Everything is Crap » osx

Simple way to add static routes to mac xserve

paul — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:10:32 +0000

I have an AppleScript (saved as an application) that runs each time the xserve starts. In that AppleScript I have this code:

do shell script "echo `cat /etc/security/admin_password` | sudo -S route -nq add 192.168.10.0/24 192.168.0.1"

It works for me. (I know, this is a convoluted way to do this, but I could not figure out what I was doing wrong with launchd and I already had this mechanism in place, so I did it the wrong way.)

Can't push "Apply to enclosed items" button

kris — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:34:31 +0000

If the "Apply to enclosed items" button is grayed out on a mac (OSX) it is probably an ACL problem.
To fix it – turn off ACLs on the troubled drive.

sudo fsaclctl -p /Volumes/volumename -d

Pay no attention to that man at the terminal!

paul — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:57:46 +0000

Pay no attention to that man at the terminal! He's not doing anything!
(To clear Apple OSX terminal history)

history -c

Launchd is the new cron, says Apple (iCal ain't so great at scheduled tasks)

paul — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 16:53:38 +0000

One of our Apple servers is running an app that goes haywire if you don't reboot it periodically. So, I wrote an AppleScript to reboot the server, and created a recurring task in iCal to run the AppleScript every night. This worked fine for a few months but suddenly stopped working. A quick glance at the logs told me that the AppleScript I had created hadn't been run. When I opened iCal to see if something had happened to the recurring task, POOF! My script was run, and the server was restarted (during the day, which is what I was trying to avoid with the script to begin with!). After that the nightly iCal task ran fine.

Over the course of a year I figured out that the iCal glitch happens every few months; iCal forgets that it has scheduled tasks and doesn't run them. Why does this happen? I have no idea.

I've finally gotten around to fixing it and figured I should create a cron job, but Apple says "cron is so 1980's. You should use launchd!"

Creating a launchd job is not as easy as cron, but the concepts are pretty simple. Basically, this is how you do it:

Create a plist, according to the specs, that describes your job. I found that using Apple's Property List Editor, included with the Apple Dev Tools, made the task much simpler and helped me avoid some syntax mistakes that I was sure to make otherwise.
Place the plist in the appropriate folder. In my case I put it in /Library/LaunchAgents (check the spec to determine the appropriate location according to the task you're trying to perform)
Load your job like this: launchctl load /path/to/your.plist

That was it. In the end I was able to get it to work by launching a bash script from launchd. In turn, the bash script launched my original AppleScript. It's kinda crazy and convoluted but it worked. AFP458.com has a great tutorial on launchd that helped me more than the apple document.

imac restarting

kris — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 13:50:36 +0000

The other day I had an aluminum imac that was restarting(rebooting) itself out of the blue. After a while it got so bad it couldn't even start up any longer. It would start to boot and then restart and start to boot again. So here's some Apple magic that fixed it.

Reset PRAM and NVRAM: Hold down Command, Option, P and R at boot up (hold till you hear the startup sound for the second time.

Reset SMC: Unplug the power. Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds. Release the power button. Plug it back in and boot it up.

So far, everything is fine now.

(http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379 & http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964)

Mac: Doesn't play well with others. Doesn't Share. *UPDATED

paul — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:58:00 +0000

Vista cannot authenticate when trying to attach to a file share (SMB) on our old 10.2 Mac Xserve. Fixing the problem involves weakening the security of Vista file sharing, but we're all friends here behind the firewall, right?

I stole these instructions from z3r010 on vistax64.com:

1. Open the Start Menu.
2. In the white line (Start Search) area, type regedit and press Enter.
3. Click Continue for UAC prompt.
4. In regedit, go to:-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlLsa

5. In the right pane, right click LmCompatibilityLevel and click Modify.
NOTE: If it doesn't already exist, create a DWORD value named LmCompatibilityLevel

6. Set the value to 1
7. Reboot

*UPDATE 8-25-2009 – I just had this same problem in Windows 7 and this solution fixed it. -Kris-

Quickly lock a mac

paul — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:47:00 +0000

I have access to all sorts of secure devices at work. Therefore, I always lock my computer when I step away from it. In Windows I just press WIN+L. Macs lack that quick key combo. Here's my solutions:

Set a hot corner to start you screen saver (and make sure the "Require password to wake…" is checked in the Security preference pane)
Open Keychain Access > Preferences and check "Show Status in Menu Bar." Now you have a menu bar button that allows you to quickly lock your mac.

Neither option is as good as WIN+L, but it's good enough for me.

Share individual folders in Mac OS X using SharePoints

paul — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:44:00 +0000

Hooray for SharePoints!

OS X (workstation) does not allow you to share individual folders. So if the folder you want to share doesn't reside in your profile directory, you're out of luck. SharePoints allows you to share individual folders regardless of their location on your mac. It support AFP (Mac sharing) and SMB (Windows sharing), and it's free!

Leopard has VNC built-in

paul — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:35:00 +0000

As I went looking for a VNC client for mac I found a super-long tutorial about OS X Leopard's screen sharing. Apparently VNC is built into Leopard!

To use it you just go to Finder and choose Go > Connect to Server… and then type…

"vnc://[IP of your server goes here]"

…and it'll connect you. That was easy!

Illustrator Opening/Saving Files Very Slowly

paul — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:49:00 +0000

One of our designers was having a problem with Illustrator CS3 opening and saving files very, very slowly on her brand-new Intel iMac. After Googling for about an hour I found the answer hidden in a cached forum on Google. I wish I could link to the original post but I'm afraid the page is gone. So, here's an except from Google's cached page…

Matthew Kivett – 12:36pm Jul 25, 07 PST (#35 of 56)

Alright, I believe I have found the solution to this issue….

The slow performance is due to a bloated/corrupted preference file: com.adobe.mediabrowser.plist which is located in the user preferences at username/Library/Preferences/com.adobe.mediabrowser.plist

Since this is a preference file, it can safely be deleted. Illustrator will generate a fresh copy upon relaunching.

That fixed the problem. Thanks Matthew!