[X-Newbies] Updates for 10.4.2

[Vincent Cayenne]

On Nov 21, 2005, at 4:32 PM, Steven Rogers wrote:
>>The long answer is, unless you have an unusual system (say, a bunch 
>>of machines doing a pre-press workflow, or a server, etc.)

At 4:38 PM -0500 11/21/05, J wrote:
>YES
>And I can't have any interruptions.

Then don't update. And scour the standard problem-reporting sites 
(MacFixIt & Macintouch) for any issues which might be pertinent to 
your situation. A subscription to MacFixIt might be advisable for 
such critical need. Also check with your AppleCare Pro representative 
or have a session with a Genius to address your concerns.

Perhaps simpler is to clone the installation at least twice, test the 
clones, then update one clone and do longish-term testing...

If your installation is critical, are there any extant issues that 
the update will serve for your installation? If not, don't even 
bother to consider updating.

Just my experience: I've updated five machines and I've seen only 
first-startup issues on three of them. The other two were fine. The 
first-startup issues were refusals to start up after the update (yes, 
I waited as long as an hour) and were simply resolved by using 
AppleJack (search MacUpdate or VersionTracker) in single-user mode to 
ensure that the usual culprits were all taken care of - disk repair, 
caches, permissions, privileges and swap. One command, three little 
words and I was back in business tem minutes later. All of my 10.4.3 
machines are satisfactory in operation (and some former glitches seem 
resolved).

Knowing ahead of time that odd things *can* occur, I always install 
Applejack on my machines as a matter of course. It's as standard to 
me now as having DiskWarrior and system CDs at hand (and usually 
precludes my having to break out either of those).

As a more general observation, most installations simply have no 
issues - update, reboot as and if  directed, and get back to work.
-- 
'tis as said. [Reality is defined by being described]