• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Invoke ScreenSaver in Mac OS X with a Script

    September 14, 2009

    While troubleshooting some issues with a Screen Saver that just wouldn’t fire up. Even when you told the ScreenSaver to open (timed or via Expose) it wouldn’t work. Given the security implications for the given environment having a Screen Saver invoked automatically and manually are both requirements. So I found how to open it from the shell. From the /System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS working directory simply do: ./ScreenSaverEngine The Screen Saver opened from the shell so I figured I would try it from an AppleScript, so isolated the application id to com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine and launched it manually: osascript -e ‘tell application id “com.apple.ScreenSaver.Engine” to launch’ This didn’t work.  Replaced the ScreenSaver.Framework (located in /System/Library/Frameworks) with…

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  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Basic pkcs12 Management with security

    September 9, 2009

    Recently, I did an article for afp548.com where I explained that you can import a pkcs12 file into an 802.1x profile using networksetup. In that type of environment you would be leveraging TLS or TTLS with the Mac OS X client acting as the supplicant and the certificate required to establish authentication with the authenticator. So you need the certificate to get started, but how do you get the pkcs12 and dish it out to clients programatically? We’re going to start out with a new keychain where we’ve imported the certificate into that keychain (or skip this step if you already have a p12 file). First, find the certificate and…

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  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    More Group Management with dseditgroup

    September 8, 2009

    Now that we’ve covered using dscl to create a group, let’s look at using dseditgroup to do the same thing. In the previous example we created a group called Local Admins or ladmins for short. First let’s read that group’s information. To do so, run dseditgroup followed by the operation, which can be read, create, delete, edit or checkmember as the operations (verbs). The -o is optional, so : dseditgroup -o read ladmins Or the following has the same output: dseditgroup read ladmins In the case of a namespace collision between two ladmins in two directory services then the one listed highest in the Search Policy would be displayed. The…

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  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    Hiding a Partition in Mac OS X

    September 5, 2009

    Utility or restore partitions are often meant to be hidden for users. The setfile command can be used to change attributes of files and volumes in Mac OS X, including the hidden attribute. To hide a volume called Restore you can use the following command: setfile -a V /Volumes/Restore

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  • Active Directory,  Mac OS X

    Snow Leopard + SkyHook = Kerb Problems?

    September 1, 2009

    In the Date and Time System Preference pane there is now an option to enable “Set time zone automatically using current location”. Assuming you have a Mac OS X computer with Wi-Fi and you use this option (which is not enabled by default) then your portable looks up your location automatically using the wireless access points surrounding you, which can then be looked up against the Skyhook database API and then changes your time zone based on your physical location. However, if your system looks back to the IP address of the KDC and sees a time offset that is greater than 5 minutes a few people have asked me…

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