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Anyway, once I had the disk image downloaded, the install went splendidly. As is my standard routine before installing a system upgrade or update, I ran Disk Warrior to check for directory problems, of which happily there were none this time. Next, I used OnyX 1.6 to repair disk permissions and run the daily, weekly, and monthly cron maintenance scripts, and did my weekly (theoretically) full file backup.
These chores accomplished, I ran the OS X 10.4.2 combo update installer. I could have used the smaller, incremental "Delta" installer, since I already had OS 10.4.1 installed, but I prefer to use the combo updates, as they reportedly do a more thorough job.
The update ran surprisingly fast on my 700 MHz G3 iBook, which means it should be lightning-quick on a faster Mac. Particularly notable was how smartly it zipped through the usually tiresome system optimization stage, taking maybe one quarter or less time at that than recent version updates typically have.
The post-install reboot was a bit leisurely, but that is to be expected, and once the Finder reappeared, it was evident that Apple seems to have found some elixir de lapin to enliven Finder response, as my gut impression is that everything is noticeably faster, document-opening, screen redraws, and so forth. Bravo. Tiger is now definitely a more impressive performer on this iBook than OS 10.3 was.
The final stage in my system update routine is to run Repair Disk Permissions again after the installer, and I had hoped to check out the latest OnyX version 1.6.1, which requires OS 10.4.2. However, when I tried to mount the downloaded disk image, I got an error message, and a return trip to the OnyX Website to try another download brought up a 440 error when I clicked the download link. Not sure what that's about, but I suspect it will be corrected.
In the meantime, I decided to check out another system maintenance utility called MainMenu, which turned out to be a very slick little number that runs a variety of disk maintenance routines, including disk permissions repair, from the menu bar. It did find some things wrong that needed repair, which confirms the advisability of taking this final update step. It was getting late; I packed it in and went to bed.
The next morning, the Finder still seemed a lot snappier, so that impression wasn't just hallucination from fatigue, but not everything was sweetness and light. The upgrades from OS 10.3.9 through OS 10.4.1 hadn't broken anything major that I use, but unfortunately, 10.4.2 hasn't been as accommodating.
Today is my wife's birthday and our 31st anniversary, so II devoted some time yesterday to making her personalized cards in Easy Card Creator. That went well, as usual, but when I went to print the cards, my Lexmark Z -35 inkjet printer wouldn't work.
I tried reinstall the driver software from the CD, but it quit before completing the software setup, three times before I gave up on that approach. I went to the Lexmark Website, and noted that they affirm the Z -35 would work with up to OS 10.4.1 at least, but the driver download page only specifically referred to up to OS 10.2.6, which wasn't an encouraging lookout. But what the hey? I downloaded the driver installer, which took an hour while I ate lunch.
Unhappily, when I tried to uncompress the hqx file, Stuffit Expander 9.0.1 gave me an error message. Having encountered this sort of behavior before, I rebooted into OS 9.2.2, where old Stuffit Expander 6.0.1 unstuffed the installer file with no hassle had all. The thought occurs: "what WOULD I do without OS 9 dual-booting?."
Back into Tiger 10.4.2. At least Tiger starts up a lot faster than the earlier versions of OS X did. I ran the downloaded driver installer, but got the same result as with the CD. Probably the same installer. I uninstalled the driver, and dragged all of the Lexmark support files over from my Pismo PowerBook. Restarted. Now at least the OS would recognize the Z - 35 driver, but it still wouldn't work. It just came up showing "Jobs Stopped," and when I clicked the "Start Jobs" button, it would ruminate for a bit and then just revert to stopped again.
I figured that it was time to confirm that I wasn't having a hardware problem, so I lugged the printer over to the Pismo and connected it. It worked perfectly fine from OS 10.4.1 on PowerBook, and I was able to print my birthday and anniversary cards for from there while I was at it. Looks like 10.4.2 update has to be the culprit.
The thought occurs: "If I didn't have a second computer running the previous OS version, troubleshooting would be a lot more tedious and ambiguous."
So, I hope Lexmark will come up with an updated Z - 35 driver for OS 10.4.2. In the meantime, I won't be updating the Pismo until that issue is resolved, because I need to be able to use my printer.
As for what's ailing Stuffit Expander, that's another conundrum. As noted, the cranky behavior had manifested already in OS 10.4.1, so I can't blame it entirely on the update, but it does seem to be a Tiger issue.
Charles W. Moore
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