macosxhints.com install tips

Install recent versions of Adobe Creative Suite on case-sensitive volumes

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:30:00 -0800

Anyone who has ever tried to install parts of Adobe Creative Suite on a case-sensitive partition will know that Adobe doesn't support case-sensitive disks. Back when I first encountered this problem, I simply assumed that case sensitivity was a new thing and Adobe would fix this in a version or two, since it's a relatively trivial thing to do.

Unfortunately, Adobe's solution to this was to simply make it so the installer refuses to install on case-sensitive partitions. It also insists that you install on your boot partition. So if you happen to have formatted your primary partition as case sensitive, you're basically out of luck.

I spent some time coming up with a solution that uses gdb (the gnu debugger) to trick the installer into thinking that your disks are case insensitive so it will let you install the software. The next step would then be to go through and rename all the files th ...

A script to keep Flash Player up to date

Wed, 04 May 2011 07:30:00 -0700

Frequent security updates to Flash prompted me to write this script to keep Flash current on Intel Macs that I manage. While more recent versions of Flash can be configured to notify end users of available updates, this script will silently check and upgrade to a newer version if one is available.

It works by checking the installed version of Flash (if any) against the version number available for Mac Safari/Firefox/Opera on Adobe's About Flash page. If the two are different, it downloads the DMG of the latest Flash installer to the same folder where the script resides, silently mounts the DMG, and executes the installer package buried in the 'Install Flash' application. It runs completely silently and will log all of its activities to a file for later review. If Flash is not present, it will be installed on the system. In its current form it will not advise users to quit their browsers, because it was written to be run during off hours on machines sitting at the login win ...

10.6: A workaround for a Boot Camp x64 installation issue

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 07:30:00 -0700

Today I installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 via Boot Camp on my 2007 MacBook Pro 2.4GHz machine. I was stumped when I couldn�t install the Boot Camp drivers from the 10.6 DVD in Windows.

I tried several different approaches, but every single try ended with the message Boot Camp x64 is unsupported on this computer model when launching the Boot Camp setup app. I could also not install the 3.1 update. The only visual indication was Nvidia drivers installing, and afterwards, it would simply quit while all the time there was no reference that I was actually about to install Boot Camp.

Knowing that I didn�t do anything wrong, I didn�t want to give up and finally found a solution. Here's a step by step guide:

Boot into Windows 7 and insert your 10.6 DVD
Right-click on Start » Programs » Accessories » Comma ...

Install Windows in Boot Camp despite a defective SuperDrive

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:30:00 -0800

My 2007 DC MacBook (running 10.6.2) has an internal SuperDrive that is defective, which hampered my Boot Camp installation. 2br I set up the MacBook up for dual boot with the Boot Camp assistant, and I wanted to install Windows using a bare internal drive (Samsung) connected to USB thru a USB2.0 to SATA/IDE cable. The process failed after restart -- it stuck on the boot screen, displaying an Apple icon with (sometimes) a flashing question mark.

Looking for a solution I came a across rEfit, which is a kind of boot manager for EFI-equipped (Intel) Macs.

Install the program and restart the MacBook twice. After the second restart, the rEfit boot menu should be visible. When I connected an external CD/DVD drive that contained a bootable Windows CD, that disk showed up as bootable. You selected the Windows installation disk and it continued with the installation process.

For me it saved the day; I was able to insta ...

Run full OS X installer for another drive without rebooting

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:30:00 -0800

If you ever need to install (or reinstall) OS X on a drive other than your current boot drive, you can do it without rebooting. (Normally, when you launch the OS X installer, it reboots your machine before starting the installation.) With this hint, you can do the whole install process while booted normally from your current drive -- so you can keep working while the install is going on.

To do that, just launch the Unix executable for the installer application on the DVD, by running the following command in Terminal:

sudo /Volumes/Snow\ leopard\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/CDIS/Mac\ OS\ X\ Installer.app/Contents/MacOS/Mac\ OS\ X\ Installer

To make it work even faster, you can clone the install DVD to a small partition on one of your ...

Uninstall applications installed from packages

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:30:00 -0800

If you've installed an application from a .pkg-type installer, Mac OS X keeps a listing of what was installed in the Library/Receipts folder -- either the top-level Library, or your user's Library. The lsbom command can be used to see this list, and to uninstall the application.

First, find the receipt. It will be in either ~/Library/Receipts or /Library/Receipts, as the name of the package. The actual bom ("bill of materials") file is located at, for example,

/Library/Receipts/some_app.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom

Use the lsbom command to see what was installed: lsbom -fls /Library/Receipts/some_app.pkg/Contents/Archive.bom You can use this list to manually delete the items installed, or you can feed the list to rm to delete the installed files. Be sure to examine the list of files before trying to remove them -- this command will only work if the paths are relative to the root directory ("/"), ...

Find files created or modified by an installer

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:30:00 -0800

Do you like to know which files and folders get created or modified when you install a new application? I can suggest two different solutions: Either use a tool to track all file system changes, or use a tool that searches the disk by creation/modification dates.

[robg adds: This hint includes information about using a free program, Find Any File, as one way to track file system changes. The author of this hint (Thomas Tempelmann) is the author of that application. However, because there's good information here in the hint, and because the app itself is free and seems to work well, I felt it was worth sharing. Read on for the discussion...] Logging tools

First the "pro" method: Use a file system logging tool to trace all file operations during a period of time. The problem with these tools, though, is that you might see much more information than you want. Sorting out what's relevant may need some exp ...

One fix installations stuck at 'Preparing...'

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:30:00 -0800

Since moving to Snow Leopard, I've noticed an innumerable number of times where software installations would get stalled at the "Preparing..." stage. If you've noticed it too, chances are you're an iPhone developer, too...

It turns out the simple fix for this problem is to quit the iPhone Simulator, and then try the installation again.

Fix Boot Camp Assistant's 'too many large files' problem

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:30:00 -0800

If you've been using your Mac for months before deciding you need a Boot Camp partition, you may find it's too late. When you run the Boot Camp Assistant, it may tell you that you have too many 'large files' on the system for Boot Camp to create a partition.

One solution found on the interwebs is to use iDefrag to defrag your computer. I am not a fan of this, as I am on a budget :). As an alternative, try these steps:

Open up Disk Utility.
Navigate to the Partitions tab.
Shrink your primary partition by the amount of space you want your Boot Camp partition to take up. NOTE: You may need to do this in two or three tries, as Disk Utility may throw an error if you try to resize by too large an amount. I had to do it in three small increments.
Now that the partition has shrunk, expand the partition so it covers the rest of the disk, or as much space as you would like.
Run Boo ...

Install Windows98 in VirtualPC 7 on an OS X 10.5 PowerPC

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:30:00 -0800

I still have my good ol' trusty Imac G4, and still love it and use it every day (you know I can't afford a new one). I had the need to install a few apps that are not available for Mac OS X, so I reinstalled VirtualPC 7 (VPC7) and shook the dust off my old Windows 98 disk.

However, I found out that although I could install VPC7 under Leopard, I couldn't use CDs, DVDs, or even disk images to install Windows98. So then I tried Q-[kju:], but it was impossible to use -- it kept crashing, there was no network, no file sharing, and it was impossibly slow.

There was no apparent way to fix the installing issues with Windows98, so then I thought to copy the contents of the Windows98 CD into a VirtualPC image. However, I then couldn't find a way to mount the .vhdp image. After struggling for two days, I was about to quit until I found out that .vhdp images are basically a bundle with an alias and a standard .vhd image inside. With that ...

Restore default bootloader without harming partitions

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:30:01 -0800

If your bootloader gets changed or corrupted, this fix will restore it without damage to your disk partitions.

This hint may be a bit esoteric, but I thought I was up for a long night of reinstallation pain before stumbling upon this fix. I made the mistake of trying to use an Ubuntu 9.04 boot CD to install Ubuntu to an external (USB) drive on my Mac.

Don't do this, unless you know the following: Regardless of the fact that you chose the external drive upon which to install Ubuntu, you won't be able to boot back into your Mac without changing the bootloader. I ended up with the dreaded question mark folder when I tried to reboot my Mac, and nothing worked to boot into my OS X partition.

Luckily, I have a bootable external drive with OS X on it, and I was able to boot into it by holding down the Option key (the primary partition still did not show up). I started searching online for the fix, and it seems that Ubuntu changes the Darwin (default) boot ...

10.6: How to install Win XP Pro Service Pack 3 in Boot Camp 3

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:30:03 -0800

Over the weekend, in preparation for an upcoming review of the newest versions of Fusion and VirtualBox, I needed to set up a new Boot Camp partition on my MacBook Pro. Because Windows 7 isn't yet officially supported by Apple, and Vista isn't widely used, I chose to install XP Pro. My XP Pro disc is a Service Pack 2 release, so after booting into Windows, the system found and downloaded a bunch of updates to apply, chief among them Service Pack 3 (SP3).

The update process went smoothly, until the system tried to install SP3. The update process started, then died with this error:

An error occured while copying file osloader.ntd. Cannot copy file to destination directory. Click Retry to retry the operation or click Cancel.

At that point, the only solution was to bail on the update, and have Windows back out the changes it ...

10.6: Resolve a non-usable disk during 10.6 upgrade

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:30:03 -0700

While attempting to upgrade my MacBook Pro to 10.6, I received the error message "this disk cannot be used to start up your computer." I only have one disk and one volume, so that disk was my only choice.

I tried running Disk Utility to repair the drive, but that didn't help. I searched the web and came up with a solution that works. Using Disk Utility from the installer, slightly reduce the partition size on the boot disk. The act of changing and rewriting the partition seems to fix whatever is causing the issue.

10.6: No way to save updates from Software Update

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:30:04 -0700

In Leopard, Software Update gave you the choice of either downloading or installing an update. Under Snow Leopard, though, the download option is gone; it's install or nothing.

[robg adds: There's a new Update » Go to Apple Download Page menu item in Software Update; every update should be available there for download. While this change simplifies the Software Update app, it does add a step for those who prefer to download updates (for updating multiple Macs, for instance).]

10.6: How to install the Logitech Control Center software

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:30:02 -0700

My Logitech mouse stopped being recognized in Snow Leopard. Logitech, in their infinite wisdom, has their Logitech Control Center 3.0 installer recognize and defeat any attempt at installing on any system other than 10.5.

The simple solution is to view the contents of the installer .pkg file (Control-click on it an select Show Package Contents), then navigate to Resources » Logitech Control Center.mpkg and double click. This launches the installer with no system version test, and re-installs the components in the correct locations. Restart and voilá -- mouse recognized!

[robg adds: I don't have a Logitech mouse to test this one with.]

10.6: Upgrade iStat Menus prior to Snow Leopard install

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:30:04 -0700

After installing Snow Leopard, all my menu bar icons disappeared. After some digging, I found out that version 1.3 of iStat Menus is not compatible with Snow Leopard (version 2.0, released shortly after Snow Leopard shipped, is compatible).

I had a problem, though, because the uninstaller is located within the iStat Menus System Preferences panel. Since the panel would crash every time I tried to open it in Snow Leopard, here's how I solved that problem. First, I downloaded the 1.3 installer from the web site, Control-clicked on the package and chose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu, and found the uninstaller tool in the Contents » Resources folder. As soon as I had this uninstalled, my menulets returned.

So make sure you upgrade to version 2.0 (assuming you're running 10.5) prior to upgradin ...

10.6: Install QuickTime Player 7 to black out other displays

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:30:05 -0700

One of Snow Leopard's many refinements is QuickTime X, which comes with a new, simplified version of QuickTime Player. The new player focuses on elegantly displaying video, but loses most of the editing capabilities that have been a core feature of QuickTime since 1991. The new version doesn't even have a Preferences window, and you'll notice that the QuickTime pane in System Preferences is gone too.

Fortunately, QuickTime Player 7 still works. In fact, the old version of the player (7.6.3) is a custom install option, and is also available as part of the Optional Installs package. The description says "for use with older media formats," begging the question of what else QuickTime X doesn't do. On the bright side, you don't need a QuickTime Pro key any more to take advantage of the editing features in QuickTime Player 7 (more value for your $29).

QuickTime Play ...

Change Terminal prefs on the 10.5 and 10.6 install discs

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:30:04 -0700

If you're like me and you need accessibility options, then you know that the install disc (this hint works with both the 10.5 and 10.6 installers) poses many problems. Fortunately, there's a work around for that tiny 12 point font in Terminal.

When you open the Terminal app from the Install Disc, you can't access Preferences. Go to the Shell menu and click Show Inspector, or use Command-I. Now click the Settings tab. Double-click on any of the view options. This will change the window and bring up preferences in the background. I use the Homebrew settings, but with a 24 point font (normally, it's 20 and I use Universal Access.). Then I can click on the Change Font button and it works just fine. You have access to the other settings as well.

Note that I wouldn't change every setting, because they won't be saved the next time you use the installer.

10.6: What to do if asked to find System Events.app

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:30:06 -0700

I just installed 10.6 over 10.5, and when I restarted the final time, a window came up right after login asking for me to locate system events.app.

I called Apple Support, and their advice was just to hit Cancel. The window doesn't come back on future reboots, but this does seem to happen once for each account on the machine.

Just wanted to share that it seems to be safe to cancel it.

[robg adds: I haven't seen this on any of the four Macs I've upgraded here; not sure what might trigger the event.]

10.5: Set up Clojure on Leopard

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:30:02 -0700

Clojure is a hot new programming language on the Java platform that's getting lots of attention lately, but setting up a development environment on OS X can be a bit of a pain.

To make things simpler, I created ClojureX, a free set of scripts and installation instructions for this task. ClojureX can:

Download and build the source code for Clojure, clojure-contrib and JLine (a readline like library for Java)
Download editor support packages for TextMate and Emacs
Create a symlink for the Clojure startup script in /usr/local/bin
Install support for TextMate via the clojure-tmbundle
Configure Emacs to use clojure-mode, Slime and swank-clojure
Keep your Clojure installation up to date via a simple git submodule update &a ...