Logitech Control Center still bad on Leopard

DaringFireball.net covered the original problem with the Logitech Control Center causing "blue screens" in Leopard, mostly due to Unsanity's APE. More recently, Logitech released an update that was supposed to be compatible with Leopard, but it doesn't look so good. I tried it myself and noticed problems with iTunes and the beta Flash. I was getting console messages about "_NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object ... autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking". The problems went away when I uninstalled LLC. I'm guessing their new InputManager doesn't play nicely with some other apps. I tried to report the problem, but Logitech doesn't make it easy to file bugs. I hope their webmaster passed on my bug report.

Flash on Leopard

Adobe has a beta version of Flash that's supposed to work on Leopard. You can get Flash Player 9 Update beta from:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer9/

(Hat tip: http://www.colettas.org/?p=197)

But the Adobe installer is a mess. I had a hard time getting it to work. I had to google the specific error message about not being able to install a file. I found the answer which involved removing some old installed files, repairing permissions, rebooting and trying again. I can't remember the exact details, but it took a lot of trial and error before it worked.

Eclipse on Leopard

Eclipse 3.3 (the Java IDE) has a problem on Leopard. Here's a link to one crasher. Fortunately, there's a fix in a nightly build. I've had good luck with M20071107-1100, which is available from here. For reference, Eclipse builds are listed on their downloads page.

Leopard iChat problem with Jabber

When I upgraded to Leopard, my Jabber account stopped working in iChat. I found similar complaints on the web. It seems that the solution is to delete the Jabber account and recreate it in the new iChat. That worked for me, but it was kind of a hassle.

Turn off Translucent Menu Bar in Leopard

Update: The 10.5.2 Update now lets you control the Translucent Menu Bar in the Desktop system preference pane so there's no need to hack your System file anymore.


This tip is only for experts who understand the risks of editing system config files. (Obviously, this is not approved by Apple.) By the way, make sure you preserve the permissions on this file.

Edit the following file:

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer.plist

Add an entry like this:

   <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
   <dict>
         <key>CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE</key>
         <string>1</string>
   </dict>

Restart you Mac and you'll get a plain white menu bar. This hack forces the window server to act as if it were running on older hardware that didn't support fragment processing. I hope Apple gives us a configurable option (at least a dwrite) in the future so that people can rely on it. It's a shame that law-abiding citizens like myself can be driven to commit crimes against system integrity over minor look-and-feel issues but that's what happens when people get desperate.

Steve starts a new personal blog

We're expanding our blogging empire with a new blog dedicated to whatever Steve thinks is interesting — or at least worth having Google record for eternity. Miner Updates will continue to be a place for friends and family to keep track of our travels and daily lives. This blog will be more eclectic and eccentric.