Alan Siu's Blog

Tag: mac

  • Script AutoPkg trust verification and trust update process

    Starting with version 1, AutoPkg began evaluating trust info for recipes, so you could see what changes were made to a recipe (if changes were made) and then accept the changes if you wanted to. Here is what the typical trust verification workflow looks like. Whether running a list of recipes via script or via…

  • Capturing new FileMaker Pro updates for macOS

    For older FileMaker Pro versions, there used to be downloadable updates on the FileMaker website, but starting with FileMaker Pro 15, they decided to have FileMaker updates on macOS go through FileMaker itself: As you can see here, they expect your user to have admin privileges. If you’re managing Macs (through Munki, for example), you…

  • Distributing Inspiration using Munki

    If you have a volume license and want to distribute Inspiration to your Munki clients, just activate Inspiration on one Mac and then import the activated Inspiration.app bundle into Munki. That’s it.

  • Skipping Apple updates in Managed Software Center manual checks

    Why would you want to selectively disable Apple software updates? Munki allows you to change a preference on client machines to check for and install Apple software updates. This is pretty cool. It means I can bundle Apple software updates and third-party software updates together for my users. But sometimes, it’s a little frustrating when…

  • Google Drive “low space, can’t sync” in selective sync

    I recently ran into a weird situation in which the Google Drive desktop app was complaining about there not being enough space to add a folder to my selective sync options. It made no sense. I had at least 100 GB of free space on my drive, and I wanted to additionally sync only another…

  • Can’t paste from Google Docs to Microsoft Word on Mac

    Obviously not the one solution for any time this happens, but I’ve come across this only once (just now), and this is what worked. The problem was the user was copying from a Google Doc and then trying to paste into a Word doc. Nothing pasted, even though the Edit menu item flashed blue as…

  • Getting Wabbit Emu to work on a Mac retina display

    Acknowledgements Huge shoutout to @damienbarrett on the Mac Admins Slack Team for the fix. I’m just documenting it here, in case anyone else runs into this problem and is searching for the solution. Problem You launch up Wabbit Emu and try to run your TI-## calculator ROM, and the onscreen buttons don’t match up with…

  • Fix “invalid node structure” error in macOS

    Note: If you’re getting this error on an OWC drive, it is hardware issue. If your drive is still under warranty, contact OWC about a replacement. One of our Macs got a filesystem error of “invalid node structure.” You can still mount the drive (if you want to get at the user data), but the…

  • Scripting manifest creation in Munki

    If you’re new to Munki, you probably have an entire fleet of Macs you have to manage. It could be hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands. You’re not going to enroll those all by hand, are you? But please be intentional about how you structure things. Before you run off scripting, read Another opinionated guide…

  • Seashore breaks with Sierra; use GIMP (or Photoshop) instead

    For many years, GIMP didn’t have native macOS support (you needed X11 to make it work). Seashore wasn’t as fully featured as GIMP, but it was native. As of Sierra (macOS 10.12), Seashore just crashes when you try to launch it. R.I.P., Seashore. Fortunately, if you’re looking for a free alternative to Photoshop, GIMP is…

  • Another opinionated guide to Munki manifests

    Why this guide? The setup I would recommend What are the benefits of this approach? Bulk-creating manifests from serial numbers Switching to serial numbers from a different setup Subfolders for included manifests And then, going forward? Why this guide? When I first started using Munki, all the terminology was a bit overwhelming to me, even…

  • Set ShoreTel Communicator server name with a profile

    When you install ShoreTel Communicator’s Mac app, it launches up and asks you for a server name, username, and password. The username and password will be specific to each user, but the server name will likely be the same for everyone, at least at a small- or medium-sized organization. So if you have Mac clients…

  • Using a profile to re-enable Safari plugins

    Recently (not sure the exact date), Apple started disabling certain Safari plugins by default. That’s great for security, but it’s not that great for usability, especially if users actually want to use those plugins. If you want your users to enable plugins themselves manually, they can follow Apple’s instructions at How to use Internet plug-ins…

  • Freeing up licenses from deactivated users in CrashPlan

    If you have CrashPlan PROe licensed for a certain number of users at your organization, but then you run out of licenses, you may think you can just deactivate users, and that’s all good, but in Deactivating & Reactivating Users & Devices, Code42 is a little vague on how long it will take for the…

  • Setting up deferred FileVault encryption

    In Enabling FileVault Encryption for Client Macs, I mentioned that deferred enablement is one option for mass-deploying encryption to clients, with the major downside that you can enable it for only one user and not multiple users at once. If you do want to go that route, though, this is the command (assuming you’re using…