Apple NotThisTime

[vakkotaur]

One thing Apple got right about Mac OS X is the Software Update. It alerts the user to updates when they are available and lets them be installed on the user's schedule without too much fuss. Except for QuickTime.

I have updated QuickTime at least three times now (in a surprisingly short time, I wonder how many holes are in the thing). Software Update alerts me and offers to take care of it. I have yet to see it do that with QuickTime. I don't know what's special (in the short bus sense) about QuickTime and Software Update but they earn on F on "getting along." The alert shows up, the offer is made, my password is asked for (and supplied) and almost immediately up pops a message that there was an error and the bad package trashed. I acknowledge the message... and software update suggests I do what just failed. If I do, the loop goes on and on.

I can update QuickTime, to Software Update's satisfaction, by downloading it with a browser and dealing with it manually. So I've done that. But it's really annoying to see a tool consistently fail on a situation that is common. perhaps Software Update needs an update? Right now I'd like at least one of two things regarding this: (1) Software Update to work as intended even with QuickTime. (2) QuickTime to be good enough to be version-stable for several months.

Both would be ideal. Just item 1 would be less hassle. I could settle for just item 2, if I only had to deal with once or maybe twice a year. I'm not sure if this is the third or fourth time this year QuickTime has needed updating. Is it in permanent beta?

Comments

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

I'd be leery of your install, I've had four Macs in Leopard, and Tiger, and neither Emi nor I have seen this error.

Something in your Mac is definitely amiss.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Is there any way to do a diagnosis, or is this a "reinstall, reconfigure, and hope" thing?

This is an odd one, I'm going to ask a few more people I know.

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

I'm at a loss, I've never even heard of such a thing. Are you running Tiger? And did you do the original install? I am in regular contact with G4 and Intel Macs and never seen this issue.

The only thing I've seen remotely like this was my brothers G4 Powerbook where someone "His Windows Buddy" downloaded and installed the new iTunes, rather than getting it through the updater, and after that it would only run the downloaded updates, and the the ones from the updater would bomb.

Frankly I'd reinstall. In the end thats what cleaned it up on my brother's machine. and it goes without saying after that, you get it your updates solely thorough the updater. Its not like its a big deal to re-load OSX. No drivers to worry about.

Its an oddball issue though. And I've done a lot of Mac re-installs, largely from my own experimenting, and reviving Discarded equipment, Most Macs I've seen go their whole lives on the factory install.......

Re: This is an odd one, I'm going to ask a few more people I know.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

This is a PowerBook G4 running Leopard. When purchased it had Panther and jmaynard eventually upgraded it to Tiger and then Leopard. It was always updated through Software Update until the first instance of this problem occurring, which was not long after the upgrade to Leopard.

My concern about reinstalling is, can it be done and potentially take care of this problem without clobbering the added programs. This is a big concern to me as I don't use most of the Apple supplied programs since I want more configurability than they provide.

[yakko.livejournal.com]

Is there anything in the logs that gives any hints (the Console app in Utilities gathers all the system logs for your perusal)? I think the GUI's being way less verbose than it needs to be this time around. In any event, it looks like there's some bit that Software Update just doesn't like, and it's giving up.

This gets ugly...

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

The Software Update log shows that the last time it handled QuickTime (successfully) was 07 October 2006. The machine sat rather idle for some time as jmaynard got a MacBook Pro and I stuck with the Compaq Armada until fairly recently.

The system.log shows this, though I don't really know what to make of it:


Apr 12 10:49:05 mrgobble SoftwareUpdateCheck[111]: Checking for updates
Apr 12 10:50:44 mrgobble SoftwareUpdateCheck[111]: Auto-download of "QuickTime" FAILED: Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=513 UserInfo=0x5e01aa0 "Operation could not be completed. (Cocoa error 513.)".
Apr 12 10:50:44 mrgobble SoftwareUpdateCheck[111]: Auto-download of "QuickTime" SUCCESSFUL.
Apr 12 10:50:45 mrgobble Software Update[126]: arguments=(null)
Apr 12 10:51:21 mrgobble authexec[130]: executing /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/Resources/suapphelper
Apr 12 10:51:22 mrgobble com.apple.launchd[68] ([0x0-0xd00d].SoftwareUpdateCheck[111]): Exited: Killed
Apr 12 10:51:39 mrgobble Software Update[132]: arguments=(null)
Apr 12 10:53:52 mrgobble authexec[142]: executing /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/Resources/suapphelper
Apr 12 10:54:43 mrgobble kernel[0]: SetCryptoKey R: len 32, idx 1
Apr 12 10:57:00 mrgobble authexec[145]: executing /System/Library/CoreServices/Software Update.app/Contents/Resources/suapphelper
Apr 12 11:27:43 mrgobble hdiejectd[193]: running


Re: This gets ugly...

[yakko.livejournal.com]

Wow... I guess not even Software Update itself knows what's going on enough to give an informative error message.

It's pretty much a guess, given how there aren't any hits out on Apple or Google for the error in the log, but one thing to try (according to this, anyway) is to repair the permissions on the system volume.

Re: This gets ugly...

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

It's something to try, though I suspect it might not do much. I do not see any such Updates folder where mentioned, and I've never had the dialog tell me it was a permissions issue at all. And I can empty the trash, too.

Re: This gets ugly...

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Evidently "Cocoa error 513" is a permissions issue. I have just let Disk Utility have a go at repairing permissions. Time will tell if it had any real effect.

Re: This gets ugly...

[invader-tak-1.livejournal.com]

I didn't think of that. I'm really embarrassed. :/


Tell us how it goes.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I brought the laptop up this evening, after it had been idle for a while, and ran the Software Update. There were four things to update. Quicktime was one of them. The other three updated without any problem. Quicktime? NotThisTime either.