10.7: Fix issues with startup items accessing encrypted disks
Aug 19, '11 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: pbeyersdorf
Aug 19, '11 07:30:00AM • Contributed by: pbeyersdorf
When logging in to an account on Lion the login items as well as any applications being resumed get launched right away; in my case, this happens before the system has had a chance to unlock the external encrypted disk that some of these programs need access to, resulting in various issues from unwanted dialog boxes to enter my passphrase to unlock the disk to the programs terminating. For the apps that are launched as a startup item at least there is a work around.
I'm running Lion on a machine with a small internal SSD drive for the OS and applications and a large external drive that holds data such as the iPhoto and iTunes libraries as well as my Dropbox folder. I chose to encrypt the external drive and have my keychain remember the password so that it is always available to me, however I've run into a real annoyance: When I first log in Dropbox is launched (it is a startup item) before the system has had a chance to unlock the external disk housing the dropbox folder. Dropbox.app can't find the dropbox folder and it asks if I want to quit or relink.
The solution was to use this hint to add a short delay before launching Dropbox or other applications that would try to access the encrypted disk.
Unfortunately this only helps with items launched as a Login Item. If anyone has thoughts on how to avoid a similar problem for applications being 'resumed' to their previously running state prior to the encrypted disk holding their data files being mounted please let me know in the comments -- I'm finding this happening a lot with iTunes and iPhoto which I often have running when I log out.
[crarko adds: The older hint (which was submitted for Tiger) uses a script which is run at login that acts as a proxy for staring up the other items. You can set the delay to whatever is required.]
I'm running Lion on a machine with a small internal SSD drive for the OS and applications and a large external drive that holds data such as the iPhoto and iTunes libraries as well as my Dropbox folder. I chose to encrypt the external drive and have my keychain remember the password so that it is always available to me, however I've run into a real annoyance: When I first log in Dropbox is launched (it is a startup item) before the system has had a chance to unlock the external disk housing the dropbox folder. Dropbox.app can't find the dropbox folder and it asks if I want to quit or relink.
The solution was to use this hint to add a short delay before launching Dropbox or other applications that would try to access the encrypted disk.
Unfortunately this only helps with items launched as a Login Item. If anyone has thoughts on how to avoid a similar problem for applications being 'resumed' to their previously running state prior to the encrypted disk holding their data files being mounted please let me know in the comments -- I'm finding this happening a lot with iTunes and iPhoto which I often have running when I log out.
[crarko adds: The older hint (which was submitted for Tiger) uses a script which is run at login that acts as a proxy for staring up the other items. You can set the delay to whatever is required.]
•
[8,252 views]
