Mystery Mouse
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From: Nick Naym on 25 Nov 2009 19:28 In article 2009112515581375249-yexxxx(a)sbellnet, Gary at yexxxx(a)sbell.net wrote on 11/25/09 4:58 PM: > I have a mighty mouse on 10,6.2 iMac 24. Recently and only recently, > the cursor will disappear. The mouse is not disabled because if I move > the mouse over the dock, for example, you can see it hitting each > application I drag it over. But no cursor. Has happened about a dozen > times so far, possible coincinding with the last upgrade to 10.6.2. I > eventurally wind up closing all my applications to see if that will do > it (force quit usually) and when I relaunch Finder, the cursor comes > back. Is sthis a mouse problem or a Finder or other application > problem? > > I also note that people generally recomment combined upgrades to the > OS. If I have already done individual upgrades, can I go download the > combined upgrade and install it? Apparently, I'm getting that the > combined upgrade is more desirable, although I don't know why. > > Thanks, > Gary E > My understanding is that a "combined" or "combo" update goes back several versions and does its installation; if anything is missing/lost (somehow) from your OS after one of your earlier updates, it gets reinstalled. An "individual" update is an "incremental" update: it only updates from the previous version. (If my understanding is incorrect or I garbled the explanation, I expect someone will quickly correct/clarify it.) -- iMac (24", 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 320 GB HDD) � OS X (10.5.8)
From: David Empson on 25 Nov 2009 19:29
Gary <yexxxx(a)sbell.net> wrote: > I have a mighty mouse on 10,6.2 iMac 24. Recently and only recently, > the cursor will disappear. The mouse is not disabled because if I move > the mouse over the dock, for example, you can see it hitting each > application I drag it over. But no cursor. Has happened about a dozen > times so far, possible coincinding with the last upgrade to 10.6.2. I > eventurally wind up closing all my applications to see if that will do > it (force quit usually) and when I relaunch Finder, the cursor comes > back. Is sthis a mouse problem or a Finder or other application > problem? No thoughts on this problem, but I can answer your second question. > I also note that people generally recomment combined upgrades to the > OS. If I have already done individual upgrades, can I go download the > combined upgrade and install it? Yes. You can install the Combo update on top of the same version (or on top of an earlier minor version), e.g. the 10.6.2 combo will install on any of 10.6, 10.6.1 or 10.6.2, but it can't be used to "downgrade" to 10.6.2 from a later version. > Apparently, I'm getting that the combined upgrade is more desirable, > although I don't know why. Because it will completely reinstall all files that have been modified since the original release of 10.6. If any of the files it replaces had become damaged, it will fix them. By comparison, the updates you get via Software Update typically work by patching existing files, and only the ones which have changed since the last minor system update or security update. The combo update isn't a complete panacea: in some cases a part of the system is damaged to such an extent that you have to reinstall from the DVD. I came across such a case earlier in the week. A friend had just upgraded to Snow Leopard, started applying updates, and something went wrong during the process which resulted in the system no longer booting (stuck at the grey Apple and spinning beach ball). I tried the combo update (running from another Mac with the faulty Mac hooked up via Firewire target mode). It installed OK, but the system still wouldn't boot. Further invesitgation (including analysing errors messages in verbose mode) pointed me in the direction of something being wrong with the Unix-layer files: it turned out that the entire /private/etc directory was missing. This contains critical files for configuring the system. I don't know how it got deleted (no evidence of file system corruption), but the most plausible explanation is that my friend's son had turned on the hidden preference for showing invisible files in Finder, and someone may have accidentally trashed or moved the "private" folder at the top of the hard drive. Solved in the end by a new system install then reapplying updates. -- David Empson dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz |