Macintosh OS 10.8 Mountain Lion

Macintosh OS 10.8 Mountain Lion Release

Recommendation

As is the case with most new operating system releases, there are initially a number of incompatibilities with commonly used applications and Mountain Lion is no exception. OIT recommends upgrading only when applications that you commonly use are supported and compatible. 

Compatibility testing

OIT is currently performing testing on Mountain Lion's behavior/compatibility with the many different software and OIT services related with Macintosh operating systems (findings below). If you wish to help us test Mountain Lion, please contact us at  to discuss how to share your findings.

Important installation notes

• You do not have to burn the Mountain Lion disk image to a DVD. You can just double-click on the MountainLionInstallation.dmg file.
• Disk Encryption
  • At this time, OIT asks that you do not upgrade to Mac 10.8 if you are already running PGP.  There can be serious consequences including loss of data. No version of PGP is yet available for Mountain Lion until Symantec announces support. PGP will require decryption of the drive and removal of PGP before installing Mountain Lion. If this process is not followed, it is likely that the computer will be rendered unable to boot.
  • If you're using FileVault disk encryption, make sure it is off before upgrading to Mountain Lion.
• It is considered a best practice to perform a fresh install.

Download instructions

1. Log in with your IdentiKey to download disc images.
2. Click on MountainLionInstallation.dmg.
3. License keys are not required.
4. How to Install Mountain Lion, Mac OS 10.8 (provided by Apple)

Compatibility Notes

SOFTWARE/SERVICE	COMPATIBILITY NOTES
CU-Boulder Web Interface VPN	It should work as long as you have installed Java. If you don't have it installed, you will be prompted to install it. Follow the on screen instructions to do so.
CU-Boulder Network Connect VPN	It should work as long as you have installed Java. If you don't have it installed, you will be prompted to install it. Follow the on screen instructions to do so. If you are having problems connecting, follow these instructions.
PGP	Symantec is advising that users currently encrypted with PGP Whole Disk Encryption or SEE Full Disk Encryption for Macs should not upgrade to Mountain Lion at this time There can be serious consequences including loss of data. Please check back to this page for updates. Refer to our news story from June 28. Note: If you must upgrade, it is vital that you first DECRYPT THE DRIVE and UN-INSTALL PGP, otherwise you could lose your data.
Large File Transfer Service	Compatible.
Office 2011 SP2 with current security updates (version 14.1.3 or later)	Compatible.

We'll post more information about the compatibility of our services as we learn about it.

Other applications

If you're curious about whether an application you use frequently is compatible with Mountain Lion, visit the vendor's website to see. Or perform an Internet search using the application name paired with the words "mountain lion compatibility".

We also recommend that you take a look at this third party site, Roaring Apps, which posts the compatibility status of many applications. 

OIT recommends upgrading only when applications that you commonly use are supported and compatible.

Java applet

OIT recommends enabling the Java applet, if it is not already enabled:

1. Open a Finder window.
2. Click on Applications located on the left sidebar,
3. Open the Utilities folder.
4. Double-click Java Preferences.
5. In the window that opens, check the box next to Enable applet plug-in and Web Start applications.