New Snow Leopard update 10.6.1 is upcomping

I read in the blogosphere that Apple is developing the next Snow Leopard update 10.6.1 just after 6 days! Who's suprised? It's better for Apple as well as for its key performance indicator "Time to Money" to release Snow Leopard (in a state which doesn't makes me feel complete) - in competition to Microsoft with its Windows 7 they had to release it first...


I can't really give Apple the fault of so many app crashes. More it's the developer who hadn't prepared their applications well for the next operating system release. I'm still waiting for several updates but: Apple is, as usuall, faster again.


With the new 10.6.1 following updates, changes, improvements are included:

• compatibility with some Sierra Wireless 3G modems
•  an issue that might cause DVD playback to stop unexpectedly
•  some printer compatibility drivers not appearing properly in the add printer browser
•  an issue that might make it difficult to remove an item from the Dock
•  instances where automatic account setup in Mail might not work
•  an issue where pressing cmd-opt-t in Mail brings up the special characters menu instead of moving a message
•  Motion 4 becoming unresponsive

More unofficial notes from Mac Rumors forums.

- Network Diagnostics now offers to remove manually-entered DNS values for DHCP configurations
- Software Update for printer drivers of Bonjour/USB printers
- HICocoaView double-redraw during live resize
- Bluetooth connection to nearby printers on startup
- libdispatch object use after deallocation
- Sending of messages with Mail where the SMTP server response has no text
- Upgraded email accounts and SMTP servers that require authentication on port 587 but not port 25
- Printer custom keywords added/edited by auto setup tool are now migrated after software update
- Generic drivers are now visible in printer driver list
- WWAN devices that use the AppleWWANSupport2 component
- Updated to Flash 10.0.32.18

(Source)

For me there are no appreciable points are list. Up to now the new update is still not released to the users but to the developers. 

Please, dear developer,

If your application is still crashing on Snow Leopard please fix it. And, if it's possible, please implement Grand Central Dispatch. Your users will appreciate it...

Sincere

Your user

How reliable is the Snow Leopard Kernel?

Just few minutes I was surfing on the Web, chilling around google maps, chatting with my lovely and beautiful girlfriend and use Cisco VPN to encrypt my traffic over public wireless networks...

I didn't thought any wicked but suddenly I got an blue screen in Unix style:


Interval Since Last Panic Report:  277637 sec
Panics Since Last Report:          1
Anonymous UUID:                    4B461174-E1CD-4E84-BD35-A52D37788DEF


Thu Sep  3 21:46:55 2009
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x2a6ac2): Kernel trap at 0x00296416, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x80010033, CR2: 0x00000008, CR3: 0x1bda7000, CR4: 0x000006e0
EAX: 0x00000000, EBX: 0x5842bed0, ECX: 0x07ca1e04, EDX: 0x00000000
CR2: 0x00000008, EBP: 0x5842ac68, ESI: 0x00000000, EDI: 0x00000002
EFL: 0x00010202, EIP: 0x00296416, CS:  0x00000008, DS:  0x084e0010
Error code: 0x00000000


Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x5842aa88 : 0x21acfa (0x5ce650 0x5842aabc 0x223156 0x0) 
0x5842aad8 : 0x2a6ac2 (0x590a50 0x296416 0xe 0x590c1a) 
0x5842abb8 : 0x29c968 (0x5842abd0 0x911b27c 0x5842ac68 0x296416) 
0x5842abc8 : 0x296416 (0xe 0x11e0048 0x58420010 0x58420010) 
0x5842ac68 : 0x588dd7e0 (0x0 0x5842ad04 0x0 0x0) 
0x5842bcb8 : 0x317d6d (0x0 0x7ca1e04 0x2 0xc02c6938) 
0x5842bd08 : 0x314b8e (0x7ca1e04 0x2 0xc02c6938 0x5842bed0) 
0x5842bdd8 : 0x314c5f (0x8c32e58 0xc02c6938 0x5842bed0 0x8c382a0) 
0x5842bdf8 : 0x497848 (0x8c32e58 0xc02c6938 0x5842bed0 0x8c382a0) 
0x5842be58 : 0x497910 (0x8c32e58 0xc02c6938 0x5842bed0 0x8c382a0) 
0x5842be78 : 0x46919d (0x8bfc520 0xc02c6938 0x5842bed0 0x5842bf50) 
0x5842be98 : 0x494b01 (0x8bfc520 0xc02c6938 0x5842bed0 0x5842bf50) 
0x5842bf78 : 0x4ed85f (0x8c382a0 0x83e8908 0x8894784 0x7fff) 
0x5842bfc8 : 0x29d3fd (0x83e8904 0x0 0x29c69b 0x83e8904) 
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace (with dependencies):
         com.cisco.nke.ipsec(2.0.1)@0x588db000->0x58949fff


BSD process name corresponding to current thread: blued


Mac OS version:
10A432


Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.0.0: Fri Jul 31 22:47:34 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1456.1.25~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: MacBook5,1 (Mac-F42D89C8)


System uptime in nanoseconds: 26946550145

WTF? OK, I thought, every kernel can get a hiccup. Fortunately all my written words in LyX of my thesis have been saved automatically so nothing lost. I've restarted my silvern baby and what's happend next?

Kernel panic!!

I've seen in my inner eye a new installation of Leopard - not Snow Leopard. I don't want to play with a baby - thats not the reason why I've bought a Mac. I need something reliable. If I wouldn't have such requirements I would save my money and work on an eeePC with Windows XP on it...

Now everything is working as got used to. Waiting for the next kernel panic: "Oooops, I want to cry"

Boot your snowy cat in 64-Bit

Apple is advertising with the feature of its 64-Bit capability. More surprising is that 64-apps can be run bei Snow Leopard but the OS itself boots in 32-Bit on all Mac computer by default except of the latest XServes computer.


But you are able to switch the boot mode of 32-Bit to 64-Bit. Here are several ways how you can change that setting:


1.) If you want to boot in 64-Bit, press and hold the keys "6" and "4" during the boot; otherwise if you want to boot in 32-Bit press and hold "3" and "2". That's pretty simple.


2.) Edit the configfile: /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and add the value arch=x86_64 to Kernel Flags:



Kernel
mach_kernel
Kernel Flags
arch=x86_64


At the next boottime your kernel will boot in 64-Bit. Just replace x86_64 with i386. 


Caution: Do this only if you know what you do!


3.) Make the setting permanently with the command:


 nvram bootargs="arch=x86_64"


with nvram -d bootargs you can switch back to the default 32-Bit boot mode.




Have you already collected any experience with the performance? If yes, write it down! Thx :)

Snow Leopard, The Ars Technica Review

Ars Technica released a huge, critical and interesting  review of Snow Leopard in over 23 pages. Read it on:  http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars

thx to @svenlito

LyX is crashing - almost

LyX, a professional text-authoring tool, is the tool which I'm using for writing my thesis. Once written in the WYSIWYG-tool  for LaTeX the output is professional styled PDF-document. Forget M$ Word, forget other text processing tools. LyX is free, professional and wide spread in the academic area.

Enough with the advertising!

The current version 1.6.3 for Mac is throughs errormessges every few minutes with the following message:

USING_FORK_WITHOUT_EXEC_IS_NOT_SUPPORTED_BY_FILE_MANAGER

According to (Bug)-trac ticket http://www.lyx.org/trac/ticket/6168 this seems to be a problem of Mac OS X 10.6 which violates the POSIX standard. POSIX allows to call the systemcall fork() without exec() - Snow Leopard is nagging every 5 minutes. Thats annoying me! It's time for LyX version 1.6.5.

Dear LyX-developer: Please hurry up and stand an exec() to your systemcall! Thank you  

VMware Fusion

In times of Leopard I used VMware Fusion to run Windows XP. I need it for execution of macro containing documents like Excel or useful office software like, one of the best product of Microsoft, Outlook.

VM Fusion 1.1 wasn't really compatible with Mac OS X Snow Leopard. On twitter I read a post of @vmwarefusion that he (or she) tried VMware Fusion 2.05 on Snow Leopard which runs perfectly. One reason more not to use Parallels because it's listed on some blacklists of non-working software for Snow Leopard.

After updating VMware Fusion from 1.1 to 2.05 the virtual machine (VM) must be updated (don't know what exactly, something about 3D acceleration etc...) and the VMs are ready. It rocks!

VMware Fusion 2.05 is available for free on the VMware download page if you own a valid license and uses the existing license during upgrade.

10 GB more diskspace!

In times of Leopard I had only 10GB free of disk space. Don't ask me where I spent the other 240GB on my hard disk... I only know that Windows XP on VMware Fusion is using 35GB but what about the rest? It's not the point for the moment. More interesting is that I've got 10GB disk space more after upgrading to Snow Leopard. Thats more than nice! 

According to Snow Leopard ad (http://www.apple.com/macosx/refinements/) I can't only add 1,750 of MP3 (for 7 GB) music files but now 2,500 of MP3 files are possible!! Isn't it amazing? I don't care...

The main thing is not run out of space!