MacBook Pro 15" Unibody keyboard trouble

Just had a look at a MacBook Pro with keyboard issues. Whenever you tried to type anything it'd make a "nope" noise. Restarted in single user mode "cmd + s", and whenever you tried to type it'd come up with all sorts of stuff.

I rebooted into Windows XP and could not use the ctrl + alt + del key to login. I assume it was a hardware failure at this point.

I tried to update firmware, I might have figured that there would be a keyboard firmware update but couldn't find any such thing.

I rebooted and connected an external keyboard which worked quite well, although when this was connected, occasionally it'd make a 'nope' noise.

I opened up the keyboard viewer in the top right corner and noticed that cmd + shift keys were always held down:

Looks like it thinks these keys are being constantly pressed.

Looking into replacing the keyboard, but after looking at this take-down tutorial and this video:

I think perhaps not.

Will update this when its' fixed.

MacBook Pro left hand fan noisy

After turning on one of our 2009 MacBook Pro 17", after about 5 seconds, the left hand side fan would start making a buzzing noise. Thought it'd be something rattling around with it, or maybe catching a wire so I took it apart.

When I took the fan with the casing out I noticed nothing catching. It seemed to be rattling of its' own accord. I found this good post on how to fix the fan. Basically just take the two screws holding it together off. Then prize the fan off the motor.

Inside I found a little tiny bit of grit underneath the magnet on the main base. I tried to get it out but it proved pretty tricky. After 5 mins I got most of the bits out (very tiny bits), and I oiled the fan axle.

I put it back together and it worked a treat.

Thank you very much  ifixit.com and nofilmschool.com. This internet thing is very helpful.

Number Lock (numlock) at login screen in Windows XP

After re-imaging a MacBook Pro with Windows XP, I noticed (annoyingly) that the num lock was always switched on upon boot up at the login screen! After googling it I found this post, which describes how to change it on startup in the registry. Simply change:


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators=3
to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators=1


This turns num lock off. Unfortunately, I think this just applies to whoever's logged in at the time, and doesn't apply to the login screen. Simple enough though, and is described at the bottom of the post in a reply (although for some reason he used some weird code - "2147483650" (string value)). I did this:


HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators=1


and it worked.

MacBook Pro with dull screen (no back light)

Just looking at a MacBook Pro 17" which, when booted up, seems to display a very dull image. I can only assume that the back light was not on. On rebooting the backlight turned on again. On switching it off and back on again, the backlight appeared to be on, but when it got to the login screen turned off again.

I assumed it was down to the sensor which detects how much ambient light there is, and turns brightness up or down accordingly. I decided it was probably best if it did not use this sensor. I went into system preferences and display and un-ticked the use sensor box.

Seems to have resolved the problem.

MacBook Pro Trackpad "not working properly" in Windows XP

Whenever I reimage MacBook Pro's with Windows XP I always have the same problem with the trackpad.

When you boot up, the trackpad does not function. Logging in and going to device manager you see that there is an exclamation mark over the trackpad. It simply says something like:

This device is not working properly. Error 16

Uninstalling, reinstalling, disabling, enabling does not fix it.

I reinstalled Bootcamp 3.0 drivers which did not help.

I found this forum quite interesting. Seems to mention about uninstalling some Windows Apple things in "Add/Remove Programs". But I didn't try this.

I next updated to Bootcamp 3.1 drivers and rebooted. Worked a treat!


.............
Update - 24/09/2012

Well, just reimaged a macbook pro and the same problem occurred. Installed Bootcamp 3.1 and it didn't work!

Finally had a look at the forum mentioned above and the solution they gave worked. More specifically:

1. go to Device Manager and update the driver for the trackpad.
2. click "No, not this time" for internet update.
3. Click, "install from a list or specific location".
4. click, "Don't search, I will choose a driver to install"
5. Choose the generic driver.
6. Click finish

The trackpad starts to work but no multitouch facilities. This is the point you install/reinstall bootcamp 3 and 3.1.

After this it works a treat.

Deploying 802.1X wifi profiles on OS X 10.6.6

I've just been told that the wifi routers and settings have just been updated and all MacBook Pro's need these settings updating too. Specifically for the 802.1X system Profile for logging in Wirelessly. I've put a few posts up about setting that up, and thankfully these new settings are very similar to the old.

ICT Services told me that the new wifi was WPA2 + AES, and had a different name.

What I really wanted to know was whether I could 'deploy' these settings to all the computers I administer. Well, it looks like the answer is 'Yes'.

I found this forum which discussed some command line tools which export and import, and change the settings. The command line tool was "networksetup" and I'm sure I've used it before.

Before starting down this route, I decided to look at the GUI, and I found that you could simply export all your settings as a file, double click this file to load it up on another computer. This, for the time being, was quicker (I realise not in the long run), but as my Short Term time was limited, I had to resort to it. Basically:

1. Set up one computer with profile and make sure it works
2. In Network Preferences, highlight Airport and click the cog at the bottom of the list
3. Select "Export Configurations..."



Airport Export Configurations...

1. 
   
4. I selected all the settings to export, thought there was no harm in this. Just being comprehensive.



Airport Export Configurations dialogue box

1. 
   

Loading this file on another computer worked just fine. Though in the end I just worked out all I had to change was the the previous System profile used the new Network.

I'll come back to the "networksetup' command line utility though, as it is the proper solution, meaning it could be fully automated - the ultimate solution.

Making a pkg file for installing sendLogon for Bloxx on OS X

In a previous post I described how we're getting a new web filtering system called Bloxx, which needs the sendLogon program to be installed and run as a login script on all the Apple Macs (OS X).

I used Iceberg free application to make the PKG file as I've used it before with relative ease, and also couldn't find the latest official Apple PKG maker app!!

Its all working now so here's how I did it:

1. Made a new project in Iceburg, and made a nice little folder to hold all the files needed (makes it easier to find things)
2. I filled in the top section "Settings"

3. Next was the "Scripts" section. I had to make a script which changed the com.apple.loginwindow plist file to add the LoginHook /usr/bin/login.sh
1. I ran nano from the command line (nano ~Desktop/sendLogonfiles/Install\ sendLogon/writeloginhook.sh)
    and typed:
2.  #!/bin/tcsh
   sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /usr/bin/login.sh
3. I found I had to put "sudo" into the script so that it had the right permissions to write to the file. Not sure why else it didn't work?
4. I saved the file and made the file executable - chmod 755 ~Desktop/sendLogonfiles/Install\ sendLogon/writeloginhook.sh
4. I then added this script to the "PostFlight" script, and set the path to "Relative". Note - I found an article here documenting the definition of each of these types of scripts. Most were concerned with whether this was an upgrade or not, and would only run once.

5. Finally was the "Files" section. 

1. I firstly put the files in the project folder.
2. I set these files with the correct permissions (as in the tutorial folder for sendLogon). chmod 755
3. Then, in Iceberg, I had to add the folders; /usr/ and /usr/bin/, which were not there.
4. I then made the "Default Destination" the /usr/bin/ folder
5. Finally I added the login.sh file and the sendLogon file.

I've just tested this through the Apple Remote Desktop Task Server on a single MacBook Pro and worked a charm (had to ring ICT though to add its' IP address to the Bloxx list of computers with sendLogon working)

Note: There is potential also for adding to this a little script which changes the proxy settings to the system and maybe also Firefox, but it would be easier to control these settings through a .pac file or .wpad file.

Bootpicker rebooting back into OS X i.e. not Windows

I have many computer suites which are set up as "Dual Boot". I install bootpicker through ARD and set the plist file settings through ARD also. I had a little trouble with some MacBook Pro's I set up in this way. It all appeared to work, what with the bootpicker screen coming up. But upon clicking "Windows" it rebooted the machine straight back into OS X.

This takes quite some time to realise if your busy multitasking, as you think: Oh, whoops, forgot to click Windows, better click it!

So I thought I'd best look into it. After a minute I figured out that all you need to do was a PRAM reset. i.e. hold down "cmd + alt + p + r" for at least one beep (maybe up to three)

After doing this it all worked beautifully. I guess there must be some setting in the PRAM which needs refreshing?

iMac 21.5" - 11, 2 - 10.6.6 - Installation and deployment - Part 2

After NetInstalling OS X 10.5.8 on the new iMac I got a black screen. I still think it was worth a try.

So, I swapped the "fully updated" one for another new iMac so I could start at OS X 10.6.4. Tried Active Directory and it worked fine, as well as NHR login scripts. So I jumped to the conclusion that it was in the use of "Migration Assistant" that some 'damage' occurred. But, I was still cautious of updating the operating system any further. My plan is/was to update everything else, image it, then update the operating system to see if everything still works and carry on accordingly.

So, I had to start from scratch and installed:

• Final Cut Studio 2 - had to install at least 3 times to get 'all' the files
• Aperture
• Adobe CS5
• Adobe Acrobat Pro 9 - no serial number
• CeltX
• Audacity
• iWork 09
• Burn
• ClickView
• DivX
• Firefox 3.6.13
• Handbrake
• Office 2008
• Mplayer Ex...
• DeployStudio RC20
• NHRBasic
• Flip4Mac
• ARD Client 3.4
• PCclient
• Don't have "Logic" Disks on server
• VLC 1.1.7

Scanners:

• HP Scanjet 4370
• Nikon CoolScan 8000
• Scanwizard Pro 7.20

Printers:

• 5550
• 3110
• Canon Pixma IP4500
• Konica 7300

Tablets:

• PenTablet 521-3 - I think this covers all the tablets we have.

Forgot also to add "Media" user to the local users.

I partitioned the HD via Boot Camp Assistant and formatted it as HFS+ Journaled, named "Scratch Disk". Just going to make the first image now.....

.... and now just updated to 10.6.6, and student login worked just fine! So to conclude, "Migration Assistant" probably isn't good for transferring apps across operating system versions.

I am now imaging using Deploy Studio, but having to clear a bit of space on the server so it can fit on. The space taken on the iMac is 85GB, it needed more then 130GB (not sure how much more) for doing server side compression, I've now freed up 200GB on the server. 78 mins till it's uploaded, but then it'll take the old server, bless the poor thing, quite a while to compress the image.

... I left it over night and it did it. A nice thing to note is that if you use a local repository, I think it doesn't use the server to compress the image.

Worked a charm, and even worked with multicasting, yay.

iMac 21.5" - 11, 2 - 10.6.6 - Installation and deployment

Just received 10 new 21.5" iMacs, version "11, 2" ,  with 10.6.6 installed. Very nice, with quad core and 1GB Hard Drives, but having a few different issues has caused me to put them back to 10.5.8 temporarily until the main issues are fixed.

To streamline the operation I decided rather then starting from scratch, I would use Migration Assistant to transfer accounts and applications from the latest MacBook Pro which had everything on. This worked very well, but in heinsight might have caused the issues below. These problems need testing on a fresh install of OS X 10.6.6.

Issues which I encountered:

• Students on Active Directory require to put details in more then once before they can login, for machines only just switched on!! I think this is to do with how quick the mac boots up, too quick to authenticate itself on active directory?
• NHR (Network Home Redirector) scripts not running at login or logout.
• Deploy Studio netboot not working; firstly freezing on the white screen with the grey apple (no spinning wheel, and secondly crashing and rebooting when loading the next screen after the one just mentioned.

With the students active directory issue (not properly tested on staff accounts), there was not much to try as I think it is more of a problem with Active Directory Servers or how OS X 10.6.6 communicates with them, which is too time consuming at present (there is pressure to deploy iMacs within the next 2 days at most). I did some simply exploratory fixes:

1. take off of active directory and put it back on
2. make sure everything was up-to-date
3. refer back to solution 1.

When there is more time I shall need to look into this, but also future releases of the operating system will fix these. One thing I would like to do is try active directory logins on a fresh install of the operating system

With NHR I downloaded the latest, 3.2.6, uninstalled and reinstalled. What might have caused the problems is that I transferred files from a MacBook Pro running 10.5.8, which might have transferred some of NHR Scripts but not all. I also tried the full version which creates more alias's. Unfortunately not much info on NHR website, no-one else seems to be having problems. One thing I would like to do is try the scripts on a fresh copy of 10.6.6.

After these two problems and diminishing time I decided it was best to revert to 10.5.8 until time would allow these problems to be resolved. But, I did not want my efforts to go to waste, so I decided to make a disk image of the machine with its' problems so I can continue later. Little was I to suspect any more issues. I held down 'N' for netboot to DeployStudio and the machine froze on the white screen with the grey apple (no spinning wheel). Doh! The problem was probably because the last deploy studio netboot image was made on a MacBook Pro 15" now 2 years old.

I subsequently made a new netboot image (nbi) from this iMac and tried again, this time to get the spinning wheel but to crash on trying to load the next screen! This was probably due to outdated DeployStudio (currently using RC14 on the server and RC 15 on clients). I updated the client to the latest and the same happened again! So I updated the server, but alas, the installer said the minimum requirements were not met!! Server is running 10.4.11!!! Needs updating!!! So I go traipsing around for the last version to support 10.4.11 server, which was a lot of hassle. I'd like to not that the DeployStudio website (both Wiki and main site) are not good for troubleshooting, with only the latest versions available. I finally found RC20 here. Eventually worked! Yay.

After this I went to make an image of the drive but alas, not enough room on the server. So I used Boot Camp Assistant in OS X 10.6.6, and partitioned the drive - 160GB for OS X and the rest for "Scratch Disk". I then NetBooted again and used Disk Utility to make a compressed Disk Image and put it on the Scratch. Turned out to be 79GB, original was 106GB.

So now to put OS X 10.5.8 on, which will hopefully work on this machine!!

MacBook Pro 17" fsck error EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8

Rob brought in his 17" MacBook which wouldn't get past the white screen with a gray apple and spinning dotty thing. I tried resetting the PR RAM. Next I tried single user mode with /sbin/fsck -yf. Results as shown:

Rebuilding B-Tree
could not repair volume
/dev/rdisk1s2 (hfs) EXITED WITH SIGNAL 8

Looked this up and found quite a few people with MacBook Pro's having the same error, looked to be related just with the file system and probably not a hard drive fault (hopefully). As Rob needed stuff off the HD I found only one command which might fix it, found it here:

1. Boot off the OS X CD (reboot, hold C while booting).
2. The installer will load up, go to Utilities in the menu and run Terminal.
3. Type df and look for the drive that has your Mac system mounted---you'll have to unmount this. On my MacBook Pro, it was /dev/disk0s2.
4. Type umount /dev/disk0s2, replacing disk0s2 with whatever disk your OS lives on.
5. Type fsck_hfs -r /dev/disk0s2. If you umounted the wrong thing, it will complain that you can't repair a mounted drive. Go back and umount the right thing and repeat this step.

I found netbooting to a deploy studio image had the same results as using the install disk. Coinsidence or not it, it was disk0s2 that was the OS X partition.

Anyway, it came up with another error, saying volume could not be repaired. I put it in target disk mode and mounted it on another MacBook Pro. It came up saying that there are serious issues with the volume which cannot be repaired, it is only being mounted to retrieve files which should be backed up immediately.

I used Migration Assistant to get the user account across, and copied other erroneous files. I re-partitioned and re-imaged the macbook pro and all is well.

 

OS X Active Directory login issues - delete parallels

I keep coming across Apple Macs which have been working in Active Directory and yet not letting users log in (or even use kerberos in Firefox). The general symptoms are:

• "Some network accounts available" at login screen (i.e. active directory not working, open directory working)
• not letting active directory users log in
• showing active directory working in "Directory Utility"
• letting you re-bind to active directory with no problems
• trying to use firefox with kerberos authentication comes up with "unable to ......." (can't remember the exact error)

I tried the simple fixes such as reset the PR Ram and fsck -yf. I was going to do a disk permissions fix but thought it'd take too long. I looked in the console and found a few kerberos errors.

I found that there were a few errors with the network settings. I found that because the image was taken from a computer with Airport, it hadn't updated this and thought the ethernet connection was in fact an airport connection. I deleted the "Chesterfield College" location and made it "automatic" but deleted the airport which fixed that. I also noticed two Parallels shared connection network interfaces, which were set up when I was trialing Parallels. On deleting these and logging out, active directory accounts worked. But on reboot the devices were remade. So there was some files somewhere which remade the connections. I thought it be quicker looking for help rather then looking for files, and on a quick search I found some helpful stuff. Before I come to that I did notice that Parallels was actually still installed. So I recommend first you delete Parallels from the Applications folder.

Next would be deleting parallels library files. I found this forum, and down the bottom they mention:

cd /Library/
sudo rm -rf Parallels
cd /Library/Preferences/
sudo rm -rf Parallels
cd /Library/StartupItems/
sudo rm -rf ParallelsTransporter
cd /System/Library/Extensions/
sudo rm -rf prl_hid_hook.kext
sudo rm -rf prl_hypervisor.kext
sudo rm -rf prl_vnic.kext
sudo rm -rf prl_usb_connect.kext
sudo rm -rf prl_netbridge.kext
cd /Users//
sudo rm -rf .parallels/
sudo rm -rf .parallels_settings

I of course did all of this, but I think just deleting the Parallels application should do the job.




.... well, had a little play around and it turns out it's best doing all of it and heres ARD send command thing (under root)



rm -R /Applications/Parallels
rm -R /Applications/Parallels\ Desktop.app
rm -rf /Library/Parallels
rm -rf /Library/Preferences/Parallels
rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/ParallelsTransporter
rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/prl_hid_hook.kext
rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/prl_hypervisor.kext
rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/prl_vnic.kext
rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/prl_usb_connect.kext
rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/prl_netbridge.kext
rm -rf /Users//.parallels/
rm -rf /Users//.parallels_settings

It's impossible to delete network devices via command line, but doing the above disconnects them, which is the next best thing.

Mac OS X Power Saving Schedule via Command Line

I now have, or want to have, all computers booting up on weekdays at 8:30 which will give me a good idea of which ones are working and which aren't via Remote Desktop. Also I have them shutting down at 16:50 as they will not be needed after this time (apart from times when they might be doing updates/scripts but I'll just have to remember this problem)

I also plan on changing the schedule for Half Terms and holidays so no extra power is wasted.

To control it all the xserve is set up to manage machine preferences and so through Workgroup Manager I change the preferences. A problem I'm having is that not all machines boot up at 8:30 even though they all appear in good working order. To check/manage preferences from Remote Desktop (to troubleshoot also) you can use the command line:

pmset -g sched

This works well and gives you what the schedules are. So far they are telling the right schedules:

N251-04899 (192.168.32.22)

Repeating power events:

  wakepoweron at 8:30AM weekdays only

  shutdown at 4:50PM every day

Scheduled power events:

 [0]  wakeorpoweron at 01/14/11 08:30:00 by Repeating

 [1]  shutdown at 01/13/11 16:50:00 by Repeating

I'll update this more when I find out more.

Installing ARD through commandline (trackpad not working)

So, an interesting problem with Jessas' laptop. The trackpad button thought it was always being pressed! A simple problem, but it would not allow you to do anything on the mac using the mouse. I tried lots of things including trying to tick the box which said "disable trackpad when mouse present, but it wouldn't let me. On top of that was the problem that it was OS X 10.4 and the command for ticking the box didn't work either:

defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.ignoreTrackpadIfMousePresent 0

So my next plan was to enable ARD on her laptop and remote in, it hopefully registering the ARD clicks (i could always block off the user with it too. Soooo, I eventually found this command:

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -clientopts -setvnclegacy -vnclegacy yes -clientopts -setvncpw -vncpw mypasswd -restart -agent -privs -all


The "kickstart" command does have a -help option. I found I had to edit some of these options because I couldn't get it to start straight away. Got there in the end.

MacBook Pro Sysprep

Well, it's been a while since I last ran sysprep so this is a quick refresher.

First, you can find the files on the XP install cd under "Support\Tools\Deploy.cab". Extract the cab file to the C:\ in a folder you want the files to be.

Run "Setupmgr", this will make an answer file "sysprep.inf" which sysprep uses.

Go through the wizard clicking on "sysprep" option, and "not fully automated", then go through it and put in all the details that will apply to the computers you will be putting it on.

Once the file is generated, run "sysprep" from the same directory as the inf file and tick "use minisetup" and "Detect non-plug and play hardware" so that there is potential for different hardware.

Finally click on "reseal" and the computer will shutdown. Now you can image it!!

Yay, I hope this helps

worth mentioning is the not so comprehensive information on it (typical of microsoft)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308662/
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302577#7
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;302577

Xgrid Startup troubles

Well, after a very long time of X-Grid being untested, I decided to open it up and see if I could utilise it for Blender (see other post), but alas, on startup of Xgrid on the server it crashes! Doh!

So, after a little looking through the logs I knew I wouldn't find anything so I googled it and after a few pages the answer was found:

http://lists.apple.com/archives/xgrid-users/2007/Sep/msg00012.html

So, basically do this in terminal on the server (or ssh)

sudo xgridctl c stop sudo xgridctl c off sudo rm /var/xgrid/controller/datastore.db sudo rm /var/xgrid/controller/status sudo xgridctl c start sudo xgridctl c on

He's added more, but this fixed it. I'll put the rest on though just incase it helps:

optionally, you could do:
sudo rm /var/xgrid/controller/blobs/*

(this can take a while if your database is old and has grown a lot of crap; another option is thus to rename the blobs to blobs-old and create a new one with the same permissions; then while the controller restarts happily, delete blobs-old).

Carefully check the permissions and ownership before messing up with / var/xgrid/controller.
The owner of most of the files is xgridcontroller (the name can be clipped of in a simple ls -al).


Just need to work out how to send a job to it (which is surely quite important!)

MacBook Pro wireless issues after re-imaging

I guess I'm lucky to have 18 MacBook Pro's to look after as it's good to be constantly updating my knowledge with new equipment.

I've been having issues just recently after re-imaging all the MacBook Pro with windows XP using an identical MacBook Pro as a Master. The Master worked perfectly, but in hiensight, I think before taking the image, I should have run Sysprep, doh!

Anyway, after re-imaging I thought everything would be fine, little would I know, a day before their planned use I decided to test the MacBook Pros and found only 3 working on the wireless. After many many trials and tribulations, including ICT Services looking into it, James had a proper look into the settings of the wireless (although these should have been properly filled in with the College Policies over the network - which I think is the cause for all the problems). John Tuck suggested at the cmd prompt "gpupdate /force" which forces an update of policies in Windows. Still no college logo at login screen though.

Under the "advanced network settings" under "wireless networks", ChesterfieldCollege should be in the list of "Preferred networks" (had to manually add). "Network Authentication shoudl be "Open" and "Data encryption should be "WEP". Tick "The key is provided for me automatically"

Under "Authentication"  tick "Enable IEEE 802.1X, "EAP type" - "Protected EAP". Tick "Authenticate as computer....". Go to "properties", and untick "Validate server certificate". "Select Authentication Method" should be "Secured password (EAP-MSCHAP v2)"

The last little thing which needed doing (quite annoyingly because it doesn't really make sense?) is that I think the computer has to somehow use some wireless system before it starts doing it automatically. I just connected to ChesterfieldCollegeOpen and disconnected. Then put it back down in the list of "Preferred Networks" because it automatically puts it at the top. This somehow kick starts the wireless into working again (YAY!)

Well, I hope I use this sometime in the future, although I very much doubt it! Oh well, it was quite therapeutic to talk myself through it.


One of the things which really stumped me on this one was that it took 3 days to finally work out that the wireless in the classroom was not working properly anyway. It was like fixing something using something else which is broken!


Also, next time I'll try and use screen shots, might make things easier to explain.