Compatibility Issues

Introduction

Section Links

1. Initial Compatibility
   
2. G3 Card
   
3. Hard Disk Toolkit
4. Shut Down Problem
5. PageMaker
   
6. QuarkXPress
7. MS Office
8. Norton Utilities
9. Miscellaneous

Initial Compatibility

Mac OS 8.6 and Virex 5.9.1 glitch?
Steve Maser has found that if you have the Virex 5.9.1 enabled and have Mac OS 8.6 installed, some software installers may have one of two problems:

• They will stop with an "unexpected error" (Meeting Maker 5.5.3 does this)
• They will look like they work, but they won't install all the parts (Timbuktu Pro does this)
  

This is not a problem with Mac OS 8.5.1. The obvious work-around is good advice in any case: turn off virus protection software before running any installers, especially a Mac OS installer. [Note: I have not yet confirmed this nor have I seen other reports of this.]

G3 Card Conflicts

Sonnet Crescendo 1.3.6 (the final release version) is now out. It adds "Mac OS 8.6 support with Crescendo G3/L2 processor upgrade cards."

In general, readers (link dead) (including myself) report no problems with Newer G3 upgrade cards.

Mac OS 8.6 and Hard Disk ToolKit warning

As with other companies, we recommend the latest version of our software with the release of any new OS. Our current version of Hard Disk ToolKit is 3.0.2. (link dead)

The only problem with version 3.0.1 and earlier that we are aware of concerns the updating of the driver of some large capacity mechanisms, an issue which was resolved in 3.0.2. I've done several installations of OS 8.6 on a Blue G3 with the Quantum EX 6GB ATA mech and WD 20GB, a rev B G3 with an IBM DTTA-351350 13GB ATA mech, and an 8500/120 with a Seagate ST12550W SCSI mech with no problems. The mechanism setup in each test case has included updating the driver from Drive Setup and doing a clean format and volume creation with HDT 3.0 and 3.0.1.

Mac OS 8.6 Shut Down problem: Speed Doubler and SwitchRes implicated

Warren Nagourney claims: "The culprit is the "Use Faster Network Copy Protocol" option. Uncheck this option and the problem should vanish. Again, I have this feature enabled but have not seen the problem as yet.

One of my Macs is a Power Mac 7500. Brad Dickason found that he also did not have this problem on his Power Mac 7500, although he did have it on his iMac.

Several readers have now confirmed this Speed Doubler problem and the success of the work-around. John Crane notes that just deleting Speed Doubler Preferences solved the problem for him.

SwitchRes installs itself as a Background-only application (like the Application Switcher, or the Control Strip). This BOA is responsible for saving the icons when a resolution change occurs, or when the user requests it. The role of this BOA is then only to respond to some events: save icons in particular, and quit when requested. It seems that under 8.6, no event is transmitted to SwitchRes' BOA: you cannot save the icons, and you cannot quit it. I don't know why.

That's where it becomes strange: I personally never saw this bug. I was always able to quit SwitchRes or to save the icons. [In this regard, a user noted that deleting SwitchRes' Preferences file eliminated the problem.] SwitchRes 2.0 seems to solve the bug, but it never was designed for that.

PageMaker problems with Mac OS 8.6: a follow-up

Rob Morton downgraded to an older version of the LaserWriter driver and turned off virtual memory.

Normand Lepine found that upgrading to Adobe Type Manager 4.5 eliminated the Type 2 errors he was getting.

Barry Porter found that for PageMaker (and other Adobe products), deleting ATM Deluxe's Preferences file, and increasing both the Cache and Preferred Memory sizes (in ATM's Preferences) resolved the crashes he was having.

Using PageMaker 5.52, a reader deleted the 'EPS font scanner.add' file from PageMaker's Plugins folder. This eliminated the EPS-related crashes he was having. He adds: "The downside is that PageMaker no longer checks EPSs for missing fonts."

A message on the Adobe Forum (link dead) blames the problem on the PM6.5 RSRC file, and suggests you lock an original version of this file, and use the locked version. Several postings claimed that crashes disappeared after doing this.

Peter Gordon found that, when using Mac OS versions prior to 8.6, PageMaker had a "corrupted file list" (e.g., 8 copies of the Times font at the top of the Font list). Adobe acknowledged that they have seen this problem but they do not know the cause. However, it appears that this is fixed by updating to Mac OS 8.6.

Thom Holmberg writes: "I took my EPS files (which had been generated in Streamline and Freehand) and selected everything and did the 'Correct Direction' in Alter Paths in Freehand. The problem then went away."

Adobe is aware of the problems with PageMaker 6.5x and OS 8.6. We have recreated the Type 1 & 2 errors when Printing EPS's, placing AI, PDF or ASCII text files and when attempting to set indents. We are working with Apple to attempt to isolate the source of these problems.

Please be assured that we will post solution(s) when they are available. In the meantime, we recommend that PageMaker customers do not upgrade to OS 8.6 at this time.

In addition, there are some work-arounds you can use for many of the problems you are encountering - such as converting text in EPS files to outlines etc., but we do understand that many of these work-arounds are probably not going to be acceptable in the long term.

Issues/Work-arounds:

• Printing EPS files causes Type 1 error. Work-around: Convert text in EPS to outlines.
• Placing ASCII Text file causes Type 2 error. Work-around: Convert file to RTF format or copy/paste text into PageMaker.
• Placing Adobe Illustrator file causes Type 1/2 error. Workaround: Save file as another format
• Placing PDF file causes Type 2 error. Workaround: None at this time; If you have Acrobat Exchange you could possibly convert to another file format
• When you the click text tool in a block of text and choose indents and tab from the type menu and drag indent markers (both triangles) to the right then drag the top triangle back to its original position Type 2 error. Work-arounds: (a) Hold Shift as you drag the left indent marker (the bottom triangle) or (b) Create first line indent via paragraph settings

Mac OS 8.6 and QuarkXPress crashes

Several readers (including Frank Maeder, Nick Keck, and Bryan Canning) found that ATM Deluxe 4.0 was the source of the problem. Extensis Suitcase 8 may similarly conflict. R. Joseph found that simply deleting the ATM Preferences file was sufficient; he also recommended at least a 300K increase in Quark's memory allocation.

Kev Teljeur found that the crashes were related to the presence of particular fonts. Reinstalling (and locking) the font files fixed the Type 2 errors. Marc Elias reported a similar solution, but linked the font problems back to using Suitcase or ATM Deluxe. He felt these utilities somehow "corrupted" the fonts which in turn caused the system errors.

Also recall reports of problems with QuarkXPress 3.x and Mac OS 8.5. Ed Agustin suggests that these errors may be a continuation of the same problem (at least for v. 3.x). As such, the work-around of installing Kaleidoscope 2.0 still works.

ATM 4.5 fixes Quark problems? Robert Simons writes: "After upgrading from ATM Deluxe 4.03 and ATR Deluxe 2.0 to the new ATM Deluxe 4.5 and ATR Deluxe 2.5, all of our Quark 4.0.4 problems have gone away. We've gone from 4 to 5 system errors a day to almost none." [Also see related item in

MasterJuggler and Quark conflict Trevor Murch-Lempinen reports that, when running Mac OS 8.6, "MasterJuggler v 2.0 (the one that came with CorelDraw, which the updater to v 2.02 does not work on) also caused Type 2 errors with XPress v.3.32."

Joe Muscara (of Alsoft) writes: "Anyone with Mac OS 8.0 or later needs to be using MasterJuggler Pro 2.0.2. There are no issues with MasterJuggler Pro 2.0.2 and Mac OS 8.6, nor with Quark XPress."

MS Office problems with Mac OS 8.6?

Mac OS 8.6 and Norton Utilities problems? Symantec replies

Dave Lewis (of Symantec) confirms that Norton Disk Editor (NDE) is incompatible with HFS Plus formatted volumes. However, there is a work-around: "Use Norton Disk Editor Lite, which can be found on the Norton Utilities CD."

Further, Dave asserts that Symantec Quality Assurance has so far not found any Mac OS 8.6 specific incompatibilities with Norton Utilities Macintosh 4.0.3. Users can always visit our web site (link dead) for the latest compatibility information and updates to Norton Utilities Macintosh."

Norton Utilities 4.0.4 is out. (link dead)

Mac OS 8.6: Miscellaneous conflict reports