Mac OS X 10.5.6 installation problems surface

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 02:22

Opinion and Analysis

Mac OS X users appear to be reporting a larger than usual proportion of problems with the download and installation of the 10.5.6 updater released this week. It appears that in the automatic updater is taking longer to work than some users expect.

You always hear of some mishaps relating to system software updates, but most of them turn out to be essentially one-offs. Such issues can usually be explained in terms of pre-existing condition such as a corrupted file that doesn't manifest as a problem until the updater makes another change.

That sort of problem is often solved by running the 'combo' version of the updater, which replaces all system files that have changed since the original release of the OS.

But it seems there are more systematic issues with the 10.5.6 updater that appear to be associated with using Software Update as opposed to manually downloading an installer.

Some of the difficulties experienced by users could be attributable to PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair). Not for the first time, it seems some people just aren't giving the updater enough time to do its job.

Instead, they assume the operation has hung and so they force a restart.

If you restart a computer that's in the middle of installing new operating system files, you shouldn't be surprised if it doesn't work properly.

If you want to lay the blame at Apple's feet for not providing adequate progress information, I shan't argue.

And blaming the user doesn't wash when they've left the Mac running overnight and the installation process still hasn't completed!

What else is going wrong? Please read on.