You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'os x' category.
If you have an old G4 sitting around that’s at the 800mhz mark, you probably should try installing Leopard, because most people agree it actually runs FASTER than Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Weird, huh? I guess they’ve optimized the code pretty well.
However, when you try to install the operating system, you are warned that Leopard cannot be installed on your G4. There are a few reasons for this:
1) Leopard requires 512MB of RAM - you have RAM, right?
2) Leopard requires over 867mhz processor
We can fix number 1 by simply getting more RAM. I find Craigslist to be of great use here. Number two is a bit more difficult as G4 processor upgrades are ridiculously expensive once you consider the cost of a Mac Mini, and also requires a bit of tech savvy under the hood as you’d be swapping CPUs.
Not to worry, though. Here’s a way to convince OpenFirmware that your CPU is 867mhz, and allow the installer to boot, install, and get you off and running:
Boot into Open Firmware, I have covered this extensively here:
Once in OpenFirmware, issue the following commands (for single CPU):
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0
d# 867000000 encode-int " clock-frequency" property
boot cd:,\\:tbxi
For dual CPU:
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@0
d# 867000000 encode-int " clock-frequency" property
dev /cpus/PowerPC,G4@1
d# 867000000 encode-int " clock-frequency" property
boot cd:,\\:tbxi
Note that all we are doing is over-writing the CPU clock-frequency (speed) property for each CPU installed, at boot time.
Also, if you need to boot another device, try:
printenv boot-device
This will return a list of boot devices to use when booting the installer. I used this in order to boot a Firewire device that had had a disc image (DMG) restored to it, making things a bit easy and faster.
Good luck!
Related Articles:
I hear this a lot, and I myself have also gone looking for it…
So without further ado, here is the script that will install kext files for you - be warned - you’ll need to know how to get the kext file in the first place, as well as the filename.
Easy right?
Let’s get started.
Open the Terminal application by going to Applications / Utilities / Terminal.app - you will see it in the Utilities folder - it looks like a command prompt.
Once terminal has launched, type in the following command:
sudo -s
Enter the root or first user password that you inputted during the setup process.
This tells it to run any other commands after this one as the root or superuser account, allowing you to edit files you normally would not have permission to edit.
Here’s an example using IOATAFamily.kext, a popular ATA driver. You’ll want to replace this by your own driver name. Also, you’ll want to make sure the file is unzipped, and sitting on your desktop. Oh one more thing, you’ll want to edit YOURUSERNAME with… your username 
mv /Users/(YOUR USERNAME)/Desktop/IOATAFamily.kext /System/Library/Extensions
chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/IOATAFamily.kext
sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/IOATAFamily.kext
cd /System/Library/Extensions
rm -rf Extensions.mkext
rm -rf Extensions.kextcache
Hope that helps!
Related Articles:
Many people find that they simply don’t have enough screen real estate on their MacBooks, and prefer to use application launchers such as Apple’s own Spotlight, or the third party applications QuickSilver and launchbar.
There are two ways to remove the Dock from OS X tiger - one easy, the other a more manual approach.
We’ll start with the hard one, since it’s better to understand what’s going on behind the scenes. If this simply doesn’t interest you and you’d rather move on - rest assured that scripting the hard part is just as safe, and works in a similar manner.
On to the hard part:
- The first step is to move the dock from
/System/Library/CoreServicesso that it won’t be launched on startup as it is normally. This is a bit hackish, but I’ve yet to get anything else working properly.
- Since the dock will no longer be called at startup as it is missing from the usual cave it hides out in, we’ll need to make the Dock start up from it’s new location when we log in. This can easily be accomplished by dragging Dock.app from its new hiding place to your startup items (found in the “accounts” system preference pane).
- Since the idea here is to get rid of the Dock, we’ll need to close it after it is run on login. The easiest way to do this is to make an Applescript that terminates the dock for you, and have it run just after the Dock is launched on startup. This allows the Dock to start, get it’s act in gear, then disappear.
- Now you can proceed with your normal modus operandi and utilize QuickSilver or whatever other application launcher that you prefer to use instead of the Dock.
The easier way to do all of this is to leverage a piece of software written by No Name Scriptware called Dock Death. Dock Death is an AppleScript that performs the same task we outlined above, and also gives you a back out strategy in case you really need to get the Dock back.
Both of these solutions will effectively disable Expose since it a Dock process. If you can’t live without Expose, you may want to try using the freeware Onyx, which allows you to move the Dock to the top of the screen and hide it, effectively eliminating it from view. Though this is a bit low-tech in that it doesn’t really disable the Dock, for some people it gets the job done.
Related Articles:
If the chime your Mac makes on bootup drives you batty, have no fear - it’s controllable. You can mute, turn down, or even turn UP your Macintosh startup volume using freeware utilities!
There are a few applications out there that will allow you to adjust the Apple startup noise, but only one (as far as I can tell) that will allow you to adjust the startup chime on Intel based Macs - Psst from mistatree will let you do it on your x86 Apple computer, and it’s easy to use too!
Psst is a universal binary that runs in OS X, meaning that it will run on PPC Macs, as well as the newer Intel Macs like iMacs, MacBooks, MacBook Pros and Mac Pros.
To install the program, simply download the DMG image file using Safari, Firefox or your favorite browser, and mount the image by double clicking it. After that you can copy the file anywhere on your hard drive and run the application by double clicking it. Adjust the startup sound to your liking and reboot to see the changes. You will notice the difference on bootup/startup - the startup chime should be less noisy or muted depending on how you adjusted it.
Related Articles:
Oh boy, big news!
A new beta of Parallels has been released today, and is a free download for Parallels users. Coherence and BootCamp compatibility have been improved, along with a slew of other features.
Here’s the release notes for the Parallels Desktop for Mac (Beta2) page:
- NEW! USB 2.0 support - “Plug and play” popular USB devices like external hard drives, printers, and scanners, and use them at full native speed.
- NOTE! Current Build 3094 doesn’t support isochronous devices such as web cameras, microphones, etc.
- NEW! Full-feature virtual CD/DVD drive - Burn CDs and DVDs directly in virtual machines, and play any copy-protected CD or DVD just like you would on a real PC
- NEW! Improved Coherence mode - The groundbreaking feature that lets you run Windows applications without seeing Windows just got better! Now you can:
- Place Windows applications on your Mac desktop or in your application dock. Just click to launch them directly from OS X!
- Use Command+tab to cycle through Windows and Mac applications simultaneously, and “hide and show” Windows applications just like you would with Mac applications
- View the Windows Command Console in Coherence mode
- Use Coherence in Windows 2000, Windows 2003, Windows XP and Windows Vista!
- NEW! Better Boot Camp support - Using your Boot Camp partition in Parallels Desktop is now easier than ever. Beta2’s Boot Camp support includes:
- Full support for FAT32 and NTFS partitions
- Easy offline configuration. Simply tell Parallels Desktop that you want to create a virtual machine from a Boot Camp Partition and click start. No complicated set up required!
- No need to re-activate Windows each time you switch between Boot Camp and Parallels. Activate Windows only once inside Parallels and work in both environments
- IMPORTANT! It is not possible to suspend a Virtual Machine that is connected to Boot Camp as it could result in an unstable system.
- VERY IMPORTANT! Beta1 (build 3036) users must boot natively into Boot Camp and uninstall Parallels Tools for Boot Camp prior to running it in Beta2 (build 3094).
- NEW! Parallels Transporter Beta2 bundled - migrate your real Windows PC, or existing VMware or Virtual PC VMs to Parallels virtual machines! Learn more about Parallels Transporter Beta2 >>
- IMPORTANT! Beta1 users MUST upgrade their Transporter package on their Windows source machine before using Parallels Transporter in Beta2. Failing to do so may result in a system crash and loss of data
- New Look and Feel - completely redesigned windows and easier to follow dialogues to make Desktop for Mac more user-friendly than ever
- True “Drag and Drop” functionality - a long awaited feature that lets you seamlessly drag and drop files and folders from Windows to Mac OS X and vice versa
- Read/Write Boot Camp partition - use your Apple Boot Camp Partition as a virtual HDD for Parallels Desktop for Mac
- Virtual Machine Catalogue - now all of your virtual machines are available through a centralized VM catalogue which appears on each Parallels Desktop for Mac instance
- One-click Virtual Machine Aliases - automatically create a desktop shortcut for your virtual machine with the OS Installation Assistant, by dragging-and-dropping from title bar, or by pressing Command-Option keys combination. Clicking on Alias automatically starts the Virtual Machine
- Resizable Main Window - resize the Parallels Desktop for Mac main window as you do with any other Mac application
- Auto-Adjusting Screen Resolution - Windows auto-adjusts its screen resolution to the actual main window size
- Improved graphic performance - up to 50% faster!
- Connect/disconnect USB devices schema improved - no more annoying “wait 5-10 seconds” message on USB device connecting to Parallels Desktop for Mac!
- Up to 5 Virtual NICs - now each Virtual Machine can have up to five virtual network interfaces
- Enhanced Shared Networking Mode - run Cisco VPN and many other complex networking applications in conjunction with Connection Sharing Mode
Related Articles:
I’ve been using OS X for a while now, and one thing that really irks me, especially on larger DMG files like a Leopard image, is that OS X automatically tries to verify the checksum of the DMG image file, which could take hours.
There are a few applications out there that will disable this for you, but if you want the quick and dirty method, and don’t mind using the Terminal once in a while, use this one-liner to disable the verification easily:
defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages skip-verify true
Related Articles:
This will be a quick howto as it’s mostly a settings issue, but here goes:
Macs have come with a Remote Desktop server for quite some time now, and it’s great for using macs to manage macs remotely, though maybe not as nice as an NX or XMing solution.
When trying to manage an Apple computer using a Windows or Linux computer it’s a different story. When you attempt to open the connection the authorization works, but the window will close very quickly, with no apparent error.
The problem lies in the actual implementation of VNC in Apple’s Remote Desktop server (not to be confused with RDP - it’s MUCH slower). Apple has decided to only support one type of tiling, whereas most VNC clients will attempt to find the best solution in order to connect. Specifically, Apple uses HexTile, and if you specify this in the options or properties of your connection, it will work with no problems whatsoever.
If you’d like to make a .VNC configuration file in order to connect to your Mac server using a Windows VNC client (RealVNC used here), just take the following code and save it as a *.VNC configuration file, being careful to change the host from (null) to the remote Apple Remote Desktop server’s IP address (for example: 10.10.10.10).
[Connection]
Host=(null)
[Options]
UseLocalCursor=1
UseDesktopResize=1
FullScreen=0
FullColour=1
LowColourLevel=1
PreferredEncoding=hextile
AutoSelect=0
Shared=0
SendPtrEvents=1
SendKeyEvents=1
SendCutText=1
AcceptCutText=1
DisableWinKeys=1
Emulate3=0
PointerEventInterval=0
Monitor=
MenuKey=F8
AutoReconnect=1
I have tested this method on many Windows and Linux machines, using RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC and even Chicken of the VNC for Mac OS X. It works fine, though I’d like to pound home again that I would really like to have the option to either tunnel application over SSH, or have some type of locally-accelerated RDP-compliant protocol (heck why not use LTSP 5.0?)
One can only dream…
Related Articles:
Why is it that I always find myself ponying up the small amounts of cash it takes to purchase Mac shareware applications? Black fire and a disco ball? I gotta have it.
Today I fell victim to MacZot’s current promotion (ends in 23 hours!) that saw me gobbling up the public beta of the Disco CD/DVD burning application for Mac OS X, and boy am I content with this lil 700KB number.
Firstly, the hype: when you purchase the beta at the silly-low price, you also get the opportunity to send a free license to someone else. So here goes - the first person to leave an intelligent comment gets the license! (I’ll need a real email address) This is a great marketing idea that see people not only using the beta of a terrifically designed piece of software, but also spreading the word to others so they can try it as well. Good show.
Next, the features: Disco copies discs in two clicks. Say that ten times fast. Disco can span CDs and DVDs automagically. They call it Spandex, I call it dead sexy. This is extremely handy when backing up iPhoto or iTunes, trust me. Disco can burn VIDEO_TS folders by just dragging them onto the application, which makes it great for burning your DVD backups. Disco has realtime 3D interactive smoke that actually wafts up from the application as you burn discs. If you blow into your microphone, the smoke will dissipate, and if you move your cursor around the smoke itself, it reportedly moves accordingly - but I didn’t get to see this on the low-end test box. Disco has an amazingly simplistic interface that is very easy to follow as it prompts you at every step. Last, but certainly not the least in terms of features, and should really be in caps: Disco remembers every single burn and keeps a catalog of the burn sessions using what it calls “discography” so that you can easily do things like print labels, disk jackets, or simply keep handy for when you need that dot release or the pre-altered code that you can never find. Let Disco be your personal sherpa.
Disco runs very well for a beta application. I have yet to see it crash under Panther, Tiger, or even Leopard (WWDC or the 9a ADC build). Oh, and it worked fine in Tiger server as well. Unfortunately the test box is a 1st generation Mac Mini (PPC), so there was no “smoke” to speak of (anyone have screenshots?), so that will need to be tested later. I burned some mix audio CDs, a backup copy of the disk image for Disco public beta itself, an ISO image of Ubuntu Edgy Eft Beta, and a bunch of Gentoo releases, for good measure. No hiccups. I erased a very old scratched CDRW. I even inserted a scratched blank CDR to see what would happen… Well it wouldn’t burn correctly but Disco kept on keepin’ on - like some sort of Disco inferno - no bouncing beachballs of death here. And you call this a beta? I expected flames, not smoke. No crash and burn here.
In these screenshots you see the Disco app in full swing, from installation to a test burn, and a view of all the windows it provides. I really like the design of this app, and it was well worth the 15$ pricetag. If you’re new to MacZot, and need a referrer, feel free to use “blandname”. Now go write some optical media and dance around like a schoolgirl.
Oh and on the topic of Disco, and in the name of Halloween here’s a joke:
“Why didn’t the skeleton dance at the disco?”
“He had no body to dance with”
Related Articles:
Parallels announced today the updated features of the newest iteration of Parallels Workstation.
Big new all around for Windows, Mac and Linux users.
Here’s the breakdown (from the newsletter):
Parallels Desktop for Mac is the first solution for running Windows and OS X at the same time – without rebooting!
The Desktop for Mac Official Update includes a number of powerful new features, such as:
- Works on ANY Intel-Mac with ANY memory configuration with no system modification. This includes Mac Pro towers with up to 16GB of RAM, and the full line of Core 2 Duo iMacs
- Support for Windows Vista as a guest OS
- Support for Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” as a Primary OS
- Better USB support, including support for isochronous devices and Windows Mobile 5 devices
Parallels Workstation 2.2 for Windows & Linux is a powerful, cost effective virtualization solution which boosts productivity and lowers IT costs by letting users run multiple OSes simultaneously - without rebooting - on any Windows or Linux PC.
The new version includes a variety of new features and improvements:
- Full support for AMD Secure Virtual Machine Technology, and stronger support for Intel Virtualization Technology
- Support for Windows Vista as a Guest OS
- A new shared folder utility lets users share files and folders between OSes
- Better networking
- Better USB support, including support for webcams and Windows Mobile 5 devices
Related Articles:
Whenever you start adding funny-flavored operating systems to a network, you eventually run into filesharing problems. Even if you only have a few machines, coming to a consensus on how to get files from point A to B can be quite taxing - especially if there’s work to be done.
Over the years I’ve tried FTP, Samba, NFS and a host of others. When configured well they work like a charm. However, when a new node joins the network (that shiny new Mac Pro of yours), things need to be reconfigured and can generally be a royal pain.
That has changed, though. We now have an acceptable solution that is free, easy to use and above all, secure. Introducing… SCP.
SCP has been around for a while now, and is gaining quite a bit of traction in the hosting world where it is (albeit slowly) starting to replace FTP for upload and download tasks. SCP stand for Secure Copy (CP being Copy on *nix variants). SCP works a lot like FTP in that you require an address to connect to, a username (login) and a password (we won’t get into stored keys today).
Now that we’ve decided what to try in our ad hoc network, how do we set it up? If you’re blessed with any variant of Linux or Unix, the work has been done for you already - the tools come with the operating system, and are generally found under the network tools in your fancy menus.
It’s a different story on Apple Macs and PCs, though. For example, Tiger comes with an SCP server, but no client. Right, about the Mac server. In order to activate it in Panther, Tiger and even Leopard, head on over to the System Preferences pane, and choose the Sharing applet (the folder with the caution sign on it). Once it has opened, check the Remote Login checkbox. This will enable SSH, and in turn, SCP. We’re halfway there. You can connect to an SCP server by using the Terminal on a Mac, but from what I can tell most Mac users are frightfully scared of it. But that gives me the oppurtunity to tell you about one of my favorite applications - Fugu (japanese for blowfish - and sporting a suitably cute icon to boot). Fugu allows you to connect to an SCP server to both download and upload files. Fugu is quite easy to use, so we won’t get into that, but will save it for another time if need be (just like stored keys). Oh, and as the screenshot shows you, it works with Mac OS X Server 10.4.7 too! (as well as Leopard)
In the PC world, WinSCP is Fugu’s sibling. You get an extremly easy to use interface, complete with drag and drop. Installation is a breeze, and best of all it’s free as in both beer and speech. Just like those soapbox ramblers. Getting a Windows SCP server is a bit more difficult, but currently exists in the form of BitVise WinSSHD. WinSSHD is slightly complicated, but most of the configuration is done during the installation procedure. They supply you with the needed variables, and one you have finished you will have set up an account you can use to test from your other workstations. The screenshot above was taken with the wonderful WinSnap - it comes highly recommended.
Let the cross-platform filesharing begin!
If you have any questions, or would like to suggest a topic for a future article, head on over to the blandname contact page and we’ll see what we can do!
Oh, and by the way, since you’ve noticed I always talk about virtualization, this certainly applies to getting files to and fro from your virtual machines in VMWare Server, Virtual Server (Virtual PC if need be) and Parallels - I have even found it to be faster than any other technique!
Related Articles:
If you don’t have an Apple Macintosh keyboard, you miss out on the “eject button”. This is a shame really. The easiest way to eject the CD is to drag it to the recycle bin, or if you have a Windows mouse as well you can right-click and select eject. Should you have a Macintosh mouse, option-click and select eject. If all else fails, reboot the computer and hold down the left mouse button (or only mouse button), and the CD will eject for you. If this STILL doesn’t work, you can go into OpenFirmware and tell the Apple computer to eject using the command:
0 > eject cd
Hope that helps!
Related Articles:
A lot of people these days appear to be under the impression that Macs have a BIOS, which is unfortunate because they actually have something much better - Macs have OpenFirmware. This is true for G4 Mac Minis, PowerBooks, iBooks, iMacs, eMacs, and Dual G5s… I could go on and on.
I got most of this info from experience and the Apple Developper Connection - if you’re not a member yet, sign up, it’s free.
You can get into OpenFirmware using this key sequence:
CMD-OPT-O-F
In detail, this means using two hands, holding “command”, “option” and “f” on the left and “o” with your right hand. Do this while booting your computer and you well hear two chimes. At the end of the chimes you will be greeted with an
On my G4 Mac Mini, for example, I can hold down the power button for roughly 10 seconds and I will hear the chimes - this should work for iMacs as well.
The OpenFirmware prompt that looks like this:
ok
0>
Congratulations, you’ve accessed your “BIOS” you switcher!
Now that we’ve passed this glorious milestone, we have some work to do. After all you came here for a reason right? (and not just to click on the ads, wink-wink nudge-nudge)
Some useful commands that save me time and time again, and enable reparation of the G4 Mac Mini:
Boot your Apple computer using the default boot device:
0 > mac-boot
Boot your Mac using the inserted CDROM at the yaboot directory for linux CDs:
0 > boot cd:,\install\yaboot
To eject a CDROM from your Mac:
0 > eject cd
If you have any other OpenFirmware tips to share, feel free to comment!
Related Articles:
Though we are just a small site at this point in time, we’re sure to grow and need to know and what direction. So we decided to run a poll for a few weeks to see what was garnering more interest from blandname readers.
The results are now in and it looks like Ubuntu is the current topic of choice, with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard coming in behind.
It seems some of you have a good sense of humour because you added Windows Me. Some good suggestions were found in the addition of CentOS which we are currently writing an article for, and Gentoo linux, one of favorite operating systems to play around with.
In the coming months, we’ll try to touch on all of these topics, focusing more attention on the winner of course.
Feel free to leave suggestions for future polls or other topics you’d like us to cover - we’re here to help.
Related Articles:
This is more of a teaser, but my dream has come true! Ruby on Rails is now installed by default on Apple Mac OS X 10.5 Beta (Leopard WWDC edition). Getting it up and running is really a snap.
Here’s the quick and dirty way to make a sample Rails environment and start the server.
Firstly, open the Terminal application. You know the scary black window with white text. Well actually it could even be white with black text - your mileage may vary (mine is black with green, for example).
Anyway, we’re wasting time - this is quick and dirty right? Otherwise I would be talking about chunky bacon.
In Terminal, type:
rails example
You’ll be met with a nice list of scrolling lines and when it’s done your “example” Rails application will have been initialised.
And that’s pretty well it!
Moving on, we want to see something tangible to prove to ourselves just how flippin’ impressive this really is, and why you knew when you saw that Apple Developper Connection article about Rails you knew good things were to come.
In Terminal, once more, sweating profusely now, we type:
cd example
ruby script/server
This runs the server for us. Once it has been set up, you can safely minimize the Terminal, and fire up Safari, Firefox, Camino, iCab, heck even Internet Explorer. We’re navigating ourselves to: 127.0.0.1:3000
Here’s what we find there (click the thumbnail to enlarge the screenshot):
The nitty-gritty (no dirt band):
- Ruby version - 1.8.4
- RubyGems Version - 0.9.0
- Rails version - 1.1.2
- Active Record version - 1.14.2
- Action Pack version - 1.12.1
- Action Web Service version - 1.1.2
- Action Mailer Version - 1.2.1
- Active Support version - 1.3.1
It’s set up in a development environment by default (where you want it), using the sqlite3 database adapter (pretty typical).
Next time we’ll show you how to update these and run irb. Until then feel free to vote in our poll and support us!
Related Articles: