Mac IT Guy

Godaddy outgoing mail

2010-03-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

One of our email accounts at godaddy suddenly would not accept outgoing email via port 25. Just like that. It may be our ISP or our Astaro and frankly it doesn't matter.
Godaddy also has ports 3535, and 80 open for SMTP.
I chose 3535 for that person who uses a laptop in the office and outside the office, in hotels and what have you. Port 25 is blocked left and right, and port 80 is well, I don't think so...

Archive with tar on OS X

2010-02-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

How to automatically pack complete directories in compressed files.

cd to the parent directory where you have files and directories

type in terminal:

find . -maxdepth 1 -exec tar -cvjf {}.tbz {} \;

This command will take a directory that contains:

file1.ext1
file2.ext2
dir1
dir2

and compress them to:

file1.ext1.tbz
file2.ext2.tbz
dir1.tbz
dir2.tbz

For a dry-run use the echo command so find doesn't do anything but say what it can do:

find . -maxdepth 1 -exec echo tar -cvjf {}.tbz {} \;

On OS X Server 10.2 with tar version:
tar (GNU tar) 1.13.25 +CVE-2006-6097
Copyright (C) 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Had to use quotes like so:
find . -maxdepth 1 -exec tar -cvjf '{}.tbz' {} \;

This will evolve to something more useful of course.
We should probably save compressed files to a different location, other than current directory.

Twitt me now...

Apple Care dilemma and Parted Magic

2010-02-27T17:45:00.000-08:00

Mac Book Pro cannot boot into Tiger but it will boot into anything else via firewire or CD. After going through the recommended voodoo, I figured out the drive is dying, although booting off a CD I can see files on the bad drive. Later I found that many files cannot be opened anymore.
My first impulse was to boot Steve Gibson's SpinRite on this Intel based MBP, but keyboard and trackpad do not work with SpinRite on the MBP. Too bad..
Typically I would open the MBP, take out the bad drive, and put in a new drive, but this Mac Book Pro is still under Apple Care, and we need the data stored on the bad drive. How do you get data from a bad drive inside a MBP without opening it? That is simple. Use the OS installation DVD, which I have cloned onto a partition on my Firewire Lacie ragged drive for faster boot time, and possible some customization later on. So as I did before with an iMac, started the OS installation process up to the point where I get a chance to start Terminal. At that point I used dd to create a drive image file from the bad drive, so I can mess with the data away from the dying hardware. In this case dd ran well all the way up to about 29GB point, but I know there's a lot more data on that drive. dd ran for about 4 days and just got slower and slower. Assuming there is a bad area on the drive, which if I could get beyond more data will be squeezed out of that drive. At that point with not much to loose, reached for my live CD collection where Parted Magic has a place of honor. Started copying the bad OS X partition to an external drive. That failed at some point but I could see files on the incomplete clone. That is something but I wanted more. As always I go to the Parted Magic to get the latest news and possibly a fresh iso. There was nothing new for me there but a list of included software. A tool that caught my eye was ddrescue. I'm a great fan of GUI tools but this called for some CLI hard core magic.

Parted Magic cannot write to an hfs+ partition so I partitioned the external Lacie drive so I'll have an ext2 partition for the drive image. Ran ddrescue multiple times on the same out file using a logfile, so ddrescue can add what it finds on each run to the drive image file. Now we need to get the image file to a Mac and complete the data recovery process, but file sits on an ext2 partition which OS X cannot read off. For ext2 I installed macfuse, and fuse-ext2 on a Mini running 10.6 Snow Leopard, and now I'm using tar to compress the disk image, so the result is saved on the Mini. I assume most of the drive image is blank anyway, so out of the 110GB file there is about 34GB usable data.

Some notes so I don't forget

To find device id for an attached image file and other drives.
disktool -l

Mount dmg drive image file
hdiutil attach /dev/
In our case...

testdisk

photorec

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ssh port in OS X 10.3

2010-02-26T12:48:00.000-08:00

Our old 10.3 server's Console is full of hackers ssh login attempts. Enough is enough!
Lets change the sshd listening port from 22 to something else.

There are so many configuration files that seem to be the right once in 10.3 but we are going to edit the one and only: /etc/services

Good practice will be to first create a copy of the existing services file.

To edit /etc/services, simply:
sudo pico /etc/services

This is a long file so lets find the place to edit very quickly:
Type Control+W (W is short for where the h*** is..?)
Search for 22/

Expect to see

ssh 22/udp # SSH Remote Login Protocol
ssh 22/tcp # SSH Remote Login Protocol

Now simply change 22 to something else.

To restart the service, toggle System Preferences -> Sharing -> Remote Login

Or if you prefer:
sudo killall -HUP xinetd

To start an ssh session on your new port use the -p option like so:
ssh -p you@yo_server

In OS X 10.2 it is different though.

Done!

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remote keyboard and mouse in os x

2010-02-24T20:29:00.000-08:00

Need to extend my Mac's keyboard and mouse over network. No need for video, that will travel over DVI to HDMI arrangement. Something like VNC without the Video.
So far found Teleport

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XSAN backup solution

2010-02-22T21:13:00.000-08:00

Sony AIT 5 tapes are capable of storing 400GB of data. In our video production environment that is not not a lot of storage, so I'm looking at other backup solutions.

Here are some backup tapes formats:

DLT
SDLT
LTO

DAT and DDS are too small at two slow for our needs so no further discussion.

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rsync itemize output

2010-02-20T11:13:00.000-08:00

rsync --itemize-changes creates a cryptic output that is 11 letters long.
Understand rsync output

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Gmail attachment upload hangs

2010-02-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

Why can't I upload attachments in gmail?
Short answer: Wrong Flash Player version.

While trying to upload a pdf file to gmail, we found that the process hangs, or at least the progress bar animation hangs. Also, any following interaction with gmail gave us the Beach Ball from hell. Looking in Activity Monitor showed that the Flash plugin is pretty busy.
We are using Safari on Snow Leopard on a 21.5 inch iMac that normally works very well.
Anyway, downloading the most recent Adobe Flash Player made that problem go away, but not for long...
Seems like the attachment progress bar thingie somewhat buggy on the Mac that is. Google was kind enough to give us the option to disable this GUI, and roll back to the good old HTML upload version. Simply go into your Gmail Settings, and scroll down, and you'll see it.
Hopefully at some point the Flashy GUI will actually work on our new iMac, because it does look nice and friendly.

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Open Fraps files in Mac OS X

2010-02-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

So you need to open a FRAPS video file on Mac OS X. They had to use a proprietary codec... Stay positive the solution is so easy you'll love it. If you already have Perian installed on your Mac, then just update it to 1.2 or probably higher. If don't, install the latest version of Perian.
Done!

Since Perian makes FRAPS available via Quicktime, you can open FRAP files from any Quicktime enabled application on the Mac. FCP, Quicktime Player, Toast, etc...

whois times out in os x terminal

2010-02-07T11:24:00.000-08:00

whois is times out in my os x terminal. Network utility also times out when I try its whois. This happens at home and at work. What do I have in common at home and at work? Astaro ASG.
Opened TCP port 43 on the home Astaro, and whois now roams free.
Why is this interesting at all to the Mac IT Guy? Now I can do a whois check without having to go to any website. From Terminal it is much faster. Reverse whois is also possible by simply typing at the terminal:
whois

IP Address Monitor

Reset administrator password windows

2010-02-04T18:34:00.000-08:00

Last week I had to configure 11 machines loaded with XP but couldn't login. Wanted to avoid reinstalling XP, and having to download drivers which is a total waste of valuable time. Resting the Administrator's password seem like the way to go. I remembered the Ultimate Boot CD had a linux app called Offline NT pw & Reg editor, that can reset XP passwords, but UBCD 4.1.1 didn't deliver. Somehow it just couldn't reset passwords. On Petter N Hagen's site, the author site there was a more recent version of Offline NT pw & Reg editor. http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/ This version could reset XP passwords and now I can manage all PCs. While writing this post, I tried to look at that site again, but the Astaro ASG is blocking me from accessing the site.
"The URL you have requested is blocked by Surf Protection. If you think this is wrong, please contact your administrator
Hacking/Computer Crime not allowed."
Hopefully I'm not in trouble.

MyIPreloaded.com now collects User Agent Strings

2010-01-31T12:48:00.000-08:00

The purpose of myipreloaded.com is still a mystery to me, but a new page added to the site now shows a list of User Agent strings collected by the site from visitors. Humans and Bots.
An interesting feature on the User Agents page that got me somewhat excited, was Follow-Agent. If a user agent string (UAS) contains a proper url, that url is used as a link. You can click on such UAS and see where it takes you. At some point we expect this feature to be abused by site owners, who will customize their UAS with a URL that promotes their site. We do not expect such UAS poisoning to happen anytime soon though..

Twitt me...

Removing leading and trailing spaces in Excel 2004

2010-01-28T20:38:00.000-08:00

To clean up text from leading and trailing spaces, Excel 2004 can be used with its formula function TRIM()
Somewhat hard core but it works.
Now I can clean-up lists of hundreds email addresses, and find duplicates.

Setting PATH for ssh on OS X

2010-01-28T20:14:00.000-08:00

I'm developing a php script that automate backup of MS Entorage database files from desktop Macs in our office. This script needs to execute shell commands on client Macs in our local network, using ssh. ssh doesn't inherit the PATH as set in the .profile file for the user we login as on the remote machine. To set a PATH for ssh we need to do the following:

In /private/etc/sshd_config
Uncomment by removing the # from the line that says: PermitUserEnvironment no
Set to yes

Now the actual PATH setting is done in file ~/.ssh/environment
Adding additional directory to the default path using $PATH didn't work, so I explicitly add this line, to add the MacPorts bin locations.
PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin

Restart sshd, or simply restart machine and get something to drink.
If you rather do it the hard way, then use /sbin/service

Stop sshd with
sudo /sbin/service ssh stop

And start ssh with
sudo /sbin/service ssh start

Lacie Big 5 Network and Google Chrome on OS X

2010-01-25T18:31:00.000-08:00

Lacie Big 5 Network is not friendly to Google Chrome on Mac OS.
Knowing Google chrome is based on WebKit makes me wonder why Safari has no problem signing in to the Lacie 5 Big NAS.
At some point it will probably work...

Leopard DHCP self assigned IP

2010-01-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

DHCP not working on Leopard
Getting self assigned IP address
Check Leopard Firewall settings

Apple Server Monitor TCP Port

2010-01-25T18:12:00.000-08:00

Apple Server Monitor TCP Port is 311 (asip-webadmin).
Why should you care? Because what if you want to monitor your Xserve from home, and the darn firewall is blocking you.
Allow port 311 traffic through firewall to get Apple Server Monitor function.

Your Tech job is made of small details and bits of information, that occasionally crystallize and form powerful solutions. When that happens, it feels simply great. Just keep hacking on whatever comes your tech way, and I'll meet you at the top.

update rsync with MacPorts on 10.5

2010-01-24T17:43:00.000-08:00

This is the result of updating rsync 2.6.9 on OS X 10.5 to 3.0.4 with Mac Ports (requires xcode)
Just wanted to share

sudo port install rsync
---> Computing dependencies for rsync
---> Fetching gperf
---> Attempting to fetch gperf-3.0.4.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/gperf
---> Verifying checksum(s) for gperf
---> Extracting gperf
---> Configuring gperf
---> Building gperf
---> Staging gperf into destroot
---> Installing gperf @3.0.4_0
---> Activating gperf @3.0.4_0
---> Cleaning gperf
---> Fetching libiconv
---> Attempting to fetch libiconv-1.13.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/libiconv
---> Verifying checksum(s) for libiconv
---> Extracting libiconv
---> Applying patches to libiconv
---> Configuring libiconv
---> Building libiconv
---> Staging libiconv into destroot
---> Installing libiconv @1.13_0
---> Activating libiconv @1.13_0
---> Cleaning libiconv
---> Fetching expat
---> Attempting to fetch expat-2.0.1.tar.gz from http://voxel.dl.sourceforge.net/expat
---> Verifying checksum(s) for expat
---> Extracting expat
---> Configuring expat
---> Building expat
---> Staging expat into destroot
---> Installing expat @2.0.1_0
---> Activating expat @2.0.1_0
---> Cleaning expat
---> Fetching ncursesw
---> Attempting to fetch ncurses-5.7.tar.gz from http://mirrors.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/gnu/ftp/gnu/ncurses
---> Attempting to fetch ncurses-5.7.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/ncurses
---> Verifying checksum(s) for ncursesw
---> Extracting ncursesw
---> Configuring ncursesw
---> Building ncursesw
---> Staging ncursesw into destroot
---> Installing ncursesw @5.7_0
---> Activating ncursesw @5.7_0
---> Cleaning ncursesw
---> Fetching ncurses
---> Verifying checksum(s) for ncurses
---> Extracting ncurses
---> Configuring ncurses
---> Building ncurses
---> Staging ncurses into destroot
---> Installing ncurses @5.7_0
---> Activating ncurses @5.7_0
---> Cleaning ncurses
---> Fetching gettext
---> Attempting to fetch gettext-0.17.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/gettext
---> Verifying checksum(s) for gettext
---> Extracting gettext
---> Applying patches to gettext
---> Configuring gettext
---> Building gettext
---> Staging gettext into destroot
---> Installing gettext @0.17_4
---> Activating gettext @0.17_4
---> Cleaning gettext
---> Fetching popt
---> Attempting to fetch popt-1.15.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/popt
---> Verifying checksum(s) for popt
---> Extracting popt
---> Configuring popt
---> Building popt
---> Staging popt into destroot
---> Installing popt @1.15_0
---> Activating popt @1.15_0
---> Cleaning popt
---> Fetching rsync
---> Attempting to fetch rsync-3.0.7.tar.gz from http://distfiles.macports.org/rsync
---> Verifying checksum(s) for rsync
---> Extracting rsync
---> Applying patches to rsync
---> Configuring rsync
---> Building rsync
---> Staging rsync into destroot
---> Installing rsync @3.0.7_0
---> Activating rsync @3.0.7_0
---> Cleaning rsync

Rsync 2.6.9 OS X errors

2010-01-24T17:33:00.000-08:00

Not sure why I'm getting these errors while backing up Macs at the office.
At the moment I suspect two things: rsync version is outdated on Mac OS X, or it's a hardware issue. Bad cable, or a tired network switch. Not sure yet.
Will post here once I have some more info.
Enjoy

rsync error: timeout in data send/receive (code 30) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-35.2/rsync/io.c(164) [sender=2.6.9]
rsync: writefd_unbuffered failed to write 4 bytes [generator]: Broken pipe (32)
rsync error: timeout in data send/receive (code 30) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-35.2/rsync/io.c(1121) [generator=2.6.9]
rsync error: received SIGUSR1 (code 19) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-35.2/rsync/main.c(1197) [receiver=2.6.9]
30

rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at /SourceCache/rsync/rsync-35.2/rsync/main.c(1400) [generator=2.6.9]
23

myipreloaded.com to collect User Agent Strings

2010-01-18T21:53:00.000-08:00

myipreloaded.com is a simple web tool that will show your public IP address, as seen by websites you visit. Lately What's My IP Reloaded has started to collect visitor's User Agent strings, in attempt to create a collection of User Agent strings. Users of this tool know that their IP address can be viewed from a distance, so one can monitor own IP address from across the server room. The display of your IP address on myipreloaded.com wil automatically reload itself, so you don't even have to hit F5 to reload the page. No need to get off the ladder just to refresh a web page.
The future of myipreloaded.com is still un-know which doesn't' seem to discourage the creators of this almost entirely useless tool. As far as we know, the people behind My IP Reloaded have enough funds to keep developing the site's back-end for at least until 2012. Are these good news? Are these news at all? Only future will tell.

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AJA Io HD driver 7.1

2010-01-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

A little trickie finding the AJA Io HD driver version 7.1.
Three times I ended up looking at the latest Io driver (not HD), until I found the the correct page.
Here is the AJA IoHD driver download page: http://www.aja.com/support/io/io-hd.php
and here is the driver http://www.aja.com/ajashare/AJA_IoHD_7.1.zip

Read the release notes regarding FCP restrictions.
Enjoy

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Automate Snow Leopard 10.6 Server setup

2010-01-17T09:01:00.000-08:00

First draft

Automating Snow Leopard Server setup

During Snow Leopard Server 10.6 setup, you get a chance to save your setup as a .plist file. On your next server installation you can put the plist file in a root directory folder named "Auto Server Setup"

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Disable Mood Message Chat on Skype for Mac

2010-01-17T08:12:00.000-08:00

Here is howto disable the Skype Mood Message Chat on the Mac.
Skype Preferences -> Advanced -> un-check Enable Mood Message Chat

Done!

The implementation of Mood Message Chat in Skype for Mac is too distractive to my liking, and why would it be enabled by default is beyond me.

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Quit Microsoft Entourage with AppleScript

2010-01-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

To be able to backup Microsoft Entourage database, we need to quit Entourage and the Database Daemon.
Here is an Apple script intended to run on a schedule before running a backup. For now it only takes care of quiting Entourage, taking care of a situation where an unsaved email is left open.
Then we quit the Database Daemon.
1 second delays may not be even required but I'm keeping them. You don't have to.

# Quit Microsoft Entourage so we can run a backup
# If Entourage is not running don't bother
# If Entourage has is asking to save a draft of an unfinished email, hit enter.
# There may be other situations where Entourage will ask something before quiting.
# We are going to hit enter and hope for the best.
# Tested on Office 2004 on OS X 10.5

if ApplicationIsRunning("Microsoft Entourage") then
tell application "System Events"
set frontmost of process "Microsoft Entourage" to true
delay 1
key down command
keystroke "q"
key up command
delay 1

# we are going to limit number of times we hit the Enter key.
# Just in case
set currentCount to 2

set appStillRuning to exists (processes where name is "Microsoft Entourage")

repeat until not appStillRuning
key code 36
set appStillRuning to exists (processes where name is "Microsoft Entourage")
delay 1
set currentCount to currentCount - 1
if currentCount < 0 then exit repeat
end repeat

end tell
end if

on ApplicationIsRunning(appName)
tell application "System Events" to set appNameIsRunning to exists (processes where name is appName)
return appNameIsRunning
end ApplicationIsRunning

# Same thing but from Terminal or ssh, so now we can run this puppy remotely.
osascript youAppleScriptAsText.applescript

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Manage Printers with CUPS Web interface

2010-01-15T18:38:00.000-08:00

On every Mac OS X system, you can get a access to CUPS using a web browser. Simply point your web browser at http://localhost:631 and browse away to get some insight on your printers and their jobs. You can add a printer using the CUPS interface with some practice.
Here is a cool trick to get access to a remote Mac's CUPS interface using ssh tunneling. Here is an example for ssh tunneling of CUPS:

ssh -L 6363:localhost:631 you@da.remote.mac

Once your ssh tunnel is set up, point your browser to http://localhost:6363

You can use IP ports other than 6363, just as long as you use the same port in the ssh tunnel, and the URL in the browser. I did ran into a problem where sending a Test print from CUPS the URL in the GUI sent me back to port 631 which can be confusing, because you are taken to your local CUPS GUI, so look at the browser's status bar before you click.