U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Mac OS X Leopard (Re: new problem)

Re: Mac OS X Leopard (Re: new problem)



Ryuji:

Thanks for the information (most of which, admittedly, is over my head). ;)

Since I initially asked the question, I'll just say that Leopard installed fine for me; that wasn't the problem I had. My problem is, after installing Leopard on my desktop (iMac), my Epson 3800 printer isn't fully functional anymore. That's an Epson problem, caused by something Apple did between 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard). My Epson driver worked perfectly well with 10.4; with 10.5 (Leopard), there are all sorts of problems.

Why Apple would make such changes, that the Epson driver no longer works, is beyond me. The 3800 is not *completely* non-functional, but I have to make all sorts of adjustments each time I try to print anything. It prints, but for my purposes, it may as well not. Epson has said they will have an updated driver by March, which should clear up the issue--they say.. There are some other weird problems, too-- I happen to use GIMP (not Photoshop), and I've lost function there as well. Other minor issues occur, too, like when I'm looking at text in Preview and attempt to copy anything from that-- when I paste what I copied, it pastes something entirely different-- just jumbled phrases from a totally different section of the text.

I know this isn't connected with alt processes, except that I make digital negatives for use in alt processes-- so maybe I can say that, and it won't be completely off-topic. ;)

Mark had suggested that I keep Tiger installed on another computer and have that computer connected to the 3800. I did do that, but no sooner did that happen, than my hard-drive crashed on that computer. I suspect that was just a coincidence-- bad timing and bad luck.

Thanks for your input, though. I did have new hard drive installed on the laptop, have Tiger installed on that, and have connected it to the 3800. So far, so good.

Diana


On Feb 5, 2008, at 7:04 PM, Ryuji Suzuki wrote:

This is off topic, but since I had to go through this and
helped others on this... This is a very common problem that
you can find easily if you know what word to google for.

If you have any INTEL MAC you wish to upgrade to Leopard, be
prepared to having to backup the whole disk, proceed with the
clean installation and restore afterward. This is because
Leopard installer forces you to use GUID partition table (GPT)
if you are installing on an Intel Mac. GUID partition table is
now required for boot-up drive to be used on Intel Mac's, and
conversion from the previous Apple Partitioning Map to GPT
requires that you wipe out the disk.

Unfortunately, this is a bit more complicated for those who
own two types of Mac's. GPT shouldn't be used for the boot
disk for Power PC Macs. GPT is required, and should be used,
only for the boot disks used with Intel Macs. However, if you
use an external drive for Time Machine with an Intel Mac, that
drive should also be GPT. For PPC Macs, everything stays with
Apple Partition Map scheme.

Other than this issue, I haven't found any major problem with
Leopard. I think it's a good OS with a lousy installer (but
such is the nature of installers in general).

95% of complaints, questions and so forth about Leopard
installation I get, read, hear, asked, etc. are related to
this. Also, both Apple and Adobe seem to use very cheap DVD
media manufacturing to deliver their software. Some drives
have difficulty reading the installer disc! If this happens,
copy the DVD on a machine that doesn't have problem reading
them and make a new disc.

Perhaps an easy and effective upgrade plan is this:

1. If you own a laptop, you buy a new 2.5" SATA 320GB drive
(about $200) and replace the hard drive in the MacBook or
MacBook Pro. You'll need a #8 or #9 (forgot which) Torx driver
for this, but the process is easy and simple. You'll also need
a SATA<-->USB external enclosure (about $20). Put the old
drive in this.

2. If you own a Mac Pro, you buy a new 3.5" SATA 500GB or
750GB drive ($120-) and add this disk.

3. Install Leopard into the new disk.

4. Transfer old contents from the old disk. Test drive. When
confident, erase the old disk and use it for whatever purpose.

--
Ryuji Suzuki
"Make something religious and people don't have to deal with it, they
can say it's irrelevant." (Bob Dylan, Biograph booklet, 1985)