Combo Updater versus Serial Updater and 10.2.6

edinla43edinla43
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Can someone tell me the difference between the Combo Updater and the Serial Updater? Is this a software download manager package on the Mac?



The reason I ask is that over on MacFixit, they're talking about how if you install 10.2.6 with Serial Updater instead of Combo Updater, it can mess up your files. (I don't know how to paste a link or I would).



There was a test installation of 10.2.6 using each type of updater and with the serial updater, something like 2800 files were altered in some way. Folks updating with the serial updater are experiencing lots of problems whereas those using the combo updater are not. So, before I download 10.2.6, I'd like to know what Combo Updater is.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    nihat_ynihat_y Posts: 8member
    ? Serial Updater is one that youd get under Software Update panel, or a download from Apple updates site. a serial (I havent heard it called that before, id call it an 'incremental updater') update only updates you from Mac OS 10.2.5 to 10.2.6, supposedly just the files/apps that have changed since 10.2.5. the serial, small, or incremental...whatever you prefer to call it is only 6MB in size compared to...



    ? Combo updater is a full updater. It updates any Mac OX 10.2 version to 10.2.6. so pretend you only have the jaguar 10.2 that you installed fresh from the box, and you had not applied any updates till now. the Combo updater, would be the one you want. its also the one that would show up in the software Update panel if you clicked to check for updates with a 10.2, a 10.2.1, 10.2.3, or a 10.2.4. the Combos usually weigh in at about 80+ MB.



    I have heard about this business of the combo and 'serial' updaters being slightly 'different' in some way...bit of a worry that...it shoudnt be like that!..but like a lot of things...it is somehow...maybe Apple would like to shed some light on this for us. ill ask on the Apple discussions site today. ill post my findings back. it does concern me a bit.



    So thats pretty much it in a nutshell...
  • Reply 2 of 2
    edinla43edinla43 Posts: 43member
    Thanks nihat_y. I remember when I updated from 10.2.4 to 2.5 using the smaller serial updater and lots of little annoying things started happening like hanging when trying to shut down, pulldown menus not staying rolled down when I unclicked the mouse, and other small yet annoying things. I used the full combo updater to get 10.2.6 (some 82Mb) and none of those problems exist any more. I don't know if it's just the 2.6 that fixed it or using the combo updater but in the long run, I'm happy they're gone. I'll be using the combo updater from here on out.
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