Everybody Staze…

A week back, I tried to convert my local account to a Portable Home Directory that synced to the server. The experiment was partially successful, but partially not. So, I reverted back. This process basically meant that I had to delete my local account, and create a new one. This is the key piece to my problem that I’ll get to in a bit.

So basically, once I’d reverted, most things worked. I had some oddities with keychains that I fixed by randomly trying things until it worked. The weirder issue was with iCal.

In iCal, I could add events, and move events, but I couldn’t delete ANYTHING. I’d delete an account from iCal (like my google calendar account), it would go away for about 10 seconds, then come back. If I tried to move an event, it would show up in the new place, but the place where it used to be would still be there (so basically, it would duplicate). I’d delete the duplicate, it would go away for a few moments, then come back. I couldn’t figure it out.

Read more…

So, I recently got accepted into a beta program for a popular game. The problem is, there’s no Mac version of the beta yet. So, I had to get a windows machine up and going. All the PCs in my home, and at work, aren’t really capable of playing modern games. So, I had to get bootcamp working on my laptop (which is still fairly old, but at least is a C2D Macbook Pro (2006)).

So, I started with just trying to run bootcamp assistant. It failed saying “cannot move files”. Great. So, looking online, I found that it can be caused by insufficient space on the HD. So, I removed some data from my laptop. Ran the assistant again, and got the same result. Moving on, I tried using the work copy of iDefrag. I did both the “compact” option, and the “full optimize” option. After both, the result of the bootcamp assistant was the same: “unable to move files”.

So finally, after spending probably 16 hours on this problem, I “Target Disk Mode” booted my MBP, and hooked it up to my Mini Server, and ran Carbon Copy Cloner to backup my MBP to a disk image. Then, repartitioned the drive on the MBP as 1 partition, HFS+ Journaled. Then, ran CCC and restored the disk image back to the MBP HD. (Total time for backup, then restore, about 2 hours for 50GB (about 1 hour for each direction). I then booted the MBP back up, and ran the Bootcamp assistant. It worked!

So, while iDefrag SHOULD have been enough to move everything up to the start of the disk, it didn’t seem to be enough. CCC does file level copies, so wiping the drive, then restoring it, basically moved everything to the start of the drive, and all non-fragmented. Who knows, maybe the bootcamp assistant just looks at the age of the partition and decides to fail based upon it’s age. *shrugs*

Anyway, I installed XP SP3 since I couldn’t get Win 7 64-bit to install. I’m going to give it another shot when I have some time, given this link that seems to address the issue I saw when I tried booting from the Win 7 DVD.

So, all told, 18-20 hours (with some sleep in there) to install XP to play one game that’ll probably have a Mac version of the beta out in a couple weeks. But, it was worth it after playing 3 hours tonight, and probably playing more tomorrow.

All that said, Apple really should allow running the Bootcamp assistant from another machine while the “target” is in TDM. Or, run it from single user mode. The former should allow everything to be moved, and the latter should allow moving of just about everything but the kernel. *shrugs* Bit annoying. But, it’s really a “corner case” for those of us that want/need to install windows after the initial computer setup. The CCC route seems like the most easy, fast, and logical option. If only I’d thought of it to begin with.

UPDATE: Did have a weird issue where the AppleTV was rebooting randomly. Restoring to factory defaults again (after the 3.0.1 update), then re-updating to 3.0.1 seems to have fixed it. Will know more after the weekend.

My boss, about a year ago or more, had his HD crap out on his Apple TV. So, being ingenious, he brought it to me and I proceeded to get it back working by finding a DMG online of the boot partition that allowed it to work again. Problem was, he couldn’t run software updates on it. It would see the update, but wouldn’t let him install it. Was quite odd.

So, fast forward to today, when he finally brought it back in, and I started looking around online. Turns out, you need the recovery partition to be intact for updates to work. Not sure why, but you do.

So, after looking all around online, I did find a source for a full image of a working 2.0.2 Apple TV. If you’re familiar with torrents (and more specifically, the former major torrent site that is still around, but who knows for how long…), you can look for something called “smallatv.rar”.

So, once you have that, take a new drive (or one you’ve removed all the partitions from (you can do this via disk utility by selecting 1 partition, and then for type, select “free space”.), and do the following from terminal.

diskutil list

With that, find the drive you’re restoring. In my case, it was “disk6″.

Then:

dd if=/location/of/smallatv.dmg of=/dev/disk6 bs=1024k

That’ll take a bit, but you should now have an AppleTV drive. Problem is, the media partition is only 35GB. If you only had a 60GB drive, then you’re good. If you had bigger than that, then read on.

Now, go get a copy of AtvCloner from here: http://dynaflashtech.net/atvcloner/

Load that up, and in the first tab, point it at /dev/disk6 and hit “image source partitions”. This will take a bit, but you should end up with 3 dmg’s. An efi.dmg, a boot.dmg, and a recovery.dmg. Once you have those, quit AtvCloner, and go back into diskutil and “re-empty” the drive.

Okay, so now, go back into AtvCloner, and go to the second tab. In this tab, point it at the 3 dmg’s you just created, and if the drive is bigger than 500GB, then check the appropriate box. Then hit “Prepare New Drive”. This will take a bit, but once you’re done, you will have a functional, and full sized AppleTV drive. Drop that into your AppleTV, and boot it up.

One thing I did notice was that the downloaded image isn’t stock. It has some hack in it, since you see a Linux logo when booting. But, once you’re booted, you can go to “Update Software”, and it’ll download the latest AppleTV OS (in my case, 3.0.1), and update itself, which removes whatever hack was there.

Good luck! I really wish Apple made some stuff easier.

Last night, a friend and I “hackintosh’d” his Dell Mini 9.

• Initial Guide we used: http://gizmodo.com/5156903/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-9-into-the-ultimate-os-x-netbook (make sure to read the whole thing, including comments, there’s a bit there about the boot code if you’re using USB, it needs to be 81 and not 80).
• Here’s the guide we should have had (and found after): http://dellefi.mechdrew.com/guide/oldguide.shtml

So, friend bought a refurb Dell Mini 9 with an 8gig SSD. Sweet little machine. He’s a MCSA, so generally he’s a big Windows guy, but not blindly so. I think he mainly gravitates toward it because he knows Windows, and AD/Exchange, which is how he makes his money (he’s the AD Admin for the University).

So, hackintoshing this Dell was the goal behind him buying it. Since we didn’t have a giant USB thumb drive (8gig), or have a retail leopard disk (mine was lost long ago), I used an external USB drive, and partitioned it into two drives. One for TYPE11, and the other for the install media (which is just a dmg called “live.dmg”). You have to run syslinux to make the TYPE11 partition bootable, but that’s covered in the guide.

The main problem we encountered was, 8gig is not big enough for a 10.5.4 or 10.5.6 install. The former is over by 32meg, and the latter by 64meg. That’s with unchecking everything unnecessary. For some reason, the formatted drive is 7.2gig, the OS sees that as 6.8gig, and the installer seems to reserve 1gig for the install/swap. So, we had to hack the installer to not install some things. You’ll need xam to do that, and the file to hack is the “distribution” file that’s located in the OSInstall.mpkg, in /System/Installation/ on the Install DVD. You’ll need to make a r/w disk image in order to hack it.

First time around, we disabled installing AsianLanguages, AdditionalVoices, and iTunes. Install worked with 900meg available, but the setup after reboot never loads. Turns out, you MUST install AsianLanguages. *sigh* So, hack again, reenable that, and reinstall. 600meg available on top of install. Setup ran, and everything worked. Actually, the Mini runs great! Other than the screen being kinda vertically challenged, and the keyboard being a bit small, the speed is great (boots like a shot). SSD probably has a good deal to do with that. And, you can’t argue with the size. I checked, and it JUST fits inside my slotbar. Wish I could afford one. Maybe the rumors will turn out to be true, and Apple will release something early next year, though if it requires cell phone service with Verizon, then it’s not really an option. If that turns out to be the case, I’ll probably just buy something with my tax return next year. =)

So, after my last post, I figured I’d give an update on that issue as well as other projects for the coming weekend.

As to my last post, there’s cautiously good news. My Apple SE escalated the case to AppleCare Enterprise, who have been very good about gathering the needed data, and keeping me updated as to the status of the issue. So, this last Tuesday, after a weekend of running with 10.5.7 and having a really crappy day Tuesday of trying to make things work, I decided I would downgrade back to 10.5.4. Well, after 3 hours of wiping the two servers, and installing 10.5.4 and things looking good, the next day we still had issues. Better, but not by much. So, I heard from AppleCare Enterprise that day (Wednesday, which I took off), and I got him the info he needed that night, and Thursday. Today, seemingly, Engineering thinks they have a fix. Bad news is, it might not make it into 10.5 but rather 10.6. But, they’re going to try. So, goodish news on that front.

Also for the past week (since 10.5.7), we’ve been having issues with a program called KeyAccess. Basically, this program allows us to “key” an application, and install it on all the computers in the building, then a server piece basically keeps track of how many instances of the programs are running, and keeps that inline with how many licenses we own. It’s the best thing since sliced bread. Job would be extra impossible without it. So, 10.5.7 comes out, I install it in 4 labs, and things seem to work. Only, I only tested on Intel Macs. On the PPCs, KeyAccess doesn’t launch on the client, and therefore applications won’t run. So, I email the company that makes the software (Sassafras Software, Inc), and tell them what’s up, and we think we have a fix, until the next day, when it’s still happening. At that point, I email back, and they say they’ve also had word from another location having the same issue. So, at home I email back and forth with one of their people who is 3 hours ahead of me about the issue. I send some logs, and some ls output, and he basically says they’ll try to work on it in-house the next day. So, next day, I’m working with them, and they get some more info, and finally get the issue reproducible in house. Today, they send me a new build that seems to work. Say it’s a timing issue (not sure quite what they mean by that, whether it’s coming up before networking, or whether it’s not syncing with the server)… so, 2 days, bug fix. Gotta really love small companies (I’m guessing they have probably 12-15 people, at most).

On the home front, we planted a medium sized Daphne ordora ‘Marginata’, which is a “typical” winter daphne, in the space formerly occupied by the very unhealthy Rhododendron (which, I placed in a pot, and is doing much better now). Hopefully we’ll have some nice, knock you on your ass, daphne to smell come next February.

Blueberries are doing about the same, though they seem far less impacted by the warmer weather we’ve been having recently than they have in the past. Be that the mulch, or the older plants, I can’t say. But they seem VERY happy.

This weekend is probably really going to be a fair amount of cleaning the garage, yard work, and various household tasks. I’m going to weatherstrip the front door, maybe trim the door so it’ll clear a rug, which also means changing the threshold. I don’t think I’ll be doing the PRV, but I might try to at least dig the old one out so I can tackle it next week.

Oh, btw, I got some new pedals for my bike. They’re Nashbar (http://www.nashbar.com/) Highlander Pedals, which are rebranded Wellgo WAM-D10′s (Review: here). They’ve got a nice big platform for normal shoe riding (with great spikes to bite into your shoes) on one side, and MTB clipless on the other. So far, I’m very happy. Previously I was using the stock Shimano clipless pedals with plastic clipless platforms, which sucked. Now if I could just get my saddle to not kill me. Oh, and btw, the Nashbar version was $30. The Wellgo ones are $50.

BTW, my bike is a 2001 Bianchi Volpe. I’ve replaced the Saddle with a more comfortable one, the pedals (now), and the tires with some 28 x 700 Gatorskins (hard, but smooth and nearly puncture proof).

That’s all for now… maybe I’ll post more this weekend.