Cool Mac Gear

Skipping an upgrade release of OS X version 10.2.7 which shipped with the new G5 Power Macs last month and with the new and upgraded G4 PowerBooks last week, Apple has released a version 10.2.8 update which bumps both versions 10.2.6 and 10.2.7 to what may be the last version of Jaguar before Panther debuts later this year.

As usual, there are two versions of the 10.2.8 updater, one that updates Mac OS X 10.2.6 or 10.2.7 to version 10.2.8, and the Mac OS X 10.2.8 Update (Combo) which updates Mac OS X 10.2, 10.2.1, 10.2.2, 10.2.3, 10.2.4, 10.2.5, 10.2.6, or 10.2.7 to version 10.2.8. The basic updater is a fairly reasonable 38.9MB, while the Combo is a whopping 97 MB, which is a steep hill to climb for those of us on dialup connections. I wish Apple would provide ftp site URLs so that one could use an ftp client that supports resumed downloads.

However, it is widely advocated that the Combo updater is the best alternative, even if the basic updater will nominally fulfill your needs.

The update may be executed through the OS X Software Update utility, or you can download freestanding updaters.

However, note well that this upgrade does NOT apply to G5 systems, which will apparently remain in 10.2.7 for a while yet.

Some of the enhancements incorporated in the Mac OS X 10.2.8 Update are:
• Windows on external displays connected to some PowerBook computers are drawn better.
• The Bluetooth menu bar item works better when a Bluetooth USB adapter is disconnected and reconnected.
• Addresses a situation in which an external FireWire storage device would not become available (mount) and this message would appear: "A disk attempting to mount as 'unknown' has failed. Please use Disk Utility to check the disk."
• Addresses an issue in which some Bluetooth devices may not be available after the computer wakes from sleep.
• Addresses an issue in which some Bluetooth keyboards may show a delayed response when you press a key after the computer wakes from sleep.
• Addresses an issue in which some iBook computers could make a clicking sound when using Mac OS X 10.2.5 or 10.2.6.Reduces a potential delay when removing some devices from the Bluetooth pairing list.
• Addresses a potential issue in which an audio application can unexpectedly quit when a USB- or FireWire-based audio device is disconnected.
• Bluetooth preferences correctly displays the Bluetooth menu bar item's status if the item was enabled elsewhere.
• Includes several enhancements for Safari.
• Includes support for USB 2.0 devices, including PCI and PC cards for computers that do not include USB 2.0 hardware.
• OpenSSH: Mac OS X 10.2.8 contains the patches to address CVE CAN-2003-0693, CAN-2003-0695, and CAN-2003-0682. On Mac OS X versions prior to 10.2.8, the vulnerability is limited to a denial of service from the possibility of causing sshd to crash. Each login session has its own sshd, so established connections are preserved up to the point where system resources are exhausted by an attack.
• OpenSSH: Mac OS X 10.2.8 contains the patches to address CVE CAN-2003-0693, CAN-2003-0695, and CAN-2003-0682. On Mac OS X versions prior to 10.2.8, the vulnerability is limited to a denial of service from the possibility of causing sshd to crash. Each login session has its own sshd, so established connections are preserved up to the point where system resources are exhausted by an attack. To deliver the update in a rapid and reliable manner, only the patches for CVE IDs listed above were applied, and not the entire set of patches for OpenSSH 3.7.1. Thus, the OpenSSH version in Mac OS X 10.2.8, as obtained via the "ssh -V" command, is: OpenSSH_3.4p1+CAN-2003-0693, SSH protocols 1.5/2.0, OpenSSL 0x0090609f
• Sendmail: Addresses CVE CAN-2003-0694 and CAN-2003-0681 to fix a buffer overflow in address parsing, as well as a potential buffer overflow in ruleset parsing.
• fb_realpath(): Fixes CAN-2003-0466 which is an off-by-one error in the fb_realpath() function that may allow attackers to execute arbitrary code.
• arplookup(): Fixes CAN-2003-0804. The arplookup() function caches ARP requests for routes on a local link. On a local subnet only, it is possible for an attacker to send a sufficient number of spoofed ARP requests which will exhaust kernel memory, leading to a denial of service.

The following URLs will take you to the 10.2.8 Update information and download pages.

http://www.info.apple.com/support/downloads.html (Standalone Installers)

http://www.apple.com/swupdates/ (Standalone Installers)

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120245

http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n25524

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25525

As always withnew OS upgrades, reports of conflicts and incompatibilities are surfacing. A few hours after the 10.2.8 update became available yesterday, MacFixIt was reporting issues with the M- Revolution PCI audio card and Griffin iMic adapter, both of which will apparently require new drivers in order to work with 10.2.8.

For more see:
http://www.macfixit.com

10.2.8 fixes the Apple iCards problem!

From Josh S.

As a side note, I thought you might be somewhat interested to note that the 10.2.8 update appears to have fixed the create your own iCards ability for .Mac subscribers. It had been previously only usable by Mac IE users, but this update (or something they did on the page itself) appears to have solved the problem :-) And one can now browse one's pictures, and create their own iCards.

-Josh

Great! Nice to hear a positive report early on.

Charles

Re: Powerbook G4/500 OS X Problems

From Jace Nuzback

Charles,

Thanks for the reply.

Here's my current situation.

I installed OS 9.2.2.

I then installed OS 10.2.6.

I loaded all of my OS X applications and got my Internet and E-mail all setup.

I booted in to OS 9.2.2 and installed all of my Classic applications.

I went to the STARTUP DISK control panel and chose the OS X system folder as the new startup disk and clicked RESTART.

It does nothing. Yet if I try to restart or shutdown it tells me I have already chosen to restart and that I must wait for the computer to do ...whatever. I can leave it this way for hours and it never restarts. I've tried everything I can think of, but I simply cannot get back in to OS X.

I had a similar problem with my G4 desktop, but there OS 9 and OS X were on separate physical drives. I ended up putting them in different Firewire enclosures so I can simply plug in the drive I want to boot to. Any advice?

Thanks a bunch,

Jace

Hi Jace;

This is extremely weird; doubly so in that something similar has happened to you on two different computers.

Frankly, I'm stumped. You seem to be doing everything by the book. I wonder if your machine would boot from an external FireWire drive with OS x installed -- not a really satisfactory solution for a laptop, but it would be interesting to know.

Perhaps some of our readers will have something to suggest.

Charles

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore