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The Mac Proselytization Thread

  
  

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lekvar
01:13 / 14.07.04
I think Konfabulator is a beautiful thing. If I wasn't terminally broke I'd buy two copies. It was actually the inspiration for my learning html/webdesign... I wanted to be able to make widgets. I feel bad for Arlo Rose, but he's been getting his digs in...
 
 
netbanshee
01:42 / 14.07.04
fridge... here's a few little things:

F9 followed by a Command-tab will bring up the Tab menu but will only show windows on top of the app selected. Hitting Tab instead goes through each app one after another.

F9 followed by the arrow keys picks the window you point to and space will select it.

Oh... and this one's just silly, but minimizing or maximizing the window while holding down shift does something interesting...

The terminal command:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-olddesktop -bool false
killall Dock

takes a snapshot of all of your windows and places it in a small box to the side. If you invoke it though, remember to set the last value to true again to get things back to normal. Kind of buggy, so not recommended.
 
 
w1rebaby
02:09 / 14.07.04
Oh... and this one's just silly, but minimizing or maximizing the window while holding down shift does something interesting...

That's rather disgusting, to be honest....
 
 
sleazenation
09:01 / 14.07.04
....Aaaaaaaaaand to update everyone on the situation with my Ibook - it all seems to be working again now - maybe zapping the PRAM actually did the job - either way i now have backed up all my data and have the fire wire cable to enable me to mount either of my computers should such a problem occur again...

And tomorrow I will get a phone line put in that will allow me back onto the net at home...

Yay!!!!
 
 
flufeemunk effluvia
12:31 / 14.07.04
Banshee Goodness: I think ill have to do that shift thing (slow minimize) just to show people how crazy apple is.

One thing that is way fun is messing with system files. I changed the battery indicator on my iBook so that it is in COLOR. I also changed some of the strings files and stuff so whenever i need to give my admin password, the prompt is as such:

"(application) says you need to type your password, dress in women's underwear, and cluck like a chicken. You really only need to do the first part, but I mean, whatever floats your boat, dude."

The whole package thing makes ResEdit look stupid and makes me a happy boy.
 
 
netbanshee
12:50 / 14.07.04
^^Kind of funny innit?

Sleaze... glad to hear that your machine is running better. Now just get to that Disk Permission and Cocktail stuff.

There is also a way to manually set the PMU (Power Management Unit) on the motherboard if the battery/charging/powering up thing is giving any laptop users a hard time. You can find articles on it via the Apple Discussion groups as well. On a TiBook, you'll find it near the power button underneath the keyboard. As always, a backup and caution is the way to go about things when messing with internals and what not.
 
 
sleazenation
14:34 / 14.07.04
Downloaded cocktail (and Konfabulator) at work onto a flash memory stick and will have a play about with them tonight - by the by how does one go about repairing permissions without cocktail?
 
 
The Strobe
16:22 / 14.07.04
Disk Utility, of course. It's in utilities. Or for the truly hardcore (and I advise you to check this before you try), reboot into single-user mode (holding S) and type fsck -y. I regular repair permissions through Disk Utility.
 
 
netbanshee
16:37 / 14.07.04
The prebinding and cron scripts in Cocktail are pretty helpful. Note that most things that are done with a GUI based application, are usually accessible through the terminal (as Paleface just illustrated).

One thing that's been interesting me about the industry, is Apple's future processor roadmap, with chips supplied by IBM. The current G5 is a "light" version of the Power4 server IBM chip that was created some time after the server chip was out. Since then, it seems that IBM has been developing each version of (lite vs. server) at the same time to appease both markets. That said, the Power5 chip which supports SMT (Symmetric Multi-threading, which equals about a 30% jump at the same clockspeed) has just been released. Even though the "new" G5's that are now being shipped took some time to get to market (a year), it seems that the next batch, alongside OSX Tiger, will be very good performers. This will be followed by the Power5+ and then the Dual-core monster Power6. Seems that Apple will be doing very well in the hardware performance market (a market they were always chastised with) in the coming years.

We now return to our scheduled thread...
 
 
sleazenation
11:08 / 15.07.04
.....And I now have net access at home again- Woot!
 
 
sleazenation
17:11 / 15.07.04
And yes - after a brief freak-out I managed to run cocktail and repair the permissions (and i ran the disk utility doing the same thing to be doublely sure)... all looking good so far...
 
 
sleazenation
09:57 / 17.07.04
all still working beautifully...
 
 
sleazenation
12:17 / 17.07.04
I really should learn to keep my big mouth shut - the problem is now recurring... - curiously the firewire refuses to mount when the computer is in its 'i don't have an OS' state... Might have to have a play with that power reset afterall...
 
 
grant
13:21 / 30.09.04
MAC USERS! I NEED YOUR HELP!

OK, here's the situation. OSX Powerbook at home, set up with multiple user accounts -- with a largely unused Admin account, as recommended on this thread here.

Last night, to discourage the houseboy from using the Admin account instead of his own to play his multiplayer online games, I changed the password. I logged in, went to the little account settings box, and added a numeral to the end of the row of dots in the "password" and "verify password" boxes. I did not retype the password, just added a new digit on the end. Instead of being password, it should now be password1, right?

No!

Now, the Admin account is not recognizing that new password! It's not recognizing the old password! It's not recognizing a row of spaces or asterixes followed by the numeral! (********1)

WHAT HAVE I DONE?

And... Is there any way to get back into my Admin account?

Please, by all that is holy, my faith in the platform is being challenged!
 
 
The Strobe
14:23 / 30.09.04
Tried just the number on its own?

I'm pretty sure there is a way, but it might involve commandlines and our old friend root...
 
 
sleazenation
15:15 / 30.09.04
In case anyone was interested regular permission fixing has solved all of my problems...
 
 
grant
15:24 / 30.09.04
I've tried just the number on its own, to no avail.

Apparently, after checking out a few mac help forums on the web, there's a gizmo on the install discs that will enable me to reset the admin account.

I still have challenges:

* to use install CDs, I have to find them.
* to use install CDs, I have to restart the computer, they say, which I can't do as long as Admin is logged in.
* and I still don't understand how exactly this happened to begin with!
 
 
subcultureofone
19:11 / 30.09.04
hey grant

i don't know what to do to fix the problem. however, i followed the steps you described and noticed that my password is one letter longer than the number of dots in the box. perhaps it is truncated in the 'new password' and 'verify' boxes to prevent cut n paste password theft? maybe if you remove the last letter of your old password and put a '1' after that?
 
 
netbanshee
20:17 / 30.09.04
The install cds should have a reset password ability on them. I'm pretty sure you're right on this one. I can imagine you rifling through boxes trying to find things after the summer you had. Sheesh!

One other thing. Just off the top of my head, so I'm not really sure about this one.

AFAIK, the root login keeps the same password as your admin account, but I think if you log on as "root" with your old password, you might be able to log in and create a new admin account from there. I'm not sure if the password keeps parity with the admin login continuously or just from the initial go. Also, if you do login to root, make sure you leave there. Dangerous territory to make changes in. Not sure if this will be actually helpful or not, but if you have any luck with this, let me know.
 
 
grant
20:46 / 30.09.04
How do I login as "root" on this machine?
(Bear in mind, this is my first Mac.)

I may try truncating the password just to see what happens -- and once I finally get in, I'm gonna set up a dummy account to futz with passwords on, I think.
 
 
Red Cross Iodized Salt
21:47 / 30.09.04
If you've found the install CD, you can access the password reset utility by inserting the disk, then shutting down and restarting while holding down the C key.

Instructions are available here.


If you can't find the disc, I'm not sure what you should do. The last time I phoned Applecare I remember it taking a while before I was put on to someone who could help, but once I had them on the line they were able to sort everything out fairly quickly. The number is 1-800-275-2273.
 
 
subcultureofone
23:11 / 30.09.04
well, i set up a fake account and got it to do exactly what you described. truncating didn't work. i even tried option-8 (to make dots) then the 1. hmmmm.
 
 
grant
00:19 / 01.10.04
On finding the root user:

The root user, sometimes called the superuser, is a special user account in Mac OS X that has read and write privileges to all areas of the file system. The root user can move and delete any file in the system, including system files not available to any other user. Because it's easy to damage the computer by moving or deleting some files, use the root account with extreme caution.



By default the root account is not active.


To enable the root user:


Open NetInfo Manager, located in Applications > Utilities.
Choose Security > Enable Root User and type a password for the root account. You may need to type an administrator password to make these changes.
Choose Apple menu > Log Out.
Choose Other in the Login window, type root in the Name field, and the root password in the Password field.

Bastards!
 
 
subcultureofone
03:06 / 01.10.04
i found these instructions

Mac OS X Password Recovery.
Although there's no real way to recover a lost root password, you can change the root password even if you do not know the current one. You must have physical access to the machine in order to accomplish this task.

1. Click Restart at the login window

2. While the computer is restarting, hold down "Command-S" until you see text scrolling through the window. This boots the computer into single user mode.

3. At the Localhost% prompt type:

/sbin/fsck -y
/sbin/mount -uw /
/sbin/SystemStarter

You will then see various services starting up.

4. When the Localhost% prompt reappears, type:

passwd [username]

It will then ask you to type the new root password twice, so do so.

5. After entering the new password, type:

reboot

6. At the login window, enter the username with the new password. Once you are logged in, you can use the Multiple Users application (/Applications/Utilities) to change your user's password, or create a new user account.
 
 
grant
16:43 / 01.10.04
Wow -- that should be helpful... if I can get the machine to restart without logging the Admin off. I've let the battery run down today, and hopefully the little machine elves won't plug it back in while I'm at work.

The [username] there becomes a new Admin account, yes?
Or is it a new root user? Or should it be the username of the old Admin account?
 
 
subcultureofone
19:36 / 01.10.04
The [username] there becomes a new Admin account, yes?
Or is it a new root user? Or should it be the username of the old Admin account?

it should be the old username of the old admin account (or the name of the account whose password you're trying to change); if i called mine 'virginia', i'd type:

passwd virginia

the root account is called 'root', i believe, and can be changed by 'passwd root' - i think that's the one we're not supposed to mess with! when i look in netinfo (the utility that manages this stuff), it includes root as a username.
 
 
grant
19:47 / 01.10.04
Yeah, I got into root yesterday, but wasn't able to change anything because (ta da!) I needed the admin password. And thus far, I haven't been able to shut down the machine because the admin is still logged in, the bastard.
 
 
subcultureofone
20:19 / 01.10.04
here's some info about os x password quirks from their help discussions:

(assume for the purpose of this post that my admin password is "apple")
Today I discovered something which I find to be a bit stange, although not hugely worrying. I do not have my pb set to auto login. I start it up, click my name and enter my password. However, today I entered my password and then when pushing the return key I accidently pushed the bracket key first. However I was still able to login in. To satisfy my interest I logged out, put my password in again and then added some random letters (for example appleasdfasdaslk;asf) I pushed return and it still worked. However if i put in laksfhjalskjapple, it will not. Is this right? Like I said, I am not particularly worried, but am curious.


This is actually correct. I gather your password is 8 characters or more? What Mac OS X does for log in purposes is that it checks against the first 8 characters of your password… and ONLY the first 8 characters. So, if your password is 1234567890 and you type in 12345678 you will log in. Same for 12345678dgjhdgjhxdgvj, you will be logged in.

Where things separate from this behaviour is the keychain. If you log in with an "incorrect" password the keychain won't work. For the keychain to be unlocked and useable you need to log in with your correct password.

Your observations are correct and is a quirk of Mac OS X.
 
 
subcultureofone
20:32 / 01.10.04
here's a post from sept 29th

Yesterday I changed my admin password and now when I try to log in with the new password, I can't get in. I only added 2 more letters to my original password and I have tried every combination of 2 letters in the rare event that I didn't enter what I thought I did when I changed the password. I can't get in as the admin!!! What can I do?

I know that the admin password is very secure, but is there some way to get around it? I do not want to have to back everything up and reinstall as I had to do that a couple of months ago when software update messed up my permissions. It took me over a week to get that done. I need my computer much sooner than that. Can anyone help?

I do have another user set up with very limited privileges - can I use this user somehow to reset the admin password?

Also, maybe this is a bug with OS 10.3. When I changed my password, I didn't retype the whole thing, I just added a couple letters to the password and then added the same letters to the old password in the "verify" box. Maybe you have to type the whole thing?


and the answers:

I do not think that will work. You should really type a completely new password when changing, although I have never tried what you did. Here are the steps required to change the password.

Resetting the original administrator account password

Follow these steps to reset a password when there is only one administrator account on the computer, or if the original administrator account (of several) needs a password reset. "Original" administrator account refers to the one that was created immediately after installing Mac OS X.
1. Start up from a Mac OS X Install CD (one whose version is closest the the version of Mac OS X installed). You should first disable Open Firmware password protection, if it is enabled. Hold the C key as the computer starts.

2. Choose Reset Password from the Installer menu. Tip: If you don't see this menu or menu choice, you're probably not started from the CD yet.

3. Select your Mac OS X hard disk volume.

4. Set the selected user to the name of your original administrator account. Note: Be sure to select your administrator account name. Do not select "System Administrator". System Administrator is actually a reference to the root user. Do not confuse it with a normal administrator account.

5. Enter a new password.

6. Click Save.


OR


If you are unfortunate enough to delete your only admin user, or remove his admin capability, then as long as you have another user with login capability, you can give that user admin rights as shown below. You can then re-create the original user or reinstate the admin capability using NetInfo Manager.

Print this post out in a mono-spaced font, and type carefully, paying attention to spaces and punctuation, since you cannot copy/paste in Single User mode.

Caution: in single user mode you have root privileges. Be careful! Substitute the name of 'youruser' below.

Boot into single user mode (Command-S) at startup which will eventually get you a shell prompt (ending in #). Then type the following:

fsck -fy
Repeat the above until it says your disk is OK. Then continue with

mount -uw /
nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -merge /groups/admin users youruser
If you get a message saying "invalid path", then type these two commands first:

nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /groups/admin gid 80
nicl -raw /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb -create /groups/admin passwd '*'
and then repeat the "nicl ... -merge" command. Then:

reboot
You will now be able to login as 'youruser' and have administrative privileges.
 
 
grant
00:25 / 02.10.04
I may try that next. Dig this: in the first set of "Mac OS X Password Recovery" directions, I can get as far as "passwd [username]" and... nothing happens. The computer thinks for a while, then gives me another localhost/#root prompt. I've tried using long names, short names, other user names, and it gives me bupkus.

BTW, running down the battery did logout the Admin (I kinda thought that wouldn't work) but it's also reset the clock, which I can't set back because - no admin privileges.

I'm gonna try to make this lowly account an administrator now.

Bless you all!
 
 
grant
01:07 / 02.10.04
I AM CLOTHED IN VICTORY!

Now, if only I could figure out what the deal was with the damn Keychain password prompts....

Thank you, subculture^1, you ROCK HARDER THAN IGGY POP!
 
 
iamus
00:36 / 05.10.04
This is a very small thing but it is a little confusing and I wonder if anybody else knows what's going on.

I have a file which should be an image. It's called 01.JPG but it's recognised as a finder document and shows up as a blank file icon. If I try and open it it says it's used by the MacOS. If I try to delete it then I'm told it's in use and doing that could cause nastiness. It's not located in an a folder anywhere near where important operational stuff should be. It's no big problem since it's only 100k, but I still want to know why this sort of thing is happening. Any thoughts?
 
 
netbanshee
17:53 / 05.10.04
Glad to hear you got through the roughness, grant. Sorry that I haven't been around to follow up.

On the jpg tip, I've noticed that either having the app that created or housed the file open or say having the email program that used it as an attachment running in the background will hinder a user from deleting it. If the file got damaged for some reason, you should be able to delete it with an app such as Cocktail.

BTW, it's a good idea to use Cocktail to repair permissions, prebind the system and run all of the cron scripts on a semi-regular basis to keep Mac OSX in tip-top shape.
 
 
subcultureofone
11:24 / 06.10.04
yay grant! i've been looking for the magic words to get a list of users when in single user mode; just chant this incantation:

niutil -list . /users

and it will list the names of the accounts, which you can then use to make changes.

also, the keychain thing- i found these helpful hints:

Keychain is a powerful encryted password vault.

Keychain can be synchronized to your logon or not. Once the passwords are different between the two, your logon can no no longer open keychain which itself opens other data. A greater form of protection.

However if you forget the keychain password you get these password request messages.

# Do This: In Home/Library/Keychains
# Move all keychain files to the trash.
# Logoff
# Logon

A new empty keychain will be created.
As you venture into areas your password for those areas will be requested and added to the new keychain file. e.g. your mail server password.

# Note: If you receive a password request when trying to move the files to the trash. The request is for your logon password not the keychain password.


AND

Your account should have been the original one set up on the system. It is the Administrator for the system - however it is NOT the "System Administrator" account. The "System Administrator" is the root account.

Root is set up with no password and no way to logon to it, unless a password is manually set to it. There are three ways to do this. The CD reset is the most user friendly.

ALSO
This worked fine for us in OS X.2 [refers to the single user mode passwd change instructions], but for X.3, it seems that the default infosystem has changed. If you want to set the root password, you need to specify to use the file infosystem (as opposed to netinfo, which controls user-level passwords). To do this, use the command:

passwd -i file [username]

This causes passwd to update the information in /etc/master.passwd (where root and all the other system level passwords are kept).
 
 
subcultureofone
11:42 / 06.10.04
for the jpeg problem- i usually use command-i to get info on the file. from there i can change its name or the app that opens it. i can also unlock it or change permissions. however, as banshee suggested, quitting apps or even restarting usually solves the problem.
 
  

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