The Cult of the Cool Mac: Made with 100% USDA real meat!

I upgraded my laptop to Mac OS X 10.3.4 this weekend. Since I was doing something that could jeopardize the integrity of my data anyway, I took the opportunity to install a slew of updates that I have been postponing, including the latest XCode Tools (programming tools), an iPod update and a wireless networking update.

None of the updates was in any way essential for the operation of my Mac. I did it just to be up to date -- which is probably the worst reason to ever install software on any computer.

I'm happy to report that everything went smoothly. While some people have reported problems launching programs like iTunes or Safari and others have reported printing problems after installing the 10.3.4 update, I experienced none of that.

My routine adds about an hour to the install-process, but if you follow a similar routine then your own update should be just as free of complications.

Even though I knew better, in the past I have neglected to take reasonable precautions before installing a system update. This time I went by-the-book.

I disabled my haxies and a few tools that run in the menubar and I quit any programs that ordinarily run in the background on my computer. Then I ran MacJanitor to make sure that all of the system's basic housecleaning tasks were done. I run MacJanitor once a week because my laptop is either asleep or shut down during the hours when automated system maintenance is supposed to be performed. I try to think of it as the equivalent of rebuilding my desktop files under OS 9, except that I only rebuilt my desktop every few months.

Then I did a complete backup to an external FireWire drive using Carbon Copy Cloner. The Disk Utility that is built into OS X 10.3 includes a backup feature, but I don't really trust it yet. CCC is set to automatically repair permissions before making a backup. Even if you don't make a backup before installing a system-update, I highly recommend that you run the Disk Utility and repair permissions before installing anything. In this case no permissions errors were reported.

I installed the XTools software first and ran the Disk Utility to repair permissions again after the install. Some problems were found and repaired.

Then I installed the 10.3.4 update -- which did not over-write the new Help Viewer application with a different version, but did not include any new security patches either. I used the 79 meg combo installer instead of the smaller updater or the Software Update version. Experience has taught me that Apple's combo installers are more reliable. Once again, I checked permissions after the install and once again there were permissions errors that were repaired.

I followed a similar procedure through each update. There were permissions errors after every install. The permissions errors were all repaired.

It is not as easy to fix basic problems under Mac OS X as it was in OS 9. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Repairing permissions both before and after any software update takes just a few minutes, but can save you from data loss and expensive down-time.

Permissions errors could accumulate very quickly and lead to nasty crashes under earlier versions of OS X, including OS X 10.2. Panther seems to have fewer and much less harmful errors than Jaguar did. Still, minor permissions errors can give rise to infuriating behavior from your applications. When a previously well-behaved program starts displaying messages that it can't read from or write to a file then you probably have a permissions error. Since incorrect permissions can interfere with the installation of new software, it is a good idea to repair permissions before running an installer. For some reason new errors always crop up after running a software update and that's why I check permissions again after each install.

When I was certain that the updates had done no harm, I started up all of my haxies, menubar items and background applications. None of them displayed any incompatibility with the upgraded operating system. I'm up and running just as I was before, but now I have the latest Apple software on my Mac.