Apple Leopard OS Install Problems Reported.

JohnDotCom · 30th October 2007, 08:33

Leopard users fall prey of install problems

A significant number of Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard upgraders report 'blue' and 'grey screens,' plus system failures and advise backing up or archiving data first if upgrading an existing install.

A significant number of Apple Mac owners upgrading to OS X 10.5 Leopard over the weekend reported hours-long system freezes or total shut down, accompanied by the infamous PC 'blue screen of death'.
Within hours of the new operating system's debut, Apple's Installation and Setup forums were flooded with posts from users having trouble with their new copies of Leopard.
One user named Doug Mcilvain said: "I have re-installed and it [Leopard] has been sitting there with a blue screen for four-and-a-half hours. Not good."
Other users including pbella who logged an Apple bug, report number 5563474, complained of a 'grey screen': "After successfully surviving the Leopard betas, the final release has (at least temporarily) bricked my PB [PowerBook] G4 1.67 (it locked up shortly after a full install, not upgrade, and I now get a grey screen of death on boot)..."
All of the users followed the advice given in the Leopard preview on Apple's website and manual and chose 'upgrade' installation option, which it warned could take a couple of hours and would protect users' data while updating the operating system in the background.
But many reported that, re-booting and re-starting the process after selecting the alternate 'archive and install' or 'clean install' options was successful.
One advised users to backup data before attempting an installation, while others said they had received a variety of different advice from Apple support, ranging from re-booting and re-installing Leopard, to taking their systems into an Apple store to have "data recovered and start over".
While most, whose systems varied from the new Intel-based Macs to older ones, expressed anger or concern over the glitch, a number speculated as to the cause. The most popular has been the suggestion that uninstalling the application enhancer (APE) framework from vendor Unsanity would allow Leopard to install.
A user identified as Chris Mcculloh posted Unix command code to speed the restart, which quickly spread through the forums. And some reported success after following his instructions, although he advised the solution was not for the "faint of heart or those unfamiliar with the Unix file system/command structure".
But Unsanity hit back over the weekend, pouring cold water over suggestions its APE was to blame. It did, however, add a compatibility note to its website home page and email mailing list members saying: "Please make sure you have APE 2.0.3 or later installed before you upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5." Older versions may be affected it seems, but those running post-Intel Macs should not, it said.
Allan King, a PowerBook G4 user who had befallen the 'grey screen' problems speculated: "It may be that they are not Leopard upgradeable for firmware or hardware reasons. Apple should have done this research before release," he wrote.
Apple had not responded to a request for comment at time of writing.

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GreyGhost · 30th October 2007, 10:37

Just installed here on my backup drive which already had Tiger installed, So this was an upgrade not a clean install.
Absolutely seamless and trouble free. I would suggest the issues described are in point of fact in the first cases due to third party softwares. Particularly those from Unsanity where system issues have in the past been well documented. The APE update that they recommend is still not proven to be worthy of a pass IMO
As with any Operating system installing shareware and freeware system extensions is fraught with dangers and I as a professional consultant will always advise my clients not to do so or at their own risk.

Issues of possible firmware update issues has not been documented, I will have to look into this or wait until Apple issue updates.

My personal recommendation would be to perform a clean install, make sure it is operational and then migrate essential data and applications.
The average user is not going to undertake this, but that may indeed provide me with a lucrative income over the next few months.

Edit. There were two minor software updates for the system after installing from the Apple software download site.

BMC123 · 30th October 2007, 11:28

see? I told you PC's and Macs were almost twins now

One question though, why on earth would anybody want to sit and look at a blue screen for 4 1/2 hours? at least a PC user would know something was wrong and switch it off. (at least most of them would)

Zeb · 30th October 2007, 11:31

You know what they say.....

It only takes one bad Apple....

JohnDotCom · 30th October 2007, 11:58

I have done my First clean Install and its all working fine,
So this Apple is not bad or rotten.

On a Intel powered Core 2 Duo as well.

salop75 · 2nd November 2007, 13:17

Upgraded my macbook to Leopard with no problems and have been hammering it ever since, uptime of 5days now, memory usage at near max and tons of applications spread over 6 'spaces', so far i'm very pleased with the stability in the latest leopard build. The only issue so far has been PubSubAgent occasionally throwing a fit, oh and X11 is broken

all in all not bad. Funny thing is even Entourage has been behaving itself.

Also installed on an old 800mhz ibook, works a treat. Installed on a upgraded DA powermac, upgraded to 1.6ghz, sata drives, max ram and Leopard simply halts after about ten minutes, nothing in the logs, completely unresponsive, so until i have time to look at it closer i just switched it back to Tiger - odd thing is the installer was happy with the system specs, yet i hear of others with cpus above the 867mhz threshold on powermacs where the installer claims the hardware isnt appropriate.

Looking forward to 10.5.1 and some full ZFS support.

GreyGhost · 2nd November 2007, 14:41

Now installed on main drive. No problems at all, arguably faster and smoother than Tiger IMV.
PubSubAgent threw a couple of hissy fits but no further alerts. haven't tested X11 yet but I will now.

No probs with X11, perhaps a reinstall will fix it for you?

salop75 · 2nd November 2007, 16:08

Seem to be general X11 issues that Apple have acknowledged. Some discussion here: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?p=418978

Luckily i can do without X11, although its nice to have.

GreyGhost · 2nd November 2007, 16:24

Fortunately most of us mere mortals have little use for X11. I have only tested the terminal window called by X11.app and not any application. It can be dragged around spaces successfully. I have just sussed you can re-order spaces by dragging, missed that in the blurb.

To be honest I only ever used it with early versions of Open Office. No longer required since Neo arrived.

Manxmann · 2nd November 2007, 21:25

2 out off 3 here.

Both my MacBook Pro and Intel Mini upgraded without problems.

My trusty old MDD was not so lucky, however this wan't the Blue/Grey screen of death, in this instance the finder would simply not start. Clean install solved this.

The only problems I've had are as follows:

Cord - Microsoft RDP client, has serious display glitches, supposedly fixed with an update but still present. Moving to the new MS RDP Client v2 beta from Microsoft, which is universal! was a workaround.

MacFuse + SSHFS - Both install and run however no file system is ever mounted, more of a problem as I've come to depend on this.

Leopard is much quicker than Tiger on the MDD without a doubt, now all I need is to find a cheap Radeon 9700/9800 to get core animation running!

30th October 2007, 08:33	#1
JohnDotCom * Rover 75 FaceLift Tourer CDTi 170BHP Auto ConnSE 2005 Model Starlight Silver Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Abergele Posts: 28,735 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	Apple Leopard OS Install Problems Reported. Leopard users fall prey of install problems A significant number of Apple OS X 10.5 Leopard upgraders report 'blue' and 'grey screens,' plus system failures and advise backing up or archiving data first if upgrading an existing install. A significant number of Apple Mac owners upgrading to OS X 10.5 Leopard over the weekend reported hours-long system freezes or total shut down, accompanied by the infamous PC 'blue screen of death'. Within hours of the new operating system's debut, Apple's Installation and Setup forums were flooded with posts from users having trouble with their new copies of Leopard. One user named Doug Mcilvain said: "I have re-installed and it [Leopard] has been sitting there with a blue screen for four-and-a-half hours. Not good." Other users including pbella who logged an Apple bug, report number 5563474, complained of a 'grey screen': "After successfully surviving the Leopard betas, the final release has (at least temporarily) bricked my PB [PowerBook] G4 1.67 (it locked up shortly after a full install, not upgrade, and I now get a grey screen of death on boot)..." All of the users followed the advice given in the Leopard preview on Apple's website and manual and chose 'upgrade' installation option, which it warned could take a couple of hours and would protect users' data while updating the operating system in the background. But many reported that, re-booting and re-starting the process after selecting the alternate 'archive and install' or 'clean install' options was successful. One advised users to backup data before attempting an installation, while others said they had received a variety of different advice from Apple support, ranging from re-booting and re-installing Leopard, to taking their systems into an Apple store to have "data recovered and start over". While most, whose systems varied from the new Intel-based Macs to older ones, expressed anger or concern over the glitch, a number speculated as to the cause. The most popular has been the suggestion that uninstalling the application enhancer (APE) framework from vendor Unsanity would allow Leopard to install. A user identified as Chris Mcculloh posted Unix command code to speed the restart, which quickly spread through the forums. And some reported success after following his instructions, although he advised the solution was not for the "faint of heart or those unfamiliar with the Unix file system/command structure". But Unsanity hit back over the weekend, pouring cold water over suggestions its APE was to blame. It did, however, add a compatibility note to its website home page and email mailing list members saying: "Please make sure you have APE 2.0.3 or later installed before you upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5." Older versions may be affected it seems, but those running post-Intel Macs should not, it said. Allan King, a PowerBook G4 user who had befallen the 'grey screen' problems speculated: "It may be that they are not Leopard upgradeable for firmware or hardware reasons. Apple should have done this research before release," he wrote. Apple had not responded to a request for comment at time of writing. Copied with permissions granted.

30th October 2007, 11:28	#3
BMC123 Posted a thing or two 2004 1.8 Connoisseur SE, 1999 XJ8 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 1,163 Thanks: 0 Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post	see? I told you PC's and Macs were almost twins now One question though, why on earth would anybody want to sit and look at a blue screen for 4 1/2 hours? at least a PC user would know something was wrong and switch it off. (at least most of them would) __________________ [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

30th October 2007, 11:31	#4
Zeb Banned MGZT V8 & ZTT 190+LPG Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 8,089 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	You know what they say..... It only takes one bad Apple.... Last edited by Zeb; 30th October 2007 at 11:33..

2nd November 2007, 14:41	#7
GreyGhost Banned 180+ Sport Auto Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Bedford Middle Level Posts: 17,787 Thanks: 0 Thanked 18 Times in 5 Posts	Now installed on main drive. No problems at all, arguably faster and smoother than Tiger IMV. PubSubAgent threw a couple of hissy fits but no further alerts. haven't tested X11 yet but I will now. No probs with X11, perhaps a reinstall will fix it for you? Last edited by GreyGhost; 2nd November 2007 at 14:44..

2nd November 2007, 21:25	#10
Manxmann Regular poster Delorean DMC12 Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Maughold Posts: 30 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	2 out off 3 here. Both my MacBook Pro and Intel Mini upgraded without problems. My trusty old MDD was not so lucky, however this wan't the Blue/Grey screen of death, in this instance the finder would simply not start. Clean install solved this. The only problems I've had are as follows: Cord - Microsoft RDP client, has serious display glitches, supposedly fixed with an update but still present. Moving to the new MS RDP Client v2 beta from Microsoft, which is universal! was a workaround. MacFuse + SSHFS - Both install and run however no file system is ever mounted, more of a problem as I've come to depend on this. Leopard is much quicker than Tiger on the MDD without a doubt, now all I need is to find a cheap Radeon 9700/9800 to get core animation running! __________________ MG ZT 260 - VIN42 - 300BHP of V8 Heaven

30th October 2007, 10:37	#2
GreyGhost Banned 180+ Sport Auto Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Bedford Middle Level Posts: 17,787 Thanks: 0 Thanked 18 Times in 5 Posts	Just installed here on my backup drive which already had Tiger installed, So this was an upgrade not a clean install. Absolutely seamless and trouble free. I would suggest the issues described are in point of fact in the first cases due to third party softwares. Particularly those from Unsanity where system issues have in the past been well documented. The APE update that they recommend is still not proven to be worthy of a pass IMO As with any Operating system installing shareware and freeware system extensions is fraught with dangers and I as a professional consultant will always advise my clients not to do so or at their own risk. Issues of possible firmware update issues has not been documented, I will have to look into this or wait until Apple issue updates. My personal recommendation would be to perform a clean install, make sure it is operational and then migrate essential data and applications. The average user is not going to undertake this, but that may indeed provide me with a lucrative income over the next few months. Edit. There were two minor software updates for the system after installing from the Apple software download site.

30th October 2007, 11:58	#5
JohnDotCom * Rover 75 FaceLift Tourer CDTi 170BHP Auto ConnSE 2005 Model Starlight Silver Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Abergele Posts: 28,735 Thanks: 0 Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts	I have done my First clean Install and its all working fine, So this Apple is not bad or rotten. On a Intel powered Core 2 Duo as well.

2nd November 2007, 13:17	#6
salop75 Avid contributor Rover 75 2.5 Conn SE Saloon Auto Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Shrewsbury Posts: 193 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Upgraded my macbook to Leopard with no problems and have been hammering it ever since, uptime of 5days now, memory usage at near max and tons of applications spread over 6 'spaces', so far i'm very pleased with the stability in the latest leopard build. The only issue so far has been PubSubAgent occasionally throwing a fit, oh and X11 is broken all in all not bad. Funny thing is even Entourage has been behaving itself. Also installed on an old 800mhz ibook, works a treat. Installed on a upgraded DA powermac, upgraded to 1.6ghz, sata drives, max ram and Leopard simply halts after about ten minutes, nothing in the logs, completely unresponsive, so until i have time to look at it closer i just switched it back to Tiger - odd thing is the installer was happy with the system specs, yet i hear of others with cpus above the 867mhz threshold on powermacs where the installer claims the hardware isnt appropriate. Looking forward to 10.5.1 and some full ZFS support.

2nd November 2007, 16:08	#8
salop75 Avid contributor Rover 75 2.5 Conn SE Saloon Auto Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Shrewsbury Posts: 193 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Seem to be general X11 issues that Apple have acknowledged. Some discussion here: http://forums.macosxhints.com/showthread.php?p=418978 Luckily i can do without X11, although its nice to have.

2nd November 2007, 16:24	#9
GreyGhost Banned 180+ Sport Auto Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Bedford Middle Level Posts: 17,787 Thanks: 0 Thanked 18 Times in 5 Posts	Fortunately most of us mere mortals have little use for X11. I have only tested the terminal window called by X11.app and not any application. It can be dragged around spaces successfully. I have just sussed you can re-order spaces by dragging, missed that in the blurb. To be honest I only ever used it with early versions of Open Office. No longer required since Neo arrived.