Tag: 10.8

2 Mountain Lion Bugs That Crash Apps

Here are two OS X 10.8 bugs for your collection. Both of these critters result in crashes of the affected applications.

Network proxy bug

Network’s Proxies options: To avoid crashes, make sure the top two configurations are not enabled.
Theres good news and theres bad news here. The good news is that this bug affects only a minority of users — those that enable network proxies (as done by going to Network System Preferences, clicking the Advanced button and selecting Proxies). The bad news is that, if the bug affects you, its serious: Several different third-party programs are likely to crash on launch.

The author of MarsEdit explains:

The issue is related specifically to the Auto Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration settings in Network preferences. If you have one of these options checked, you are very likely to crash in MarsEdit, Safari, Tweetbot, and any number of other apps that rely on Apples networking libraries.

Another such application is NetNewsWire. Its developers write:

We believe the instability is affecting a few percent of our users, but its occurring too deep in the bowels of the networking stack to be fixable on our end, leaving us dependent on Apple to correct it in 10.8.1.

Also chiming in on this matter is AgileBits David Chartier, writing about how the bug affects Safari and 1Password: If you are experiencing Safari 6 crashing under Mountain Lion with our 1Password extension installed&it appears to be caused by a problem with proxy settings under Mountain Lion.

The agreed-upon recommended work-aroundat least for nowis to disable/uncheck Networks Auto Proxy Discovery and Automatic Proxy Configuration options. If you cant turn them off, because your network requires that these options remain enabled, you wont be able to safely use the affected apps until Apple supplies the needed remedy.

Snapz Pro bug

To avoid having Snapz Pro crash, don’t select Objects.Another program with difficulties taming Mountain Lion is Ambrosias Softwares Snapz Pro X, a screen-capture utility. The developers state: The current version of Snapz Pro X is not fully compatible with Mountain Lion. The main symptom is that selecting the utilitys Objects& option will cause Snapz to crash. In addition, Mac Audio capture will not work. The KEXT used for Mac Audio capture should be uninstalled automatically by the OS. If used, it will result in a kernel panic.

These are significant problems for Snapz Pro users. In my case, I use Objects for about 75 percent of the screen captures that I do. I was glad to read that the developers hope to have a Mountain Lion compatible update out as soon as possible. Im counting the days.

via 2 Mountain Lion Bugs That Crash Apps.

Scan For Active WiFi Hotspots Easily Right From Mountain Lion [OS X Tips]

While traveling, it’s helpful to be able to find a strong WiFi signal, whether you need to check your email, review your latest notifications on Facebook, or actually get some work done. You can click the little WiFi rainbow icon in the menu bar obsessively, waiting for the “Searching for networks” message to end, of course, but it’s nice to have an app running that will just scan your environment and tell you what WiFi networks are available.

I used to do this with a third-party app, like MacStumbler or iStumbler. Not anymore, though, as there’s a built-in WiFi scanner right in Mac OS X Mountain Lion.

It’s rather buried, though, so you’ll want to take the following steps to get the app into your Dock, or your Launchpad. Click on the Finder icon in your dock, or Command-Tab over to the Finder. Press Command-Shift-G and type in the following file path: /System/Library/CoreServices/. Click the Go button and that folder will show up in your view. Scroll down to the Wi-Fi Diagnostics App, and then click and drag it to your Dock, or to your Launchpad icon for easy access later.

Once you’ve done that, launch the Wi-Fi Diagnostics App and hit Command-N as soon as the app appears (ignore the window that shows up first for our purposes here). When you do so, the Network Utilities window will appear. Click on the Wi-Fi Scan button in the top center, and you’ll see a list of all available Wi-Fi networks in your immediate area.

Click in the lower right, where it says Scan and choose Active Scan. Now you can leave the app running, and walk your Macbook around to find the best signal for your needs. You can find the strongest signal area in your house or place of business this way, or just use it to find the strongest free Wi-Fi signal when travelling. Good stuff, really. To join the network, though, you’ll need to click the Airport menu bar icon as per usual and connect that way. Still, it’s helpful to have this kind of tool built right in to the Mac OS X Mountain Lion features, right?

via Scan For Active WiFi Hotspots Easily Right From Mountain Lion [OS X Tips].

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