Category Archives: Mac OSX

Great article on making a bootable OSX install image

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Quick summary:

  1. Download the installer from the App Store
  2. Goto Applications & right Click on Install OSX…. , select view Package Contents
  3. Under Shared support select InstallESD.dmg, hold the option key & drag it to the desktop (this will make a copy)
  4. use disk utility to format an 8GB USB stick as 1 partition, Mac OX Extended (Journaled) with a GUID Partition table.
  5. Then restore InstallESD.dmg to the stick.

Here is the article:
http://subrosasoft.com/blog/guide/create-a-bootable-mac-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-installer-flash-drive

SVN Diff GUI for MAC

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Using FileMerge with SVN

I have been just using console diff with svn until now. But I needed to
see some changes -> comparing example config files with real ones.

Here is a really good article with some good scripts.

http://www.defraine.net/~brunod/fmdiff/

local copy of scripts — put in /usr/local/bin

either run svn like:

$ svn diff --diff-cmd fmdiff <other diff options, files or URLs>

$ svn update --diff3-cmd fmdiff3

$ fmresolve <conflictfile>
$ svn resolved <conflictfile>

or make changes to ~/.subversion/config

editor = vi
diff-cmd = fmdiff
diff3-cmd = fmdiff3
merge-tool-cmd = fmmerge

Release a VMware Virtual Machine Created by VMware Fusion

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On the VM (Linux)

  1. Test Everything
  2. Review configurations
  3. Clean up – get rid of everything that you don’t need (for RPM based Linux):  du -sh /home/*;  ls -lh /tmp; yum clean all; find . -type f -size +100M -exec ls -lh {} \;
  4. Zero the drive space — on linux: cat /dev/zero > zero.fill;sync;sleep 1;sync;rm -f zero.fill

In VMware Fusion (Mac)

  1. Open the Settings UI for the Virtual machine, select the hard drive & click Clean Up Disk
  2. Select the VM in Virtual Machine Library; under select Virtual Machine -> Downgrade Virtual Machine
  3. Copy the vmx & vmdk files

On the Machine with VMware Converter

  1. # vmware-converter-client
  2. Click Convert Machine
  3. Set Source-Type: VMware Workstation or Other VMware virtual machine
  4. Select the vmx file 
  5. Click next
  6. Set Destination Type: Virtual appliance
  7. Enter the VM Name
  8. Enter the Directory to save the new virtual appliance
  9. Set the Distribution Format: Single File (*.ova)
  10. Click next
  11. Edit the Product Information and other text
  12. Click next
  13. Review
  14. Click Finish
  15. Copy ova file

On other VMware machines

  1. Test ova file

RELEASE
PARTY

Ref:
http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-shrink-vmware-virtual-disk-files-vmdk

Mac OSX Server from Ubuntu

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http://rajeev.name/2007/11/08/integrating-linux-into-open-directory/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Open_Directory

Looks like a good tutorial at:
http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/

http://linux.sys-con.com/node/803618

Little bit of a hint with mac network logins:
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060404091349425

Windows / Linux / Mac integration
http://weblog.bignerdranch.com/?p=6&page=3

IPv6 Auto Configuration from Static Windows Configuration

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Had an interesting issue today that has some significant security implications. I was working on an isolated test network. I had a DHCP assigned v4 address. This network is currently not using v6.

I had been having trouble accessing a few services, but since I was setting up a new system, did not really think much of it. Finally I had ssh take forever to come, but it did work, then it was responsive. Because I have seen issues with IPv6 on some of our networks, I did an ifconfig. I had the IPv4 address I expected, but I also had an IPv6 address from a network that we were supposed to be totally isolated from. Start the fire drill … trace all the connections … look at all the services. Where is this address coming from?

Turns out it was coming from a Windows box (XP, I think) that had a hard coded IPv6 address on it. This box was temporarily connected to our test network, but the IPv6 configuration had not been updated. I had both Mac OSX & Linux auto-configuring IPv6 addresses from this source.

The kicker was that this box is not a server, not a router, just a regular Windows client. — Yes it could provide services, but maybe only to a select few?

Here is the impact that really scares me: If I have this configuration and someone has v6 on but not getting something from a router, say at your favorite hotspot: everything that I have shared but firewalled only to those on my network is accessible. A network address based firewall filter is useless.

References:
http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_7-2/ipv6_autoconfig.html
http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_IPv6AutoconfigurationandRenumbering.htm
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172318.aspx
http://www.6diss.org/workshops/sca/autoconfiguration.pdf
http://ipv6.com/articles/general/Auto-Configuration-vs-DHCPv6.htm

Mac Hardening

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There are some basic things you will need to do to secure a Mac.

Make sure all accounts that are not needed are disabled:
chsh -s /usr/bin/false _uucp

Refs:
http://www.macshadows.com/kb/index.php?title=Changing_your_shell_on_Mac_OS_X