I've had a strange couple days. I got the alpha version of XPF 3 and
managed after some minor troubles to get my 7500 G4/400 to boot Jaguar
from a tiny 4GB external FireWire drive (a laptop 4,200 RPM w/10.2
pre-installed). It was neat, it increased my Xbench score from around
25 with built-in SCSI & 7,200 RPM drive to around 30 with the slow
4,200 RPM FireWire drive. I hope to get a big 120 GB 7,200 RPM drive
and jump up to a 35+ Xbench score. Not bad considering a 100 score is
an 867 MHz G4 w/100 MHz bus. The bad part was: booting the FireWire
requires a "helper" drive. I didn't want to do anything to my main
drive I use daily, so I installed another external SCSI with 10.2 to
be the "helper" just so things weren't being written onto my main
drive. I did run XPF 3 from my main drive, but I "thought" that
everything was only being written to the "helper" and the FireWire. It
panic'd on initial boot, but the power button worked, and upon normal
reboot it booted the FireWire to my amazement. It seemed quicker
immediately. I ran Xbench, played around, and then option booted to OS
9.1 and ran XPF 2.5 to get back to my main drive and it was a disaster,
it froze on the grey Apple screen. I ran Norton, and it found some
screwy nodes, and then Drive 10 which found nothing. It still wouldn't
boot, just frozen. I reinstalled the 10.2.6 update and still frozen,
and then the 10.2.6 Combo update and Hurray! It booted, BUT, I get a
security message saying the file SymDC.kext is broken and I can "fix
and use" or "don't use" or "use". I looked up the file and it was a
Symantec Norton "symbolic link" alias. What a mess. I choose "fix and
use" and had to do this four or five times before the boot finished. A
websearch said this .kext caused problems with the System Profiler, and
these were cured by tossing it, but nothing about boot problems or
Security errors. I tossed it to the trash (but didn't empty) and
rebooted and it froze again solid. I reinstalled the 10.2.6 Combo and
it booted again, but the SymDC.kext error repeated even though I'd
trashed it. It had regenerated. It appeared that the 10.2.6 Combo would
cure the grey screen freeze, but only for one boot. Yikes. I went to
VersionTracker and just then the 10.2.8 update was posted. I thought
great, I'll upgrade. Zip, and I'm at 10.2.8 and it boots, BUT, the
.kext error appears. Ouch! I download the "stand-alone" 10.2.8 update
just in case, and proceed to try and figure out why the .kext
regenerated and killed my system. It appeared that I needed to also
trash the Extensions.mkext and the Extensions.kextcache files. I did
this along with the SymDC.kext alias and OUCH! grey screen freeze. I
reinstall the 10.2.8 update and still freeze. I delete the 10.2.8
update Receipt and attempt to reinstall the 10.2.6 Combo but it won't
allow this even with the Receipt deleted. I go look for a 10.2.8 Combo,
and it's not posted anywhere. Yikes! I'm in trouble. I try all the disk
repair utilities, everything, literally. Nothing but grey screen of
death.
I wait all day, and finally around 5:30 PM I see the 10.2.8 Combo
update posted. I download and installed it. Voil�! I'm back to a normal
boot with no errors and everything seems fine. In the night while I was
panic'd, I managed to upgrade a clamshell 366 iBook to 10.2.8 using
Software Update. I've also got a 500 iceBook, and I was unable to
update it, so tonight I went to Software Update and ...... NOTHING. No
10.2.8. I go to Apple Downloads and no 10.2.8 is listed. It's gone. I
do a search, and it appears once and the page says "Temporarily
Unavailable". Opps! Now I'm sweating. Perhaps I installed the
'defective' version, and they're feverishly working to fix whatever. I
hope the server was just swamped and crashed. I don't know, I've got
both the stand-alone and the combo, so I'm set for the next crazy
night. I still don't have any clue how just running XPF 3 from a drive
can hose a drive like that. I think it's a coincidence, and that
Norton's probably to blame. I'm looking forward to someday booting via
FireWire forevermore. A gigantic thanks to Ryan Rempel, an OS X guru of
the highest order. Thanks! Kris Tilford
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