Alan Siu's Blog

Category: Uncategorized

  • Using MySQL with MunkiReport

    By default, MunkiReport uses its own embedded sqlite database, which apparently isn’t as robust as MySQL (the sqlite website has more information on sqlite’s appropriate uses and limitations). If you are extremely unfamiliar with MySQL databases, you may want to just stick with the default sqlite database until you are. I have a basic tutorial…

  • Restoring a Mac partition to its full size

    Usually, when you add a new partition to a Mac using Disk Utility, you can then just (minus sign) delete the new partition and Disk Utility will automatically expand your first partition to take up the free space. Occasionally, Macs will act weird and not fill up the free space and, more importantly, not let…

  • Packaging FileMaker Pro for Munki

    If your organization, school, or company has volume licensing for FileMaker Pro and want to make your package Munki-able, this is how you do it (based on Assisted install for FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Pro Advanced). Older: Find your FileMaker installer .mpkg file. This installer file will likely come on a read-only medium (read-only .dmg…

  • Still waiting for root device on an iMac

    I’ve had fairly good luck cloning Macs using Disk Utility and a Thunderbolt cable. Recently I ran into one stubborn one that wouldn’t boot up properly after the re-image. It went straight to a flashing Do Not Enter symbol. That was a bit confusing. Was there a physical connection problem with the drive? I could…

  • Changing the Energy Saver schedule via the command line on a Mac

    You can find a far more comprehensive tutorial at Power Management & Scheduling via Command Line, but if you want to change just the basic options, a command like this should do it: sudo pmset repeat shutdown MTWRFSU 22:00:00 wakeorpoweron MTWRFSU 6:00:00 That’s the equivalent of going to System Preferences > Energy Saver > Schedule…

  • Windows Explorer and Disk Management reporting different partition sizes

    I ran into an issue with a user running Windows on a Mac. Windows should have taken up the entire drive (which is 250 GB), but Windows Explorer was reporting about 90 GB. The really odd thing is that within Disk Management itself, it reported 90 GB on top (same as Windows Explorer) but then…

  • Troubleshooting Mac “printing – printer is in use” error

    I haven’t seen this a lot, but it’s common enough that you can find it in a Google search. Here are some of the top results: HP 7520 – Printer in Use – won’t print from MAC I have a new iMac running OS X 10.8.3. I am adding a Windows network printer by IP…

  • Permanently add a self-signed certificate to Chrome on a Mac

    Here’s a great tutorial on how to do so. The only thing I had to change was importing the certificate from Keychain Access instead of double-clicking the certificate. Otherwise, it works fine, and the screenshots are very helpful! If you prefer the terminal, you can save yourself a few steps at the end by using…

  • Deleting keychains at user logout

    Update: The easiest way to do this is actually to install Offset and then put a RemoveLastUserKeychains script into /usr/local/offset/logout-every (make sure it’s owned by root:wheel and has 755 permissions). Backstory This is a sequel to Deleting Mac Keychains in an Active Directory Environment, which talked about a way to delete keychains at logout using…

  • Restore Failure: An error (32) occurred while copying. (Broken pipe)

    The problem If you are cloning an image using Thunderbolt and Disk Utility (or even using Firewire instead of Thunderbolt), you may come across this error message: I’ve actually never experienced that with Thunderbolt (not saying it can’t happen), but I’ve had it happen twice using Firewire. At first I thought it was the cable…

  • iPad Gmail Mail “password missing” error

    This randomly happened after we set up a slew of iPads with the same email account (Gmail on Mail), and sending messages put the outgoing message into the Outbox with an error that the password is missing, with the options to Cancel or go to Settings. Going to Settings, though, offers no option to input…

  • Munki error “ERROR: Adobe Setup error: 79: Unknown error”

    I prepared a nice little Adobe Acrobat Pro package for Munki, and I tried to install it and got this error (ERROR: Adobe Setup error: 79: Unknown error). Turns out, that isn’t a Munki error at all: Re: [munki-dev] CS6 package wont install > Adobe Setup Error: 79 It has to do with some processes…

  • Google Maps’ “an error occurred, your last action was reverted” import error

    If you’re importing a .csv (or .xlsx) file into a Google Maps map, you may have seen an error like an error occurred, your last action was reverted. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be official word on all the situations under which that happens and what the estimated timeframe is for a full fix (even…

  • Enabling https for Apache server on Yosemite

    I found a bunch of different instructions, but these are the instructions that actually worked for me (regular Mac running Apache server) to get https working (self-signed certificate, so you will get the certificate warning from your web browser): Step 1 Self-signed SSL Certificate on Mac Yosemite Step 2 Enable HTTPS in Apache on Mac…

  • Finding commercial songs to legally put in a YouTube video

    If you’re making a movie and want commercial songs you can legally put into your YouTube-uploaded video, Google has a collection of licensed, ad-supported songs: Ad-supported music