6/11/2023 0 Comments Lockrattler app![]() ![]() This follows my normal policy of keeping my firmware version database current with the latest public release of macOS, but not beta-releases. Although it doesn’t report that more recent firmware is actually wrong, it can’t check whether it’s correct for the betas. The only area in which SilentKnight still leaves beta-testers out on a limb is with respect to firmware version checking. Both apps should therefore not only be compatible with macOS 11, but provide meaningful results for it too. I have also taken this opportunity to provide version data for the first beta release of Big Sur: LockRattler accesses a dedicated page here for that information, and SilentKnight now has additional version information in my GitHub database which it uses for automatic checking. If it doesn’t, then the only workarounds left are even more clumsy, I’m afraid. In about two weeks, when Apple pushes the next scheduled security updates, we’ll see whether this works. If I’m right, this should spare you from having to quit the app and open it again to see correct version numbers. As that tool is opened each time the call is made, it shouldn’t suffer the same caching problems. After that, they switch to calling a command tool to fetch the same information. The first time that the bundle versions are obtained, they use the same calls to macOS. ![]() These new versions use a different, and less elegant approach. Trust me, I’ve been messing around for over a year trying to find a way to get the calls to work correctly, and failed. ![]() What appears to happen is that macOS caches the bundle information when it’s first obtained, and nothing seems able to force it to refresh that cache. SilentKnight users had to quit the app and open it again in order to see the versions displayed correctly. LockRattler, which doesn’t check these versions against my GitHub database, works around this by highlighting in red the details of the new updates, but still couldn’t change the version numbers shown. That works fine the first time after the app is launched, but if you then download and install any updates, running the same check a second time returns exactly the same version numbers as it did before the update. Both apps follow Apple’s guidelines to developers when they check the version numbers of various security data files. The annoyance results from a bug in macOS. These address – I hope – their longest-standing annoyance, and bring them to full compatibility with the current beta release of Big Sur. Tags APFS Apple AppleScript Apple silicon backup Big Sur Blake bug Catalina Consolation Console diagnosis Disk Utility Doré El Capitan extended attributes Finder firmware Gatekeeper Gérôme HFS+ High Sierra history of painting iCloud Impressionism iOS landscape LockRattler log logs M1 Mac Mac history macOS macOS 10.12 macOS 10.13 macOS 10.14 macOS 10.I am delighted to release new versions of my free utilities SilentKnight and LockRattler. In the coming weeks I will be updating more of my apps in readiness. Precize version 1.14 adopts the improved code handling extended attributes now incorporated in xattred and Mints, and is available from here: precize114īoth updates require High Sierra or later. Version 1.14 is available now from here: mints114įrom Downloads above, from its Product Page, and via its auto-update mechanism. I still haven’t worked out how you could do that, but this new version should prevent it by adding another test for accessibility. Mints version 1.14 also fixes a crashing bug that could affect its Disk Check feature: apparently, if you select a volume that has been unmounted, that can result in a crash. Mints has another potential problem that isn’t as ‘easy’ to address: it accesses keychains using an interface that could be lost altogether, without replacement: I’ll tackle that if and when I need to. After the new version of xattred yesterday, it’s the turn of Mints and Precize today, as they have relied on the same deprecated code to access extended attributes. In preparation for the inevitable announcement of macOS 14 at WWDC early next month, I’m working through my free apps and bringing them up to scratch, so they should continue running later this year. ![]()
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