" Hey, Mike. I just wanted to alert you that it looks like Apple just released a new boot ROM for the 2008 Mac Pros. It showed up in Software Update this evening. Here's what it says:

"This update fixes several issues to improve the stability of Mac Pro (Early 2008) computers.
After the firmware is successfully applied to your computer, your Boot ROM Version will be: MP31.006C.B05

You can confirm the version of the Boot ROM installed on your computer using System Profiler."

My current boot ROM version is MP31.006C.B02. I haven't restarted yet to see how well the update works.
-Aaron"

Checking Apple's support page shows download pages for the update also and a Firmware Restoration CD v1.5.

• Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.3
• Firmware Restoration CD 1.5

For those 2008 Mac Pro owners that have seen problems in the past if this update helps (or not) let me know.
FYI - initial replies from several readers said this fixed their reboot on wake from sleep - but one later wrote he saw that problem again - see the page of Feedback on 2008 Mac Pro EFI Firmware Update 1.3.

"About AirPort Extreme Update 2008-001 for Tiger This update is recommended for all Intel-based Macintosh computers running Tiger OS and improves the reliability of AirPort connections.
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Intel Only) or later"

My only Intel-CPU mac is running Leopard but if anyone sees any pros or cons from this update, let me know the details. Thanks.

"By trying to install the adaptec SCSI-Card driver for the 29160N using in Leopard 10.5.1 ALL available drivers (1.0 to 1.3BETA) didn't install due too "pre-install-Script"-errors.
(he later wrote)
Regarding script-errors when installing driver for PowerDomain 29160 in OS 10.5.
For those experiencing script-errors during the install procedure (I had the problem with either the 1.3Beta version and the 1.2 stable-version),- I found a workaround that turned out well for my case. By using a different OS (OS10.4 in my case,- located on a second harddisk) as active starting drive I chose the 10.5 partition when asked by the installer on which the driver should be installed.
---> No script error and a working SCSI-card with working SCSI-harddrive and Scanner!
(I asked he confirm the SCSI drives could be written to as in the past only one OS X Leopard/Adaptec SCSI card/HD user said his drives were R/W. All other Adaptec card/SCSI Hard drive users said theirs mounted, but were read-only. Scanners however typically worked.-Mike)
unfortunately,- the drive is read-only as you suggested. Didn't test that yesterday.
kind regards, Joerg B.
Berlin/Germany"

I originally wondered if this was due to ownership/permissions on the SCSI drive - i.e. Get Info on the Mounted SCSI HD icon and check sharing/permissions info on it. There's also a checkbox to "Ignore Ownership on this volume". I wrote Joerg to check that but I think I'd mentioned that to previous readers with this problem.
Here's a few previous links to past news page posts on Adaptec SCSI cards w/OS X Leopard:

• At least one Adaptec 39160 owner is using SCSI Hard Drives in Leopard
(Nov. 26, 2007)
• Adaptec 29160 working in Leopard (w/scanner) using v1.20 drivers
(Dec 12, 2007)
• More Feedback on Adaptec SCSI Cards in Leopard (SCSI Hard Drive problems)
(Nov. 11, 2007)
• More feedback on reinstalling Adaptec SCSI card OS X Drivers in Leopard
(Nov 14, 2007)
• Adaptec SCSI card OS X Drivers (Nov 10, 2008 - w/links to 2906, 2930, 29160/N, 39160 drivers)

"(for Russ)
Try excluding almost everything from TimeMachine for the initial backup. It will then complete in a reasonable amount of time, even over wireless.
You can then disconnect the drive from the AEBS and connect it to your computer. The machine should recognize the disk for TimeMachine backups, and you can include all the items you excluded and let it run at full* speed via a local USB connection.
(*It won't be really full-speed because the AEBS will have created a sparse disk bundle for the backup, which is slower than directly writing to the disk. This is why you can't start it via USB: a regular time machine volume is a regular volume with the time machine data. The network versions need to have the time machine data in a sparse disk bundle.)
-David"

FYI - the next day Russ sent a favorable reply, but then a later mail noted problems:

" Hi Mike, A quick update... This worked perfectly! The backup easily finished overnight and I'm now able to continue incrementally via wireless. Thanks for the exchange of information!
(However he later wrote)
More info on getting a large volume to back-up over wireless. Maybe this technique won't work. Here's what happens when I try it:

1. An initial wireless backup is initiated with all but a small amount of data selected so that it happens quickly.
2. Dismount the AirPort disk and plug it in via USB. You can see the sparse bundle located at /Shared/Laptop_name_xxxx.sparsebundle.
3. Attempt to do another backup initially fails with not being able to mount the backup volume.
4. Go into Time Machine Prefs and select the backup disk volume.
5. Kick off another backup.
6. This time, the backup creates a backup folder at the root of the backup drive called Backups.backupdb.

So unfortunately, directly connecting the drive creates a different backup location on the drive. I wonder if I'm doing something different from what the poster who responded earlier tried.

I also tried manually mounting the sparsebundle, but get this error when trying: "The following disk images failed to mount Image: Laptop_name_xxxx, Reason: Operation not supported on socket"
Sigh, back to the drawing board.
-Russ"

David replied to the above:

"Ah. I think he would need to move the Laptop_name_xxxx.sparsebundle to the root level of the disk and do the backup, then put it back for the AEBS. I'm running mine over the network to another 10.5 machine and the sparsebundle is at the root level of the share.
Another approach might be to just hook up the computer to the AEBS via ethernet which should be faster than wireless.
-David"

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