Home Forums Mac Software Mac Operating Systems Unusual Installation of 10.5.8

On a G5 PPC iMac, I installed from Software Update the combo 105.8. All went okay until the "4 minutes remaining" words appeared in the installation progress window. After that, nothing seemed to be happening. I waited fifteen minutes. No change in the progress window. But also no variation in sound either -- just a constant hum, as if a freeze was in play. I could not shut down the machine from the Apple menu. So I held in the start up button for five seconds to end the freeze.

On start up, everything seems to work okay. Ran DU verify disk. The disk was reported by DU to seem okay.

I then used software update again to install some additional files, including an update to Safari, Java, etc. The installation seemed normal and the progress window disappeared -- thank goodness. But I was left with the very attractive, brighly coloured screen that often accompanies the installation of Mac files. That screen would not go away of its own accord. Again no variation in sound -- just a constant hum. Again, I shut the machine down by holding in the start up button for five seconds.

Again everything seems to be normal -- except that Safari sometimes freezes and so I have to force quit it.

Is there something I should now try to do given these unusual installations? Would it be smart to run the 10.5.8 combo again under a safe boot? Is the usual optimization likely to have been done in the case of the unusual installation of the combo 10.5.8?

Never had an unusual installation before!

Though i've never actually done it myself, i've read several threads reporting much success doing exactly that.

Some posts and blogs even state that multiple combo runs can cure the odd permissions issue where Disk Utility claims:

• Permissions blah-blah blah, should be ?--------- , they are ---------- .

Not sure how true that part is but... so far, i've never seen anything bad mentioned about applying a 10.5.x combo again under a safe boot. [and i wouldn't expect to... ]

Thanks Hal. I'll re-run the update under a safe boot. That will partly relieve my anxiety.

I recall someone telling me what that last minute is spent doing, as well as the last minute spent in a migration, but I don't recall them offhand. iirc, the last minute of migration is important (importing application support files?) but the last minute of an update is updating prebinding (?) and is not a big problem if skipped because it will just update itself on the fly later.

I've re-run the combo update under a safe boot. It again sticks at four minutes, saying "running the installer script". (It said that last time, I now realize).

Using the Installer Log, the last entry repeated seven times with different time dates (under "Show Errors Only") is:

/private/tmp/scripts.P8Zz/./postinstall[982]. Reading .Tools/10.5.8BaseSystemAdditions for additions to BaseSystem package.

Beats me!

I was again forced to shut down by holding in the start up button. I cannot quit the installer because "it is busy; and I cannot shut down the machine because "the installer is busy". Then on my start up, we the get the spinning grey wheel and then a shut down followed by the usual exuberant start up "chorus", which is reassuring -- as if nothing is untoward. Don't know yet whether nothing is untoward.

I have just experienced the exact same situation you describe. Frozen at the four minute mark. When I check "About this Mac" it says I am running 10.5.8 Have you come up with any more insights? Do we just assume it installed and just forgot to notify us it was done? I'm confused.

Thanks

Greg

Most likely, yes. The post-install stuff is usually prebinding and other tasks that are related to cleaning up the system but not actually related to installing software; by the time you get to that stuff, everything that needs to be installed has been installed.

However, having said that, if I were to experience this problem I would be worried that it might indicate some other issue, such as a bad sector on the disk. I tend to be a bit paranoid about that kind of stuff, so what I'd likely do in that case is use a disk cloning program to copy the newly-installed system to a backup disk, then do a low-level format with "zero all sectors" for the main hard disk, just because I'd be nervous otherwise.

Many strange and inexplicable problems can be early warning signs of bad sectors or hard disk failure. Some processes, like building the Spotlight dictionary or updating prebinding, examine many or most of the files on a disk, so if there is even a small problem with the disk, those processes can encounter difficulties long before anything else alerts you to trouble.

This does not necessarily mean that there is a problem with your system, of course; and I do realize that I tend to have a very conservative approach to dealing with little problems like this.

> Many strange and inexplicable problems can be early warning signs of bad sectors or hard disk failure. Some processes, like building the Spotlight dictionary or updating prebinding, examine many or most of the files on a disk, so if there is even a small problem with the disk, those processes can encounter difficulties long before anything else alerts you to trouble.

This does not necessarily mean that there is a problem with your system, of course; and I do realize that I tend to have a very conservative approach to dealing with little problems like this.

Your conservative approach is probably superior to relying on S.M.A.R.T. for early detection of potential HD problems.

It maybe ought to be a FAQ.

"Do we just assume it installed and just forgot to notify us it was done? I'm confused."

I think that the 10.5.8 combo got installed okay. There has been so far no sign of trouble following the installation.

BTW, the oddity you and I have experienced is, in my case, somewhat widespread. When I installed the combo 10.5.8 (using a newly downloaded version of the combo 10.5.8) on the second partition of the same computer (which partition is not a clone of the first partition), I had the same freeze in the installer when it reported four minutes to go. And when I installed the new Safari (version 4.0.3), again the installer froze. But again, so far no sign of trouble.

I had a different experience, although mine was with an iMac Intel going from 10.5.6 to 10.5.8, for which Software Update specified a "combo update" that was 768 Mbytes. I also had 150+ Mbytes of other updates as well, so this was a combined update of nearly 1 Gbyte! Mine also appeared to stop with a few minutes to go, but recalling the 768 Mbyte size for the OS portion of the download, I decided to wait. I thought I could hear disk activity, but these Intel machines are so quiet it's very hard to tell. I waited much more than 15 min, maybe closer to 30 min, and also brought in reading material to keep myself from getting antsy and to keep myself from forcing a reset with the power button. After about 30 min, the update did complete and after some normal reboots, was fine. The sheer size of the OS part of the download, 768 Mbytes in my case, plus the fact that this is likely compressed and had to be expanded to something significantly larger, resulting in ~ 1 Gbyte of files having to be sorted and moved into the right places, convinced me to be patient and it did eventually complete.

I would guess that the PPC combo update is smaller than the Intel version, but the PPC machine is probably a much slower machine. So waiting 15 min might not have been enough for the original situation that was reported in the first post.