Mac OS X 10.4.8 (#4): Another fix for AirPort connectivity issues: Turn off Firewall; Safari issues (cont.): more on bad plug-in

CNET staff

Sept. 2, 2009 12:10 a.m. PT

5 min read

Another fix for AirPort connectivity issues: Turn off Firewall We continue to report significant issues with Airport/wireless connectivity after the update to Mac OS X 10.4.8.

MacFixIt reader Ben reports that turning off the Mac OS X Firewall (in the Sharing pane of System Preferences) resolved the issues in his case.

Ben writes:

"I updated my Power Mac G5 single 1.8ghz to 10.4.8, using the combo updater (running fsck and repair permissions before as usual) and I noticed I just kept getting error messages when I connected to my Netgear DG834PN. I tried deleting keychains, plists, etc but still would be unreliable, very slow or wouldn't connect. I read that a user fixed his issue by turning off the OS X Firewall. Mine was on, I turned it off and AirPort has connected fine, and my pages now load a lot quicker. I have yet to do a restart but it looks pretty good."

Meanwhile users continue to have success with workarounds listed in the tutorial "Improving AirPort reception, avoiding dropouts/lost connectivity, working around card/Base station recognition issues".

Safari issues (cont.): Problems with PDFs, more on bad plug-ins, caches Some users are reporting problems viewing PDF files in Safari after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.8.

MacFixIt reader George Lindeman writes:

"After Mac OS X 10.4.8 Safari will not download PDF files. Same files download with Firefox."

Meanwhile, users continue to report that they can solve repeated crashes in Safari by removing problematic plug-ins and bad cache files, as suggested earlier.

If you are experiencing repeated crashes in Safari, remove all items from the following folders:

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins
~/Library/Internet Plug-Ins

then check for persistence of the issue. You can then add items back in batches to identify the problematic plug-in.

Also, manually delete all contents of the folder:

~/Library/Caches/Safari

then quit and re-launch Safari.

A case example, MacFixIt reader Robert writes: "My Safari crashed after the update always soon after launch. I deleted the complete contents of /library/internet plugins. Now it seems to work fine."

Blue tinting -- another fix Users continue to report an issue where a slight blue tint that cannot be remedied through the available profiles in the Display pane of System Preferences after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.8.

In some cases, the solution may be to delete the file "com.apple.universalaccess.plist" from

~/Library/Preferences

One reader writes:

"The color of the display appeared to be over-brightened, especially the blue background and desktop folders. It looked to me like the CRT was on its way out and needed replacing. I received a tip from a helpful Apple tech guru and this solved the problem. I was also no longer able to see the gray grid lines in Excel, and two of the colors on the Excel color palate were showing only white. I deleted the plist file, rebooted, and it worked fine. This also could explain why your one contributor found success with creating a new user account."

Disc burning in Toast Some users have reported issues burning media in Toast and other applications after the update to Mac OS X 10.4.8. MacFixIt reader Richard writes:

"I applied the update to Mac OS X 10.4.8 and shortly thereafter noticed that I could not burn any media with Toast 7.0; burning with the Finder would start but stop after about 10 % completion. I have an intel iMac 1.83 and both the internal DVD writer (DVRK05) and the external USB DVD writer (Pioneer DVR110D ) behaved the same. Further, I would try to stop the process, but could not. Logging out and back in again would still not release the burners. I would have to restart. I then applied the combo update for 10.4.8 with the same response. Booting from an external FW HD drive running Mac OS 10.4.7 both the Finder burning and Toast 7.0 would function properly on both the internal and the external burner."

If you are experiencing a similar issue, please let us know.

Problems launching Rosetta applications -- fixes Some users have reported issues launching Rosetta applications after updating to Mac OS X 10.4.8.

One reader had success with re-applying the Mac OS X 10.4.8 update (PowerPC or Intel). to resolve the issue.

The reader writes:

"The Software Update to 10.4.8 on a 20 inch Intel iMac completed successfully. Afterwards applications like MS Office 2004 that run in Rosetta would not launch. Safari would launch if the Rosetta option was disabled. The user crash logs for each application included entries that looked like a Rosetta issue. There were no problems in a new computer user account. I downloaded the 10.4.8 Combo Update (Intel) and applied it. That cleaned up the problem."

Another potential fix involves updating prebinding, via the following steps.

Log in as an administrator
Open the Terminal (located in Applications/Utilities)
Type: sudo update_prebinding -root / -force and press Return.
When prompted for a password, enter your admin password, and press Return again. The process may take a few minutes, and you may see various messages flash by. The process is complete when the Terminal returns to a normal prompt.
Type exit and press Return.
Check for the capability to launch Microsoft Office applications.

Reminder: External devices can become problematic after system updates As we've noted several times in the past, devices that work flawlessly under one iteration of Mac OS X can become unstable or non-functional with the next iteration.

MacFixIt reader Tigg provides a case example:

"I'm getting a kernel panic when I plug my IOGEAR USBII card into my Powerbook G4 running 10.4.8. Everything worked fine on previous Tiger updates. Haven't heard anything from IOGEAR tech support yet."

Feedback? Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

Previous coverage:

Resources

"Improving AirPort reception, avoiding dropouts/lost connectivity, working around card/Base station recognition issues"

let us know

PowerPC

Intel

Late-breakers@macfixit.com

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