Updating Boot Caches -- What's This?
TaliesinSoft
says "Updating Boot Caches". I then click on the one button available in the
dialog box and the screen then turns blue with no spinner. I've waited as
long as ten minutes and nothing appears on the screen although I think I am
hearing disk activity. If, after waiting some time, I then attempt to force
quit I then get the "Are you sure you want to shut down" message. Clicking
"OK" does then shut things down.
I'm running on a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.5.1 and am curious as to just what
is happening.
As an aside, when, oh, when does 10.5.2 make the scene?
--
James Leo Ryan ..... Austin, Texas ..... talies...@mac.com
David Empson
> Recently, after I've opted to shutdown my computer I'll get a message that
> says "Updating Boot Caches".
That's a new feature in Leopard (10.5). It happens when you shut down
after having run an installer which modifies the system, e.g. by
installing new kernel extensions.
The system maintains a cache of installed kernel extensions. If it is
out of date, then it is recreated during startup.
In Tiger (10.4) and earlier systems, this was the only place the kernel
extension cache was updated. It resulted in very long startup times
after installing a major system update - you would be sitting at the
"spinner" startup screen for a long time without an explanation of what
was happening.
In Leopard (10.5), the system will update the kernel extension cache
during the shutdown process. When it starts doing this it displays the
"updating boot caches" message, so you at least have an explanation why
it is taking a long time to shut down. If you ignore the dialog and
wait, it will disappear by itself once the process is complete, then the
system will shutdown or restart normally.
The end result is that the subsequent startup takes a normal amount of
time. You can therefore choose to shut down after doing a major
installation (rather than restarting), and the next startup will not
have an unexpected delay.
Software Update also ties into this: if you install an update which
requires a restart, it will delay the installation of the update until
you are actually shutting down (or restarting).
I don't normally use Software Update (I prefer to manually download and
run installers) so I don't recall what Software Update tells you while
it is doing this, but I think it tells you it is doing an installation,
and that is followed by the "updating boot caches" message.
> I then click on the one button available in the dialog box and the screen
> then turns blue with no spinner.
All that does is dismisses the dialog box. The caches continue to be
updated in the background, until the process is complete.
> I've waited as long as ten minutes and nothing appears on the screen
> although I think I am hearing disk activity. If, after waiting some time,
> I then attempt to force quit I then get the "Are you sure you want to shut
> down" message. Clicking "OK" does then shut things down.
That doesn't sound normal. It might take a minute or two to update the
kernel extension cache, but ten minutes is excessive.
You might have something corrupted in your system. Have you tried
running Disk Utility's "Verify Disk"? (I doubt this would be a
permissions issue.)
You might also have a third-party kernel extension which is not
compatible with Leopard and it is interfering in some way with the
shutdown or kernel cache update process.
> As an aside, when, oh, when does 10.5.2 make the scene?
I'm hopeful that it will turn up some time this week. There is a good
chance of that given the rumoured number of developer seeds in the last
couple of weeks, and the decreasing number of changes in each seed.
Tuesday is traditionally the day for new hardware releases, and we might
see a MacBook Pro update then. I doubt this would require
synchronization with 10.5.2, as they could include a modified 10.5.1
(similar to the Mac Pro).
The Apple TV software update is due to be released soon. This also is
unlikely to need a tie-in to 10.5.2, but new features in the Apple TV
software might also appear in Front Row with 10.5.2. (If not, they may
appear in a later update.)
Time Capsule must be getting close as well, and it is much more likely
to be tied to the release of 10.5.2, because Time Machine in 10.5.1
won't be able to use a Time Capsule. This suggests that 10.5.2 must
released at the same time as or before Time Capsule, or Time Capsule
will have to include software to update a 10.5.1 as required (which
would be a wasted effort).
If Apple is going to replace retail Leopard DVDs in the supply chain
with 10.5.2 (which they already did with 10.5.1), they might need an
additional delay to create and test a gold master, and test code which
is only used with installing the OS (Upgrade, Archive & Install, and
Migration after a clean install).
If there turn out to be problems which only affect the new master DVD,
they could move quickly to a 10.5.3 update mainly for that DVD, rather
than delaying the 10.5.2 update for everyone already running Leopard.
Overall, I expect to see the 10.5.2 update before the end of February,
probably next week at the latest and very likely to be this week.
--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz
TaliesinSoft
(in article <1ic5t50.jk7ly13azkacN%dem...@actrix.gen.nz>):
[in the immediately preceding posting in this thread, which has been snipped
from this reply, a very long and thorough explanation of both the "Updating
Boot Caches" action and a conjecture as to when OS 10.5.2 will be released
and what will be included in the release]
David,
Many, many thanks for the time you devoted to a most thorough and informative
response to the question I raised in my opening posting in this thread.
Jim
John McWilliams
> On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:13:38 -0600, David Empson wrote
> (in article <1ic5t50.jk7ly13azkacN%dem...@actrix.gen.nz>):
>
> [in the immediately preceding posting in this thread, which has been snipped
> from this reply, a very long and thorough explanation of both the "Updating
> Boot Caches" action and a conjecture as to when OS 10.5.2 will be released
> and what will be included in the release]
>
> David,
>
> Many, many thanks for the time you devoted to a most thorough and informative
> response to the question I raised in my opening posting in this thread.
Hear, hear! Indeed a fine post. Required reading for Leopards.
--
john mcwilliams
jack ak
> On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:13:38 -0600, David Empson wrote
> (in article <1ic5t50.jk7ly13azkacN%dem...@actrix.gen.nz>):
>
> [in the immediately preceding posting in this thread, which has been snipped
> from this reply, a very long and thorough explanation of both the "Updating
> Boot Caches" action and a conjecture as to when OS 10.5.2 will be released
> and what will be included in the release]
>
> David,
>
> Many, many thanks for the time you devoted to a most thorough and informative
> response to the question I raised in my opening posting in this thread.
>
> Jim
>
>
For those who believe OS version updates are released on a particular
day of the week...
OS X Version 10.5.1 was released via software update
on Thu Nov 15, 2007.
Mike Rosenberg
> For those who believe OS version updates are released on a particular
> day of the week...
>
> OS X Version 10.5.1 was released via software update
> on Thu Nov 15, 2007.
And for those of us who don't believe updates are released on a
particular day of the week, when was it released?
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Chris Ridd
Rosenberg) said:
> jack ak <akj...@excite.com> wrote:
>
>> For those who believe OS version updates are released on a particular
>> day of the week...
>>
>> OS X Version 10.5.1 was released via software update
>> on Thu Nov 15, 2007.
>
> And for those of us who don't believe updates are released on a
> particular day of the week, when was it released?
My SU install log says 15th November 2007 06:27 GMT, which meant it
came out from Cupertino either late Sunday night or early Monday
morning.
Cheers,
Chris
Mike Rosenberg
> It does seem like Thursday and Friday are more common tahn other days,
> but that may just be 'seems'
And 10.5.2 is out today, Monday.
David Empson
> In article <1p%rj.6694$5K1....@newssvr12.news.prodigy.net>,
> jack ak <akj...@excite.com> wrote:
>
> > For those who believe OS version updates are released on a particular
> > day of the week...
> >
> > OS X Version 10.5.1 was released via software update
> > on Thu Nov 15, 2007.
>
> It does seem like Thursday and Friday are more common tahn other days,
> but that may just be 'seems'
Well, add one to the count for Monday. :-)
They were faster than I expected. I thought 10.5.2 would be out later in
the week if it was going to be this week.
Now, what new product(s) will they release on Tuesday?
--
David Empson
dem...@actrix.gen.nz
jack ak
Are you sure about that? The transit time to your machine is terrible.
From late Sunday or early Monday to Thursday is not good.
The following line is from my Software update log...
2007-11-15 11:10:50 -0800: Installed "Mac OS X Update" (10.5.1)
The first entry for today is...
2008-02-11 15:03:20 -0800: Installed "Mac OS X Update" (10.5.2)
Chris Ridd
> Chris Ridd wrote:
>> On 2008-02-11 18:11:41 +0000, mike...@TOGROUPmacconsult.com (Mike
>> Rosenberg) said:
>>
>>> jack ak <akj...@excite.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> For those who believe OS version updates are released on a particular
>>>> day of the week...
>>>>
>>>> OS X Version 10.5.1 was released via software update
>>>> on Thu Nov 15, 2007.
>>>
>>> And for those of us who don't believe updates are released on a
>>> particular day of the week, when was it released?
>>
>> My SU install log says 15th November 2007 06:27 GMT, which meant it
>> came out from Cupertino either late Sunday night or early Monday
>> morning.
>>
>
> Are you sure about that? The transit time to your machine is terrible.
> From late Sunday or early Monday to Thursday is not good.
By misreading November as October in the calendar? %^&@!
s/Sunday night or early Monday/Wednesday night or early Thursday/...
> The following line is from my Software update log...
>
> 2007-11-15 11:10:50 -0800: Installed "Mac OS X Update" (10.5.1)
>
> The first entry for today is...
>
> 2008-02-11 15:03:20 -0800: Installed "Mac OS X Update" (10.5.2)
But does it feel Teh Snappy?
Cheers,
Chris