Everybody Staze…

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.

Since January of this year, I’ve been actively seeing AppleFileServer crash regularly on a server at work. This server is our primary student account server, which at any given time has about 40-80 students logged in (network home directories).

Many days, AFP crashes several times. Every time, it’s the same error: kern_protection_failure. The thread that crashes is always talking about ByteRangeLockTreeKey. The only good thing about this problem, is seemingly AFP comes back up, and people’s computers reconnect (go autofs!). But this is a very poor consolation prize since for some people, this does cause a problem (anyone with Mail open usually gets an error about not being able to access their inbox, and do they want to rebuild, or quit, and some others occasionally get Final Cut project file corruption (this is rare, and only seems to impact those that have their autosave vault set to their home directory, and not the local HD)).

So, Apple was notified about this, officially, on Jan 22nd, 2009. Ticket number 6517425. After getting back to me and asking for some follow up info, they proceeded to roll the ticket into another one (6237420). This ticket, apparently, was not related, and after telling our Sales Engineer about this, he had them un-merge the tickets. Apple then rolled my bug into another ticket, 5859645. An even older ticket! From what I’ve gathered, this ticket may be related to some lower level issue than AFP… either filesystem level (perhaps ACLs?!?, or even general I/O level).

All the while, I am in contact with someone in Minnesota who is having my same issue, and has also opened tickets (and has the luxury of having AppleCare for 10.5 server (the high end AppleCare to boot). He had two open case numbers with them. He even had a regional service engineer come by and take a look at this system, which he said was set up correctly, and there’s nothing more they could do to help alleviate the problem until a patch was available.

So, also during this time, someone from London contacts me and says he’s having the same issue as well, and has a Developer account (pay for), so he tries a beta of 10.5.7. It does not fix the issue. Around this time, I downgrade to 10.5.4 hoping the issue will be lessened (long story short, it isn’t). But, a few weeks later, the gent from London says he’s fixed his problem by removing the “deny all” acl from all his share points and folders within share points. The “deny all” acl was added around 10.5.4 or so to mitigate something… no one’s sure what. Anyway, he then tells Apple about this “fix” and they reply that it’s an “unacceptable workaround” and that they’re working on a fix. This was April 9th he did this.

Well, so, 10.5.7 dropped last Tuesday (May 12th, 2009). I installed it on the server experiencing the issue Friday night, at about 2am. I didn’t have a single crash until Sunday, May 17th, 2009, at 5:52pm. Same exact error.

So, not only was Apple notified AT LEAST 110 days prior to 10.5.7 shipping, but they were notified of an actual “fix” about 33 days before hand. I really wish Apple’s bug database was public, so that I could post links to my bugs, but, alas it is not.

However, here are a few threads on the issue:

http://www.afp548.com/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=23311
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1975848
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8857952

At this point, I’m going to start actively poking buttons and prodding people until I get an answer. The last email I sent to devbugs@apple.com resulted in the “pat”, “There is no new information at this time”. What a load of horse crap. They know of at least one “option”… the least they could do would be to educate someone having this issue about that “fix” and it’s repercussions. Given the amount of time that 10.5.7 took to hit the street, and how far in advance I notified them about this bug, I have very little hope this will get fixed before 10.6. If we’re lucky, we’ll see the fix back ported, but I doubt it.

To cap this all off, the main reason I’m posting this is for posterity, as well as the hope that anyone else that has this bug can actually see they’re not alone! And that they can contact Apple and say “hey, I have some bug numbers here of others having this issue”. If you are having this issue, please, don’t hesitate to contact me and I’ll work to get you in contact with others having this issue, or with someone at Apple that will actually listen.

UPDATE 1: Today I got a call from the local Education SE, who has created an escalation of this issue. Assuming it gets signed off by his boss, I should be hearing from Apple Engineering in the next few days… which is good since AFP crashed 5 times today. I have decided, in the interim, to remove the “group:everyone deny delete” ACL from many of the home folders on the server. Hopefully this will ease the problem. We’ll have to see. And I’ll post more once I hear from Engineering.