OS X Panther - Safari Problem

RebelRebel

Hi, I'm not great with computers in general but hope someone can advise on the following. I'm using a Mac Powerbook OS X Panther. (Not sure of version 9. something i think). I mainly use it for audio work. But I use Safari as the web browser. this morning I tried to upgrade to the latest version of Safari as I can't use Yahoo beta mail without it. The upload didn't work. It kept saying there was one minute remaining which went on for 20 minutes. I switched off the laptop and restarted. However it wouldn't complete the start-up. It kept searching for printing devices or something and froze there. I tried this several times and the same error came up.

I eventually had to get out the original disk and upload the operating system from the disc pressing C on the keyboard. It worked and the laptop is back running. However Safari won't load at all.

Now I want to download Safari but I'm afraid that the same thing will happen. Do I need a certain version of the operating system to get the latest version of Safari? Or where can I get a version of Safari that will work on my laptop that I won't have problems uploading.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

nialler

The version you downloaded I imagine is Safari 3.1 what the installer fails to do is check that you're using the correct operating system. It's not compatible with panther, only tiger and leopard. What has happened to you is that webkit has been updated and is no longer compatible with your system, so itunes, mail and safari or anything that uses webkit will not work.

It's a complicated process to reinstall webkit from original disks, but google it and you should be sorted.

RebelRebel

nialler wrote: »

The version you downloaded I imagine is Safari 3.1 what the installer fails to do is check that you're using the correct operating system. It's not compatible with panther, only tiger and leopard. What has happened to you is that webkit has been updated and is no longer compatible with your system, so itunes, mail and safari or anything that uses webkit will not work.

It's a complicated process to reinstall webkit from original disks, but google it and you should be sorted.

Thanks for that Nialler. I didn't even check i tunes! What a pain!

I have two original disks with the laptop. In order to get it working i rebooted using the first disk. Would the second disk have the webkit on it. Any chance it would be as simple as putting in the second disk and uploading it?

Alternatively could I upgrade my operating system to tiger or leopard? Can that be downloaded from the apple site or do you have to pay for the upgrades?

Ham'nd'egger

RebelRebel wrote: »

Thanks for that Nialler. I didn't even check i tunes! What a pain!

I have two original disks with the laptop. In order to get it working i rebooted using the first disk. Would the second disk have the webkit on it. Any chance it would be as simple as putting in the second disk and uploading it?

Alternatively could I upgrade my operating system to tiger or leopard? Can that be downloaded from the apple site or do you have to pay for the upgrades?

Upgrades need to be paid for; Apple will sell them online or some of the better computer shops will sell it but they are not too bad price wise; about €130. Only Leopard (10.5) is sold though you may turn up a copy of Tiger (10.4) on Ebay. The good news is that your PB should more than likely will run Leopard

muggyog

As Nialler has said the installer has updated the webkit.framework without checking the OS version ( in your case 10.3 ).

To reinstall the old version you have to boot from CD and do an Archive and install. This will reinstall Panther ( and Safari) but still retain all your settings. I cant remember if there is a check box to preserve users and network settings, but enable it if there is.

When you have Safari working again download another browser ( like Firefox ) and try Yahoo mail on that.

WUSBDesign

Your PB must be at least a 867MHz PPC G4 for 10.5 Leopard installation; otherwise, you'll need a work-around for the installation from the OS discs.

If you're not sure, click "About This Mac" and post up here what MacOS says.

RebelRebel

muggyog wrote: »

As Nialler has said the installer has updated the webkit.framework without checking the OS version ( in your case 10.3 ).

To reinstall the old version you have to boot from CD and do an Archive and install. This will reinstall Panther ( and Safari) but still retain all your settings. I cant remember if there is a check box to preserve users and network settings, but enable it if there is.

Thanks all. I don't think i'll upgrade to the newer versions. I really just want to get it back to the way it was as it suits my purposes as it was (Audio). I'd probably make a mess of the upgrade anyway!

Thanks Muggyog. I rebooted with the installer disk 1 earlier on today. Not sure if I did an "Archive and Install" though. It got the PB back working but while the Safari icon was there, it wouldn't actually work. Would that be on the second Disk i wonder? I didn't get any prompt to insert the second disk though. I might try to reboot from the first disk again and see if there is an "Archive and Install" there. Should that be one of the optinos when I insert the disk?

nialler

Rebel, archive and install is the easy way.

Download pacifist and google the instructions (assuming that's your problem but I think it is) for installing the webkit package, pacifist will ask you for the source package (webkit from the os x cd) and location to be installed, make sure the location to be installed is in /system/ somewhere in there webkit will be in a folder called frameworks or something, not at my mac at the moment so can't check.

Hope this helps.