[geeks] More Fun with Leopard

[Mark]

On 13 Feb 2008, at 23:09, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:

> 10.5.2 fixed almost all of my X11 complaints.  The system deals with
> monitor detach/attach events as gracefully as 10.4 did.  X11 doesn't
> drop/regain focus nearly as often as before (once or twice a day  
> instead
> of once every 5 or 6 minutes).  X11 window management is actually sane
> now--I don't have windows getting stuck under the menubar anymore.

And how much of it was documented in the patch notes? Non...

> But now VMware freezes.  It grabs the mouse pointer and locks - 
> hard-.  I
> can Cmd-tab to another application, and I have full use of the  
> keyboard
> but no mouse.  Killing VMware doesn't give it back, either.  Even  
> before
> killing it, the VM thinks it's still alive (UI elements in the guest
> still do whatever twittering they normally do), but I/O goes off into
> the ether, as evidenced by a lovely bout of NTFS corruption seen  
> after a
> reboot.

I can't help thinking that VMWare have done something really whorey  
that OS X 10.5 really hates, and they are just kludging around it as  
it breaks every time while they work on a better fix. A lot of the  
underpinnings in 10.5 are fundamentally different to 10.4, so it's  
likely something that's changed from 10.4 -> 10.5 is taking grave  
exception to VMWare's methods. I can't help thinking that it's not  
totally Apple's fault. It sounds like a combination of factors like  
Apple shifting the goalposts and VMWare trying to do something that  
doesn't rub with the 10.5 system.

Does anyone know if Parallels is working A-OK in 10.5? I haven't got  
around to re-installing it yet to try it since I put Leopard on (shows  
how much I need Windows in a VM :P). I haven't heard anything dire Re:  
Parallels...

Still - non of that conjecture helps you, and I would roll back too.

> I have a growing pile of Win32 code I absolutely -have- to churn out
> today, and Apple's extended beta-test program that they seem to call a
> production release isn't helping me shrink it.

You'll be unsurprised to know I haven't installed 10.5.2 yet, I'm  
still on my customary '1-week hold for issues' cycle atm. I'd suggest  
to anyone else running Mac OS X that this is a very good policy,  
Apple's reputation is far from solid with releasing OS X updates. I  
believe 10.5.1 went up, then down, then up, then down again and then  
re-appeared as 10.5.1 version 1.1 before it settled down. I could use  
a lot of expletives at this point, but Brother Bradford would probably  
kick my ass ;) Like I said above though, the VMWare issue doesn't  
sound to be totally Apple's fault. Blame could in this case be split  
evenly at the very least, it's been obvious from your previous  
machinations that 10.5.x and VMWare have fundamental issues working  
together.

If you are using anything, other than a Mac Pro, with Firewire then a  
Carbon Copy Clone onto an external disk, then wipe and install on your  
internal is your best bet. Mac Pro solution is just throw another SATA  
disk in and install 10.4.11 on that.


-- 
Mark Benson

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