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Syslogd Overwhelming Your Computer?

If your Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5) system is unexpectedly sluggish, logging might be the culprit. Run Activity Monitor (Applications/Utilities/ folder), and click the CPU column twice to get it to show most to least activity. If syslogd is at the top of the list, there's a fix. Syslogd tracks informational messages produced by software and writes them to the asl.db, a file in your Unix /var/log/ directory. It's a known problem that syslogd can run amok. There's a fix: deleting the asl.db file.

Launch Terminal (from the same Utilities folder), and enter these commands exactly as written, entering your administrative password when prompted:

sudo launchctl stop com.apple.syslogd

sudo rm /var/log/asl.db

sudo launchctl start com.apple.syslogd

Your system should settle down to normal. For more information, follow the link.

Visit Discussion of syslogd problem at Smarticus

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Watchlist | 07 Jan 2011 | Print Printer-Friendly Version of This Article | Comment (7)

Mac OS X 10.6.6

by Lex Friedman Send Email to Author

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Apple has bumped Snow Leopard, the latest version of Mac OS X, to version 10.6.6. The hallmark feature of the latest OS update is of course support for the new Mac App Store (see “Peering Behind the Mac App Store Counter,” 6 January 2011). Upgrading to 10.6.6 places the Mac App Store’s icon in your Dock, adds a link to the store in the Apple menu, and prompts you to visit the store if you attempt to open a file that existing software on your Mac can’t read. Also included in the 10.6.6 update is a single security fix, addressing a potential vulnerability in PackageKit that could allow an attacker to run code on your Mac. Finally, the update addresses two bugs: a cropping issue with PostScript printing in landscape orientation, and an issue with erratic mouse pointer movement on Macs with ATI graphics cards when an external DVI display is connected.

With updates to Mac OS X, it’s usually easiest to let Software Update download just the code that applies to your specific Mac and version of Mac OS X. But you can download delta installers to update 10.6.5 to 10.6.6 (for both Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server, each about 143 MB) and much larger combo installers to update any version of 10.6 to 10.6.6 (again, for both Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server, each weighing in at a bit over 1 GB in size). As always, make sure you have a current backup before you update, and don’t interrupt the upgrade process once it has started.

 

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Comments about Mac OS X 10.6.6

Rob  2011-01-07 09:20
Thank you for explaining what a combo update is. Apple telephone support were not able to answere my question about the difference between a standard and a combo update.
Adam Engst  An apple icon for a TidBITS Staffer 2011-01-07 09:36
That's really distressing that they wouldn't know - Apple has been producing delta and combo updates for years.
Victor Aldridge  2011-01-09 10:17
It appears to have made changes to the layout of the Parental Controls preferences pane as well.
FAC  2011-01-17 22:07
Seems since I upgraded to 10.6.6, Safari sets up everything as if I'm using a either an iPad or iPhone...everything is a linear list. What is going on?
Thanks
Adam Engst  An apple icon for a TidBITS Staffer 2011-01-18 06:20
If I had to guess, I'd say that you have some corruption that's preventing CSS stylesheets from loading properly. Perhaps try Empty Cache from the Safari menu, or, failing that, work your way through the items in the Reset Safari dialog (also available from the Safari menu).
Garry  2011-02-20 19:20
I installed 10.6.6 combo installer and found that if the screen "goes to sleep" wireless access fail unless a restart or Disk Repair is performed. This result on a brand new Macbook Air 11" w/64 GB drive.
Apple support had me try 10.6.6 remove and re-install. No help. Setting laptop to very long "no-sleep" modes seems to solve the problem. Wi-Fi access is slower than 10.6.5. Same upgrade
on MacBook Pro went well. Thoughts?
Adam Engst  An apple icon for a TidBITS Staffer 2011-02-21 14:20
The only thought that comes to mind is to make sure you have all the MacBook Air-specific updates, if any, but I assume that's true.