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Installer: Russian Roulette (4/10/01)
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Speaking of Mac OS X's "rough edges," one of them is apparently sharp and ragged enough to cut deep and do some real damage. A report over at Stepwise contains troubling technical details of some nasty bugs in Apple's own software installer, which basically add up to this unsettling conclusion: through no one's fault but Apple's, the simple act of installing a software package can have "serious side effects, including disabling your system completely." We'd like to take this opportunity to thank Apple for making even the most mundane tasks in Mac OS X so fraught with adrenaline-soaked excitement.
Apparently the problem arises from Apple's "Installer" application using the UNIX pax architecture, which doesn't always play nice. It can change the permissions of existing file system directories and replace symbolic links with actual directories-- in short, in certain specific situations, it can mess you up but good. Stepwise has plenty of nitty-gritty technical examples in which these icky behaviors could cause some real grief. And these aren't just theoretical problems; MacInTouch reveals that one of Tenon's actual posted installation packages can cause severe data loss due to problems with Apple's Installer. (Tenon's working around the problem now; in the meantime, the company's home page includes a big, red warning informing customers that "installing the Xtools package currently listed on our site may destroy your OS X install.")
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this whole mess is that the Stepwise article on the bugs is a sequel; the original article was posted a year and a half ago. No fooling, kids! Stepwise has been writing about these problems since Apple's installer first switched to pax in Mac OS X Server back in 1999. What's more, the article's author Scott Anguish states that he has "brought this particular issue to Apple's attention on at least a dozen separate occasions, in articles here on Stepwise and in direct communication." The fact that, as of Mac OS X 10.0, Installer still contains known bugs that can potentially torch your system is at least mildly alarming. But we're sure it'll be fixed in 10.0.1. Right?
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SceneLink (2981)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/10/01 episode: April 10, 2001: One of Apple's latest promotions offers customers a "Mobile Newsroom" getup, but the price break is iffy. Meanwhile, rumor has it that the PowerPC G5 may hit 2 GHz late next year (now if only Intel would enter cryogenic stasis until then), and the Installer application in Mac OS X may be a messy accident waiting to happen...
Other scenes from that episode: 2979: Your Ticket To The Good Life (4/10/01) Do you hate your job? Are you tired of the same old 9-to-5 grind day in and day out? Do you dream of chucking it all, leaving the rat race far behind, and assuming the exciting role of a one-person mobile news team?... 2980: Complainers' Job Security (4/10/01) Has anyone noticed that whining about the clock speed deficit has fallen out of fashion in the Mac community of late? After being stuck at 500 MHz for about a year and a half, we hardly expected that a boost to 733 MHz would quiet the career complainers, especially since the competition is already running at over twice that speed, and word has it that a 1.7 GHz Intel chip is just weeks away...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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