Peter Kloss offers a fix for Leopard Active Directory binding problems:

After my saga with Services for Unix which you kindly posted for me, we have spent a while trying to get the 'native' AD plug-in working in Leopard against our enterprise AD of 10 child domains and around 50 domain controllers. Therefore we have been following with interest the experiences and suggestions of your readers.

Having thought we might have to do most of the painful stuff with debugging Kerberos as described in your reports, we then discovered a blog that held the answers. We had already accidentally discovered that putting the DOMAIN we were trying to bind to into /etc/hosts, eg: an entry like Childdomain.rootdomain.com xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx allowed us to bind and login with a domain admin account. But normal user logons did not work for two out of three attempts to do this.

We followed suggestion (2) in the blog about turning off 'allow authentication from any domain' AND added the target AD domain to the search path - (click on the search path tab in the directory utility and the '+' at the bottom left - it then pops up a list of available domains) - I clicked on 'my' domain in the list, and then put it above 'All Domains' in the search order. Then applied and quit the Directory Utility. We can log in with ordinary user accounts, and quite speedily in most cases without having to turn off bonjour (as others have suggested).

If you've tried this fix

Eltima Software has released SyncMate (US$40), software for syncing data between a Mac to Windows Mobile handheld devices. In addition to syncing documents, folders, contacts, calendar entries, SyncMate has several unique features not found with other syncing solutions. SyncMate is able to send, receive, create and delete SMS text messages when working at the Mac. Another unique feature is the synchronization of Stickies on Mac OS X with Notes on Pocket PC.

SyncMate can also sync Windows Mobile music with iTunes and photos with iPhoto, as well as documents, folders, and notes. Favorites are synced with Mac Bookmarks. SyncMate syncs contacts and calendar entries and events with the Mac Address Book and iCal. SyncMate currently does not support syncing to Entourage at this time. The company said it is working on Entourage support for a future release.

SyncMate enables Internet sharing between the Mac and the mobile device. The connection can be made via USB cable or Wi Fi.

SyncMate also comes in a free version, which doesn't include support of bookmarks, folders, music, folders, notes, or SMS text.

If you've used SyncMate what you think of it.

Thomas Tiedt remarks that while the Leopard 10.5.2 update made OS X slower, the Vista SP1 update made Windows faster in Boot Camp. He also thinks that Vista in Boot Camp runs faster than Leopard:

I have always found that Windows in Boot Camp acts snappier than OS X on a Mac box. I'm referring to window opening and program starts. For example, Safari and Firefox take several seconds to open on my Mac Pro, a meticulously maintained computer with only essential programs ever installed, and never antivirus. Vista's SP1 exaggerated the relative snappiness of Vista [in Boot Camp] over Leopard on 13-month old Mac Pro. On a Mac Mini, matters are substantially worse for OS X vs. Vista/XP). Nevertheless, Leopard is better in snappiness than Tiger, and only since Leopard did OS X become my default OS on the Mac Pro.

The 10.5.2 update slowed things down for OS X, notably Office 2008. Office 2008 installed on a fresh Leopard 10.5.0 was faster to start Word than after subsequent Leopard updates. Now, the benefits of faster starts of Word 2008 over Word 2004 are gone.

Several readers reported their experiences with the new Vista Service Pack 1 running on Macs with Boot Camp and with Parallels Desktop.

Jeff Julian runs Vista SPI in Boot Camp and is happy with it:

I have been running SP1 for a month now (Microsoft Developer Network subscription) on two different MacBook Pros (17-inch) and have had no issues at all. In fact, I believe it performs better than before, but I have no statistics...

Mike Goodfellow responded to our report of a reader who had hard disk space disappear when partitioning a drive for Boot Camp. Goodfellow sent us a fix:

I have seen this problem and know how to solve it. Startup the Macintosh in question from another volume, such as the Leopard DVD or startup external hard drive. Run Disk Repair. This will fix the problem and give you your missing hard drive space back.

If you've used this tip

Patrick Zirngast was having the problem of kernel panics with Leopard 10.5.2 while using Boot Camp Assistant to partition his drive. He tried two fixes listed on our Boot Camp Tips and Reports page. He no longer has kernel panics, but is still having problems:

I tried to fix the problem via the DVD Disk Utility; this solved the problem with hard disk, though Boot Camp would still not run the partitioning.

So I bought iDefrag and did a 5-hour defragmentation. I was then able to partition the disk; but when I tried to install Win XP SP2 my screen started to flicker on startup and the system stopped... That's the status so far.

As soon as I find some time, I will go back and reinstall everything from scratch.

Eric Benfer sent us an AppleScript to fix the problems with Leopard 10.5.2 and the Cisco VPN client for Mac OS X:

I too have experienced the problem with Cisco VPN and 10.5.2. I am using the using vpnclient-darwin-4.9.01.0100-universal-k9.

I usually get the "Error 51: Unable to communicate with the VPN subsystem" when I switch network connections. Such as changing from wired to wireless. Running the CiscoVPN StartupItem fixes it for me. I wrote an AppleScript to automate the process for my users. Here is the code for the script for anyone who wants to build it themselves...

Derek Collie verified a fix for Windows Vista problems accessing a Mac server:

Mikael Fredriksson's solution of changing the Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication Level via secpol.msc worked for me. Thanks Mikael it was driving me insane! I am running Vista Business on a Sony Vaio TZ31 connecting to a Mac G4 running 10.2.2.

Several readers responded to a report of a Mac usurping network's DHCP server with the same suggestion. Christoph Sahm:

Shon Hall probably has turned on Internet Sharing in the System Preferences. This causes Mac OS X's built-in DHCP Server to start handing out IP addresses...

March 26

CrossOver Games runs PC games on Mac at native speeds, without Windows

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Yesterday CodeWeavers debuted CrossOver Games (US $40), new software that runs Windows games natively in Mac OS X, but without using Windows. The company said that PC games will run faster in CrossOver Games than in virtual machine products such as Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion. CodeWeavers also released a version for Linux.

CodeWeavers said that CrossOver Games will run Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, and most Steam-based games, including Team Fortress 2, Portal, Half Life 2, Civilization IV, Peggle...

Vista SP1 ships, but problems with some drivers exist

Reader's Mac usurping network's DHCP server

Leopard Security Update disconnects mounted shares

Verification of Terminal restart command fix for OS X 10.5.2/Cisco VPN problem

Boot Camp partitioning losing hard disk space

Russell Vickery in New Zealand lost some hard disk space when partitioning his drive for Boot Camp:

I've installed Boot Camp on my Mac Book Pro with Windows XP Pro release 2. I partioned the drive using Boot Camp Assistant to have 30 GB for Windows and the Mac OS X to have 50 GB. The installation went smoothly and I thought I was up and running. Then I found that the PC drive has only 5 GB while the Mac Book had the full 50 GB. The Windows partition lost 25 GB.

I then reinstalled Boot Camp, creating a partition of under 30 GB and it appears to be working well, but now I've lost 20 GB from my Mac partition.

If you've seen this problem or have a suggestion

Srinivasan found that the Leopard 10.5.2 kernel panics with Boot Camp partitioning didn’t occur with smaller partition:

I ran into the same issue with kernel panics: I was trying to get a 15 GB FAT32 chunk. I was on the verge of giving up, but since an earlier attempt to partition the my 120 GB MacBook HD running Leopard to get a 12GB partition for Windows was successful, I gave it a shot again, and it worked. Maybe with smaller partition sizes, the kernel doesn't panic. It worked for me.

Erik Akerblom responded to a report last week about the Office 2008 12.0.1 update having problems with Excel:

The Office 12.0.1 update seems to have broken a few random documents, or is correctly identifying some documents as being broken. I have the same error as your reported user "File Error: Data May Have Been Lost" on one particular document, which then opens up fine and appears to have all the data within that is expected. Other documents appear fine. The document in question was not created by me but sent to me from another Mac via email.

I am keeping my install "as is" for now. PowerBook G4, Leopard 10.5.2.

A reader reports that the new Safari 3.1 for Mac has a problem that manifested itself over a virtual private network:

With Mac OS X 10.5.2 MacBook Pro, Cisco VPN client 4.9.01 (0100) was working reliably. Then I updated Safari to 3.1 (5525.13). The client connects, Safari connects to site, but it won't open the application any more. I'm able to open with FireFox 2.0.0.12

This appears NOT to be a VPN issue at all, however. On my system, Safari 3.1 has a broken "open in new window" setting. Any links clicked that are set to open in a new window don't work. No error, no nothing.

If you've seen this problem

FireFox maker slams Apple over Safari for Windows updater

Monday, March 24, 2008

Mozilla CEO John Lilly criticized Apple for using its Software Updater program to install Safari 3.1 on Windows PCs, saying that it “undermines the safety of users on the web.”

“What Apple is doing now with their Apple Software Update on Windows is wrong,” said Lilly. “It undermines the trust relationship great companies have with their customers, and that's bad - not just for Apple, but for the security of the whole Web.”

Mozilla makes the FireFox web browser, which has a 17.3 percent market share on the Windows platform, compared to 5.8 for Safari, according to the Market Share web site. Last week's release of Safari, however, was the first post-beta version for Windows.

The Safari update was made available through the Apple Software Updater program, which is installed with iTunes for Windows as well as with Safari for Windows. Lilly complained that the iTunes users who don't already have Safari installed are given the option to install Safari. Lilly said that because option to download Safari is checked by default, it could “endanger the security of the Web.”

Lilly posted his criticisms of Apple on his blog on Friday.

Apple released Safari 3.1 last week, calling it “the world's fastest web browser,” which some testers said was a valid claim.

March 21

Apple Safari for Windows gets out of Beta, delivers speed, includes HTML 5, but lacks some features

Toast 9 adds HD video burning for Macs and video streaming to iPhone

Reader says video driver crashes under Vista on iMac

VPN Tracker 5.1 simplifies WatchGuard VPN connections

12.0.1 Office Update broke reader's Excel

PDF2Office Personal v4.0 adds Word 2008, improved conversion

Leopard connecting to Windows server and crashing the server

IPv6 didn't solve Leopard writing problem to Windows

Verification of 10.5.2 Cisco VPN connected-but-not-really problem

Reader recommends alternative Win-app servers

Yesterday Microsoft posted updates for its current and previous versions of Office: Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 Update and Office 2004 for Mac 11.4.1 Update. Both address security issues and stability, but the Office 2008 update is the more substantial, with two dozen bug fixes, including some that affect cross-platform abilities. The Office 2008 12.0.1 update also includes performance improvements and includes bug fixes for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Office 2008 for Mac 12.0.1 also fixes several synching problems with Entourage synching calendars and contacts with Exchange Server. These include problems with duplicate and missing calendar events. Microsoft said that the update will provide "more consistency with changes to the calendar on the Exchange server." The update also fixes a problem with syncing contact lists between Entourage 2008 and Exchange.

Office 12.0.1 also fixes two bugs in Word opening documents created in Windows:

• Fixes an issue that prevents Word 2008 from opening documents created by Word 2007 for Windows that contain equations.
• Fixes an issue for PowerPC Macs that causes fonts in documents created by Word 2007 for Windows to display incorrectly when the document in Word 2008.

For the Office 2004 update, Microsoft said that the Office 11.4.0 must be installed before the 11.4.1 update.

If you've seen any of these problems with Entourage 2008 and Word 2008, how well the update worked.

CodeWeavers is working on version of its CrossOver product that will focus on games. CrossOver allows Macs to run Windows application in Mac OS X without the use of Windows or a virtualization environment. The tradeoff is that CrossOver runs a selected number of Windows applications, including several games.

CrossOver Games will focus on supporting and being optimized especially for PC games. A company spokesperson said:

CrossOver Games will allow many leading games, such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Team Fortress 2, Civilization 4, Counterstrike Source, Peggle, EVE online (all running under Steam) and many others, to be played on either Mac or Linux PCs without the need for a Windows OS license.

A private beta has been in testing for several weeks. CodeWeavers is getting ready to start testing Beta 2.

See our CodeWeavers CrossOver Reports page for more on CrossOver.

Luke Patrick confirmed a previous report that going back to Leopard 10.5.1 from 10.5.2 fixed the problem of Boot Camp kernel panics while partitioning. Patrick used a different method of back-grading to 10.5.1 than the previous report:

I also had success with repartitioning when I reverted to 10.5.1. I did this by reinstalling Leopard from the install disk rather than rolling back in Time Machine. The only problem was that after I loaded windows, something was preventing a startup in Mac OS. The Leopard partition was recognized, but wasn't coming up with the option key startup, or when set as the default in the windows bootcamp control panel. What I finally ended up doing was reinstalling Leopard a third time on the new, non-windows partition. My files and settings were saved, and now I can start up in Windows or Leopard as intended.

Will Tisdale has a theory as to where the bug is:

I have 4 drives in a Mac Pro. The disk that I was using for Boot Camp has 200GB remaining free space. However, the disk is in a fairly bad state of fragmentation due to all sorts of junk being put on and off it over the last 6 months or so.

I started the Boot Camp Assistant and within about 20 seconds of it attempting to partition, the machine had a kernel panic. So, I switched it off and booted off the install disk and verified all the hard drives, all came back with no errors. So, I then decided to try first partitioning it in Disk Utility, and then delete the partition, restore the drive to full capacity and THEN run the Boot Camp assistant.

Having set it to give me a partition of a modest 60GB in disk utility, it started, and then 30 seconds later came up with a "Not enough space left on device" error. I thought, odd, as there is 200GB free. So I tried a 10GB partition, and it gives the same error.

The conclusion I drew from this was that although there is space on the drive, there isn't any free space at the end of the drive where you are trying to create the new partition, and iDefrag confirmed that the free space on the drive was all in the middle. It is obviously a bug of some description in diskutil, which prevents the creation of new partitions when there isn't enough contiguous free space at the end of the volume.

Henrik Wiman in Sweden had luck with a previously reported fix for a problem with Windows Vista connecting to Mac OS X Server:

About the tip from Mikael Fredriksson; We run 10.5 server and this tip worked out just fine! Now we join our domain with Vista clients! Thanks!

Yesterday, Apple announced the iPhone 2.0 software platform, its next-generation software for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The software will include built-in direct support of Microsoft Exchange Server for email, contacts, calendaring, and access to global address lists (GAL). Apple is also opening up the iPhone platform...

A reader named Grant sent in a suggestion getting around problems with Windows PCs accessing Leopard shares. The main idea is to create a local user account on the Mac with file sharing already turned on:

For those of us using only domain accounts on our Macs within a Windows Active Directory Domain, we just get used to the idea that we can access the PCs from the Macs but not necessarily so the other way around.

Try this -- it worked for me and now all sharing on all Macs and PCs is working seamlessly:

1. System Preferences > Sharing > Confirm File Sharing is enabled
2. System Preferences > Accounts > Create yourself a local user account on your Mac with admin rights
3. System Preferences > Sharing > File Sharing > Options > Confirm that you are sharing files using SMB
4. Access your shared folders from a PC > Voila

It appears that by creating the local user account with file sharing already turned on you are initializing the Mac to show itself correctly. You can even now safely go ahead and remove the local account that you no longer need.

If you've tried this

Clement Shimizu reports that turning off IPv6 fixes the problem where files copied to a Windows server remain invisible:

I just wanted to let you know that I too had a Mac-to-Windows file copying problem (the Leopard invisible file problem) that got fixed using your suggestion of turning off IPv6.

Although Apple said that the Leopard 10.5.2 update fixes issues with Active Directory, Lisa Madden said she still has problems. She fixed it by editing the hosts file:

I upgraded a cleanly installed 10.5.1 Mac with 10.5.2 and still could not bind to AD. Got stuck on the final step, not able to find the DC. There was no way to specify the domain in Directory Service either.

What finally did fix the problem was adding the IP of the DC and the domain into the /etc/hosts file, rebooting Mac, and trying to bind again. Bind went flawlessly then.

Not sure if this is a problem with how our DCs are configured, or with Leopard, but as long as it's working, that is all I care.

If you've tried this

Botond Orbán sent in the solution for a problem he was having with networking in Ubuntu Linux running in VirtualBox Beta3 in Mac OS X 10.5.x:

I figured out what happened. The DNS was set incorrectly by the Ubuntu guest on Virtual Box. I found this spread across on different Ubuntu and VB forums.

VirtualBox Beta3 is a prerelease version of an open source virtualization environment for running Windows and Linux on Mac OS X.

Readers have contributed two more suggestions for getting around kernel panics in Leopard 10.5.2 when using Boot Camp to partition a hard drive. A previous suggestion, defragmenting the hard drive, has been verified by several readers.

Timo Jääskeläinen suggests booting from the installer DVD to do the portioning:

I have had the same problem with partitioning for boot camp on 10.5.2 as you described on macwindows.com on Feb 18.

I was able to overcome this problem by booting from my Leopard installation DVD (which is 10.5.0), and doing partitioning from there and it went fine without kernel panics. No need to download/pay for additional software.

Shawn Hart suggested using Time Machine to roll back to 10.5.1:

I have experienced the problem with 10.5.2 and boot camp partitioning. I'm running a MacBook pro 15 inch on 2.2 GHz processor. I have not been able to be it to work. But a friend said he used Time Machine to go back to 10.5.1 and it worked.

If you've tried these suggestions

Responding to our article Reader reports success with Apple NVidia driver for Boot Camp, Geoff Armstrong said that issues still remain with his external projector:

These older drivers posted by Apple did partially fix my problem using an external projector. Previously, using the later drivers supplied with Leopard, the highest resolution I could get on the projector was 1024x768.

With the Apple posted drivers I can go right up to 1920x1080 (Full HD) Unfortunately there is nothing in between 1280x1024 and 1920x1080 available for the projector with this driver.

My projector's native resolution is actually 1400x1050. It seems absurd that I can send full HD to the projector or 1280x1024; but the drivers can do nothing in between.

If I use 1920x1080, obviously I get overscan and this is a pain to correct when watching movies.

If you've seen this problem or have a suggestion

Botond Orbán has a problem with the last version of the VirtualBox running Linux. Virtual Box is an open source virtualization environment. Orbán said:

I have tried Virtual Box 1.5.51 on Leopard. I struggled a lot to make the network working on an Ubuntu guest OS without any success.

If you have a suggestion

For more on this topic, see our VirtualBox Beta Tips and Reports page.

Jason Lisi reports that Mail.app on his Leopard MacBook Air doesn't sync with Mac OS X Server's IMAP server. Readers have reported some other Leopard problems with IMAP servers, but these had been with Exchange Server. Lisi also resolved the problem:

I have an IMAP server (XServe running OS X Server Tiger) for my mail, iMac at the office running Leopard, MacBook Air for the road running Leopard.

The iMac, connected at all times to the Internet, syncs with the IMAP server perfectly; changes made on the iMac are reflected on the IMAP server. When the MacBook Air is connected to the Internet, same result.

However, when I am on the road and not connected to the Internet and reading my mail, the changes I make (deleting spam, filing messages in subfolders) do not get synced with the server. When I connect the MacBook Air to the 'net, all the deleted messages repopulate my inbox and the filed messages become un-filed back into the inbox.

When I had used a PowerBook G4 running Tiger, offline changes to Mail would work just like it would if connected.

After a few hours' worth of testing on this issue, I believe it has resolved itself. I decided to download Thunderbird and set it up with the identical settings to Mail.app. After going through the IMAP sync and downloading my gsigs of email messages, I tested Thunderbird, finding it to work pr