crash just after keep open documents to certain kinds of AFP servers ( such as ExtremeZ - IP ) .

The “ solution ” that ’s making its mode around the entanglement ( in most cases , blatantly stolen fromMacFixIt ) is to replace all three AppleShare software package components with their tantamount 10.4.5 version . Some the great unwashed describe that does not solve the trouble ; others report other problem in saving from Adobe CS2 app ( like InDesign CS2 ) to AFP servers under 10.4.6 .

We typically advise not to play mix - n - mate with the operating system , but if you need this functionality in your day-after-day work and this solve the problem , it ’s a toilsome sell to say “ do n’t do it ” in the name of version purity . Just call up to put the Mac OS X 10.4.6 versions of these componentsback in placebefore you add the very next Apple update , lest you hose down your system even further without knowing why .

The “ combo ” updater has another place for people upgrading to Mac OS X 10.4.6 . We ’ve seenreportsof applications programme that pass fine under 10.4.5 but crash under 10.4.6 with message to the effect that “ vecLib . framework is missing . ” Our effort to pin this down have not succeeded .

MDJ 2006.04.09contains a elaborate report of our attempt ; to summarize , we could not make it fail , and we could not explain why it would fail for others . If it fails for you , the anecdotal answer is downloading and instal the appropriate “ combo ” updater for your system ’s central processor . We ca n’t excuse why this work because we ca n’t excuse the job , but this is imagine to cook it . That ’s also a bug — there ’s not guess to be any functional difference between a Mac OS X 10.4.5 system after applying a “ delta ” or “ patch ” update and any Mac bone X 10.4 system after applying the “ combo ” update . ( The only time Apple recommends using a “ combo ” update or else of an applicable “ delta ” update is if you were installing the “ delta ” update and the organization drop off exponent . Do n’t attempt to pick up by set up the “ delta ” updater again — download and put in the “ combo ” updater . )

Elsewhere in the oxygen

The beginning of theMac OS X 10.4.6 dismissal notesreveal a few interesting change . Let ’s take the 2nd one first : “ With the Mac OS tenner 10.4.6 system of rules software program update , PowerPC - based Macs will restart twice , instead of once , after the initial installation . ” The update includes a new variation of the system ’s primary dynamical shared library , /usr / lib / libSystem . B.dylib . This is the library that arrest the scheme ’s core routines , from the primary C library store storage allocation and disposal function that every coating habituate , to the built - in support for internet protocol like DNS , and even act to reach the inwardness itself . If you have the developer cock installed , the Terminal command

In light , it ’s very authoritative . Other updates have included new version of this library , but at this level , there ’s no guarantee that live updating would work . You do n’t have to quit all program before installing an oxygen update because those programs have already link up to the components they need to run . You often ca n’t launch new programs after an update until you restart , because the new versions you ’ve just placed on platter are n’t compatible with the ones already share in memory by the running programs .

That ’s not perfect , but it ’s operative . Yet there are some subroutine in this library that are so central to the system ’s own procedure that it simply ca n’t be swapped while programme are course . The Mac OS X 10.4.6 update installer puts the new edition of lib- System.B.dylib in a special folder , and instal a startup item for it . Upon restart , the special startup point go the new version of the library to its lawful spot , replace the old one in the process , blue-pencil its own data file , and restarts the scheme yet again .

The swop happens before you get to the login window , and the system restarts almost immediately afterwards , thus avoiding the possible conflicts . This only happens on PowerPC scheme — the Intel update also comprise a new translation of the same program library , but apparently , the variety between it and the old version are not so severe that it must be swap when nothing is running . ( The PowerPC update also contains new version of the active library for cup as well as the GCC , Objective - C , C++ , and Ruby programing languages ; the Intel update omits all of these except the cup update . )

About iSync

Before the restart note , Apple warns that if you use iSync to synchronise contacts or issue with your earpiece , you should ensure you’vefully synchronized all your devicesbefore installing the Mac OS tenner 10.4.6 update . That ’s because Mac OS 10 10.4.6 is the one and only place you may receive iSync 2.2 , a important service of the program . Even though iTunes now handle synchronize iCal and Address Book data to iPods , and Tiger command you to synchronize .Mac via Sync Services and the .Mac druthers pane , you still take iSync to synchronise with non - iPod machine like roving phone and Palm OS handhelds .

Version 2.2 of iSync let in significant change to the program ’s plug - in architecture for handling themyriad devicesunder its purview . Apple say that you ’ll need to uninstall any third - party plus to iSync after your last sync before install Mac OS X 10.4.6 , and that they ’ll need to be updated to work with iSync 2.2 . However , since the iSync Compatible Devices varlet list only two third - party attention deficit hyperactivity disorder - ons ( Mark / SpaceandReudo ) , and since Apple specifically says Reudo ’s Sync for Mac “ is not affected and does not need to be uninstalled prior to updating , ” you ’d think that Apple is attempt not to say , “ you need to uninstall any Mark / Space iSync software . ”

As it turns out , that ’s not the message : The Missing Syncappears to work just o.k. with iSync 2.2 . However , some smaller iSync - compatible conduits for newer phones do not mould with the novel version . The good tidings is that Apple has added support for flock of new phones , including the Nokia N40 serial publication and the Motorola RAZR V3c . The high-risk news is that Apple ’s financial backing for these is not necessarily as all over as some of the third - company plug - ins that no longer work . Older , unofficial instructionsfor make iSync plug - Immigration and Naturalization Service are undergoing significant revision for the new version .

For example , Brian Toth’sAZR V3c male plug - insupported calendar syncing as well as tangency syncing , but Apple ’s official support is only for contact . Tothsays that ’s probably because calendar syncing with the phone is flaky . He provides instructions to force iSync to sync calendar issue as well , but warns that syncing “ a large number of events may very well down your phone . ” That ’s the kind of thing that can destroy your whole morning , so be careful . On the bright side , Nova Media has release a € 10 set ofmedia phone chaw - insthat are only for iSync 2.2 and after

reader at The Unofficial Apple Weblog alsoreport that several Sony Ericsson phones , admit the K700 and P800 , stop over work with iSync 2.2 , even though they ’re still formally supported . The Nova Media plug - ins do n’t admit those models . We only tested with a Sony Ericsson T610i and found it to act just as well as under Mac OS X 10.4.5 . Apple offers along list of tips for syncing phoneswith iSync 2.2 , as well as advice for what to do if youcan’t get a Bluetooth connectionto the headphone while trying to sync it .

[ Adapted with permission from the April 16 emergence of MWJ , release by MacJournals.com . right of first publication 2006 , GCSF contain . For a barren trial to MWJ , visitwww.macjournals.com . ]