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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Security Update 2005-005 Has Trashed My G5

Randy.Hall - May 7, 2005 - 12:18 pm

Howdy,

This one should be a good challenge for you guys, a real test of "behind the scenes" abilities with 10.3.9.

I'll skip the narrative about how/why I installed the 2005-005 update, but will tell you that I now have very little functionality of the system since installing & rebooting. Let me break it down:

* After booting, the desktop comes up and autostarts Virex. It appears to run OK for about 10 seconds, then the display hangs (no response), Force Quit is only option.

* Finder appears unaffected, can open preferences, mount drives, CD's and dmg's

* iSync 1.5 appears unnaffected, able to sync to .Mac

* Safari loads and begins to bring up a home page (in this case http://dsl.sbc.yahoo.com/) and then goes pinwheel on me, Force Quit is only option

* Firefox (mercifully) is unaffected.

* Mail bounces twice in the Dock, then no further response, FQ only option.

* iChat loads, appears to connect. People can see me connect, but if they send messages to me, I don't see them. The moment I click on the iChat buddy list, it goes pinwheel, FQ only option.

* Address book bounces once in the Dock, then no further response, FQ.

* iCal does infinte bounce on Dock, FQ.

* Terminal works fine, in fact has been my only diagnostic tool that functions

* System Preferences works partially, certain things function normally, other things hang it and then FQ is needed. I won't go into details in this round.

As I said, the only visibility I have is through using Terminal and running something like 'top' to see what the processes are doing. In most cases, when each of the apps above goes pinwheel or becomes unresponsive, it's using 100% of one of my two G5 cpus.

Perhaps most appalling is that Disk Utility loads but immediately goes pinwheel when you select a disk (no options show up for repairing permissions, etc.). I did single user boot with '/sbin/fsck -f' but it came back clean. If you haven't guessed, I work on computers for a living, but Macs aren't my speciality in terms of expertise. This is the first time I've had an issue like this with the Mac, so it's not like I'm a troublemaker.

I'd like to find the answer without a) having to reinstall 10.3 from scratch and also without b) having to buy and install Tiger. I'd rather buy Tiger on my own terms, rather than because of an Apple software update.

Thanks!

--Randy

earthsaver - May 7, 2005 - 12:28 pm

Randy -

I suggest uninstalling Virex (what version?) and downloading and installing the 10.3.9 combo update.

http://www.apple.com/support/downloa...pdate1039.html

- Ben

Randy.Hall - May 7, 2005 - 5:42 pm

So, I uninstalled Virex (version 7.2), downloaded the combo update, restarted (just to be sure Virex was gone) and mounted the dmg for the 10.3.9 combo. Then I go to run the .pkg file and...

...Installer hangs and goes pinwheel on me. The window where normally you would find the introductory text and the button that says "Continue" shows up, except: no introductory text is shown (The background is there, and the window title just says "Installer") and there's no button text for the two buttons.

Here's a Grab (which *does* work) of the installer screen:

http://homepage.mac.com/randy.hall/....erBizzarre.png

Also, as an added wrinkle, I tried iTunes and it functions normally. Go figure.

--Randy

earthsaver - May 7, 2005 - 7:36 pm

Weird. Have you tried repairing permissions lately? The suggested process of installing updates is to repair permissions before and after the update. Have you been to Disk Utility in a while? I recommend running such an operation at least once a month anyway.

- Ben

Randy.Hall - May 8, 2005 - 8:53 am

Ben,

I had run Disk Utility a few days ago, before installing Security Update 2005-005. Besides, at present, if I attempt to use Disk Utility and select my "Macintosh HD" volume in order to verify/repair permissions, it goes pinwheel on me.

I *told* you it wouldn't be easy. However, it's looking more and more like my only recourse is to re-install from 10.3 and re-run the combo update

--Randy

earthsaver - May 8, 2005 - 9:06 am

Right. I forgot about that. Sorry. Well, what about booting from the install disc (or using Single User Mode, if you're comfortable) and trying to repair the disk? If that doesn't do it, and you don't have another repair utility on hand (like TechTool Pro or Disk Warrior), then I think the reinstall is the only option. Good thing it only takes about an hour out of your day.

- Ben

Randy.Hall - May 8, 2005 - 9:20 am

Additional info: Turns out that my wife's account on the G5 (also an Admin account, so glad I did that works just fine: all the applications that hang on my account work on hers.

--Randy

Randy.Hall - May 8, 2005 - 9:22 am

Oh, and if you refer to Single User Mode in order to do '/sbin/fsck -f', I've already done that. If there's another "repair the disk" option other than that, I'm interested.

--Randy

earthsaver - May 8, 2005 - 9:26 am

That's the same as Repair Disk in Disk Utility, so we're back to the one-hour reinstall. I think that's your best bet and quickest process. (Sure hope it works, too.)

Let me know.

- Ben

earthsaver - May 8, 2005 - 9:29 am

Wait, sorry, just read your other post. Don't reinstall. Clearly it's a user issue. Sorry I forgot to ask the obvious.

So, I wonder if it's preferences-related. Can you download Preferential Treatment and see if you find anything?

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/22790

- Ben

Randy.Hall - May 8, 2005 - 10:38 am

Ben,

Success! It wasn't Preferential Treatment, but rather that I ran the combo update from the other (alternate) admin account that I had available.

I will give that tool a try, as it seems useful for long term system health. Thanks for all your help!

--Randy

earthsaver - May 8, 2005 - 10:53 am

Huh. I'm at a loss not understanding why that worked, but I'll keep it in mind for the future. Thanks for sharing your experience with me, Randy.

- Ben