Mac OS X 10.5.5 bug fix list grows with build 9F13 seed
Apple last night pushed out another pre-release build of its upcoming Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update for the Leopard operating system, tacking on several more bug fixes to a list that swelled into triple digits a week earlier.
The new build, 9F13, arrives less than a week after Mac maker equipped developers with build 9F9 and warned of a problem with some images that could cause its Aperture photography post production software to unexpectedly quit.
Wednesday's release, however, is the first since the company launched the Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update beta program three weeks ago to arrive without the presence of known issues, people familiar with the software say.
Apple is reported to have made no changes to a list of two dozen core system components where developers have been asked to center the majority of their evaluation efforts.
Instead, the focus of build 9F13 gears towards maintenance and stability, harnessing ten more bug fixes aimed at strengthening the Leopard experience, bringing the total number of code corrections expected as part of Mac OS X 10.5.5 to an eye-catching 115.
Among the more notable tweaks are improvements to Power Management and Energy Saver settings for Mac notebooks, as well as a fix for MobileMe's DMNotification that has been causing the MobileMe preference pane to crash for some subscribers.
Also addressed in the latest build were problems with Mail Sync and Preferences syncing, multiple TCP connections and Application Firewall, and the BSD Kernel and HFS+ file system.
When Mac OS X 10.5.5 makes its debut in the coming weeks, Leopard users can also look forward to improvements to Safari's handling of PDF documents, fixes to Address Book's syncing of newly created contacts, improved Mail message storage, and tweaks to iCal Invitations and email invitations.
In its raw form, Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update currently weighs in at around 330MB.
The new build, 9F13, arrives less than a week after Mac maker equipped developers with build 9F9 and warned of a problem with some images that could cause its Aperture photography post production software to unexpectedly quit.
Wednesday's release, however, is the first since the company launched the Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update beta program three weeks ago to arrive without the presence of known issues, people familiar with the software say.
Apple is reported to have made no changes to a list of two dozen core system components where developers have been asked to center the majority of their evaluation efforts.
Instead, the focus of build 9F13 gears towards maintenance and stability, harnessing ten more bug fixes aimed at strengthening the Leopard experience, bringing the total number of code corrections expected as part of Mac OS X 10.5.5 to an eye-catching 115.
Among the more notable tweaks are improvements to Power Management and Energy Saver settings for Mac notebooks, as well as a fix for MobileMe's DMNotification that has been causing the MobileMe preference pane to crash for some subscribers.
Also addressed in the latest build were problems with Mail Sync and Preferences syncing, multiple TCP connections and Application Firewall, and the BSD Kernel and HFS+ file system.
When Mac OS X 10.5.5 makes its debut in the coming weeks, Leopard users can also look forward to improvements to Safari's handling of PDF documents, fixes to Address Book's syncing of newly created contacts, improved Mail message storage, and tweaks to iCal Invitations and email invitations.
In its raw form, Mac OS X 10.5.5 Update currently weighs in at around 330MB.
Comments
Since a few days I suddenly cannot connect to the network of my university (never had problems with it before) and AirPort won't automatically reconnect to my WPA2-personal network at home....
Wow are we at 10.5.5 already? Leopard still feels new to me.
Almost like a beta- no?
Almost like a beta- no?
While I have no doubt that many people are having issues with Leopard, I have not had a single problem with the OS since 10.5.2 was released. Most people probably feel the same. So, if you care to think of Leopard as a beta, it's only a beta in the Google sense: they didn't want to photoshop the word out of the logo.
While I have no doubt that many people are having issues with Leopard, I have not had a single problem with the OS since 10.5.2 was released. Most people probably feel the same. So, if you care to think of Leopard as a beta, it's only a beta in the Google sense: they didn't want to photoshop the word out of the logo.
I feel the same as you. I haven't had any problems with the OS and I have an Aluminum iMac, a Macbook Pro and an Airport Extreme.
Almost like a beta- no?
It doesn't feel like a beta - I have used actual OS X betas and they are much worse. It just feels a little bit unpolished. A few more point updates and we will get there.
...fix the problem i have with waking my MBP from sleep. Its the only real issue I have but it is extremely frustrating.
Yes. PLEASE.
Try closing it up. Waiting for the indicator light to pulse. Wait a minute; then reopen. Sometimes works.
gc
I still hope that they gonna fix the problem with switching (network)locations. It crashes 2/5 times, and the only thing that works is rebooting.
That's strange - I've done that a number of times and haven't had a single problem. Maybe it's in Intel thing??
As far as the beta comments - if you think 10.5 is a beta then you haven't really messed around with a beta before. Even with the massive list of updates and code fixes there still aren't any viruses to exploit them and that's, generally speaking, the most important. Restarting here and there is nothing compared to having someone steal all your private info or have your computer not work at all...
Almost like a beta- no?
No. Not even close. I've been using Leopard for over a year now -- had a pre-release (real beta) version of it. And while there were a couple of issues with Safari in the beginning everything for me has been working great.
No application is free from bugs or can claim to be rock solid without being tested "in the wild" as they say. Furthermore, with an operating system it is impossible to track every single issue or conflict it might have with 3rd party applications and drivers. Windows XP was on the market for almost seven years when service pack 3 was released and it contained over 1,000 fixes!
With the new OpenGL 3.0 recently released, I wonder if Apple is going to add it to Leopard or just wait for Snow Leopard. From the Kronos Group press release, a significant number of GPUs already have the feature set to support OpenGL 3.0 so it doesn't seem to be a big change. Which I hear is quite controversial in itself, since OpenGL was supposed to be a complete rewrite.
You can bet that OpenGL 3 will be one of the Snow Leopard features.
No application is free from bugs or can claim to be rock solid without being tested "in the wild" as they say. Furthermore, with an operating system it is impossible to track every single issue or conflict it might have with 3rd party applications and drivers. Windows XP was on the market for almost seven years when service pack 3 was released and it contained over 1,000 fixes!
Has anyone been keeping a running tally of the number of bugs fixed in leopard? We must be close to 1,000 by now if not over. For those arguing that leopard is still a beta, or was released too early, It would be interesting to compare the total number of fixes up to 10.5.5 against the same number for 10.4.5 or 10.3.5. And to play the "Service pack vs. Point Update" game (not suggesting mj was), i wonder how many of the 1000 SP3 fixes related to security holes vs. actual bugs in the OS?
I haven't experienced too many issues with leopard, though one notable one is a nagging problem with the right hand menu bar (clock etc) upon waking from sleep. If my 3G iPod is connected when that happens, the clock and menu bar become unresponsive. It's an annoying glitch, but not enough make me abandon the cause.
What's really amazing is that these complex OS's can work at all with so many bugs. It's like cockroaches, for every one you find, there's a dozen more you haven't.
As long as the kernel is solid the OS should run fine even if it's chock-full of bugs. Most of the fixes are minor at best and take a convoluted series of steps to reproduce. Usually something that most users will never experience.
A good and overused analogy would be a car. They're built with thousands of parts, but just because the tape deck no longer works doesn't mean the engine isn't going to turn over and start. As long as the main parts work, the car should be good to go.
Same with an OS. I would venture to guess 90% of the code has nothing to do with the actual running of the operating system. The rest is mostly just features and ease-of-use stuff that most of us could do without.
As you're fixing an issue, you may also find out that it has been covering up several other issues. And thus creating a bigger problem than the original issue. Gotta love programming! Fixing and optimizing code is very time consuming.
Has anyone been keeping a running tally of the number of bugs fixed in leopard? We must be close to 1,000 by now if not over.
Actually for a point update to have as many as a 100 fixes is huge by Apple's standards, so I'm not sure we're anywhere near a thousand yet? Even if Apple averaged 100 fixes per update, there would only be around 500.
For those arguing that leopard is still a beta, or was released too early, It would be interesting to compare the total number of fixes up to 10.5.5 against the same number for 10.4.5 or 10.3.5.
You can't compare something like that unless the code bases are all the same. Each version of OS X has introduced a varying amount of new technologies and therefore would have a different number of unrelated issues.
And to play the "Service pack vs. Point Update" game (not suggesting mj was), i wonder how many of the 1000 SP3 fixes related to security holes vs. actual bugs in the OS?
Was pointing out the amount of time as a response to a previous post. Was XP considered beta? No, but yet seven years after it was released there were 1,100 and some fixes. And fix doesn't necessarily have to mean a bug, could also mean optimizing poorly written code to make something run faster, whereas a bug usually means a conflict or code that simply doesn't work.
I haven't experienced too many issues with leopard, though one notable one is a nagging problem with the right hand menu bar (clock etc) upon waking from sleep. If my 3G iPod is connected when that happens, the clock and menu bar become unresponsive. It's an annoying glitch, but not enough make me abandon the cause.
Did you file a bug report with Apple? It's issues like that that fall under the radar unless users report them. They can only fix the problems they are aware of.
...fix the problem i have with waking my MBP from sleep. Its the only real issue I have but it is extremely frustrating.
If the problem you're referring to is after you login your screen turns black, then do what GordonComstock recommended. Which is to close the lid again and wait for the notebook to back to sleep then open it and re-login.
I'm not saying Leopard has no real issues, it does, and I can list a whole slew of Finder shortcomings, but the temporary solution for the black screen problem is that.