Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with macosx

Mac: Mount ejected flash drive without reinserting

Slap*Happy — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:55:10 -0800

I have a nifty little USB thumbdrive that I want to use to make backups of various documents; it will live on the powered hub in my office, as I'll only need to use it in the office. It's something of a pain to unplug and re-insert every day, or every time I need to leave the desk with my laptop. After ejecting, the drive is no loger visible using diskutil on the command line, tho I can see it in the system profiler. Is there a way to have the system recognize the device and mount it whenever the Macbook wakes from sleep? I've got sleepwatcher installed, but I'm not certain how to get the system to recognize the USB device without unplugging it and plugging it back in. Shutting down and restarting the mac every time I want to leave my desk with it is not a viable option, either. I'm running 10.7.5 on a Core i7 15" MBP.

Why is my MBP running ML appending to the clipboard if I double cmd-C?

chazlarson — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:14:14 -0800

MacBook Pro Retina running Mountain Lion. In any application, if I hit cmd-C twice in rapid succession, I hear a click and the selection gets appended to the clipboard. For example, I have a BBEdit document that contains "some text".
I cmd-A, cmd-C, cmd-V and the document now contains "some text".
I cmd-A, cmd-C, cmd-C [click], cmd-V and the document now contains "some textsome text".

That double cmd-C is long ingrained in my muscle memory from the days that i was saving RAM by flushing the undo buffer by copying twice.

Before I go through the exercise of the binary search to ascertain the culprit, I thought I'd ask the hive in case anybody knew offhand what switch has been thrown.

Backup an image of a boot drive to a RAID 1 & perform restoration?

ihavearedcouch — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:17:57 -0800

I have a PCI-E SSD as my boot drive, and a win7-created RAID 1 on two 3TB drives. My boot drive has my user folder on it, but my documents, music, pictures, videos, etc folders shortcut to their respectable folders on the RAID. I would like this to be a full redundancy scheme and it is, but I've run into several nags and I would like to know how to fix them and prepare a fix-it plan before any of the drives fails. The PCI-E SSD is OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 240GB.

First the nags:
The backup is more than 240GB. I am thinking that Windows is including not only multiple versions of files but also backing up the target's shortcuts as well. This is stupid considering that the RAID 1 has already taken care of those folders. How do I make automatic periodic image backups of the boot drive only and without versions of the files? (I would still like restore points for the boot drive--but that still fits in the 240GB, right?)

Preparing for the worse:

-If my PCI-E SSD fails, I will have to temporarily resort to a mechanical drive until I replace the SSD. How do I quickly restore the boot image (stored on the RAID 1) to this mechanical drive? Lastly, once I've obtained the replacement PCI-E SSD, how do I restore the most recent boot image to that? I've heard it's super difficult. Any surefire methods and instructions?

-If one of my RAID 1 drives fail, how can I locate the bad drive, replace it and restore the mirror without putting the good drive in risk?

I am willing to spend money on software, but only if its “set it and forget it” and offers flawless restoration. Also, I because of limited case space, I rather avoid setting aside another drive or a separate partition for a perfect image copy of the boot drive.

Honestly, I feel that once these questions are answered, this HD setup is a very redundant and cheap way of keeping a hold on my life's data work and a functional computer. If anyone can offer answers to any of the questions here I will greatly appreciate it and I will give back to the community by spreading this method.

One example of this would be building computers for family and friends. I've heard too many stories of people's drives going bust, so this would make the computer I build for them very reliable. The only problem is I need to provide instructions in case something does go wrong.

Lastly, I question if there is a method to move a software raid to a hardware raid if in the future I happen to upgrade to a better motherboard that supports multiple raids (since the pci-e ssd is technically a raid as well). How would I do this?

Bonus question: Let’s say I was to install a “Hackintosh” on a separate SSD/HD. What would be the way to make the RAID visible and editable by Mac OS X? How would I do a boot drive image backup onto the RAID as well?

Many thanks.

Zombie Adobe Reader 9.5.3 Updater will not die!

mosk — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 10:54:14 -0800

Zombie Adobe Reader 9.5.3 Updater will not die! Please help me kill it with fire. (Max OSX 10.6.8) Unibody MacBook Pro w/Mac OSX 10.6.8.

I currently have Adobe Reader 10.1.5. I also have Adobe reader 9.5.3 -- don't want it but reinstalled in in an effort to solve this problem, but no joy...:(

Adobe Reader 9.5.x Updater continues to nag me that the update to Adobe Reader 9.5.3 is available. I've tried checking Reader 9.5.3 preference to not check for updates -- no avail. I've tried removing Adobe Reader 9.5.x completely -- no difference. I am sure there is a simple flag I need to toggle in a plist or preference file somewhere, but I don't know what that is, and my Google-fu is coming up short. Can someone hope me with a bullet proof approach to killing Adobe Reader 9.5.x update notifications for good? I'll happily edit a plist or delete a Preference. I. Just. Want. It. To. Stop. Nagging. Me!

By the way, actually running the 9.5.3 updater fails, and updating to 9.5.4 doesn't get me any further, either.

How to make Photoshop manage colors less stupidly on a Mac

migurski — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:28:26 -0800

I’m trying to get Adobe Photoshop CS3 on Snow Leopard to show me the colors I expect. I’m using it to do some basic color selection, which will ultimately be pasted into a Python script that generates data graphics for use on the web. Part of my workflow involves screen captures from a browser that get round-tripped through Photoshop and into code, so I need basic RGB hex values to stay consistent through the process. Photoshop is messing with me in two ways:

If I open up a new document or a screen capture, I get it in “sRGB IEC61966-2.1” color mode. Looks right in Photoshop, but when I save this out to a new PNG via Save For Web, the colors come out super saturated, juiced, and wrong-looking in a web browser.

If I open up a new document and turn off color management in Photoshop, then pasted screen captures look washed-out and desaturated. When I save these to a new PNG via Save For Web, the colors look correct and match the originals.

How can I keep the colors looking identical throughout the entire process?

How to connect a Mac OS X and a Windows XP machine, in order to have a PHP+MysqL application running on Windows but with browser and usage from Mac OS X?

lion — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 03:59:54 -0800

I want to connect from a Mac OS X machine to a Windows XP running XAMPP (Apache, MySQL, PHP), in order to use an application running on the Windows machine. At the same time, I want to have the Mac OS X allowing Internet browsing, while Windows should be isolated from the Internet. Can it be done in some way, or can you suggest a possible setup close to that purpose? I do not have access to a Mac OS X machine, so I need instructions about what to do when I'll have to try this kind of setup:
There will be:

- a Mac OS X machine;

- a Windows XP machine;

- XAMPP installed on Windows XP, with Apache and MySQL running;

- a PHP/MySQL application installed on the Windows machine, normally working from a web browser on Windows, from address http://localhost/whatever

What I want to achieve:

- the PHP/MySQL application still running on the Windows machine, but using it from Safari on the Mac OS X machine;

- Internet normally working on the Mac OS X environment;

- Windows environment isolated (or protected enough) from the Internet.

Is there a way to build this setup?

Your answers may include hardware and/or software required to buy (e.g. router, cables, etc.).

Thank you very much.

Firefox is possessed!

PeppahCat — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 11:15:06 -0800

Firefox keeps going back to previous page, but I'm not hitting the back button! Using Firefox 16.0.1 on Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion (both with latest updates installed). I'll be randomly browsing and for no apparent reason, Firefox will go back a page, but I haven't clicked or swiped anything to have it go back.
FWIW I have had this issue since the previous FF update. I've checked my track pad settings and they are all normal/nothing set to where it should go back a page. This happens when I'm scrolling, when I'm NOT scrolling, when I'm typing, basically just at random.
Basically the only solution I've come up with is to have each page open in a new tab of it's own so I don't have any pages to go back to on that particular tab. But that's getting to be a real hassle...

Virtual Windows Servers on Mac OS X

OneMonkeysUncle — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:26:04 -0800

I have a Summer 2011 Mac Mini Server, running Lion. It serves as a common network share for backups, iOS syncs, etc., and media storage for an Apple TV. In coming months, I need to study for some Microsoft SharePoint certifications, and I'd like to do it at home. There are popular solutions I am aware of for desktop virtualization, but is anyone aware of a virtualization solution that will allow me to run multiple instances of Microsoft Windows on the Mac Mini Server to represent two or more servers for SQL Server, Active Directory, etc. Note that it's important for my purposes that these appear to be separate "machines" on the network, not services running on the same machine. Thanks in advance for any suggestions or assistance.

No tengo sed?

dondiego87 — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:10:02 -0800

Trying to find-and-replace text within a file, using the Terminal on Mac OS X 10.7.4. Can't for the life of me get it to work. Please help. I'm doing this in the command line because it's part of a loop in a bash script, but I can't get this to work on even one file at a time. You can download an example file at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2225877/example_file.hdr. The extension is kinda weird but it's just a text file.

Here's the code I'm trying:
sed 's/BACKGROUND_FILL = ( 0 )/BACKGROUND_FILL = ( 200 253 )/' example_file.hdr

Here's the command-line output I get:

PROJECTION_TYPE = SINUSOIDAL

PROJECTION_PARAMETERS = (
6371007.181000000 0.000000000 0.000000000
0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000
0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000
0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000
0.000000000 0.000000000 0.000000000 )

# COORDINATE_ORIGIN = UL

# Corner point values refer to the outer extent of the pixel
UL_CORNER_LATLON = ( 9.999999999 177.223209877 )
UR_CORNER_LATLON = ( 9.999999999 -172.622524005 )
LL_CORNER_LATLON = ( 0.000000000 -179.999999984 )
LR_CORNER_LATLON = ( 0.000000000 -169.999999985 )

# UL_CORNER_XY = ( -20015109.353999998 1111950.519667000 )
# UR_CORNER_XY = ( -18903158.834332995 1111950.519667000 )
# LL_CORNER_XY = ( -20015109.353999998 0.000000000 )
# LR_CORNER_XY = ( -18903158.834332995 0.000000000 )

NBANDS = 1
BANDNAMES = ( Percent_Tree_Cover )
DATA_TYPE = ( UINT8 )
NLINES = ( 4800 )
NSAMPLES = ( 4800 )
PIXEL_SIZE = ( 231.656358263958 )
MIN_VALUE = ( 0 )
MAX_VALUE = ( 0 )
BACKGROUND_FILL = ( 200 253 )

DATUM = NODATUM

BYTE_ORDER = little_endian

Looks great! But when I look at the file, nothing has changed (the BACKGROUND_FILL line is as it was before) and the "file modified" date hasn't changed.

Please help me figure out what I'm doing wrong. Thanks in advance.

Having trouble restoring Mac OS X system software

Dr. Wu — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 05:37:20 -0800

Please help me restore Mac OS on my wife's MacBook! I am pulling my hair out. I've seen this question, which addresses a similar but not identical issue. The problems with this MacBook are a little more ... persnickety.

OK, so.
The hard drive on my wife's 5-ish-year-old MacBook crashed. We bought a new one, installed it, and the computer seems to recognize it. So far, so good.

I dug out the old "Mac OS X Install" discs that came with her computer - they are for 10.4.10. Old, but that's fine: I can update it later.

I can boot from the first of the two Install discs and run, seemingly successfully, the first stages of the system restore. But then, after the computer is done with the process on Disc One, it DOES NOT ask me to insert Disc Two, but, rather, restarts and reboots in COMMAND LINE MODE. I do not know why.

I have not entered any sort of computer code since I took a class in LOGO in fourth grade, so I am baffled. I did find the instructions for "use fsck," which I followed to the letter, but this did not help in any way. So I am stuck with a MacBook with a partially (?) installed, old system, that is running only in command-line mode.

OK, so, in the AskMe thread I linked above, the MeFi user kirilli suggests getting a-hold (ahem) of a more recent version of the system software. I have done this on my own computer, on which I now have a DMG file of that software.

The thing is that I can't install the newer system on my wife's computer FROM my computer, and here's why:

I read the instructions on how to install the new OS using DVD SHARING. But part of the instructions on how to do this is:

On the computer where you're installing Mac OS X, select the Remote Disc under Devices in a Finder window sidebar.

The trouble is that I cannot get my wife's computer into conventional GUI mode, so I cannot access the Finder, or any sidebars in any of its windows! In fact, the only way to start up her MacBook in anything other than command-line mode is to boot up from that 10.4.10 System Install disc, from which point my only option is to run the Installer ... which does not work.

Is there SOME way to get a Mac OS X (old or new) on this MacBook?
Why does it keep booting up in command line mode?
Can I set up her MacBook to "receive" DVD sharing?

Oh I am so confused.

Thank you for any advice.

Zip Causing Crashes

anaximander — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:31:33 -0800

[MacFilter] My MacBook Pro won't open large zip files. Details and other oddities below. My MacBook Pro (running Lion) starts acting strangely whenever I try to open large .zip files. At first I thought it was the particular program I was using, something called The Unarchiver, but it happens even with the built-in archive utility. Trying to open any large .zip file (over 50MB, let's say) will cause the Finder to lock up completely. It also wont' relaunch, which means I have to either log out or restart the computer.

I've noticed the following things about the problem:

-Running unzip on a large file from the Terminal causes the Terminal window to freeze, but doesn't take down the Finder. Running unzip on a small file works just fine.

-Every time I try to open a large .zip file, CPU usage (as reported by Activity Monitor) jumps to almost 100% and the computer's temperate starts to increase rapidly. The fan kicks in a few seconds later.

-The Finder is loading icons with unusual sluggishness. If I open a folder, it will often take a few seconds for the proper icons to appear. Until they do, I get the generic 'app' icon for applications and an empty grey box for files.

-The computer is running just fine in every other way.

Any help would be appreciated. I've been Googling this for days, and nobody seems to have had the same problem as me. The closest I've come is people reporting an issue with a version of Stuffit Expander, but I've never installed that.

Whoa, Backup!

Slap*Happy — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:44:25 -0800

In the year 2012, what is the best solution to back up 3 Macs, two running Lion, one an iBook running Leopard? Maybe 500gb, if that... tho one of the Lion boxes has an external drive. Is there anything to recommend Carbonite over Crashplan over Backblaze for a home-user? Other, newer options? Security and privacy would be paramount, cost secondary, and convenience a close third.

How can I get my iMac to wake up remotely?

jroybal — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 07:18:17 -0800

How do I get my iMac to wake on demand when it's asleep and asked to do so? These instructions from Apple are pretty straightforward on how to set it up for Bonjour, but I can't get it to work when it receives a request from Apple TV to wake up. It's an iMac running Lion with a Time Capsule set up as the Base Station. The iMac supports Wake on Demand over Wi-Fi and ethernet (it's connected over Wi-Fi). Time Capsule and Lion have the latest updates. I've found recommendations on Google but nothing has worked. Any troubleshooting pointers? (Bonus question: how can I get it to wake up from outside my network?) Thanks.

Thunderbolt, MiniDisplayPort, Target Display Mode = ????

Alterscape — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:58:28 -0800

I have a late 2010 Macbook Pro (MacbookPro6,3) running Lion (10.7.3) and an iMac of indeterminate vintage (iMac11,3) running Snow Leopard (10.6.8). I have a Thunderbolt cable. Neither mac supports Thunderbolt; both have MiniDisplayPort connectors. I want to run the iMac in Target Display Mode as a second display for the MacBook Pro. Can I make this happen? I know that the iMac supports Target Display Mode with a MiniDisplayPort <> MiniDisplayPort cable. The tech at my campus Apple store sold me a Thunderbolt cable (same connectors as MiniDisplayPort, but with active electronics, right?). Target Display Mode is not working -- I press cmd+F2 on the iMac and nothing happens. I can see several potential problems: 1) different OS versions interfering with target display mode. 2) thunderbolt cable is incapable of acting like a passive MiniDisplayPort cable.

Do I need to search out an old MiniDisplayPort cable to make it work, or is this doomed to fail because of the mismatched OSes?

How can I see on my main monitor what is being displayed on my secondary monitor?

orlandop — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 14:25:12 -0800

I have a secondary monitor on my iMac that is installed in a room 50 feet away from my main monitor. I need a way to see on my main screen, whatever is displayed on the secondary monitor. Using Mac OS X 10.7. Any ideas? I display some windows on the secondary monitor (imagine something like Address Book contacts), and I constantly move windows from my main monitor, to the secondary monitor, because the people in the other room need it to do their jobs. The problem is that to be able to move the windows back from the secondary monitor to the main monitor, I need a way to see where my mouse is in the secondary monitor.

Is there any software able to do this? I'm looking for something like the Picture-In-Picture in TV's, but my Google-Fu is failing me. Thanks!

Is it possible to prevent a user from exiting Front Row?

cirripede — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:04:14 -0800

In Mac OS X, is it possible to prevent the user from exiting Front Row? The visitor center I work in is setting up a Mac Mini/flatscreen TV combo to allow visitors to watch short videos about our organization in Apple's Front Row kiosk mode. Visitors will use an Apple Remote to scroll through the lists and play videos.

The problem is that visitors can also use the Apple Remote to exit Front Row entirely; this is something we need to prevent. How can we lock our users into Front Row so that they can't access the desktop or other programs? Is there a program, setting, or hack that does this?

Thanks for the help!

It was a dark and blocky night...

oulipian — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:48:55 -0800

I just installed Minecraft on my MacBook Pro, and it is working fine except that at night (in the game) it is pitch black. It is pretty much impossible to see anything but stars and sand. This obviously makes navigation hazardous. According to a friend who is familiar with the game, it is not supposed to be that dark. This is a 2011 MacBook Pro running Snow Leopard. I have tried adjusting the various video settings to no avail, and changing the laptop's brightness level does not help. Any ideas about how to fix this?

(Yes, I know how to build torches. That's not what I mean!)

ARG, I just want to refactor without using my mouse!

theRussian — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 07:58:03 -0800

How do I get my Eclipse keyboard shortcut back?! Arg. So I lost the ability to use the refactor-rename keyboard shortcut. I'm on a Mac, so it is (default) set to alt-command-R. Worked great forever, except now? When I try to use it, I just get the damned 'Registered' character instead. I've looked in the preferences and it is showing as mapped correctly, I restored defaults, and removed the binding to a conflicting shortcut, still get that damned R in a circle. Any ideas?

How do I clone my MacBook onto my Mac Mini?

ejfox — Tue, 24 May 2011 14:44:42 -0800

How do I replicate my MacBook onto my Mac Mini? (I have a time capsule backup for the MacBook) I am looking for whichever method is the easiest. I have an aluminum (not pro) MacBook and the newer Aluminum Mac Mini. I also have a time capsule which has up-to-date backups of the MacBook.

I'm looking for whatever way is the easiest/quickest. Thanks!

OSX / Little Snitch Internet problem!

zardoz — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 16:41:24 -0800

My iMac (running Snow Leopard) suddenly stopped connecting to the Internet, and I think--but can't prove--that Little Snitch is to blame! Yesterday I upgraded my OS X to Snow Leopard, and all went well. A few hours later I installed a few applications, including Little Snitch. Very shortly after that, my Internet connection went down. The other applications were games, so I don't think they're to blame. In the Network preferences, I confirm my ADSL line--password and login are the same, nothing has changed--but still no connection. The Network Diagnostics run me through the process of restarting my ADSL modem, which does nothing because the modem (almost certainly) isn't the problem.

AFAIK, Little Snitch just stops outgoing connections from the computer. So I created a rule that LS allow Firefox to connect with no restrictions; still no connection. So then I uninstalled Little Snitch entirely...and still no connection. So I'm confused. LS seemed to be the source of the problem, but now that it's gone, the problem persists.

Another thing I tried was to back up with Time Machine to a point a few days ago, before I even upgraded to Snow Leopard. But that didn't seem to work; there was a message (I forget what it said exactly) that wouldn't allow me to restore.

SO. I'll call my ISP and see what they say, but what else can I do? I'm a n00b when it comes to Terminal commands, but can someone point out what I can do there to find the problem? Get under the hood and all that.

Thanks for reading all this!

Tiger to Snow Leopard in ? Easy Steps

ocherdraco — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:51:00 -0800

I'm preparing to update my MacBook Pro's operating system from Tiger (10.4.11) to Snow Leopard (10.6.3). I've got the computer in front of me, and the installation disk's right here, too. What do I need to do other than just put the disk in and go? Do I need to back up my entire computer? Am I going to lose apps that I'll need to re-download? Give me (or point me to) step-by-step instructions for how to prepare before I make the change.

Looking for a Mac program (or some other way) that will monitor my MacBook's battery and turn off another program when the battery gets really low.

Ephilation — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:19:16 -0800

Looking for a Mac program (or some other way) that will monitor my MacBook's battery and turn off another program when the battery gets really low. I run certain programs on my computer at all times, and all I want is a program that I can run that will monitor the battery status of my computer, and turn off certain other programs if the battery gets too low. It would be nice if this program ran in the menu bar, and it would also be nice if I could set the battery percentage at which this program starts to kill these other programs. I've looked through Google, asked on MacRumors, etc., but I haven't been able to find anything thus far. Someone please tell me that you've got something that will help me.

Thanks!

Copying over a large DMG backup

antgly — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:26:57 -0800

What is the best way to copy files out of a 140 GB dmg file from an external USB drive that is a backup from a previous Mac? It seems to take way too long to copy the whole entire dmg. Trying to mount it has issues as the file is really big. All I want is to extract out a couple of folders from the dmg.

Is there anyway to deal with dmg files at a much more detailed level? Also there is a chance that the dmg file is corrupted, however doing a Disk Utility Verify Disk shows that the volume is OK.

So I'm not sure how to deal with this file as I'm not sure if it's worth waiting for the entire thing to copy (9 hours to copy) to know if I will be able to mount it once it's copied over. Is there a way I can deal with large dmg files in a much more efficient manner?

What's up with VLC?

dougrayrankin — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:13:16 -0800

What has happened to VLC on my MacBook Pro? All of a sudden my VLC will not raise/lower volume by using the scroll button on the mouse, will not pause/play by using the space bar and furthermore will not pause/play when I click the pause button in the controller. What on earth is up?

I've already deleted VLC from the apps folder, re-downloaded and installed and there's no change. I've rebooted and there's no change.

What happen?

How do I use awk inside my Automator workflow?

maniabug — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 10:51:03 -0800

The Mac OS X Automator tool lets me run a perl script as well shell scripts, but I'd like to use awk instead. How can I fit this into my workflow? Perl appears in the popup menu of possible shells for the script, but awk does not. I have a number of service-type Automator workflows that transform text. My public has text files that need doctoring, and I give them a nice OSX service so they can just right-click on the offending file to fix it.

In the Run Shell Script region of the workflow, I have been setting the shell to /usr/bin/perl and "Pass input: as arguments". The script text itself starts with the shebang #!/usr/bin/perl, then I go to town. (Yes, learning python is on my to-do list :-)

I'd like to start using awk for some of these, but it doesn't show up as an available shell. Is there a way I can add to Automator's list of "shells"?

If I have to run bash and pass the input to awk, what's the proper way to do it? I can't seem to get that approach to work. I'm sure I'm just being dense, but Automator's generic error is not helping.

Thanks for your help!