OSX 10.5.7 Update Issues

OSX 10.5.7 Update Issues

It’s comforting to know that when Apple screws up, they do it but good.

Not since the days of Tiger has a dot release from Apple done so much damage. On the surface, 10.5.7 is a very important update. A lists of fixes includes the usual round of security fixes, fixes for network performance, updates for Camera RAW support, among several other fixes. But, initially the Software Update version was throwing up errors “digital signature for the package is incorrect.” Apple rapidly fixed this but it underscores the importance of having good backups and a clean file system.

Afterwards, others started reporting BSOD or Blue Screens of Death after the update was done. Having originated on Windows, the BSOD is now available in Leopard, a nice, if unintended bonus from Apple.

Luckily this problem seems to be fairly easy to fix:

  • Wait for Hard drive access to stop
  • Hold Power button down until computer shuts off
  • Hold shift button down and power computer on to boot into safe mode
  • Use regular user name and password to login if asked
  • type reboot to reboot the computer
  • The next issue to commonly pop up is messed up display resolutions for non-Apple monitors. People are finding themselves stuck in 1920×1080! Resetting the PRAM (Hold down the Command, Option P and K keys while booting until it chimes three or four times) seems to fix for some.

    For some of us REALLY unluckily people, the update gets stuck part way. After letting it sit for an hour at 33% there was no choice but to reboot the computer. Upon booting back up, OS X is not able to fully boot up. In one machine I was able to fix by going into safe mode, then issuing the softwareupdate -l -a command to finish the download and install.

    On my Macbook, it was a full reinstall.

    How To: Use Google to search Usenet Archives

    How To: Use Google to search Usenet Archives

    Usenet’s usability has degraded a lot in recent years. But back in it’s day it was probably the most useful tool to share knowledge around. The grains of knowledge contained in Usenet even now are immeasurable.

    So go to: http://groups.google.com/advanced_search?q=&

    And you’ll be presented with Google’s Advanced Search. This one has several additional options to help find information. Subject, Author, and even dates are possible. But the hidden feature is the groups section. Instead of just Google Groups, any newsgroup name can be used such as alt.religion.

    Enter in your requested search terms, modify the advanced search options, hit OK and be amazed at the power that is Google Search.

    How To: Use Dump to back up a full filesystem

    How To: Use Dump to back up a full filesystem

    Way back in the day when tape drives first started being heavily used to do backups of Unix machines, the dump command was created. In typical Unix simplicity the dump command “dumps” files from one device to another device. This can be a tape drive, a hard drive, even a network share. rsync does a similar process but is meant for immediate use of those files.

    First step is to be sure dump is installed. If not use, rpm, yum, port, apt-get, or your local repository method to install dump on your system.

    The quickest command to get started is: dump -0 -j9 -f /pathtosavebackup /pathtobackup

    This would give us a down and dirty dump of the requested path, or if / is used in the second part of the command, the full file system starting at the root.

    -j9 tells the command to compress (using tar) the file as much as possible.

    -f defines the device (or filesystem path) to dump too. Keep in mind that this command could not be used to dump files from the local filesystem back to the local filesystem.

    The bad news is that this will take quite a while depending on how much data needs to be dumped, how fast the hard drives (or tape drive) is, and if backing up to a network share, how fast the ethernet connection is. In my tests 100gb filesystem got compressed down to 23gb, and took about fives hours across a 10/100 connection.

    After the dump is done, tar can be used to unarchive the file to a new file system.

    How To: Create and Import vcf VCards

    How To: Create and Import vcf VCards

    VCards are simply virtual business cards used to exchange contact information. They are easily recognizable with the .vcf file extension. Vcards have rapidly become a universally excepted way of transferring contact information between devices. They can be sent to most phones such as Blackberries and iPhones, or to all the popular Email programs and multiple contact collection programs.

    The first step in creating a VCard is actually the hardest. Below is an example of my own VCard:

    BEGIN:VCARD
    VERSION:2.1
    FN:Rick Hamell
    N:Hamell;Rick;;;
    TEL;PREF;CELL:971.555.5555
    EMAIL;INTERNET:rick@hamell.net
    URL:http://RickHamell.com
    URL:http://www.1nova.com/blog
    URL:http://www.1nova.com/photoblog
    UID:efc38667f3b9ab04495f9c54d2587950
    REV:2008-10-27T20:47:59Z
    END:VCARD

    As can be seen it shows all the important contact info that would be found in any contact program. In addition to Email addresses it includes my phone number and URL to my website.

    Many programs such as Apple’s Address Book, or Microsoft Outlook will allow exporting a contact to a VCard file. They can also be edited with a text file as long as the conventions in structure are observed. The easiest method is to use an online generator. I prefer Wacomenance.co.uk but the one at Vicintl.com is more streamlined and compatible. Keep in mind that while MOST programs should read all the fields in a VCARD, some will drop fields such as second and third email addresses.

    After creating a card the next step is to import it in to the preferred Contact Program.

    Microsoft Outlook:

    • Click on File menu, then choose Import And Export.
    • Click to select the Import a vCard file (*.vcf) check box, and then click Next.
    • Select the vCard file, and then click Open.

    Microsoft Entourage:

    • Open Entourage
    • Click on Address Button
    • Drag .VCF file to upper right hand window of Entourage

    Apple Address Book:

    • Simply Double Click on the .VCF Card

    Mozilla Thunderbird:

    • Attach VCard in Email to self
    • Click on VCard
    • Click OK in “New Card for” Dialog Box

    Keep in mind that VCards only really work well with one contact at a time. This is not the way to export or import a fully populated address book. Also, it’s best to be careful where the file goes as it could be used for malicious purposes. Only send the file out to people known to you.

    How To: Synchronize Blackberry and Zimbra on OS X

    How To: Synchronize Blackberry and Zimbra on OS X

    At first looks there is no obvious way to synchronize RIM’s Blackberry devices with the Zimbra mail client. Blackberry already has a huge following in the business world while Zimbra is starting to become extremely popular as an Exchange replacement.

    But, out of the box neither will talk to each other directly on OS X.

    This can be resolved, but it’s actually a two step process so it will take a little bit of extra work to be sure that data does not get out of date.

    Zimbra provides Apple iSync Connector which is currently bundled in the Network Edition Professional Server download, available in the trial version (signup required) or from the Admin Console in an already existing Zimbra install.

    Install the iSync Connector with the directions here.

    Once the connector is installed it’s a good idea to go ahead and do the initial synchronization. This will sync Calendar, Contacts, Notes, and the Address Book to the corresponding OS X Application. Email will of course not sync since the Blackberry can be setup as an email client and can receive the emails directly.

    After the initial synchronization between Zimbra and the desktop, it’s now possible to sync the desktop with the Blackberry.

    This is done with the PocketMac Application which is a free download for those who already have a Blackberry. It is not free for any other phone or PDA, although it does work with a wide variety of other systems.

    Install PocketMac, plug in the Blackberry, hit the sync button on the dock and watch it all happen like magic.

    Using this scenario it’s possible to get out of sync very easily though. I highly suggest getting in the habit of only making changes to one device ever, or doing this two step sync process immediately after adding or making changes.