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

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161–170 of 176 posts

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

#161

Apple updates are a joke. I have a script in my dotfiles to recognize when an apple update overwrites `/etc/zshrc` to run, among other things, a utility that rewrites your path in a nonstandard way (I don't remember the details, I think it was something related to config file load order?) Nothing I've done so far to stop the overwrite in the first place has worked.

Some notes on how Apple sets up paths in /etc/zprofile: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/432226/homebrew-pa...

> The solution is to do path initialization in ~/.zprofile on macOS. This file is loaded after /etc/zprofile and before ~/.zshrc.

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

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdata: I've put in tens of hours into Minecraft on 14.4 without a single client issue.

Now the plot thickens because I have seen users report they specifically cannot get minecraft working. I wonder what might be different between hardware or software config to cause this for them and not for you. Are you using the system java or maybe a different java version you put in another location?

To be fair, I'm using Zulu 17.46.19 because I don't have a system Java (`/usr/bin/java` is just a placeholder that says "you need to install Java").

Just installed OpenJDK 21.0.2 via Homebrew and given it a 10 minute run without any issues.

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

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They shouldn't advertise Mac support then. Canon specifically put a Mac logo on their boxes and uses that in their advertisements.

These printer companies could also open source their drivers after a number of years. The amount of landfill printers due to driver support is kinda sad. Just tossed my old cannon that had a perfectly good scanner due to driver support and the “need” for ink for the scanner to work. Booo!

100%. Require that software be released at the end of the support lifecycle for all licensed customers to continue their use-case, and watch support lifecycles magically telescope outwards.

It would require modification to copyright law in certain aspects (requiring “pass-through licensing” so to speak) and there’s utterly no will to tackle this in the US.

But those sorts of issues are already problematic for, eg, music licensing for games/shows/etc. Some of these types of hyper-limited, time-gated, non-product-ownership-following licensing agreements need to just be outlawed as unconscionable when they’re gating hardware that ends up in landfills or cutting off the public’s access to cultural touchstones. Or just shorten copyright significantly in general.

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

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They shouldn't advertise Mac support then. Canon specifically put a Mac logo on their boxes and uses that in their advertisements.

Canon doesn't develop MacOS. They advertise support for the version of MAcOS that existed when they launched the printer. If MacOS decides to break compatibility over time, it's not their fault. If they're not selling the printer today, they can't also provide up to date support for the OS of today. It's up to the OS developer to ensure a stable API for printers.

Imagine the IP camera vendors saying this :skull:

“What can you possibly be complaining about!? It was secure when we released it! Maybe you should just buy a new one with less vulnerabilities!”

EU isn’t wrong that people have an intuitive sense that appliances like printers should have a worthwhile lifecycle and for some classes of devices this lifecycle should be quite long. 10 years really isn’t unreasonable.

Also, just like everyone has to support usb-c charging regardless of whatever other proprietary alternative they design… vendors should have to support a couple generic standards (postscript/Ghostscript and CUPS) that relieve a lot of the ongoing maintenance. There are very few/no valid reasons you couldn’t implement cups/postscript if you really want.

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

#165
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the printer it's shared over a wifi network, you can just use netcat: nc your_printer_ip 9100

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

It was magical when apple released the LaserWriter printer in 1985 that took postscript files. No need for custom drivers. You would think these days all printers would be driverless.

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

#166
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the printer it's shared over a wifi network, you can just use netcat: nc your_printer_ip 9100

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

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

Most networked printers support Postscript, it's not a special feature like it used to be.

Sure, cheap USB inkjets usually don't, but with how cheap entry level networked lasers have been for the last decade or two there's no good reason to buy one of those things. They may be cheaper up front but within a few years the ink alone will make the difference.

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

#167

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.

Let's be clear. The Apple premium is LARGE. You expect more from them than any other computer company.

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

#168

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?

Apple does not accumulate a trail of old hardware. They deprecate their own hardware after about 5 years. Their “tail” is always about the same length. I use EndeavourOS on all my old Mac hardware and update without fear literally every couple of days. It “just works”. So, a “long tail” of hardware is no excuse anyway. Apple is in the middle off a platform transition from Intel to their own silicon. Some of these pro…

> They deprecate their own hardware after about 5 years.

It's officially considered "vintage" 5 years after it is last sold, but that doesn't mean it won't receive OS updates. Apple considers hardware to be obsolete 7 years after sale ends, but is still likely to receive security updates for a while longer.

Their phones enjoy an even longer support window than their desktops/laptops if you consider security updates, the iPhone 5s (2013) just received a security update last year.

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

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arch breaks extremely infrequently these days. I run it on >10 machines at work and home, some even in internal prod.

How much are you willing to vouch for Arch? Will you give me $10k next time my Arch breaks at update?

i'll bite and take the action.. of course with an additional stipulation that you wield your wallet to all those daily driving osx that gets hit with this :)

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

#170
post #20

My upgrade to Monterey (MacOS 12.x) broke my Canon D530 printer driver. Re-installing the driver didn't help. Now I have to print to a PDF, copy that to an old Snow Leopard 10.6 machine, and print from there. FYI, Snow Leopard is 11 major OS revisions behind Monterey. Printing worked fine in Mohave, 3 major revisions ago. I also can't write any files to /, even with SIP disabled, and during the Monterey upgrade, Appl…

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…

Install little snitch and put it into alert mode and watch as you are overwhelmed with the tens of dozens of outbound connections going out to Apple or iCloud (despite not being signed into iServices) from dozens of system processes.

Why does my MacBook which isn’t enrolled in an mdm ping Apple for mdm config and policies? Why is accountsd phoning home when I’m not signed into an Apple account? Why does the Mac generate absurd amounts of app analytics which you can view in the console app yet can’t delete despite the fact that you turned off all analytics when setting up the machine? Why regardless of if I have WiFi logging enabled or disabled is it still spitting out WiFi velocity reports.

The OS used to be damn near perfect and it’s gone down hill since the first version to introduce iCloud signin. Every new feature they add is something I’ll never be interested in using. Disabling services you don’t want running so they stop phoning home or consuming resources is almost impossible anymore, requiring a dance of booting into recovery mode, disabling every single system protection mechanism, and then booting completely vulnerable into normal mode to then pray that the launchagent gods actually let you turn off mediaanalysisd or if nothing else that sudo has permission (sudo!!) to delete the plist file, and often you get permission denied errors or the process comes back after a reboot. It’s a shit show. The frustrating part is sip and all those things that prevent us from tuning our machines don’t even stop rootkits or the numerous zero days in the wild since it came out

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