So, I usually have Apache 2 set up (along with MySQL, and PHP), via MacPorts, and using ‘dynamically configured mass virtual hosting‘.

This basically means that any calls to my local apache server will look in my sites folder for a directory with the same name as the requested domain name. In order to get the domains working under Mac OS X Tiger, I would just edit /etc/hosts pointing each domain to 127.0.0.1, then restart lookupd, and the whole system would work.

Great … except when Apple developed Leopard, they removed lookupd and thus, my means of pointing my local domains to my local server. Read on for the answer …

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developing, how to, Mac, osx, software, tips, tutorials, leopard

After a bit of searching, I found an answer; dnsmasq. Here is a quick run down of what I did to get it working under Leopard. NB: This is pretty MacPorts centric because that’s how I did it, and thus assumes you are doing the same! This also requires a bit of terminal work.

1. Install dnsmasq
   
   

   sudo port install dnsmasq

2. Create a copy of the sample dnsmasq config
   
   

   sudo cp /opt/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf.sample /opt/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf

3. Create a copy of the sample dnsmasq config
   
   

   sudo cp /opt/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf.sample /opt/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf

4. Edit the conf file:
   
   Find line 58 (#address=/doubleclick.net/127.0.0.1):
   I added the following at line 59:

   address=/.localsites/127.0.0.1

   This points anything.localsites to 127.0.0.1 (obviously change this to whatever you want)
   
   Then I enabled the ‘no-hosts’ directive at line 92:
   Change:

   #no-hosts

   to:

   no-hosts

5. Now we need to make dnsmasq run all the time and in the backgorund. I used a launchd script:
   

   sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemonscom.steamshift.dnsmasq

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
   <plist version="1.0">
   <dict>
           <key>Label</key>
           <string>com.steamshift.dnsmasq</string>
           <key>ProgramArguments</key>
           <array>
                   <string>/opt/local/sbin/dnsmasq</string>
                   <string>-d</string>
           </array>
           <key>RunAtLoad</key>
           <true/>
   </dict>
   </plist>
   

   and save.

6. Now run that file:
   

   sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.steamshift.dnsmasq.plist

7. Finally, in System Preferences > Network > Advanced… > DNS add 127.0.0.1 to the list of DNS servers.

Hopefully, if I haven’t left out any steps, you should now be able to visit (for example, as set up above): mysite.localsites and be directed to your local apache server.

Please comment with your experiences with this!

SteamSHIFT out.

Update

After posting this, I received a helpful email from ‘Damian Bourne’ who pointed out the following:

Just read your blog entry on lookupd and dnsmasq.

I’m NOT saying anything bad about dnsmasq.. I use it lots of places.

I just wanted to let you know that lookupd was replaced with dscacheutil (as far as the command line is concerned), and that /etc/hosts still works.

I found that I didn’t even need to flush the dns cache anymore for this to work, even when flip-flopping things around.

All the best,

Damian

Cool - another way, always useful. I think I will continue to use DNSMasq because of the wild card stuff, however, I have found one minor annoyance … which may force me back to /etc/hosts - if you don’t have an internet connection, you can’t seem to point to a DNS server; Also when I am logged in via VPN to my uni network, I can’t add my DNS server to the VPN network access. Hmm - any thoughts - please leave comments!

SteamSHIFT out.

It has taken some time, but I am pleased to present an update to our Virtual BCF2000 Application (original release post). The key features of this release are the removal of the requirement to use MidiPipe, and various bug fixes.

We have new customisable ‘Pro’ versions in the works - watch this space!

As before, enjoy (and if you use it let us know how we can make it better). SteamSHIFT out.

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VJ, quartz composer, midi, mac, osx, bcf2000, cocoa

Jellybass
Jellybass

Release Date: 14 May 2007
Genre: Dance
(P) 2007 Jellybass

All fine, but a mere few days before an assessment, I couldn’t get the Serial to Midi application to work; I recalled an article on createdigitalmotion.com which I admit, I didn’t read fully, which said the following:

On the music side, Apple dumped its com.apple.audio.midi java package with 10.4.8. Result: not only do you lose all the features that make the Mac great for MIDI, like the IAC bus for inter-application MIDI routing, but your external devices also spontaneously disappear. Nice.

Now at this point, I put 2 + 2 together and got 5 … Apple have broken my app… Ahh what to do - revert my entire computer to 10.4.7?

So, I sat down and over the next few days and with much help, I managed to build (read: hack together) a serial to midi converter in Objective-C and Cocoa. Works perfectly (now!).

So, no more problem. Indeed. And not 1 day later, I remembered that I had bought an Java extension from Mandolane, which was needed for my original app. I reinstalled that and bingo, that worked too. Doh. Doh. Doh.

Oh well; I wanted to start learning Cocoa etc!

SteamSHIFT out.

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midi, mac, osx, art, experiments, developing, cocoa

How did I never notice the Add User / Edit User / Permissions in CocoaMySQL????

I was trying to hide it away; hit command-m and there the permissions box was! Now aside from the fact that command-m is a stoopid shortcut key to use (normally is for minimise), this is a great find; apparently it’s only been there since Beta 0.7b5 … so upgrade if you’re not using that version.

SteamSHIFT out.

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mac, osx

SteamSHIFT out.

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mac, osx, developing

Turns out, there are 2 ways of accomplishing this; 1. set TextMate as the external editor for MarsEdit, then just create (or click to edit your post) and hit command-J (File -> Edit with TextMate); 2. Install the ‘Edit in TextMate…’ bundle, which will allow you to edit any text from any Cocoa application in TextMate.

Woohoo! How easy is that?!

SteamSHIFT out.

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mac, osx, cocoa, textmate

I decided that it would be a good idea to upgrade my web and email server to OS X Server 10.4. Partly because I was struggling to get spam filtering working as well as I wanted, and partly because I wanted to upgrade to PHP 5.1.4 and the excellent packages for PHP produced by Marc Liyanage no longer support 10.3. Also, I figured that by 10.4.6, the OS is stable enough for a production environment. It also helped that I was able to procure a cheap copy via ebay!

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So, off I went to London to sit in the data centre and do the upgrade. I booted the X-Serve into firewire target disk mode and booted my laptop off that. I then loaded in the new disk and started the upgrade. The upgrade went fine and so I booted the machine up, and logged in via vnc to make sure I had all the latest system upgrades and so on. This is where the problems began…

I installed the upgrades and restarted, but the machine didn’t come back up. As a guess, I’m thinking that what happened is that the time it takes to complete the 10.4.6 upgrade (post restart) was so long, that I assumed something had gone wrong and manually restarted it again; thus mashing that upgrade.

There I was with my web server, with a mashed OS. OK thought I, we’ll do a clean archive and install of the OS; no dice - that option doesn’t exist for OS X Server. What to do?

A bit of negotiating later, and I had procured a new hard disk to fit into the second bay. A complete reinstall later, and the machine was running once more. This time I did the OS upgrades whilst booted from the laptop. It really does take a long time to restart (twice) after the 10.4.6 upgrade. And from there I was able to copy all of the web sites and so on over to the new disk.

I went through and set up all the sites once more and was finally left with a working web server. I decided I would get email running properly when I got home. This was the second mistake. More to the point, the second mistake was wanting to copy the netinfo database from the old install to the new to save me recreating all the users. This process can only be done in single user mode, and if anything goes wrong, you need to be in single user mode in order to recover. And the problem with single user mode is that it requires that you are on site! This is not something you want to get wrong as breaking the netinfo database means you are locked out - very very not good.

My second trip to London to fix the server was much more brief. A quick trip into single user mode confirmed that the netinfo database from the old install was completely borked, but I was at least able to restore access once again.

Finally, back home once again, I was able to recreate all the users and get email running correctly.

So, here are my hard learned top tips for doing an upgrade like this …

• Start the process with a second drive; whether you decide to do a full install from scratch or copy your existing set up to the new drive and do an upgrade, it’s so much better to have your original (working) copy of the system on a second drive that you can roll back to.
• If you can, build the whole new system on a drive before you even get to the data centre - you’ll still need to copy across any changed files, but at least you are not taking out the machine for any length of time. This does raise one question though - how can you work on an x-serve drive, without having a second x-serve?
• Do any netinfo work, whilst you are at the data centre, and sat in front of a terminal - if you can’t, don’t try!!
• Have you covered all bases in terms of backups? I thought my backups were pretty comprehensive, but I’ve had to re-evaluate. For instance, it is possible to create plists from server admin of the setup (and via the command line). And also of the user setups; these will take some of the pain out of having to rebuild from scrtatch.
• If possible, do system upgrades via firewire target disk mode … or at least be very patient before restarting the machine! I knew for instance that it restarted twice after the 10.4.6 upgrade, but I wasn’t prepared for it to take _so_ long.

Fortunately, in the end the server wasn’t out for hugely long, and everything is running really nicely now. I have learned some good lessons and my inbox is vastly less spam filled now.

SteamSHIFT out.

So, figuring they were hardware problems (a friend had many hardware problems with his first revision MBP), I backed up the whole machine, ready to go off to Apple for repair … I thought I’d also reinstall the OS whilst I was at it.

Hey Presto, sleep problems solved. Wireless networking problems solved. Bonus. I’m just going to have to be very careful about what software I put on in the future … I’m guessing it was a 3rd party app, that wouldn’t shut down properly or something.

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