Major Problems with El Capitan: Continued

So I forgot some things in my last post and have since upgraded to 10.11.1 and wanted to share some more on my issues with El Capitan.

Photos no longer remembers my photo library and instead asks every time which one to use, though if it just used the last one it used it would be fine, but instead it starts up and says it can’t use the current library and I need to chose one. Fun fun fun.

Next continues from a problem I mentioned the last time. Because of the new security features of El Capitan, of which there are no fine controls, certain applications must ask permission to function, and you must give that permission every time you use them. One such program is iTeleport Connect, which I use to VPN into my computer. So when I restart it no longer can log into it, I must type in my Admin password to make it work. The problem arises when I must remotely restart my machine, or even worse when I do a system update.

Since I run a PC based NVIDIA GTX 670 as my graphics card, when I do a system update, it doesn’t function until the latest NVIDIA driver is installed. Previously what I had done, is install the update, wait for it to restart and then use iTeleport Connect to VPN into my computer and install the newest NVIDIA driver, and walla, when I restart my video card is working fine and I can go about my day. Since El Capitan no longer allows iTeleport to work without first entering my Admin Password, and since after a system update I can no longer see my computer, I have to pull my video card and re-install my old GTX 270 the machine came with, and then update the NVIDIA drive, restart to make the driver work, then shut down and install my GTX 670 and then start up. Then I have a working video card. Much more of a pain than being able to VPN in and install using my iPad. If I had money I would get a new video card that is flashed for Mac, so I could install the new driver, but I can’t afford that.

And now we come to the 10.11.1 update. Not only did I have to do the swapping video cards rigmarole to get my computer up again, but when I restarted the system was lets shall we say funky. I couldn’t open some programs and many of my system preferences didn’t work, they just wouldn’t launch. And the best part was the fix. I ran the latest version of Onyx, and repaired Disk Permissions, and when I restarted everything functioned again. So obviously the new internal Permissions Repair did not work correctly, and with Disk Utility no longer having that functionality I had to use a 3rd party software to fix the System Install and allow things to work again!

And I was hoping this would fix my Messages not being able to log in, but no of course it didn’t. I still get the stupid activation error when I try to sign into iMessages in the Messages app.

So far El Capitan is a nightmare, and nothing has wowed me to show me that this is a worthwhile update.

Scott Simmons at PVC has started a series on a Mac Editor switching to PC, well worth a read

Scott Simmons at the Pro Video Coalition was given a Dell Workstation laptop and has started a series on Editing on it after being used to Mac for years. The article is just getting started on it, but it is an interesting read and I look forward to reading more about it.

Personally I never edit on a laptop and do most of my editing on a Mac Tower (or even a QUO hackintosh at one place I work), but with the “new MacPro” (I put in quotes since it has been so long since the trashcan has been released without a single update) I have started to think that my next edit system may very well be a PC Workstation with an NVIDIA TITAN graphics card instead of the MacPro trashcan.

Major problems with El Capitan

http://www.apple.com/osx/

Well Apple recently released it’s next OS X upgrade, OS X El Capitan, and for me at least it has nothing but trouble.

I run a MacPro 4,1, which is rapidly again, but still works well for video work (especially with an NVIDIA GTX 670 with 4GB of RAM of it), and so far my upgrade to OS X El Capitan has been a nightmare.

First off Messages no longer works for me. I cannot log into Messages with my Apple account, it says that I can’t activate my account. I have been trying solutions since it came out, including deleting preferences, resetting my keychain, setting up a new account (and it still wouldn’t work there), and re-installing El Capitan, but still it does not activate. So Messages is just completely broken for me. And I am not running a Hackintosh, nor have I changed mortherboards and lost my serial number (it still shows up in about this Mac).

And then there are the problems with Mail. While my accounts have come over, it seems it has removed the passwords from the outgoing mail servers, and since they are so badly hidden within Apple Mail (in advanced and you have to select custom in a drop down menu to get to them), it is a super pain to go in and re-enter all of my passwords so that I can actually send mail! And this seems to have happened with my mom’s computer as well, and I can’t easily fix it, since I can’t log into Messages to do video chat and take over her computer! ANNOYING!

And while the startup seems quicker now, my finder is very slow and so is iTunes! And my first step on any repair has always been to repair permissions, but you with Disk Utility at least, you can’t do that anymore. That feature has been removed as the system is supposed to do that itself when you install a new program, but I would like to be able to do that myself. Now Titanium software’s Onyx still says it does that, I am not sure you should anymore, though I am going to try it.

Now Alsfot’s Diskwarrior works on El Capitan, but it’s repairs have not helped my system at all. And TechTool Pro needs to be updated to work so I can’t try that.

And another annoyance is that iTeleport Connect, which I use to VNC into my computer from my iPad needs you to enter your admin password every time it starts in El Capitan, so if the machine restarts I can no longer VNC into my computer without first being there to enter the password! I am sure this is a security feature, but I have saved my Machine using iTeleport when some driver screwed up and I was still able to VNC in, but with it not able to log in on it’s own I can’t do that anymore! FRUSTRATING!!!

And that is to say nothing of pretty much the whole Adobe Video suite not working at all in El Capitan! And there is no word from Adobe of an update (other than some word that their previous demo of After Effects running on Metal [of of the new big features of El Capitan] and running 8 x faster will likely not be coming to consumers) that will fix this. Hopefully they are working with Apple and an update is coming, but so far there is no word.

So far El Capitan is a huge bust for me, and I wish I hadn’t upgraded at all. Apple should not have released this until the bugs were worked out, and important software like Adobe’s Creative Cloud actually worked!

Apple has refreshed it’s entire iMac Line, with a 4K 21.5 inch and all 27 inch models now 5K

Apple has refreshed it’s entire iMac line. They all sport Thunderbolt 2 ports, and there is now a 21.5 inch 4K display (Starting at $1499), and they have made all 27 Inch Models 5K (at $1799-2299)! AWESOME!

And they have upgraded their wireless keyboards, mice and touchpads with rechargeable batteries with a month life that charge and pair using lightning cables.

The iMacs are pretty exciting as editing machines, especially with Thunderbolt. I would still prefer NVIDIA graphics over the AMD that Apple now uses across it’s line, but they are still good cards.

Apple iOS 9 Content blockers leaves iPhone 5 and 5 C out in the cold

The ability to add content blockers to your browser in iOS 9 was one of my most looked forward to features, but though Apple doesn’t mention it, all the apps for content blocking leave out the iPhone 5C as well as the iPad 3 which can both take iOS 9. It makes me wonder what else is left off of the earlier devices. I am betting that the ability to keep playing a video on the iPad doesn’t work on the iPad 3, but will have to test and 3 as soon as I can get my wife to upgrade my old iPad 3.

Finally someone else si also getting my “system_profiler quit unexpectedly” crashes in OS X

For a while now I have been getting “system_profiler quit unexpectedly” crashes in OS X, and I get them a lot, but have not always been able to figure out why. I have a thread at Apple discussions on it, and finally someone else has run into the error.

And the thing we both have in common is that we both have PC NVIDIA cards as our Graphics cards, so it is quite possible that this is the issue. The other user has reported this as a bug to apple, but since we are not using approved video cards it will likely be ignored.

He also has a temporary solution, to disable the system profiler app, but this seems excessive in case you need the system profiler, but if it keeps bothering me I might try it.

sudo chmod -x /usr/sbin/system_profile (To revert this, use “+x” instead)

This is really an annoyance, and sometimes happens a lot in rapid succession, so I really do wish I could figure out a permanent solution to this problem.

OneRIver Media Blog on upgrading a 2009 MacPro to it’s fullest potential

One River Media Blog has an awesome article on fully upgrading a 2009, 4,1 MacPro to it’s fullest potential to make it rival the new trashcan MacPro.

This involves replacing the processors with Dual 6 CPU’s which you can now get for around $650 (or less for a slightly slower model) installing dual SSD’s for a startup drive, an NVIDIA Titan X with 12 GB of Video RAM, 64 GB of 1333MHz RAM, 2 6TB internals and a 4TB internal. This is all doable for around $4000, much cheaper than a new Trashcan Macpro with the added bonus of an NVIDIA graphics card VS the unupgradeable ATI graphics cards in the new MacPro.

Honestly if I had the money this is what I would love to do with my Mac! It would give me years more life with my Mac and really make it fast!

The CalDigit FASTA-6Gu3 USB 3 and ESATA PCI card for Mac does not and will not work with Yosemite

So I have a CalDigit FASTA-6GU3 USB and ESATA PCI Card for my MacPro to add USB 3 to my old MacPro 4,1. And it worked great for a long time, but not since Yosemite came out.

I checked there web site about it, and it says this:

It does not support OS 10.10, so I wrote to CalDigit, and got this response:

Dear Jonah,

We regret to inform you that the mac OSX platform is no longer supporting the chipset used on the FASTA-6GU3 card after 10.9. Therefore, it has become impossible for us to develop a viable driver for the 10.10 platform that will work with the card. Unless you’re able to revert to a previous version of OSX, you will be unable to regain functionality out of the card’s USB 3.0 ports. We apologize for the inconvenience this causes.

Regards,

CalDigit Support
CalDigit, Inc.

It seems you must now buy the Pro version to have OS X 10.10 support.

Total bullshit! I am staying away from this company!

Macnn Feature Thief article on Final Cut Pro, iMovie and iDVD

William Gallagher and Charles Martin have an interesting article on Apple and it’s changes to it’s video lineup. It goes into iMovie, Final Cut Pro and iDVD, and how Apple upgraded the first 2 with less features, but slowly made better versions.

My biggest complaint with the article would be on who they polled as they say that most of the people who were angry over Apple’s switch from Final Cut Pro 7 to Final Cut Pro X have moved back X (with a cursory mention of Premiere Pro as an alternative).

Personally being a professional editor, I did give the initial Final Cut Pro X a try, and hated it. And got a refund and have not gone back. There are some features that I do really like in X (especially it’s handling of Meta Data), but since I edit complicated graphics heavy shows, it is the timeline that is the deal breaker for me, and it is the fundamental feature of X, so no matter how many updates they do, the timeline is too unorganized and broken for it to make sense for a 15 track highly organized video project.

And of all the editors that I know, I have only heard of one that has gone back to X and really likes it now. And while features are starting to make their move to Premiere Pro, there have only been a few instances I have heard of big houses moving to X. Most of the big houses I know that were basically all Final Cut Pro have moved to AVID at the studios insistence (kick backs?!??!), while most commercial houses have moved to Premiere Pro for it’s fidelity with graphics.

I just don’t see Final Cut Pro X as a viable solution, and with Apple’s history of dropping software, I don’t trust Apple to keep it going anyway!

JMR Lighting Tower for new Mac Pro

Just saw an ad for this in Post magazine, and I guess they showed it off at NAB this year. The new JMR Lightning Quad Tower for Mac Pro is a PCIE expansion tower via thunberbolt for the new MacPro, that includes four full sized PCIE expansion slots, a built in RAID controler wth 9.6TG capacity, and brings your USB, Ethernet and Audio ports to the front.

Very cool. I am sure it is not going to be cheap, but what a great idea! Make a real MacPro out of a new one, if only Thunderbolt was a little faster.