Mac Hacking

Launching at Login

Tue, 22 Jun 2004 16:11:48 +0100

If you ever have a problem with items autolaunching at login and cannot disable them, the following information might help.

The following files are parsed when the system has finished booting and is autologging in or displaying the login screen.

All Users
/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist Current User
~/Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist

Property List Editor (from the developers tools) should be able to edit this in a GUI format, however an example of this file is listed below:

Remove the offending autolaunched application and enjoy faster, trouble free startups...





	AutoLaunchedApplicationDictionary
	
		
			Hide
			
			Path
			/Applications/ScanWizard 5 Folder/Microtek Scanner Finder.app

Create Package from Command Line

Wed, 25 Jun 2003 08:24:42 +0100

I've had a few emails asking how to create OS X packages via the command line. A solution to this question is outlined here: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030619213002144

not mac specific but works in safari

Tue, 13 May 2003 20:01:27 +0100

Sometimes I surf to pages that are simply unreadable, usually on geocities or angelfire. I'd long seen bookmarklets that would allow you to set individually background colour and foreground text colour, however there were few that allowed you to overide a background image, at least few that worked in safari. So I threw a few different scripts together to produce a bookmarklet I dub: Sane Page. This resets a page to black text on white background and it's only been tested in Safari. It only works with old skool HTML that doesn't use style sheets. generally because those who have enough nouse to work out style sheets generally pick colour schemes that don't suck. Enjoy.

despite the name; it's anything but bodgy

Sat, 10 May 2003 11:41:12 +0100

A while back I mentioned a way to slipstream all the Apple updates into the install CD, the details were for 10.1 but the same instructions apply for 10.2 despite the move to 2 CDs. You simply need to add the new packages to CD2 and edit the mpkg contents list on CD1 Also, I have been using the same strategy without burning a CD. Instead i've constructed a mpkg containing all the apple updates since 10.2 came out, including things like iTunes4 and iMovie 3.02. Of course the InstallationCheck and VolumeCheck scripts need to be disabled for each component pkg as described in the previous hint. This has the advantage of reducing the repetitive optimisations and restarts. Some are probably asking: but Apple puts out combo updaters now, why not use them? My answer: sure, tack the latest Combo updater at the end of the mpkg install list and you will be assured of a more stable update. There is plenty of initial research which indicate that the combo updaters change more files than sequentially applying the incremental updaters. I suspect some of these changed files are due to small interim security updates being rolled into the combo updater.

Hold on... that doesn't look like a mac

Sat, 10 May 2003 11:34:26 +0100

This blog has gone pretty quiet recently, despite the fact there is plenty more to say. Also, this blog is not limited to discussing Mac S/W hacks. The following hardware related news has caught my interest recently. Core Box Core Crib The intent of these projects is to sell Apple Macs that are built from spare parts and assembled in non apple cases. This seems to work out cheaper than Apple's retail and is the closest I've yet seen to a legit mac clone solution in years.

Smarter Disk Images

Sat, 08 Mar 2003 23:20:57 +0100

As of 10.2.3, it's possible to have disk images that will mount and auto copy their contents to their parent directory then unmount and move the .dmg to the trash. This was demonstrated by Safari public betas. This is done via a special flag which is set after the disk image is mastered. I wonder how this would work for dmg files mounted from a CD-ROM. Would this be a simple/smart way to do installs? It definitely eliminates the need for stuffit expander, particularly in conjunction with the ZLIB compressed disk image format that is supported post 10.1

Fix Toast disk image mounting under 10.2.x

Fri, 20 Sep 2002 16:25:32 +0100

Although the much enhanced Disk Copy under OS X offers great support for various disk image formats, it is limited to supporting data disk images. Toast also can support making disk images of other CD types - especially Audio CDs Toast makes use of a kernel extension to handle a lot of it's disk image magic, particularly the mounting of disk images as virtual disks on the desktop. Under 10.2.x, Apple made changes to the kernel extension system to make it more secure and stable. Previously kernel extensions could be owned by any user, however as they run at such a low level in the OS hierarchy, this created a security loophole whereas an untrusted kernel extension could be installed and run with non admin rights. These changes however have broken Toast's disk image handling kernel extension which is hidden inside the Toast application package so that it will no longer mount disk images. The following procedure outlines how to fix this.

Command line CD-R mastering

Fri, 20 Sep 2002 15:06:41 +0100

cdrtools is an open source cd mastering and burning framework which is available for most Unix OS and also for windows. Because of it's cross platform base and it's non consumer focus, there is no other tools that has the premastering capabilities that it posseses. As a result of this, many X11 based frontends have bene built to harness it's power and it forms the heart of some excellent solutions including the windows based bcd tool made by Bart Lagerweij . cdrtools is however a bit fiddly to get working on OS X.2. The following instructions simplify this

How to mount all types of CD/Disk images more easily

Mon, 17 Jun 2002 18:41:00 +0100

This is a modified version of a script that I originally saw on macosxhints Mainly, this version allows the mounting of audio disk images in the Sd2f format used by Toast. This requires that Toast 5.1.x be installed on the drive, although Toast itself is not launched to mount the image. My modifications also add support for additional suffixes and some support for OS9 files which lack a suffix (instead scan for file type) There are additional versions floating around which offer greater functionality, including the ability to handle weird characters (which mine does not). At some point it might be a good idea to merge the superior file handling with this code. Hopefully by then this will all be integrated into Panther. To use, paste the code into script editor, save as an app or compiled script and then use in any way an applescript can be used within OS X, my personal favourite is to use BigCat (a Contextual Menu that hosts scripts)

Inside the Mac OS X .pkg format

Fri, 08 Mar 2002 23:32:00 +0100

In relation to my recent article on rolling your own Mac OS X CD, it seems that for those who are interested, an overview of the Mac OS X .pkg format might be useful The information I present here is mostly based on reverse engineering. As a result, there are probably huge gaping holes in the information I outline. If anyone has corrections and additional information, then please advise me. I have discovered Apple does provide some information on packages, but they don't detail some of the files commonly found only in Apple packages. Most third party developers are recommended to not use the package format, unless the facilities it offers are necessary. Instead the drag and drop application bundle from a mounted disk image is the recommended install option.

To update to X or not?

Wed, 06 Mar 2002 04:37:00 +0100

Our shiny new operating system has been around for a while now. Even to the most die-hard it has become obvious that Mac OS X is here and here to stay. So the big question is not IF one should update, but WHEN.

Roll your own OS X Install CD

Fri, 01 Mar 2002 00:01:00 +0100

Overview

Those of you who fix/setup/install OS X Macs know what a nightmare it currently is to get to the latest OS X revision, especially if rebuilding a machine from scratch.

Not everyone has broadband access making Software Update less useful, and regardless, you end up spending hours staring at the "optimizing" stage over and over again.

However if you have a CD Burner, legal copy of Mac OS X 10.1 and don't mind losing a few languages, it is possible to compile a CD which will bring you straight to 10.1.3 inclusive of all the appropriate updates.

Citrix Java ICA Client & OS X

Sun, 23 Dec 2001 01:25:00 +0100

Being a cross-platform person, I spend a lot of time on the dark side ie. Windows Although I have extensively used Virtual PC, nothing beats having a real honest to goodness i386 architecture to run Windows. But you don't want two keyboards, mice, monitors etc. And more than one person should be able to utilise the x86 box at the same time. For a long time Citrix have been offering products which satisfy these requirements. I make extensive use of this at work and have been involved in building Citrix servers (which is an odd, patience testing task) However, Citrix don't have a huge commitment to the Mac, their Mac client was actually deveopled by Insignia (they also developed the only competition Virtual PC ever had SoftWindows) Almost a year after the release of OS X, there is no sign of an OS X native Citrix client, so until today, my only way of running Citrix was via Classic, which was frustrating. But, I noticed that Citrix have recently released an update to their Java ICA client. This client has always been unfriendly to the mac, but mostly worked (albeit slowly as all java did under OS 9). However I have had two issues with the java client under OS X

Program Neighborhood would crash on launch - that's a biggie as it's half of the client solution
Keyboard input was ignored, another major show stopper

Well, the latest ICA Java version (v6.20.1205 - 11/12/01) finally fixes the program neighborhood issue and as a result finally gives me a fix for the second issue via the newly accessible program neighborhood I am now in ICA heaven (or as close as I can be until a truly native ICA client is released). This of course begs the question, is Java a truly native application environment for OS X? Anyway, thanks MRJAppBuilder I now have double clickable applications for the two modes of Citrix ICA Client operation and more importantly, now that Program Neighborhood works, I can set my keyboard type which allows Citrix to recognise my text input To read how to set this up for yourself, click for

An OS X utility CD

Mon, 03 Dec 2001 23:01:00 +0100

I've been experimenting with this recently. Currently I have a utility CD, booting OS 9.2.1 and chock full of goodies for fixing almost any mac problem. I also have similar for x86 machines but am sorely limited by a reliance on DOS and the plethora of network/scsi drivers required for widespread support. With my own Mac constantly running OS X these days, it makes some degree of sense to start thinking of bootable OS X CDs and the ability to repair/optimize/hack from a CD boot. The default OS X install/upgrade CDs are bootable, but will only launch installer.app. This can be changed by editing /etc/rc.cdrom on the CD prior to burning. However most apps expect to be able to save their preferences and make unnecessary assumptions about write-access. I have managed to modify a 10.1 CD to launch Terminal rather than Installer, however Terminal fails as it is opening a window. It is either looking for a file which does not exist on the CD or is expecting to have write access. These problems have been resolved on other operating systems with the usage of a RAM disk. Is this an appropriate path to follow? Closer inspection of the rc.xxxx scripts is required and any suggestions are welcomed.

Re-Registering Office X

Sun, 25 Nov 2001 14:40:00 +0100

So you excitedly got your hands on a copy of Office X and in your haste to see this app in all it's Aqua glory, you made a typo on the registration. Although one could potentially re-install the entire suite, a more mac-hack friendly solution is presented below.

Use a utility like file buddy to make the file "OfficePID" visible. This is usually located in /Applications/Office v.X/Office/OfficePID
Move this file to the trash.
For each user who has run office, remove the following preference files: Carbon Registration Database Office Registration Cache X Microsoft Office Settings (10) These are all located in $HOME\Library\Preferences\Microsoft
Re-launch any of the Office v.X apps and you will prompted to re-register them. Make sure you have your serial number handy at this point.