Translucent Finder Menu Bar and CPU Speed
From John Muir:
Hi Dan,
Interesting discovery there by Brian Deuel.
Here's something a little strange from my own experience too. I have
Leopard installed on my 867 MHz PowerBook
G4 12", and it naturally has an opaque menu bar. However, I have
the desktop background image set to change on a regular basis (one of
my long-standing favourite features in OS X), and during the one
second or so long transition when one image fades into the next my menu
bar flashes and is visibly torn.
I wondered what was going on when I first saw it, so I set the
background picture to keep changing every few seconds, and sure enough
there's a graphic glitch up there. My menu bar is simultaneously
opaque and translucent when the picture is changed. I'm used to the
translucent menu bar from my Intel Mac mini and can clearly make out
that there is some sort of filter going on up there . . .
albeit badly!
As it's a glitch, I don't know any way to capture it apart from
maybe hitting Shift+Command+3 at just the right moment. I may try that
when I'm next on the machine.
Things are not quite as they seem when it comes to the Leopard menu
bar, it seems.
John
John,
That is unexpected behavior, especially for an opaque
menu bar.
Dan
Attempts to take screen shots have all just yielded the full opaque
bar, as though nothing was wrong. Looking closely while the machine is
doing background transitions it seems to tear between the full opaque
bar and the background image beneath (instead of a proper graphical
filter): bearing in mind that image is actually a fast sequence of
merged frames between the two "real" images before and after.
Trying it again just now also shows that the tearing is reduced,
compared to what I saw when I first installed Leopard. It looks wrong
on maybe 1 transition in 4. Since I usually have the background to
change every hour, it's not really an issue in practice. Most users of
course leave it on the default and would never see this at all.
Good new year to you, Dan.
John
Translucent Finder Menu on 450 MHz Power Mac
G4
From Casey:
Good afternoon Dan,
I was reading the article regarding the translucent menu bar in
Leopard being tied to the speed of the processor itself. I don't
believe the processor totally controls whether the menu bar appears
translucent or not. I am currently running 10.5.1 on a Power Mac G4 that is stock other than the
upgraded GeForce 6200 video
card, larger hard drive, and dual-layer burner. The processor is rated
at 450 MHz, and I only have 384 MB of RAM installed. I have had the
translucent menu bar from day one of 10.5 install.
With that being said, I believe that there is more to it than just
what processor is currently installed.
Casey
Casey,
At this point, we have one G4/450 user (you) with a
GeForce 6200 with the translucent menu bar and one G4/500 dual with the
same video card and an opaque menu - but translucent when a 1.8 GHz
upgrade is installed. I am at a loss to explain this.
Dan
Translucent Menu Bar Reports
From Matthew Wright:
Dan,
Merry Christmas amigo! Those are my field reports:
- 1.8 GHz G5 with 256 MB ATI 9600: yes
- 2.16 GHz Core Duo MacBook Pro with 256 MB ATI X1600: yes
- 1 GHz G4 12" PowerBook with 32 MB GeForce: no
Going to install Leopard on a 1.2 GHz G4 iBook this week and will
let you know.
Best,
-matthew
Matthew,
Thanks for the reports. With enough reports, maybe
we'll figure this out.
Dan
Translucency Ties to More than CPU Speed
From Peter Brockie:
Hello Dan,
I just thought I'd let you know my findings on your recent article.
I have had Leopard running on my G4/1.25 GHz
MDD since its release. I have not had the transparent menu bar, as
my stock Radeon 9000 Pro does
not support Core Image.
My wife's PowerBook G4 with the same
1.25 GHz G4 processor does have the transparent menu, as hers is
equipped with a Radeon Mobility 9600 (Core Image supported).
Yesterday I replaced the stock Radeon 9000 Pro of my MDD with a
Radeon 9800 Pro - Core Image
supported, obviously - which I bought on eBay and flashed to a Mac
card. Immediately after reboot the transparent menu was enabled,
however, the 1.25 GHz processor speed remained.
It is possible the transparent menu is based on more than one factor
(Core Image video card or processor of x GHz or faster perhaps).
Peter,
That's what I'm beginning to suspect. However, I also
have one report of a Sawtooth G4/450 MHz with a GeForce 6200 that has a
translucent menu bar and another report of a 500 MHz dual G4 with the
same video card where the menu bar is opaque.
Dan
That's bizarre.
It's one of those things that although good to know, isn't really
worth the trouble to find out with real testing.
There are a number of factors that could create these seemingly
conflicting results. I'm thinking:
- Video card installation order. Was the card installed before or
after Leopard?
- Driver differences (these should actually be the same, since
they're installed along with Leopard).
- Are they the exact same models of card? It's possible one is
clocked slower, different memory, etc. All these factors could be
checked by Leopard to determine if the system can handle the added
workload.
- GeForce cards have many different variations in ROMs (I researched
quite a bit before getting my 9800 to flash), and it's possible these
may cause it to be enabled or not.
- Combination of several factors (installed RAM, Core Image support,
processors speed, and GPU).
Although it would be interesting to see if System Profiler shows
them as being Core Image: Hardware Accelerated or Software. For the
record, my Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB (PC flashed) is shown as Hardware
Accelerated (transparent menu) and my Radeon 9000 Pro 64 MB was
reported as Software (opaque menu).
Peter,
Yes, bizarre is a good word for it. We'll continue
gathering information.
Dan
GeForce 5200 and the Mac
From Adam Fothergill:
Hi Dan
With regards to Joseph Burke's
comments on the GeForce 5200 card and Leopard, he seems to be using
the PC version to comment on Mac performance. Whilst it's true that the
5200 is hardly a powerful card, its Leopard performance is snappy and a
pleasure to use. I'm typing this on my 12"
PowerBook G4 with a 5200, and I'm happily running Leopard. The only
issue I've had with this card is that it won't show the menu bar as
translucent, whereas the ATI X1600 in my Intel iMac does, but that is
it (and seems to be the case with all users of this card).
Time Machine runs fine, as do all the screen savers. As for the
Direct X9 observations, again this is hardly relevant for Mac users as
we use OpenGL, not DX. Unreal Tournament runs great on the 5200 with
the graphics levels turned down a little, and that is a very resource
hungry game. DFS could happily run Leopard on a 5200 if he wished, and
I think the moral of the story here is that a cards performance under
Windows is a poor indicator of the performance under Leopard and vice
versa.
Happy New Year
Adam
Adam,
Thanks for sharing your experience with the GeForce
5200. It's this kind of real world experience that trumps armchair
speculation any day of the week.
Dan
No problem Dan, thanks for responding. Your site is an absolute must
for those of us who don't need to live on the absolute cutting edge.
Keep up the excellent work, and I wish you all the best for 2008.
Adam
Better ATI Rage Support in Leopard
From Mick Bramley:
Hi Dan
I say your article about installing Leopard on a Pismo. I've done it
tonight and am surprised by the results.
My Pismo has a Wegener Media G4 550, 7k60 7200 rpm hard disk,
Wegener slot-loading SuperDrive, and 768 MB RAM. It was using Tiger
10.4.11 prior to the install. I backed this up and installed 10.5 anew.
Things went okay. DVD Player does not work, as mentioned by other
people. No ATI Rage working, windows dragging quite slow etc.
I did the Open Firmware hack to fool the installer about the CPU
speed. I am pleasantly surprised to find the Pismo not bad.
I've updated to 10.5.1 and noted the Tigers DVD Player would not
work, saying it is not compatible with this version of OS X. The
latest VLC gave me about 10 fps on a test DVD.
I then enabled
root. Logged in as root, put all the Rage 128 kexts I could find from
the Tiger install I had backed up as well as some Rage Pro ones and an
ATI TVout kext. I repaired permissions, restarted, and VLC Player plays
DVDs perfect @ 1024x768. DVD Player nearly works but borks. Window
dragging seems more responsive, as does scrolling in a web page. As far
as I can tell, the Rage 128 in my Pismo appears to be working under
Leopard using the Tiger 10.4.11 kexts.
I did quite a bit of Googling and found a couple of people had tried
on TiBooks using OS X 10.2.8 kexts, thinking they'd be very old I
decided to use the 10.4.11 and seems I have success.
I get an odd bit of distortion during boot, not sure if it's a one
off or not but it clears before the desktop.
Attached it a screen shot of the kexts as they are installed.
Thanks
Regards
Mick Bramley
Mick,
Thanks for sharing your discoveries. Perhaps this will
help others with Pismos and other Macs with Rage video who want to get
better performance from Leopard.
Dan
Hacking Leopard for Better Video on a 400 MHz
TiBook
From Thomas:
Hi Dan,
I read the article on unsupported installation of Leopard
at Low End Mac. I install it with Leopard assist on my iMac G4/700 with 512 MB of RAM and 120 MB 7200
rpm hard drive, and it appear to run well.
But the object of my mail is to run Leopard on TiBook 400 MHz; it has also a
768 MB of RAM.
I already read the Ryan result, and I start to try install the
ATIRage128 driver of Tiger.
I follow this step put my iMac on target disk mode, on TiBook take
the files on folder System/Library/Extension:
- ATIRage128GA.kext
- ATIRage128.kext
- ATIRageProGA.kext
- ATIRage128DVDDriver.bundle
- ATIRagePro.kext
- ATIRage128GLDriver.bundle
I install them on my iMac in the Leopard System/Library/Extension/,
I run terminal and type :
bash$ sudo chown -Rh root:wheel ATIRage*
bash$ sudo chmod -R a+rX,u+w,go-w ATIRage*
for correct the permissions.
In Startup disk I select the iMac Disk and reboot.
After the reboot I stop the index search of Spotlight, the driver is
load and active, but the system remains slow.
Cover Flow is sluggish, the Finder is slow and take the 100% of CPU
frequently, I don't know if is because I run the System through
FireWire or for the poor performance of graphics card.
System profiles report that Core Image is software, Quartz Extreme
disable.
I also send you a screen shots of the system profile driver
load.
Thank you for your articles on old Mac, that for determinate task
still useful, and sorry for my bad English, but I am an Italian
user.
I hope I have help someone with this attempt.
Bye
Thomas
Thomas,
Thanks for writing. I just received email from a Pismo
owner who copies the ATIRage128 kext files from Mac OS X 10.4.11
to Leopard and reports a big improvement in video performance. Watch
for it in our next mailbag column.
Dan
USB Webcams Work with iChat Since OS X 10.4.9
From Björn Steiner:
Dan,
You wrote to James: "iChat only supports FireWire webcams."
This is no longer true since 10.4.9, as there are now drivers built
into Mac OS X for UVC (USB Video Class) devices.
Ecamm does state a notice specifically for Logitech cams not in need
for ichatusbcam:
Logitech Compatibility Information
The following Logitech QuickCams are currently available in two
versions. Only the newer version is Mac-compatible (UVC compliant)
(Unless otherwise noted.).
- QuickCam for Notebooks PRO
- QuickCam Orbit MP/Sphere
- QuickCam PRO 5000
- QuickCam Ultra Vision
- QuickCam Fusion
Identifying the newer revision cameras:
- The new models are labeled with the "Works with Windows Vista"
logo, and also feature "RightLight 2" as one of the features.
- Part Number (P/N): The compatible model/part numbers are listed on
our camera guide. Unfortunately, the part number can only be found by
opening the box.
Logitech provides
the following table showing the new vs. old camera models. The
cameras marked as "UVC Supt" are Mac-compatible.
In most cases USB video cameras labelled as Windows Vista ready are
found to work without any drivers.
best
Björn
Björn,
Thanks for the information. I'll pass it on to
James.
Dan
Moving to a Different Mac
From Matt:
Dan,
I know you guys will not be publishing for the next week or so, but
there's no rush on this. If you can help me find a solution/answer to
either or both of these, it'd be much appreciated.
I'll be traveling for a somewhat extended period during the early
part of next year, and will be taking advantage of this to move my
primary Mac from my iMac to a new MacBook Pro. I have a young family,
and we'll be using the video connection in iChat to stay in touch while
I'm away.
I do not want to transfer all the settings from the iMac to the new
MBP - the iMac will still be in service as the family PC, and I love
the process of setting up a new computer from scratch. However, there
are two things that I do want to move to the MBP, and I'm not sure how
to go about either.
First, I am running Vista on a Boot Camp partition. I'd like to
uninstall Vista on the iMac and move the setup to the MBP, but don't
want to run afoul of MS licensing. Can't seem to find anything clear
about how to uninstall the existing version, then reinstall it on the
MBP and stay within the rules of one OS, one computer.
Second, I have a particular favorite widget installed on the iMac
that, alas, is no longer available and will not be available again,
barring the unexpected. I'd like to make a copy of that widget for the
MBP, but again, can't seem to find anything that shows how to do
this.
I should say for the record that I am a longtime Mac user in my
personal life (my company provides a ThinkPad for work), having made
the switch permanently with the G4 cube and never looked back, but I am
hardly an expert on Mac systems or software - I just use the computer
as I did my PCs before, with pretty much the same programs and
workflow. It's that fact more than any other, I think, that has
convinced several friends and family members to make the switch: I
don't do anything different than what they needed to do; I just enjoy
it more. - But in a way, being a Mac user has made it too easy: back in
the DOS and Win 3.1 days, it took a bit of know-how to be the family
computer guy. Not the same in the Mac world; only the PC users call
anymore.
Thanks and Happy Holidays.
Matt
Matt,
Widgets are stored in Library > Widgets, and I
don't know of any reason you shouldn't be able to simply copy it to
your new Mac.
As for Boot Camp and Vista, I can't say for sure, but
I believe Microsoft allows you to have the same licensed copy of
Windows on two computers, such as a desktop and a notebook. I don't
know if that still applies with Vista, but it's worth looking into. If
so, it could be as easy as copying the Vista partition to your new
Mac.
As I don't use Dashboard widgets or Boot Camp, I can't
speak with any more authority than that.
Dan
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
