The Login Window in OS X is the screen you see while you’re typing in a username and password. There are a number of customizations used in some environments to make the system easier for users to use, or to make it more specific to a given user environment. One such is customizing the Login Window’s background, which can be done by replacing this file with one that you would like to use: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/LoginUIKit.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LoginUICore.framework/Versions/A/Resources/appleLinen.png You can also configure a message to be shown to users. This message, often referred to as an Acceptable Use Policy, can be used as a policy banner that users must accept in order to log…
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FTP On Lion Server
Much has been made about the demise of FTP on OS X Server. Well, while it may be badly burned, it’s not dead yet. Let’s look at enabling FTP first on the server and then per share. Enable FTP on the Server The first thing to do on a server that you want to expose through FTP is enable tnftpd. To do so, open Workgroup Manager or Server and create a group that has user who you want to provide FTP services to. In this example we are going to assume a dedicated FTP server and open access to everyone, but feel free to swap out your group name for…
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Exporting Information From iPhone Configuration Utility
In a previous post I looked at automating iPhone and iPad deployment. There, we looked at the iPhone Configuration Utility. Now that Profile Manager is built into Mac OS X Server in Lion, and with the number of 3rd party MDM solutions on the market, many users of iPhone Configuration Utility are looking to extract information from it and move it into other places. Many of these places can import property lists. If you look at the file header for .mobileconfig and .deviceinfo files you’ll notice that they begin with the familiar: <?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> Given that .mobileconfig and .deviceinfo files…
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Man Pages Made Easy
Ever since upgrading to Lion I’ve been making a few slight changes in workflow. One such change, which I’m still on the fence about, is to switch from reading man pages in a tiled Terminal screen, to reading them in a browser window. It seems like a small thing, but I spend a lot of time switching between terminal screens or using screen to switch between sessions. Bwana allows you to read a man page from within a browser. Simply load download the Bwana app into your /Applications directory and wait a few seconds. Then open a browser window and look for a man page. For example: man:dsconfigad Now, you…
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Lion's Versions Feature
In Mac OS X Lion, applications can make use of a feature to auto-save and version files. This feature locks files that are inactive for editing and when the file is unlocked then starts automatically saving versions. If you have a problem with the file you can then always step back to a previous version of the file. The feature is manifested in the title bar and the file menu of applications that make use of it. When you open a file, it can be locked. Viewing the file in the Finder also shows that it is locked. Clicking on locked provides the option to unlock. Once unlocked you can…
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Paths in Title Bars
When I install a new system that I am personally going to be using, one of the few tweaks I make is to configure the Finder to show me paths in the title bar. This just keeps me from the occasional Command-click on the folder name and keeps me abreast of where I am. Mostly it’s helpful in list or icon view as. To enable full paths use defaults to write an _FXShowPosixPathInTitle key into com.apple.finder.plist. The key should be boolean and we’re setting it to true. After about 30 seconds new windows should show with the path in the title bar: defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES I actually…
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Scripting Video Changes in Lion: avconvert, pcastaction & podcast
The avconvert command is a new addition in OS X Lion that allows administrators to quickly and easily convert video from one format to another using presets for video conversion. The presets are mostly common Apple formats tuned to specific devices. In its simplest form, avconvert uses a preset, a source and then an output to convert the source to the output using the preset to define the format to use for conversion. A useful preset is the 640×480 one. To convert this using this idea: /usr/bin/avconvert --preset Preset640x480 --source /Convert/test.mov --output Converted/test.mov While some of the presets are pretty self explanatory, I haven’t gone through them all to see…
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Automating Image File Changes
Ever need to automate changes to image files? Maybe a LaunchAgent that would watch a specific folder and resize png files that were dropped in there, or a little script that sanitized images as they came in to be a specific size (e.g. Poster Frames)? Well, sips is a little tool built into OS X that can help immensely with this. It will even convert that png to a jpeg or pict to png. Let’s look at using sips. First up, let’s just get the width and height of an image file: sips --getProperty pixelHeight /Shared/tmpimages/1.png sips --getProperty pixelWidth /Shared/tmpimages/1.png Or for dpi: sips --getProperty dpiHeight /Shared/tmpimages/1.png sips --getProperty dpiWidth…
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Saved Application States in Lion
Every new feature comes with its own troubleshooting as most will, if only eventually, have problems. Lion comes with a cool new feature where the state of each application is saved and when the application is re-opened the windows are just as you left them when closed, even in the same positions on the screen. This can be pretty useful with something like Terminal, where I often don’t restart the app for long periods of time because I want to see my recent history across multiple sudo’d users. When you open Terminal, the previous commands are grey, but there. But I’ve run into a few instances where an application crashed…
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SMIME in OS X Lion
In a previous article I showed how to get and install an SMIME certificate. Now let’s look at installing it into Mail. It’s really, really hard. First, open Mail. Then, click on the Mail menu and select Preferences. Then click on Accounts. Then click on the account you got an SMIME cert for. Then, in the TLS box, select the certificate you want to use. Next, go to compose a new message. You will see the little disclosure triangle to the left of the From dialog. Click on it and then check the box for the lock and the icon to the right of that, meant to look like a…