The upgrade to Snow Leopard left certain parts of my system non-functional. Not good considering that a number of these components are crucial to my development process. Here are the hacks/work-arounds I discovered restoring these services:

Subversion

Subversion running locally on my MacBook Pro requires that the Remote Login privilege be enabled to support svn+ssh secure tunneling mode. For some strange reason, the upgrade to OS X 10.6 disabled this privilege breaking my ability to connect to my subversion server. Luckily, my installation notes reminded me of this requirement and after a visit to System Preferences -> Sharing, I was able to restore access.

PostgreSQL

As I documented with my previous post, the custom PostgreSQL user I created to run the database was deleted by the upgrade. This oversight did not extend to the database installation itself, but recreating the user did not automatically restore database functionality. After a bit of digging around, it seems that my previous PostgreSQL user was assigned a different user id. A peek at the ownership privileges on the database files and directories revealed ownership permissions which did not correspond to a valid system user. A quick chmod -R fixed the permission problem and allowed PostgreSQL to be started correctly.

Fink Commander

I've been using Fink Commander to manage packages I've installed on my system over the last two versions of OS X and encountered no obvious upgrade problems when migrating to newer versions of OS X. This changed with Snow Leopard. After upgrading to 10.6, I noticed that despite having updated Fink via the command line, Fink Commander refused to display any package information. Despite an exhaustive search when I first upgraded to Snow Leopard, I was thwarted; I had no clue how to fix this issue. Jump forward a few months and it seems that I was not alone: a solution was finally posted. Due to the number of different perl binaries packaged with OS X, an explicit path to the older perl binaries was required. Under Fink Commander 0.5.5, this path can be set by navigating to Preferences -> Paths -> Paths to Perl. For OS X 10.6, this value should be /usr/bin/perl5.8.9. The original post can be found here.

Mysteries solved.

Missing User

After upgrading to Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6), I noticed that the PostgreSQL user I created for development using dscl had suddenly disappeared. Apparently any users that are not created through System Preferences -> User Accounts are excluded during the upgrade process. Strangely, the group associated with this PostgreSQL admin user was still present after the upgrade. It was trivial to restore functionality, but a bit irritating. At least I wasn't stung by the Guest user fiasco that has been finally fixed in 10.6.2.

Now that's out of the way, why is my subversion launchd entry being ignored? Hrmmm ...

IR/EyeTV Oddities

Another thing I noticed was the complete miscommunication between the IR Remote that came standard with older Macs and EyeTV. IR controls were either mismapped (resulting in strange interactions with EyeTV) or completely non-functional. Thankfully, this was resolved easily with the installation of Candalair - an alternative driver for internal Apple IR Receivers. By enabling Leopard Compatibility Mode, things were back to normal. This is obviously a known problem given the very existence of a compatibility mode, but why won't Apple actually fix the problem?

Printing?

One of the primary reasons for me considering OS X a few years ago was the tight integration of device drivers (for things such as printers) with the OS. I was tired of trying to configure PS emulation for standard photo printers in Linux. Printer configuration was by far the biggest PITA under free *nix varieties. Being able to install a printer painlessly was, for me, a true measure of usability.

Boy, have times changed. Where as my initial experience with 10.4 was the pleasant surprise of "wow that worked the first time", Snow Leopard has changed this process into an all too familiar experience of disappointment. Broken driver support for a slew of existing printers formerly supported by Leopard (10.5) was painful, to say the least. The process of upgrading the drivers with Apple's driver fix failed to notify users that existing print queues would NOT function until they had been recreated was completely obtuse in a way reminiscent of Windows. Oh well, so much for the usability advantage.

To see just how badly this process has devolved, try setting up a Canon Pixma 420 for wireless network printing. A friend of my got one of these with his new iMac, and nothing short of a herculean effort got this printer to work with OS X. Can you say "obscure"?

Quicktime X Black Screen

A new and improved Quicktime was supposed to be a boon to Snow Leopard. Unfortunately, right out of the gate, Quicktime X support in Front Row was broken for almost all files. Attempting to play any media files in Front Row resulted in a black screen with no audio or video. 10.6.1 at least restored the ability to play .avi files, but I had to wait until the recent 10.6.2 update to finally have support restored for .mkv's. What happened to releasing a functional product? Given legacy Quicktime support is available in Snow Leopard, wouldn't it have been prudent to wait until this version of Quicktime was ready for prime time before releasing it for public use? At the very least, it shouldn't have broken existing functionality. Where are the QA regression tests?

At What Cost?

I understand the primary motivation behind any public company is profit and Apple is no exception. But what is the cost of relentless push for greater market share if they start to diverge from their core philosophy of "just works"? From a consumer standpoint, there are increasingly compelling reasons to question Apple's current strategies, specially if it comes at the cost of keeping existing customers satisfied. I purchased Apple products because I did not want to contribute to the cycle of "disposable" electronics. Little did I know that by design, this is exactly what I've ended up with.

Hackintoshes are looking better every day ...

OS X 10.6 has been out for quite a while now and in true form, I was quick to upgrade my systems to the latest version in the hopes that it would finally support the full 4GB of memory on my Merom Core2Duo based MacBook Pro. Alas, unless Apple feels particularly beneficent and releases an EFI update which circumvents this limitation, I'm stuck with a 32-bit EFI which also does not address my memory issue. I was aware of this when I purchased the machine almost 3 years ago, but unlike PCs which support firmware updates to work around issues like this, it seems that Apple's strategy of planned obsolescence will have finally caught me in it's clutches. To bad; this issue seems completely contrary to Apple's environmental initiatives if it essentially cripples older machines and relegates them to the scrap heap simply because it refuses to support older architectures. Instead of simply making greener computers, shouldn't they also consider the impact of existing systems they've sold and at the very least keep them out of the landfill for as long as humanly possible? This too can be considered environmental.

Another case in point; the iMac I bought around the same time as my Macbook Pro began to exhibit extreme instability due to the faulty cooling design of the GPU in the enclosure. I only found out about this when I attempted to replace the GPU itself. While I can appreciate the design chops that it takes to design increasingly thinner computers, what about actual engineering chops to ensure that the thermal envelope of the enclosure does not lead to premature component death? At the heart of the problem was a single measly cooling fan responsible for the passively relocated heat generated from the CPU and GPU. Active cooling should have been applied separately to the CPU and GPU to ensure adequate cooling. At the very least, the GPU heat sink should have been placed before the CPU heat sink in terms of fan proximity; after all, the CPU is not always busy, but the system cannot function without a working video card. At first, I thought that this problem could have been attributed to faulty capacitors in the NVidia 7300 GT GPU; an issue that has already been addressed in the Mac Pro versions of these cards. But a quick look in the Apple forums revealed that this is a problem endemic in ALL Merom based iMacs (the 20"/24" white plastic varieties manufactured around 2006/2007).

After spending 4 hours disassembling the iMac, I came to the realization : these machines are DESIGNED FOR OBSOLESCENCE. From the obscure torx screws, to the insanely difficult access to components, I got the message loud and clear. These machines do not have field replaceable components. Without this fundamental capability to recycle existing functioning components, what I was left with was a two and a half year old computer that I'd paid a huge premium for that was designed to be rendered unusable by simple hardware failure that is easily remedied in your run-of-the-mill PC.

Luckily, my local Mac dealer was willing to get me a replacement GPU and with a little elbow grease, I was able revived my machine. Consider what would have happened if someone else without a technical background was affected. The cost of the replacement card was +$200. Once labour and taxes have been factored in, it would have cost $600 to fix the iMac with a video card that is laughable by today's performance standards. Whether you are discouraged by Apple through the inability to repair your machine with FRUs or the exorbitant cost of an out of warranty repair which makes buying a new machine a "feasible" alternative, the result is the same : electronic waste with a huge environmental impact. My only recommendation going forward for all Apple purchasers is to buy the extended warranty. It is cheaper than a single out of warranty repair, but still seems like an unnecessary cost considering the price premium we initially pay which should equate to "a more reliable" machine.

With any luck, the iMac issue will be addressed in a class action suit or a public acknowledgment and an out of warranty replacement/reimbursement. At the time this article was written, Apple still has not acknowledged any culpability with regards to this issue. If you too are facing this issue, add your voice here at PetitionSpot.

Shame on you Apple; the greenwashing of environmental issues is a blight on your record. If this is the cost of your current popularity, I smell a worm.