Archive for category: OS X

Hidden Apple Software Restore (ASR) Documentation

Apple Software Restore (ASR) has some hidden documentation that reveals a few command line options which were previously unknown to most. A post on jamfnation led to some discussion on ##osx-server about an undocumented ASR command.  Rich Trouton blogged about how to view these commands using a very interesting method.  If […]

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FileVault Setup.app – A Local FV2 Setup App

FileVault Setup.app – A Local FV2 Setup App

As usual with all things FileVault related, Rich Trouton has the details on a new .app for setting up FileVault 2.  FileVault Setup.app is a standalone app that provides a pretty interface for end users to configure File Vault 2 with during first login.  This is a interesting way to […]

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ldapsearch and ldapdelete Examples

Noel Alonso has a post outlining one way you could easily delete a machine out of Active Directory using ldapsearch and ldapdelete. This script could easily be modified and changed to do various other things, such as passing the hostname in as an argument or doing a different action upon […]

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Load or Reload a LaunchAgent without User Action

Load or Reload a LaunchAgent without User Action

Kyle Crawford has an interesting post that covers reloading LaunchAgents while a user is logged in without requiring them to take action (Log out/in, reboot, etc). While somewhat hacky, it is a novel way to ensure that a given LaunchAgent is reloaded without burdening the End User to take action. Nate […]

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Python Versioning in OS X

Python Versioning in OS X

Apple has included one or more versions of python with OS X since Jaguar (10.2). Their latest version, Mountain Lion (10.8), includes python versions 2.5, 2.6, and 2.7. This presence of python on a clean install of OS X makes it a compelling language choice for automation and information gathering […]

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Package Install Conditions in Munki

Jeremy Reichman has a post outlining how to add an installable_condition to a given piece of software in Munki.  This key allows you to specify requirements for a package based upon a NSPredicate and information that Munki knows about the machine.  Check out the details over on Jeremy’s Blog. Nate […]

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Running Java 7 in a VMware Fusion 10.8.x VM

For those of you who do application testing inside of an OS X VMware VM, you may have noticed that Java does not work properly.  Rich has a good summary of the status of running Java inside a VM and even a fix that VMWare has provided which patches Java […]

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Moving a physical OS X machine to a VMware VM

Virtualization is an extremely useful tool to have at your disposal.  If you have ever wanted to transfer a physical machine’s OS X install to a virtual machine, you know that VMWare does not make a tool for doing so.  They provide one for Linux and Windows, but not for […]

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Setting the default boot drive from Boot Selector

Apparently you can set the default boot volume right from the EFI Boot Disk Selector.  Rich has the details over on his blog. Nate WalckNate is a Systems Reliability Engineer at Dropbox, Inc in San Francisco, CA. He runs afp548.com along with Sam Keeley and is one of the founding […]

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XProtectWatch, now with more Notifications

Justin Rummel has updated his XProtectWatch tool so that it triggers a Notification whenever the XProtect plist is updated.  This is not a system to manage the XProtect settings but rather a tool to notify you when XProtect gets a new configuration.  Check it out over on Justin’s blog. Nate […]

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