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USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

arstechnica.com

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Re: USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

#111

Post by FireBeyond »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #30

Honest question: is this evidence of worsening QA at Apple, or a consequence of OS X growing a longer tail of old and varied hardware? E.g., how does this compare to the rate of equivalent problems with large Windows releases?

There's also cases where (shockingly to some) Apple just doesn't care.

I'm still more than bitter, after buying some nice 27" 4K HDR 144Hz monitors that Apple actively broke (and may still be broken) Display Stream Compression 1.4 for the Pro Display XDR.

When it was released, there were questions about how Apple was managing to drive that display.

Well, the answer is because they absolutely nerfed/bastardized DSC 1.4 from Big Sur to make it happen with some proprietary magic: those same screens could now only be driven at 60Hz in HDR10 or 95Hz in SDR.

Proof in the pudding was that my monitors (LG27GN950-B) actually allowed you to change the advertised/supported DSC version, and when I "downgraded" the monitors to DSC 1.2, performance actually improved, and allowed 120Hz SDR and 95Hz HDR.

This happened with many many users, across many screen types.

And if you downgraded to Catalina? Boom, back to 144 Hz.

Apple studiously ignored it, and may still be. They simply don't care if you're not using an Apple display.

Re: USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

#112

Post by dehrmann »

microtonal wrote: post #85
stingraycharles wrote: post #17

Ok since these types of threads are typically filled with complaints, just to add another data point: I’ve upgraded last week and have not experienced any problems at all. And yes, I’m using USB hubs, printers and even Java.

Me neither. The thing is that at the scale of an operating system like macOS or iOS is that even if only 1% of its users encounter an issue, it's still a lot of people. Enough to fill many discussion boards with complaints.

Apple doesn't have long tail support in its DNA. Its used to supporting 5 years of devices with just a handful of SKUs per generation. In contrast, Microsoft is used to supporting a huge variety of hardware and keeping it working.

Re: USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

#113

Post by shagie »

dylan604 wrote: post #102
mike_hearn wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The JVM has worked fine on macOS and Apple Silicon for years. It's not violating W^X. The problem is an undocumented/unannounced and probably unintended change in kernel behavior.

Shouldn't this help zero in on where the issue is located? If it did not occur in the last released beta but it now exists in the released update, doesn't that significantly reduce the footprint of where to search for changes?

From a discussion on it previously : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39741517 by fweimer

> The signal comes from a safe fetch, which is just a read that allows ignoring the fault as if it never happened. Such a signal is deliver synchronously, so the usual restrictions for asynchronous signal handlers do not apply.

> The code in question takes into account that the value read might be garbage. See the big comment here: https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/commit/29397d29baac3b29083b1b...

> On current CPUs and operating systems, this is not an optimization, so the code was removed earlier this year: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8320317

(there's a lot more comments further down that are worth reading)

It is known where this is causing a problem and the code was removed a few months ago in the code for Java 23.

Re: USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

#114

Post by dehrmann »

cjk2 wrote: post #4

Signed up to complain about this one. Totally cursed. I had to dig out an ancient windows laptop because I can’t roll it back and I’m shafted.

> I can’t roll it back

Really?! I feel like Windows is very good at rollbacks.

Re: USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

#116

Post by [deleted] »

iforgotpassword wrote: post #69
RedShift1 wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doesn't that require your printer to support Postscript? Not many printers for mere mortals support such advanced technology.

If there's cups running on the remote machine there's a chance it will take care of conversion.

[deleted]

Re: USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

#117

Post by lm411 »

So far I've had two issues after the update: - JetDrive / SD drive wouldn't mount - Time Machine backups started failing with "Time Machine did not back up because the backup disk was previously encrypted but is no longer encrypted"

I've resolved both issues. Still not happy to have to waste two hours of my life on it.

Re: USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

#119

Post by prmoustache »

cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #74
jsmith99 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This macOS version only supports models since 2017-19 (depending on product line). Apple don’t really have an excuse compared to Microsoft since they only have a few hardware options. It’s amusing to compare the comments here to the comments on windows update threads. As nobody else has, let me add the reminder for everyone to switch to .

Let’s be clear. 2017 is SEVEN years ago. Things could be far worse.

Seven years is nothing.

Appart from my 2y old corporate laptop the newest machine in my household is a lenovo Yoga X390 from 2019, nearly 5 year old. everything else is between 6 to 15 years old and they are all running a supported OS.

Also release date != purchase date.

Re: USB hubs, printers, Java, and more seemingly broken by macOS 14.4 update

#120

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

dylan604 wrote: post #98
cqqxo4zV46cp wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking in terms of having “control” over your machine is alarmist and thought-terminating. Your computer didn’t do what you expected it to. Hell, you’re very justified to go beyond that and say that it behaved in a way that it shouldn’t. Removing files from / without notification or backup is bad. Not being able to have files in / is a completely superficial and meaningless indication of “control”. Again, your mach…

WTF is this nonsense? The OS updated deleted files that it had no business deleting. It's my computer. If I want to put files in the Apple approved locations or if I want to put files in / or even if I wanted to put files in C:\, it's none of Apple's damn business. If placing files in / is a security threat, then I'd suggest your not doing security right.

SIP is Apple's documented way of reserving certain paths to be under OS control. You can disable it to modify reserved paths, but they make no guarantees about such modifications continuing to work across OS updates. If you want files the OS won't touch, keep them out of OS-reserved paths. If you want full control of all files on your machine, a managed OS like MacOS is not for you.
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