OS X Mavericks

OS X Mavericks is here and it's FREE! It's a 5GB download but I had it downloaded within the hour. I then proceeded to make a bootable USB Installer. You can get the instructions HERE... they now have it done in 4 steps whereas I did it the long tedious way. Anyway, I made it and kept it away. 

I then installed OS X Mavericks onto my notebook. It's a pretty long process. It took me over an hour to have it installed. 

The footprint occupies 10GBs after installation. After installation and downloading iLife, I noticed a flicker when it booted up. I thought it was a one time off... so I rebooted to see if it persisted. Damn! It was still there.

A video of the flicker at the end of the boot sequence. 

I tried to reinstall. Unfortunately, after installing the downloaded Installer from the App Store, the system would purge it from the notebook. Thankfully I had the USB drive made otherwise I would have to re-download the entire 5GB. I then reinstalled from the USB Installer. Another hour plus wasted. The damn flicker was still there. Sigh... 

Other than that flicker, everything worked fine. Of course there were a couple of applications that didn't work but they were minor applications and not the major ones. I deliberated on a Clean Install. I normally do a Clean Install but it was just too much work. Moreover, I had already downloaded and installed the new versions of iLife. That would mean downloading all over again. Sigh. Should I?

Eventually, I couldn't bear the flicker. Yeah, that's how anal I am. So, a Clean Install it is. Back Up the notebook..... Export my mailboxes..... Copy my iTunes Library..... Copy my files and folders... Copy my VPN key and certificates... Take note of my mail settings and whatever other settings...

It is a long process..... then I did the Clean Install. There's no turning back. It was much faster with the Clean Install. After the installaton, I rebooted and held my breath..... and crossed my fingers and my toes... YESSSSS!!!!! It's gone! The flicker's gone! Hooray!!!

Not only is the flicker gone but it boots up faster as well. It's up and running in 15 seconds now... it used to be about 20 seconds when I first got it and lately, about 30 seconds. BTW... this is a Mid-2011 MacBook Air.

I have always preferred a Clean Install... that's why I made the bootable USB Installer in the first place. It's very tedious but better as you get a clean and uncorrupted system and it forces you to do some major housekeeping. I put everything back in manually as opposed to using the Migration Assistant as I wanted it to be really clean.

I only struggled with VPN for a few hours as it was not connecting. After all the fiddling, I called my IT guy for help only to find out the system was down. Sigh...

Of course, there were some glitches. I have not been able to get the scanner driver to work and CCleaner is not compatible. I have not re-installed everything yet as I only want to install what I really need. Oh yes... the Google client auto mail setup doesn't work. I had to do it manually.

But so far so good... I'm loving it.