Mavericks Black Screen with Cursor (mouse)

Just encountered two Mac Mini's which, when turned on, show a black screen with a cursor which moves when you move the mouse. cmd + alt + esc doesn't do anything.

Tried:

1. reset PRAM
2. SafeBoot (hold down shift)
3. hold down cmd + s and type "/sbin/fsck -yf"

I gave up and reimaged these macs.

Did a bit of research afterwards and found this apple discussions on it. There were two suggested fixes. One involved blindly logging in which isn't an ICT Technician friendly fix. However, Spiro.r suggested:

1. ssh 192.160.0.1 -l username
2. sudo rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
3. sudo rm /Library/Preferences/loginwindow.plist
4. sudo rm /private/var/db/.AppleUpgrade
5. reboot


As ssh is by default turned off, you could also do this in single user mode (hold down cmd + s).

Apparently it is a problem with updates. It basically wants you to log in and OK an update, but seems to stop the login screen appearing. Not entirely sure anyone knows what's happening, but deleting these preference files and .AppleUpgrade fixes it. I shall try it next time I see it.

Apple Remote Desktop ARD preferences and presets transfer

It's always good to have a backup of all the preferences and tasks you have saved in ARD. I thought I had it sussed,  just need the file:

~/Library/Prefeences/com.apple.remotedesktop.plist

Turns out as of version 3.7 it's all been 'sandbox'ed. That means these prefences files have been moved to:
~/Library/Container/com.apple.remotedesktop/Library/Preferences/com.apple.remotedesktop.plist

But not only this, it has to have the right ACL's (permissions)

What I tried to do is copy this file between accounts and it ended up replacing the copied file with a blank one every time. It wasn't until I read this post which mentioned resetting ACL's. THis is the command they suggested using:

{ sudo chflags -R nouchg,nouappnd ~ $TMPDIR.. ; sudo chown -R $UID:staff ~ $_ ; sudo chmod -R u+rwX ~ $_ ; chmod -R -N ~ $_ ; } 2> /dev/null
So first I copied the com.apple.remotedesktop.plist file to  

~/Library/Container/com.apple.remotedesktop/Library/Preferences/com.apple.remotedesktop.plist

I then ran the command in terminal.

Then I logged out and back in again.

Crash bang wollop it worked.

Cheers

Canon LiDE 60 on OS X 10.6.6 and Active Directory probs

So, after installing the scanner (heres the notes) I then thought all would be fine. It turns out that students logging in through active directory would not be able to scan. It would not provide a preview of what was in the scanner, nor would it let you press the scan button.

On looking in the logs I found this entry:
28/03/2012 12:56:47 /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd[48] removing dropped transaction for -114,_mac_bind/Library/Preferences/CanoScan LiDE 60/~SGCheck.tmp

It appears the program cannot gain the right access privilages to this folder, as it is on a Windows SMB share (I think) through active directory.

On trying to create an alias to this using OS X finder I saw this error:
28/03/2012 13:02:29 kernel smb_maperr32: no direct map for 32 bit server error (0xc0000279)

As I have NHR installed, which redirects certain folders, I thought I'd try and redirect this /Library/Preferences/CanoScan LiDE 60/ folder.

After redirecting it to the local drive, I found it still not working. I found another error:

3/28/12 1:07:52 PM /System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/TWAINBridge.app/Contents/MacOS/TWAINBridge[4423] Allocator race detected: transaction is not verified for -114/2 - _mac_bind/Library/Preferences/~SGCheck.tmp
3/28/12 1:07:55 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd[48] removing dropped transaction for -114,_mac_bind/Library/Preferences/~SGCheck.tmp
3/28/12 1:07:59 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd[48] removing dropped transaction for -114,_mac_bind/Library/Preferences/~SGCheck.tmp
3/28/12 1:07:59 PM /System/Library/CoreServices/coreservicesd[48] removing dropped transaction for -114,_mac_bind/Library/Preferences/~SGRot.tmp

It looks like it needs to write two files to the ~/Library/Preferences folder:
~SGCheck.tmp
~SGRot.tmp

I regigged the LIclean.hook to delete the Preferences folder, create it in the tmp folder on the local drive, and to create a symlink in the users Library folder.

Having done this, it worked like a dream. I would preferably have it so that it just had a symlink to these files it needs, but they are probably deleted as soon as they're not needed any more, and that would be the end of the symlink until the next login.

Anyway, for reference, here are the lines I added to the LIclean.hook file:
rm -rf "$home_loc"/Library/Preferences
mkdir /tmp/$1/Preferences
ln -s /tmp/$1/Preferences/ "$home_loc"/Library/Preferences


Thinking about it I'll also need to sort the LOcleanupclean.hook file. Here's what I need to add:
rm -rf "$home_loc"/Library/Preferences

Thats a good days work.

Installing UniFLOW client on Mac OS X 10.6 and deploying it

So, we're going to be using a UniFLOW system for our print management. Everythings working fine, just need to deploy it to all the Apple Macs under my control.

Simply set up the printers on one machine. Load up Workgroup Manager and add these printers to whatever managed computer lists you have (but make sure the managed computers have the drivers installed first!)

Next is to install the client. Luckily it comes as a mpkg file! Just have to set the preferences to pick up the right server and settings

From what I can find the settings are in a plist file:
~/Library/Preferences/com.NT-Ware.UniFLOWMacClient.plist

Although In this file there were only a few things:

TEST
aaa

Doh!

But I have also found:
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.NT-Ware.UniFLOWMacClient.001b6399ade5.plist

Which contains:





LogFileName

LogonNoName

PopupForEveryJob

Reditect

ServerName
put.your.server.dnsname.here.com

(it didn't put all of the "<" and ">" things in!!

Result. Not sure what the "ByHost" folder is all about. I might look into it if just getting this plist file and putting in workgroup manager doesn't work.

So, I saved this file in the ByHost folder as ~/Library/Preferences/com.NT-Ware.UniFLOWMacClient.plist and added it to the Workgroup Manager - Managed Groups - Preferences - Details tab and set it to "Always".

Now when I load up the UniFLOW - MacClient app it comes up with the right server!

But for some reason it hasn't popped up when printing. Might be to do with the user. I'll try my login.......
.... yep worked a charm.

Just emailing the guy in charge to see if he can set up my test user the same as myself (I think the main thing to do is change the threshold for when the user gets notified).

Yep, turns out the test user account didn't have any budget or anything. Now he's sorted the account out, everything works fine!

Managed Preferences not working on a few Apple Macs

I look after about 140 Apple Macs, now with OS X 10.6.6. It was noticed that at least two, in one classroom, were not picking up printers and autologin items specified in Workgroup Manager as a managed preference.

It took a while but I found this forum which gave a good insight into troubleshooting managed preference on the Apple Macs. Here are a few tools:

• Go to About This Mac > System Profiler > Managed Preferences. It will show you what preference are managed, if any.
• From terminal use the command: mcxrefresh
• Also from terminal use: mcxquery - much better then the refresh for troubleshooting

After trying all of these it was apparent that the machine was not picking up anything! Nothing appeared in any of these tools, so I finally referred to Workgroup Manager.

The computer was in the list, with the right MAC address. I finally had a look in the All Computers list and sorted in order of MAC Address. I found that this MAC address was listed twice! I deleted the other instance and what do you know, it worked.

Note: Always check for duplicate entries in workgroup manager!!

Sorted.


To properly refresh the MCX preferences from the client machine logged in as a user you can:

1. Open Terminal
2. Make sure you're a SUDO user
3. type:
1. sudo mcxrefresh -n USERNAME_HERE -a
2. Password:
4. It came up with this error though:
1. 07] CFURLCreateWithString was passed this invalid URL string: '/Applications/Safari.app' (a file system path instead of an URL string). The URL created will not work with most file URL functions. CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath or CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPathRelativeToBase should be used instead.
5. but it did refresh all information and install the right printers!