For Some, Installation Problems Spoil Leopard’s Release

HOLD ON HERE! ….with regard to that BLUE SCREEN supposed problem… MAYBE THERE IS NO PROBLEM AT ALL? …. way too many people are jumping to conclusions here……. I too had seen this blank blue screen on install of Leopard on my G4 Laptop… of course i cannot speak for anyone els… but when the blue screen appeared and did not seem to go away… rather than give up and assume that it crashed… i had patients and let the computer sit for about 10 min… SURE enough… eventually… the computer booted up… im assuming that the upgrade just took a long time… granted… im on a G4 Laptop… not one of those fast and fancy INTEL models… needless to say… it DID eventually start up and i have not seen any major issues… sure there a few bugs… but most are minor enough for me to continue to work until there is an update… AND just for the record… im not running a simple setup… i have tons of software that was already installed… some are major applications like Adobe CS 3 as well as other third party software …all working without issues…. i have to say… im IMPRESSED with LEOPARD… HAVE PATIENTS OUT THERE PEOPLE… Realize that if you are doing Archive and Install… A lot of your hard drives out there are HUGE… and large amounts of data take time to backup…

hello. so i’m helping my friend upgrade her mac to leopard. i’m a pc guy so i’m having a little trouble figuring this one out. when i plug the cd in it says click here to upgrade and then it reboots the computer. when the computer reboots it spits the disk out, there for stopping the installation. is this a hardware problem, or has this happened to anyone else?

I have to ask, is there anthing preventing one from putting Leopard on an external Firewire 400 La Cie Drive 30 GB, not only clean but erased with the Leopard Disk Utility that comes with the DVD?
I don’t have the app enhancer whatever everyone is saying to disable; I actually blew away the drive (erased it) by using Leopard’s Disk Utility. It had been acting fine; copied all the files I wanted off of it, it made no bad noises, so was surprised the erase failed- twice. After several tries, and reboots, and finding the correct selection under Parition options, it mounted, and the OS install got to 28% complete— and hung there for 20 minutes. Drives are spinning, just no joy. Here’s the weird part- after rebooting- noW no Firewire drive seems to exist at all, from the Mac Book Pro’s perspective running Tyger, nor from Disk Utility, or System Profiler, or Terminal, not from the Leopard DVD either. No FW devices found. Something bad happened here folks.
I took the La Cie drive, plugged it right in to my old trusty iBook running Panther, voila! mounts in seconds, looks fine, acts fine.
Now… what the heck happened there? I worked as a tech for Apple, and I have never seen this before.
On my G4 tower with dual 867s, without reformatting the drive, but doing a clean install, Leopard started out beautiful, and now… it never wakes up from sleep.
I’d keep an eye on the boards and wait til they find fixes for these issues. When it gets worked out, it will be stunning. But there are gnomes in it now.

I have just installed the Leopard upgrade on a relatively new MAC Book with no Application Enhancer software of any kind. Disaster!!! The blue screen breakdown got me. I called support, waited a half hour and got disconnected mid call, apparently because the 6PM PST quit time arrived. But no explanation before pulling the plug on me. Think long and hard before you buy this now.

it’s very simple.

blue screen comes when you have been installing Application Enhancer on Tiger before upgrading so you have two solutions:

1) repeat the installation choosing Archive & Install from options this time

2) enter single-user mode by pressing Command+S while starting your mac, then run this commands by the sane order

fsck -fy
mount -uw /
rm -rf /System/Library/SystemConfiguration/ApplicationEnhancer.bundle
shutdown -r now

I just converted from Microsoft to Apple and this headache was my first experience. This along with no instructions on how to convert a litany of things to my Apple. How can a company sell themselves as an upgrade yet you have to go to 3rd parties to get explanations of how to do things? Apple may have a good product but their assistance for the average Joe is just not there.

By the way, only the Archive and Install worked for me but most Apple technicians did not even know of it.

Personally, I upgraded without a problem, but I guess I was lucky because there is another scary story at http://www.thetechbrief.com/2007/11/02/leopard-let-out-of-the-cage-too-soon/

After upgrading my 20″ swivel-arm G4 iMac to Leopard from Tiger, my applications work OK, but the OS refuses to work properly. I am unable to use Finder, unable to close applications and unable to shut the computer down short of hiting the power button. After 3 hours on the phone with Apple Care, I’m still in the same boat. They said they would forward my problem to the engineers and get back to me. This is my first REAL disappointment with an Apple product. You start to get a little bit uneasy when even the tech staff is dumbfounded.

Installed Leopard on two Macs today, an alu. iMac and a 1.33 iBook. No problems, great upgrade. If you stay away from the haxies, you’ll be OK!

I don’t really have a clue when it comes to computers, I just want them to work which is why I love my MacBook. The install of 10.5 could not have gone smoother. I ran the disk (including the verification process) and went out for a coffee. 2 1/2 hours later my Mac was awake and looking fantastic with (touch wood) no issues to report so far. I hope everything comes good for those that have had problems. It’s worth it believe me.

It is funny how apple fanboys are blaming 3rd party applications for the upgrade problem, I remember when I upgraded one of my XP to vista, Vista told me which programs and hardware should I uninstall, change, or upgrade before it install, and the process went smoothly. Of course Apple hates 3rd party applications because they always think only apple software should be on apple hardware. May be they should start learn from Microsoft that when you start having higher market share and more Mac OS X compatible software, and peripherals these things will start to happen. Let’s wait and see how Apple will gain more market share (which is a fact) and see how Apple will deal with such headaches and not ignore them even if they are minor.

I upgraded my several Macs (7) with Leopard without problems. Things happened smoothly. I prepared for the upgrade by removing all system hacks - such as APE and other unsanity.com software. These hacks are not compatible yet. I love them but they notoriously crash systems until they are upgraded for compatibility. Well done, Apple!

When I was looking at the small booklet that say insert the disk, press ok and reboot I tought it would be a smooth upgrade. So at lunch time I’ve just start my install and got kernel panic at restart. Nothing was possible to do. I’ve tried to reupgrade another time. Nothing work. Just done a clean install and everything work. My friend got a blue screen. Does’nt look good.

But the OS by it self is nice. It is not a big evolution. I think all the reviews that say it’s nice are a little to “apple freak” and miss of objectivity. It’s nice just like the Tiger. No big change except for the 64 bits and the a2dp support! Oh yes, spotlight place the cursor on the first result! Wow ;)

Apple has become another middle of the road computer maker. Hopefully these issues will continue and the arrogant Apple will fall from the tree of hyped up underperforming products.

i wish 10.5 would install properly so i can enjoy all the new features….. but right now i wish i could go back to 10.4 so i could enjoy a functioning computer.

“OK, they never explained the fact that if you drag out the documents or folders from Stack position into desktop, you will lose them forever!!!! I’ve lost several documents this way. Arrrgh!!!!

Posted By Andrew, Columbus, OH : October 27, 2007 4:19 pm”

Andrew, they never explained it because that isn’t what happens. What sits on your doc are aliases of the actual files, not the actual files themselves. Open your Macintosh HD, drag the “Documents” icon to the doc and then go read the very small basic manual for this and other basics.

The Mac has an extremely diverse user base and there are hundreds of cool little apps that are offered for free by enthusiastic developers and hobbyists alike. A major upgrade of an operating system will no matter how long in development always have a % of failure with some users.
That Apple has now released Leopard to the user base it is many of these problems arise and the question or argument is that Apple got something wrong?
In fairness we need a little time as many small problems need to be addressed by people that have released their freeware enhancements etc. I am not passing the buck i simply state that software from many sources together with an OS can create some issues. Apple users are somewhat spoilt as going into the command line area is something many of us have never had to do. Without bashing the Windows OS users of PC do this regularly and many on a daily basis. That Apple has kept the point and click at the front end of the user interaction has made many of us lazy as the keyboard is needed only for text input. Respect and thanx to all who have posted work arounds for those that do have issues but as a final word for those of lesser experience waiting a week or 2 before upgrading is never a bad thing.

Yes they test this stuff. But upgrades are notoriously troublesome. Every system is a little bit unique. It would be shocking (though wonderful) if everyone’s went smoothly.

I never upgrade without a fallback strategy.

One problem is that people really WANT this upgrade. On the other side, people don’t need a lot of encouragement to just stick with the old OS.

It’s also not fair to compare with MS, in that PC hardware diversity makes upgrading ridiculously perilous. That’s just part of the “value proposition” of the PC, not MS being lame.

I upgrade my macs carefully. I upgrade my PC OSes by replacing them.

It seems that every time PED posts an article which is even vaguely critical of Apple, hoards of hypersensitive fans clog the comments section with protestations of bias and Apple-bashing. People, please take a clue from the tagline (”Mac news from outside the reality distortion field”) and get used to the idea that no company, not even Apple, is perfect, and the best way to make Apple better is to bring its flaws, however minor, to light.

Meanwhile, I’d certainly support stricter moderating of the comments section (if it’s not being done already). Those of us looking for valuable contributions to the discussion don’t want to have to wade through a bunch of whining.

OK, they never explained the fact that if you drag out the documents or folders from Stack position into desktop, you will lose them forever!!!! I’ve lost several documents this way. Arrrgh!!!!

Walt Mossberg, of the Wall Street Journal, wrote a glowing piece about the new Leopard OS. He said, “I’ve been testing Leopard, and while it is an evolotionary, not a revolutionary, release, it builds on Apple’s quality advantage over Windows. In my view, Leopard is better and faster than Vista, with a set of new features that make Macs even easier to use.”
He continued, “When I upgraded my personal iMac desktop to Leopard, it took less than an hour, and after the process was complete, all my programs, including the Mac version of Microsoft Office, the Firefox Web browser and Adobe Reader, worked rapidly and fine. I was still able to run Windows XP via Fusion, a third-party program. And my previous installation of Boot Camp, which turns the iMac into a speedy, full-fledged Vista machine after a reboot, worked perfectly. All my Vista programs and files continued to function properly.”

In the article, Mossberg also covers the topices of FILE MANAGEMENT, TIME MACHINE, SHARED COMPUTERS, REMOTE CONTROL, ICHAT, and SPACES. There is nt a negative word in his review.

Mossberg concludes, “Leopard isn’t a must-have for Mac owners, but it adds value. For new Mac buyers it makes switching even more attractive.”

“This was not the smoothest of upgrades.”

You have statistics to back this claim, or you have an agenda?

Thanks Apple 2.0 for raising this issue, and reporting it. It IS an issue - the forums are buzzing with people who are having issues. I am one of them. And I don’t have any peripherals connected to my iMac, nor have I ever installed software that I shouldn’t. It’s pretty much iLife and Office on my mac.
So those who blame consumers for Leopard problems should back off - I know you all want Apple to be right all the time. But this time, Apple has screwed up. They rushed a product out before it was fully tested, trying to meet their self-imposed October deadline. I’m a long time Apple fan, but I’m not impressed this time around.

Don’t be foolhardy, first of all clone your hard drive to an external firewire hard drive. Second follow the the preparation instructions. If it doesn’t work - start up with the back up drive and perform a hard drive restore to your desktop. Wait for further OS updates or resolutions.

Don’t panic.

I just got my first apple (MacBook Pro) in May, and I had Leopard delivered to me at my hotel yesterday. I put the DVD in at 4:00 pm, did not skip the verification process, and was up and running with no hitches by 5:30 pm.

Nothing but kudos to Apple. I have a Windows XP machine at home that refuses to upgrade to SP2. I’ve tried it 20 times at least, and each time it crashes.

I’ve been using computers since the early 80s, so I know a thing or two about a thing or two.

Nice job Apple!

My installation went flawlessly. Also, it is the fastest installation of all the upgrades.

“Application Enhancer” can be considered a “haxie” something not supported by Apple. Users installing hacks are doing so at their own risk.

Apple seeds versions of Operating Systems to developers (and has been in Leopards case) for over a year and a half. The “freeware” (that should give you a big clue here) developer of this hack should have been testing with Leopard or stipulate that using the hack and upgrading will cause serious issues.

If Application Enhancer does end up being the cause of these problems, Apple can hardly be blamed.

Philip, at times you’re capable of terrific, bias-free reporting about Apple, both the positive and negative, but this is just pure Apple-bashing. Perhaps, what, 1% of those installing a major OS release are having problems? How is this possibly NEWS? Has there EVER been a major software upgrade in which some installers don’t experience problems? How does this possibly justify your damning opening sentence or the comparisons to MSFT?

ex ped: Thanks for the compliment. While I think it may be too early to say what percentage of users are having trouble installing OS X 10.5, I agree that comparisons to MSFT are inappropriate. –Philip Elmer-DeWitt

The upgrade was a breeze on my macBook Pro! Leopard is fantastic - fast, and feature-rich. I LOVE WebClips in Safari/dashboard!

I am still tweaking my install, you might want to turn off File Vault before you install, and it takes awhile, the Leopard install took 45 minutes, and the old file vault home folder deletion and new File Vault creation took about 2.5 hours, and I was wondering if my install had failed, but it was ok.
Time Machine doesn’t seem to back up the home folder if File Vault is on, so I turned it off again, and this time it only took 5-10 minutes, a fast reboot, and then back up. Now, I just checked, and my home folder is backed up in Time Machine, but File Vault is off. Also there is no way I found to adjust the time of the backups, like, once a day…, so I will have to just turn off Time Machine when I am away.
My Alchemy TV card, I think it is a hardware issue, does not work with evocam or the Alchemy TV software, and immediately crashes, and I had the latest or downloaded the newest updates for both. But the software works. EyeTV500 still works great! And a Konfabulator widget is missing some information in the What’s going on widget, and I have to fix something with my Folding@Home that I use on both my processors, did not come up folding, but I will track that down.
Other than a few issues, I am loving it! I have reported the issues, and I know they will be fixed.

I have been a diehard Apple fan and user (for personal and business) since the early 90s. I even own Apple stock. And for the first time ever, I had serious issues with the install. For those of you have didn’t have issues, this may seem like a “media spin” - but it’s really not.The first thing I thought last night (while in the midst of hair pulling and troubleshooting on the web) was “Uh-Oh. Big problem for Apple in the news tomorrow.” And this is coming from someone who is computer-savvy.

I am sure Apple will work though it - but I believe this is just the start of the media coverage - because the issues are real, frustrating and probably more rampant than one would hope to believe. I personally know 3 others who had issues.

Just wanted to add another perspective to the story…

For “Dozens” read “hundreds” now…Bad one Apple, im holding on to Tiger.

Common on, is this really news or attack by the this news outlet. They always seen to try to bring Apple down. I wonder if the bad or msc has any relations with this firm.

I never have issues with my Apple G5 desktop at home. I cannot say that at work with my Dell PC laptop.

Go Apple. Bring down the high and mighty.

This is not really news worthy. There are always risks of failed installs. Just go to APPLE support discussion forum and you will find tons of them. But that does not mean there is a major problem, and problems will get fixed by reinstalling and taking precautions like backing up.

You have to be the most biased reporter that I have ever read. All I have to do is read an article’s title and know that it came from you. I have yet to see a single well balanced article from you. As for this article, you troll the support forums find a user having problems installing the software and come up with a headline “For some, Installation Problems Spoil Leopard’s Release”.

Even more appalling is the fact that your articles are actually picked up as news. I have already canceled my subscription to Business 2.0, and Fortune and Money is next. I suppose that you could care less, but I’m voting with my feet.

Sounds like they are trying to upgrade Vista to Leopard. Tell them they have to buy a Mac first! Well, at least for now, Apple may license the OS later.

I upgraded 4 computers with my family pack, two intel and two G4, it was the easiest installation that I have ever done.

I have no doubt Leopard is a great product as Vista. Apple and Window can coexist and both flourish. Therefore I am big fan for the feature like boot camp which can unify the both.

I agree this was the easiest installation I have ever done. A very small percentage of people having problems is not newsworthy.

These first adopter yokels are killing me. Anyone with half a brain knows to sit out the first round of an upgrade so the initial bugs get fixed.

I won’t be upgrading until January at the earliest, and I knew that even before all this stuff came up.

It’s a potential PEBKAC (with a wildly unsupported extension). ;)

http://www.silvermac.com/2007/leopard-installation-problems-blue-screen/

Given that Apple has probably released over 300,000 copies, ‘dozens’ of problems hardly seems worth noting and comparing it to Microsoft is absurd.