Not all Leopard upgrades have gone as smoothly as hoped, which is not unexpected (and why we always back up before upgrading, right? Right.) and not necessarily cause for enormous alarm. One frequent alert, however, has been the implication of Unsanity's Application Enhancer (APE) framework in some upgrade problems. APE has a long and sometimes controversial history, with some developers swearing BY it (Audio Hijack, for example, uses APE to enable the "Instant Hijack" functionality) and other developers swearing AT it (APE's ability to modify other applications at runtime, necessary to enable some tools, can also make app debugging more difficult).We relayed an early warning on APE (8:31 pm Friday) as part of Scott's liveblog of his Leopard upgrade, but without confirmation from the developer there wasn't much more to say... until now. Rosyna of Unsanity sent out an urgent email alert to mailing list subscribers (reproduced in whole below) recommending that APE be updated to the current version (2.03) prior to upgrading to Leopard, lest badness ensue. Note that v2.03 of APE still won't actually do anything under Leopard, which knocks out a large slice of utility functionality, but it won't crash either.
In general, if you are doing an upgrade install, I recommend an AppFresh or VersionTracker pass to make sure that all your bits and pieces are as current as they can be. Plus, that backup... don't skip it. Really.
Thanks Laurie!
---- from Unsanity's customer mailing list ---
We wanted to send out some information to our mailing list subscribers about Mac OS X 10.5 and Unsanity's Application Enhancer.
First and formost. *Before* you install Mac OS X 10.5, make sure you have Application Enhancer (APE) 2.0.3 or later installed. You can download it from http://www.unsanity.net/ape-203.dmg (the webpage is at http://unsanity.com/haxies/ape ).
Make *sure* you have APE 2.0.3 or later installed *before* you install Mac OS X 10.5. If you have an earlier version of APE installed before you install 10.5, you may exhibit one of the following symptoms upon booting into Mac OS X 10.5:
- Your goldfish may die.
- A strange dog might bite you on the street.
- A friend may punch you.
- Your computer may catch fire.
- Your loved one may leave you.
All of these things are really bad. So we urge everyone to make sure they have APE 2.0.3 or later installed. If you aren't sure, install APE 2.0.3 or later from the link above. APE 2.0.3 was released on March 14th, 2007. And please, always keep your software up to date.
A note about 10.5 and haxies:
As long as you have APE 2.0.3, nothing bad will happen in 10.5. Well, nothing we can control. However, none of your APE Modules will work either.
Developers in Apple's Mac OS X developer program (ADC) got the final 10.5 GM yesterday. We are still downloading the huge 6.66GB image and as soon as the downloads finish for our developers, we will be hard at work on making our software work on 10.5.
You can keep up to date with the status of haxies and 10.5 by viewing http://unsanity.com/products/compatibility/ and we will post more information as we have it on our blog at http://unsanity.org/ . Mac OS X 10.5 compatibility is currently our number one priority.
"If APE doesn't work in 10.5, shouldn't I just uninstall it?"
No, you should not. Just make sure you have APE 2.0.3 or later. A lot of third party (and Unsanity made) utilities depend on the APE framework itself being there. As it has some extremely useful functions. Removing it may cause these Applications and/or preference panes to stop launching.
For more information on Unsanity haxies, please visit:
http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/
Unsanity LLC is the creator of other popular haxies such as WindowShade X, ShapeShifter, FontCard, Mighty Mouse, Menu Master, FruitMenu, Xounds, Dock Detox, and Silk. Unsanity is dedicated to providing quality software for the Macintosh community.
-Rosyna of the Unsanity Team
Always needs a hug
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-28-2007 @ 12:38AM
adam bucci said...
a little late for my liking.
i went and uninstalled ape prior to installation because i knew the one ap i used that need it, shapeshifter, would not work.
what they did not mention is if ape could be safely installed after installing leopard.
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10-28-2007 @ 12:46AM
az said...
" As long as you have APE 2.0.3, nothing bad will happen in 10.5."
I disagree.
I had APE installed and was having a problem in Leopard where running a non-leopard app, Adium, for example, would cause the mds process to go crazy writing 2, 3, 4 gigs of virtual memory to disk, filling up the disk and grinding the system to a halt. A reboot was required, and this happened numerous times.
After hearing about the problems with APE in 10.5, I promptly uninstalled it (2.0.3), rebooted, and tentatively re-ran some of the programs that had caused this out-of-control mds process to initiate. Bingo. Without APE, the issue was no more.
Clearly it's only anecdotal evidence, but removing APE is the *only* change I made between having this problem, and noticing it had vaporized.
In light of this, my recommendation is to just uninstall the APE process altogether until a new release is made.
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10-28-2007 @ 12:48AM
Alexande said...
This would have been nice yesterday...this bricked my powerbook for half a day...
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10-28-2007 @ 1:00AM
Michael said...
YOu may want to change the links you posted. THey all try to redirect through what i assume is your mail client.
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10-28-2007 @ 1:04AM
Michael Rose said...
Gah! Thanks Michael, links fixed. Last time I copy and paste from an email...
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10-28-2007 @ 1:07AM
Mac Diva said...
I do not understand why people are still running Unsanity programs. They are for all practical purposes, malware. I dropped my last Unsanity program, Windowshade, when I switched from my PowerBook G4 to my MacBook Pro six months ago. I've had next to no problems and have never needed to a reinstallation of the OS since. The only way Unsanity will change its ways is if it loses customers. Then, its programmers will have to bring their code into compliance, instead of continuing in their role as renegades who blame Apple for problems they cause.
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10-28-2007 @ 1:11AM
Bluescreened said...
"If you have an earlier version of APE installed before you install 10.5, you may exhibit one of the following symptoms upon booting into Mac OS X 10.5:"
Uh...I'm all for Unsanity's unique brand of humor, but why not also come out and say it: you could also have your machine lock up in a bluescreen, and unable to do anything. Also, why not admit that "upgrading to the latest APE" means "upgrading to the hurried out version of APE we just released", instead of implying that only people who are running way out of date software are affected.
In short, take some fucking responsibility, and stop treating this like some minor joke.
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10-28-2007 @ 1:13AM
Greg G said...
Yeah, I haven't gotten Leopard yet (waiting at the very least, a week), but I've already gotten cleardock and all unsanity products off my machine.
I won't need a clear dock if I have a reflective one =)
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10-28-2007 @ 6:45AM
livepulse said...
mmm... strange...
I updated last thusrday and i have 2.0.2 but nothing has happened to me.... NOTHING!!!
I'M GONNA SUE YOU UNSANITY!!! YOU HEAR ME!!! Stop scaring people!!!
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10-28-2007 @ 7:12AM
Joe said...
Ape is the single most hateful piece of code to ever run on a Mac. Okay, that might be a stretch but it really is EVIL. I tried an Unsanity app a long time ago and APE screwed my system. I vowed never to use one of their apps again and since that day, I've never experienced any issues like I did when I had APE installed. APE is EVIL.
Oh, and what Mac Diva said.
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10-28-2007 @ 8:49AM
Michael Rose said...
#7 -- In fairness, the current version of APE (2.03) was not rushed out to comply with Leopard; it was released in March, 7 months ago.
I think the warning is particularly valuable for people who may not even realize they are running APE -- as in my example, Audio Hijack Pro installs it somewhat quietly when you turn on the Instant Hijack feature.
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10-28-2007 @ 10:04AM
jake said...
i've downloaded Audio Hijack before but i got rid of it. does that mean APE is on my system?
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10-28-2007 @ 10:30AM
noza said...
It's not fair to call APE (and really, ALL Unsanity products) a "virus", because it doesn't self-replicate, but "Trojan Horse" wouldn't be too far off the mark. What Joe said above, APE is just Pure Evil, and not just because the code is horrendous but the hateful "you MUST drink the Kool-Aid" that Rosnya and Company push on their unsuspecting users.
Maybe an even better analogy would be people who buy sketchy "perfomance enhancing fuel additives" for their cars. Any advantage is strictly perceived, not real, and over time you'll just damage your engine.
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10-28-2007 @ 11:17AM
Len Carsner said...
In my case i got the blue screen and soent half a day trying to figure what went wrong. Turns out the Logitech mouse software installs APE. I re-ran the installation using Archive and install and everything was fine. All I needed to re-install was my printer driver and my Logitech software.
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10-28-2007 @ 12:17PM
Lee Patterson said...
follow this is you find yourself stuck with a blue screen after update install
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306857
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10-28-2007 @ 12:46PM
geochick said...
Thanks to Scott's live cast I simply uninstalled APE before upgrading to Leopard. Thus, I was one of the ones that had no issues with my upgrade on account of APE. I can't get the Shapeshifter icon out of my systems preference though... I'm more annoyed that Candybar is not working under Leopard yet the default icons are driving me batty.
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10-28-2007 @ 12:58PM
mare said...
I can't live without WindowShadeX so I actually don't upgrade to Leopard until that works. I bought it (have the T-shirt), have it installed on an external drive but booted only once from it, just to see if it was workable. Having my windows move to my Dock when I minimize them (and I minimize about 6000 times a day) makes it just unworkable for me. In the Dock they are locxated in a semi random order, windowshaded I know where they are. I've never used the Dock and I'm not going to do so now. Besides Tiger works just fine for me. Only when a lot of apps will require Leopard to run, I might upgrade.
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10-28-2007 @ 4:05PM
Chris said...
Guys, how is this new and strange?
APE works by intercepting system calls and working with what it thinks are statically assigned libraries and memory allocations. The very security feature of Leopard, randomly assigned memory allocations for libraries, and sandboxing was meant to keep (illicit) applications from doing this. And now APE doesn't work, because the security holes it was exploiting to function aren't there anymore. Of course, since it is a 'legitimately' installed application (it is already in the kext folder, along with proper permissions) not code being executed from a buffer overflow, it is hanging the system.
(And btw, how did they not have a build of 10.5 running and working on their systems, they should have known this wouldn't have worked atleast by september's build, as I doubt apple turned on these security features last minute)
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10-28-2007 @ 8:55PM
puppy said...
This thing has always been one of the few pieces of malware on the Mac OS. Good riddance APEsh*t!!!!!
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10-28-2007 @ 10:55PM
Mark Thomas said...
Unsanity have about as much integrity as spammers. They insist that they have a right to exist even though their products ultimately bring sorrow and woe to the world.
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