I’d written an efi version checker. But the lovely Andrew Seago texted me one that’s better than mine. So I present it here: current_efi_version=`/usr/libexec/efiupdater | grep "Raw" | cut -d ':' -f2 | sed 's/ //'` echo "current_efi_version $current_efi_version" latest_efi_version=`ls -La /usr/libexec/firmwarecheckers/eficheck/EFIAllowListShipping.bundle/allowlists/ | grep "$current_efi_version"` echo "latest_efi_version $latest_efi_version" if [ "$latest_efi_version" == "" ]; then echo "EFI FAILED" exit 1 else echo "EFI PASSED" exit 0 fi
-
-
Create Bootable Installation Media For High Sierra Installations
A bootable installer is one of the fastest ways to install a Mac. Rather than copy the installer to a local drive you can run it right off a USB disk (or Thunderbolt if you dare). Such a little USB drive would be similar to the sticks that came with the older MacBook Air, when we were all still sitting around wondering how you would ever install the OS on a computer with no optical media or Ethernet otherwise. Luckily, Apple loves us. To make a bootable USB/flash drive of High Sierra like the one that used to come with the MacBook Air, first name the USB drive. I’ll use hsinstall…
-
Install macOS Server 5.4 On A Mac Running macOS 10.13 (High Sierra)
The first thing you’ll want to do on any server is setup the networking for the computer. To do this, open the System Preferences and click on Network. You usually want to use a wired Ethernet connection on a server, but in this case we’ll be using Wi-Fi. Here, click on the Wi-Fi interface and then click on the Advanced… button. At the setup screen for the interface, provide a good static IP address. Your network administrator can provide this fairly easily. Here, make sure you have an IP address and a subnet mask. Since we need to install the Server app from the Mac App Store, and that’s on the Internet,…
-
Manage Groups In macOS Server 5.4 Running On High Sierra
There are a couple of ways to create groups in macOS Server 5.4, running on High Sierra. The first is using the Server app, the second is using the Users & Groups System Preference pane and the third is using the command line. In this article we will look at creating groups in the directory service with the Server app. Once a server has been an Open Directory Master all user and group accounts created will be in the Local Network Group when created in Server app. Before that, all user and group objects are stored locally when created in Server app. Once promoted to an Open Directory server, groups are created in the…
-
Delete User Configurable nvram In High Sierra (10.13)
A nifty little feature of nvram is the ability to delete all of the firmware variables you’ve created. This can get helpful if you’ve got a bunch of things that you’ve done to a system and want to remove them all. If you run nvkram followed by a -p option you’ll see all of the configured firmware variables: nvram -p If you run it with a -d you’ll delete the given variables that you define (e.g. boot-args): nvram -d boot-args But, if you run the -c you’ll wipe them all: nvram -c
-
Clear nvram in macOS High Sierra
Note: before you do anything with clearing nvram, keep in mind that doing so clears any kext whitelisting you may have done previously! macOS has the ability to delete all of the firmware variables you’ve created. This can get helpful if you’ve got a bunch of things that you’ve done to a system and want to remove them all. If you run nvram followed by a -p option you’ll see all of the configured firmware variables: nvram -p The output would be as follows: efi-boot-device-data %02%01%0c%00%d0A%03%0a%00%00%00%00%01%01%06%00%05%1c%01%01%06%00%00%00%03%12%0a%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%04%01*%00%02%00%00%00(@%06%00%00%00%00%00X%a8#:%00%00%00%00%eee6%da%00%0b%09G%82%c9%bd4wpQ%82%02%02%04%03$%00%f7%fct%be|%0b%f3I%91G%01%f4%04.hBw;%1a$%82%a3>D%92#%80%e9o%a9!%de%04%04%9a%00\%00A%003%000%006%00A%004%00F%00D%00-%00F%00F%00B%005%00-%003%00F%00A%002%00-%008%00D%00C%004%00-%00B%00F%007%003%00E%007%00F%003%008%00C%007%00E%00\%00S%00y%00s%00t%00e%00m%00\%00L%00i%00b%00r%00a%00r%00y%00\%00C%00o%00r%00e%00S%00e%00r%00v%00i%00c%00e%00s%00\%00b%00o%00o%00t%00.%00e%00f%00i%00%00%00%7f%ff%04%00 efi-boot-device <array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>241A3B77-A382-443E-9223-80E96FA921DE</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk1s2</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>MediaFilePath</string><key>Path</key><string>\A306A4FD-FFB5-3FA2-8DC4-BF73E7F38C7E\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi</string></dict></array>%00BootCampProcessorPstates %0c%00 bluetoothInternalControllerInfo %90%82%ac%05%00%000%14%f4\%89%adF%f prev-lang:kbd en:0 SystemAudioVolumeDB %e4efi-apple-recovery <array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>3D351489-745F-4434-89E0-DC914B49969F</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk0s1</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>MediaFilePath</string><key>Path</key><string>\EFI\APPLE\FIRMWARE\MBP121_0171_B00.fd</string></dict></array>%00previous-system-uuid A306A4FD-FFB5-3FA2-8DC4-BF73E7F38C7EbluetoothActiveControllerInfo %90%82%ac%05%00%00%00%000%14%f4\%89%adF%faALS_Data ^%0d%8a%8a%00%00%00%00backlight-level %10%02SystemAudioVolume GLocationServicesEnabled %01 If you run it with a -d you’ll delete the given…
-
Use serverinfo in macOS Server 5.4 for High Sierra
macOS Server 5.4 (for High Sierra) comes with the /usr/sbin/serverinfo command (which was originally introduced in Mountain Lion Server). The serverinfo command is useful when programmatically obtaining information about the very basic state of an Apple Server. The first option indicates whether the Server app has been downloaded from the app store, which is the –software option: serverinfo --software When used, this option reports the following if the Server.app can be found: This system has server software installed. Or if the software cannot be found, the following is indicated: This system does NOT have server software installed. The –productname option determines the name of the software app: serverinfo --productname If you…
-
Convert a macOS Volume to APFS in High Sierra
You can run High Sierra without converting a drive to apfs, Apple’s latest File System. However, you might encounter some odd behaviors, or want to take use of the enhancements in apfs. If you did a command line installation to skip the apfs conversion or are just trying to upgrade a volume that wasn’t converted during the upgrade process, Boot the Mac into Recovery Mode by holding down the Command and R keys until you see the macOS Utilities screen. Open Disk utility. Choose your boot volume. Click on the Edit menu Click on Convert to APFS When prompted with “Would you like to convert <thenameofyourdrive> to APFS?” click on…
-
Xsan Command Line Options In High Sierra
Let’s start out with what’s actually available in the Server Admin CLI: serveradmin. The serveradmin command, followed by settings, followed by san shows a few pieces of information: /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/sbin/serveradmin settings san The results would be similar to: san:computers = _empty_array san:primaryController = "95C99FB1-80F2-5016-B9C3-BE3916E6E5DC" san:ownerEmail = "krypted@me.com" san:sanName = "krypted" san:desiredSearchPolicy:_array_index:0 = "" san:serialNumbers = _empty_array san:dsType = 0 san:ownerName = "Charles Edge" san:managePrivateNetwork = yes san:metadataNetwork = "10.0.0.0/24" san:numberOfFibreChannelPorts = 2 san:role = "CONTROLLER" Here, we see the metadata network, the GUID of the primary (active) MDC, the name of the SAN, an array of serial numbers (if applicable – rarely encountered these days), the owner info plugged in earlier…
-
Setup An Open Directory Master In macOS Server 5.4 On High Sierra (10.13)
Open Directory has never been this easy to setup for a basic environment as it is in macOS Server 5.4 (for macOS 10.13 running on High Sierra). As with almost any previous version of macOS Server and Open Directory, once you’ve installed the Server app, run the changeip command along with the -checkhostname option to verify that the IP, DNS and hostname match. If (and only if as it will fail if you try anyway) you get an indication of “Success.” I know, I know, you’ve been told that you didn’t have to do this kind of command line stuff any more… But really, you should – and if you don’t…