Leopard Install Problems -Essentials Pkg - RAM issues

KA9Q wrote:
Oh, yet ANOTHER proof that the install problem cannot possibly be bad RAM: on a different set of hard drives, on which I've been running Tiger on my G5 for many years, I upgraded to Leopard using a separate Leopard update disk (one that I got for my new Mac Pro) that worked just fine with all 3.5 GB of existing RAM. I did have the problem with my Administrator account being downgraded to Standard, but the Tiger->Leopard upgrade otherwise went fine. And Leopard itself ran fine on my G5 with all its RAM.

I only had the problem when installing from the Install DVD onto a pair of virgin 1TB drives. I was doing that because I wanted to put my 500GB drives on the shelf as backups and use a new set of 1TB drives to get the extra space. This switch to a new major version of Mac OSX seemed like as good a time to do that as any.

So I think it quite clear that all the RAM on my G5 is just fine. The Leopard installation failure is unquestionably a bug in the installation software. Since this is a fatal problem that keeps the OS from being installed at all on the G5, Apple is going to have to fix this with a new DVD if we are to be able to install Leopard on virgin disks with no operating system at all.

Perhaps they can let us download some sort of bootstrap operating system that we can burn onto a CD and boot ahead of the install DVD so they don't have to send us new install DVDs, but that seems to be getting rather complicated.
KA9Q wrote:
Oh, yet ANOTHER proof that the install problem cannot possibly be bad RAM: on a different set of hard drives, on which I've been running Tiger on my G5 for many years, I upgraded to Leopard using a separate Leopard update disk (one that I got for my new Mac Pro) that worked just fine with all 3.5 GB of existing RAM. I did have the problem with my Administrator account being downgraded to Standard, but the Tiger->Leopard upgrade otherwise went fine. And Leopard itself ran fine on my G5 with all its RAM.

I only had the problem when installing from the Install DVD onto a pair of virgin 1TB drives. I was doing that because I wanted to put my 500GB drives on the shelf as backups and use a new set of 1TB drives to get the extra space. This switch to a new major version of Mac OSX seemed like as good a time to do that as any.

So I think it quite clear that all the RAM on my G5 is just fine. The Leopard installation failure is unquestionably a bug in the installation software. Since this is a fatal problem that keeps the OS from being installed at all on the G5, Apple is going to have to fix this with a new DVD if we are to be able to install Leopard on virgin disks with no operating system at all.

Perhaps they can let us download some sort of bootstrap operating system that we can burn onto a CD and boot ahead of the install DVD so they don't have to send us new install DVDs, but that seems to be getting rather complicated.
KA9Q wrote:
Oh, yet ANOTHER proof that the install problem cannot possibly be bad RAM: on a different set of hard drives, on which I've been running Tiger on my G5 for many years, I upgraded to Leopard using a separate Leopard update disk (one that I got for my new Mac Pro) that worked just fine with all 3.5 GB of existing RAM. I did have the problem with my Administrator account being downgraded to Standard, but the Tiger->Leopard upgrade otherwise went fine. And Leopard itself ran fine on my G5 with all its RAM.

I only had the problem when installing from the Install DVD onto a pair of virgin 1TB drives. I was doing that because I wanted to put my 500GB drives on the shelf as backups and use a new set of 1TB drives to get the extra space. This switch to a new major version of Mac OSX seemed like as good a time to do that as any.

So I think it quite clear that all the RAM on my G5 is just fine. The Leopard installation failure is unquestionably a bug in the installation software. Since this is a fatal problem that keeps the OS from being installed at all on the G5, Apple is going to have to fix this with a new DVD if we are to be able to install Leopard on virgin disks with no operating system at all.

Perhaps they can let us download some sort of bootstrap operating system that we can burn onto a CD and boot ahead of the install DVD so they don't have to send us new install DVDs, but that seems to be getting rather complicated.
KA9Q wrote:
Oh, yet ANOTHER proof that the install problem cannot possibly be bad RAM: on a different set of hard drives, on which I've been running Tiger on my G5 for many years, I upgraded to Leopard using a separate Leopard update disk (one that I got for my new Mac Pro) that worked just fine with all 3.5 GB of existing RAM. I did have the problem with my Administrator account being downgraded to Standard, but the Tiger->Leopard upgrade otherwise went fine. And Leopard itself ran fine on my G5 with all its RAM.

I only had the problem when installing from the Install DVD onto a pair of virgin 1TB drives. I was doing that because I wanted to put my 500GB drives on the shelf as backups and use a new set of 1TB drives to get the extra space. This switch to a new major version of Mac OSX seemed like as good a time to do that as any.

So I think it quite clear that all the RAM on my G5 is just fine. The Leopard installation failure is unquestionably a bug in the installation software. Since this is a fatal problem that keeps the OS from being installed at all on the G5, Apple is going to have to fix this with a new DVD if we are to be able to install Leopard on virgin disks with no operating system at all.

Perhaps they can let us download some sort of bootstrap operating system that we can burn onto a CD and boot ahead of the install DVD so they don't have to send us new install DVDs, but that seems to be getting rather complicated.

Having tested this with various ram expansions on my iBook G4 1Ghz and receiving this same error, it is clear that there is a bug in the Installer. Reinstalling Tiger is effortless with any ram configuration I throw at it.

*The first Mac OS X Installer view after the language window selection produces the following installer log Error Only Logs:*

localhost configd[41]: InterfaceNamer: SCPreferencesCommitChanges failed, No such file or directory
localhost configd[41]: Could not establish network configuration: No such file or directory
localhost LCA[65]: Folder Manager is being asked to create a folder (cach) while running as uid 0
localhost LCA[65]: Folder Manager is being asked to create a folder (asav) while running as uid 0
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Folder Manager is being asked to create a folder (asav) while running as uid 0
localhost OSInstaller[154]: The Essentials package failed to validate
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Install failed: The Installer could not validate the contents of the 'Essentials' package. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.

*Progress Log:*

localhost OSInstaller [154]: Create temporary directory "/Volumes/OSX_Leopard/BaseSystem.pkg.154hbNrFH"
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Processing BaseSystem:
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Determining files to install
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Configuring deferred files
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Assembling temporary receipt
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Performing pre-extraction actions
localhost OSInstaller[154]: run preinstall script for BaseSystem
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Creating destination payload
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Validating destination path
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Starting file extraction
localhost installdb[188]: Opened receipt database on '/Volumes/OSX_Leopard/' with schema 0.
localhost OSInstaller[154]: run postinstall script for BaseSystem
localhost pkgutil[200]: Updating receipt 'com.apple.pkg.BaseSystem' path '.' on '/Volumes/OSX_Leopard/' with actual metadata from '/Volumes/OSX_Leopard'.
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Performing post-extraction actions
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Finishing receipt
localhost runner[159]: Extracting BOM from "/System/Installation/Packages/BaseSystem.pkg" to "/Volumes/OSX_Leopard/Library/Receipts/boms/com.apple.pkg.BaseSystem.bom"
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Processing Essentials:
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Determining files to install
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Configuring deferred files
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Assembling temporary receipt
localhost OSInstaller[154]: run preinstall script for Essentials
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Creating destination path
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Validating package playload
localhost OSInstaller[154]: The Essentials package failed to validate.
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Install failed: The Installer could not validate the contents of the 'Essentails' package. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.

+*There is nothing checked for RAM.*+

*In fact the earlier RAM check in the log:*

localhost OSInstaller[154]: Hardware: PowerBook6,3 @1.00 Ghz, 640MB RAM
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Running OS Build: Mac OS X 10.5 (9A581)

The Installer version:
localhost OSInstaller[154]: @(#)PROGRAM:Install PROJECT:Install-374
localhost OSInstaller[154]: @(#)PROGRAM:Mac OS X Installer PROJECT:OSInstaller-88

P.S. Having worked at NeXT and Apple in SQA and Professional Services this is a major no, no for going to market before all Show Stoppers are found.

P.P.S. I've tested this install a dozen times with varying tests against file system types, partitions and ram configurations, not to mention clean low level wipe to an attempted OS X 10.4 upgrade to 10.5.

P.P.P.S. The Installer never consistently gives access to the Utilities Menu. Half the time it's grayed out and the other half it's not.

*P.P.P.P.S Doing an upgrade from the botched 10.5 reveals thousands of lines with the following error:*

localhost installdb[189]:_PubToPrivRef(): unable to find db handle 1

This continues until line 7165 where the following continues:

localhost OSInstaller[157]: Configuring deferred files

with several skips for payloadExtractor due them previously existing files in postfix and other /private/var/sppol/postfix/*

*Pukes eventually again with:*

localhost OSInstaller[154]: run preinstall script for Essentials
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Creating destination path
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Validating package playload
localhost OSInstaller[154]: The Essentials package failed to validate.
localhost OSInstaller[154]: Install failed: The Installer could not validate the contents of the 'Essentails' package. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.

Alright Folks.

We can split the word into 2 teams :
Those who believe it's a but (or weakness, whatever) in the Leopard Installer
Those who believe it's a Ram problem.

As one of our good friend would say "what else ?".

The fact that Tiger installs well while Leopard fails cannot be discussed.
The consequence is that Apple has to take this into account.
The system requirement does not say "do not use RAM oustide from Apple". It just says : min requirement : iMac G4 1Ghz with 512Mb RAM.
If this requirement are met and the OS does not install, then Apple is wrong.

Question : What else ?
What can customer can do to have this issue fixed ?

In all cases, it's Apple job to make installs work, when techn. requirement are met.

This isn't really apples fault or leopard's.

Certain memory makers especially cheaper ones use overclocking to achieve the correct memory speed this can cause issues with leopard this is why it is always better to spend more money and get good memory instead of garbage that wont allow you to install anything.

Just want to say "me too".
I have a MBP with 1GB from Apple and 1GB from a third party (Nuimpact).
Leopard failed to install at least ten times, with a message telling "package xxx could not be validated").
Sometimes the package wass "Essentials", sometimes it was different (for instance "EPSON drivers").
Called AppleCare people 4 times, they sent me a new Leopard DVD but it didn't make any difference.

After reading this thread, I removed the 1 GB Nuimpact RAM stick, and, bingo,
the installation worked at the first try.

Now I'll try to re-install the RAM and see how it goes, otherwise I'll try
to exchange the RAM, which is supposed to be under "lifetime warranty". Not
sure however if they will accept the exchange as the RAM was working perfectly
well with Tiger.

Corsair and Crucial aren't cheap memory product makers. This error is Apple's fault.

Here's a problem. I'm not spending an additional $50 - $100 for a DIMM to put in just to get past the 512MB minimum because Apple's memory allocation algorithm for OS X Leopard is not fully tested.

The same sort of technology exists on other platforms. Linux hasn't this issue. The Essentials package consistently pukes on my installation.

No other area. It hits this spot and dies horribly. The same result, regardless of whether I throw one 512MB Dimm or another in.

Is Apple going to reimburse me if I then go out and buy a third dimm from Kingston?

It's not Cheap Memory. It's an algorithm design flaw.

So I did re-install my 3rd party RAM stick after upgrading to Leopard. The additional RAM is seen by Leopard and everything seems to work.

BUT, and there's a big BUT: I tried "Ramber", the freeware memory test, and it returned plenty of errors.

Then, by curiosity, I ran the Apple Hardware Test (which you can launch by booting on
your original Install disc - the one delivered with your Mac - while pressing the "D" key).
And the test returned also a memory error.

So it seems that it's really a memory problem, which has nothing to do with Leopard, at least in my case.

Therefore, I would suggest to perform a RAM test, whether through Ramber or the Apple Hardware Test.

Better to do this before upgrading to Leopard. It lasts 5 minutes and could save you hours of works.

Ok so here it is folks, its not a ram issue... cause I still have my 3rd party ram, all 4gb's.

1.) Create a .dmg of your legally purchased Leopard disc.
2.) Use Disk Utility to restore a drive, iPod, or partition from that image.
3.) Plug in said drive, iPod, or drive with partition. Boot into it.
4.) Install.

http://gwhiz.wordpress.com/2006/09/21/installing-leopard-from-dmg/

What the **** do you think I've done? Restoring Image to a boot partition just allows one to rapidly install the system to the other partition.

In the end, 'Essentials' package still pukes on my iBook.

Who knew H e double LL is foul language? Very pathetic.

Hello everyone.

This is my first post here. I recently bought a brand new MacBook Pro (2.2GHz, 2GB RAM). I upgraded from my old MacBook C2D, which had served me faithfully for over a year without one single problem or screwup.

I have had this computer for six days and to be honest: I am not impressed. Firstly, there is the keyboard issue with certain letters not appearing correctly. Secondly, there is the reason why I am posting here.

I initially ran Tiger without any snags, but then I came across the Leopard upgrade in my casing. I installed it, and it ran without any problems. I decided to install Windows XP using the BootCamp assistant, but I made a mistake. My Windows XP was SP1, and as you may know, it needs to be XP2. No worries, I slipstreamed an SP2 cd, and thought that all that was left was formatting the drive.

... and so I did. Now, Leopard refuses to install. I am getting the "Essentials" error as well. People in this topic seem to be speaking about third party rams, but my MacBook is straight out of the factory. I have barely even touched the computer yet.

I am thus forced to use Tiger until this problem is fixed. This is of great annoyance to me, since I really want to get Windows XP installed because I need to use some programs in relation to my education.

If this is a RAM problem, it's not simply due to that RAM being 3rd party. I have 2gb of factory-installed RAM on my 17" 2.33 MBPro, and my Leopard install attempts failed five times. (First using the Upgrade option, the other times using Clean Install.)

I did, however, get Leopard to install by removing one stick of RAM. (I randomly chose to remove the top-most stick.) After finishing the install process, I replaced the RAM and everything seems to be okay (for now).

Obligatory rant: This is easily the most ridiculous install/upgrade process I've gone through on a Mac. Incredibly lame.

So just like everyone else on here, I tried to install Leopard on my PowerMac G4. It gets to roughly 20-25%, then comes up with the essentials error. I have 3 sticks of 512MB RAM made by Micron, but yet its still giving me the same errors after I removed 2 of them. I gave up after about 15 times trying to install it. I don't have any Apple RAM so its impossible to test that. The problem I am having now is I did a complete erase and install, and can't find my retail Tiger discs. Tried using the ones provided with my MacBook (10.4.10), and it started to have some type of kernal panic once I put the first disc in. Geeez Laweeez. Will this headache ever go away? Anyone know of any fixes?

After successfully installing on a new imac and a 15" MacBook Pro, we failed on another 15" MacBook Pro with the same Essentials Package error. After reading a lot of RAM problems in the forums, we decided to pull out the 1G of RAM and reseat it before going out and buying some more. Even though it was the same RAM, it installed fine.

Well im having this same problem as well.. I updated from 10.4 to 10.5 and didnt have no problems or issues. Then alot of my apps started to crash an become unstable so I had to reinstall Leopard. Well there goes the problem, trying to reinstall Leopard. I dont have any 3rd party RAM installed.. I still have the 2GB that came with my 2.33 MBP.. So I need help what can I do..

Message was edited by: Jerome Franks