Workgroup Manager Crashing on connecting to server

Recently I've had an issue with Workgroup Manager crashing when it connects to the Xserver:

Error of type eMemoryAllocError (-14901) on line 401 of /SourceCache/WorkgroupManager/WorkgroupManager-361.3.1/DirNodeRefController.m

Please not I'm using:

• Workgroup Manager Version 10.6.3 (361.3.1)
• OS X 10.6.8
• OS X Server 10.4.11

Doing a copy and paste in google brings up on 1 result which happens to be on Apple Discussions.  The discussion is exactly what I was looking for. Here it is.

Basically they describe the problem after a security update (not sure whether it was on the client or server). Luckily there is a work-around by ManuelSF, but people are not really liking it. Here it is:

1. open workgroup manager
2. click cancel at the login screen
3. go to server in the menu bar and select view directories
4. you should see your directory
5. click on the lock in the upper left-hand corner to unlock and edit the directory.

Works better then it did before surprisingly!

Creating a Master Image for Mac OS X 10.7

So, I've just got a bunch of new iMacs and I'm creating a new master so I thought I could note down what I'm doing.

1. Go through the initial steps of OS X 10.7.3
1. username - Administrator
2. fill in details
2. setup some System Preferences
1. in System Preferences > Users
1. Guests
1. Tick "Allow Guests to log into this computer"
2. Login Options
1. tick the "show username and password fields"
2. go to Join and open Directory Utility
1. Active Directory
1. domain students.chesterfield.ac.uk
2. name the computer
1. domain admin username and password
2. LDAPv3
1. put in mac server address
2. its all automatic
3. goto Edit > Enable Root User
1. enter a special root password
2. System Preferences > Network
1. Ethernet > Advanced > Proxies > Automatically Detect Settings
3. System Preferences > Date and Time
1. tick "set date and time automatically" and give it a****dc1.chesterfield.ac.uk
4. System Preferences > Sharing > Remote Management
1. Tick Remote Management
2. click "Options"
1. tick all of these
3. click "Computer Settings"
1. tick all of these
2. put a password for VNC
3. Install stuff:
1. Sendlogon
1. for proxy login
2. NHR
1. for Caches and other network folder redirections
3. Fix NHR and Sendlogon
1. so that sendlogon is added to the NHR login script
4. UniFLOW client
1. for print management info
5. Intuos drivers
1. for tablets
6. Brushes Viewer
7. Adobe Creative Suite 5
1. mount the CD Master dmg file and run the normal install file
1. don't need to drag it to the local drive
8. Adobe Acrobat Pro 9
1. just drag it to the Applications folder
2. run it once to put in serial number
9. Update Photoshop Camera RAW
10. Burn 2.5.1
1. for burning a multitude of different disks and ISO's
11. Carbon Copy Cloner 3.4.5
1. just drag app to Applications folder
12. Celtx 2.9.7
13. ClickView 2.0.0
1. comes with Flip4Mac
14. DivX 7.3
15. DropBox 0.7.110
1. drag to Applications folder
16. Firefox 13.0.1
1. drag to desktop
2. if there's no profile in the users library it defaults to "use system settings"
17. Google Chrome version 20
18. Sketchup 8.0.14345
19. Final Cut Studio 2



1. Running Final Cut Studio 2 from disk it comes up with:
1. You can't open the application FinalCutStudio.mpkg because PowerPC applications are no longer supported.
2. Doh!
2. I did a search on Google and found this Blog Article on how to manage it
1. Basically run the installer from Command Line by typing the following:
2. sudo installer -package /Volumes/Final\ Cut\ Studio/Installer/FinalCutStudio.mpkg -target /
3. Came up with lots of Errors though, as described in the blog:
1. 2012-07-09 13:02:25.728 installer[26889:9803] PackageKit: Token definition is missing bundle identifier, skipping: {
2.     path = "/Applications/Final Cut Pro.app";
3.     searchPlugin = CheckPath;
4. }
4. looks like it's searching for previously installed versions?
3. In the end it came up with:
1. installer: The install was successful.
4. although it usually takes a few hours to install, this took 8 minutes
1. It's because it didn't install the extras
2. To do so, you can do it from the disks:
1. Audio Content for Soundtrack Pro
2. Motion Content
3. DVD Studio Content
4. LiveType Media 1 and 2
1. comes up with the same PowerPC errors
2. Type:
1. sudo installer -package /Volumes/LiveType\ Media\ 1/Installer/LiveTypeMedia1.mpkg -target /
2. sudo installer -package /Volumes/LiveType\ Media\ 2/Installer/LiveTypeMedia2A.pkg -target /
20. XDCAM Final Cut Pro Plugin
1. Needs Final Cut Pro 6.0.3 or above. Installed version is 6.0.1.
1. Update via Software Update
21. Handbrake 0.9.6
22. iWork '09
23. Logic Studio
1. Same error as with Final Cut Studio
2. Found this website with similar results
3. Typed this:
1. sudo installer -package /Volumes/Logic\ Studio/Installer/LogicStudio.mpkg  -target / -verbose
2. decided to use verbose mode to see what exactly happens. Most interesting.
4. I think it helps if you have all your disks saved as disk images and all mounted at once. Seems to work.
5. Not sure if it installed the extras. To make sure I ran the Audio Content installer
6. What might be worth looking into is this forum above for installing extras
1. ran this as in the website above:
1. for f in /Volumes/Jam\ Pack\ Content\ 1/Installer/Packages/*.pkg; do sudo /usr/sbin/installer -pkg "$f" -target / -verbose; done
24. Maya 2008
1. although not the licence aw.dat file
25. Microsoft Office 2011
26. MPlayer OSX Extended R14
1. Plays nearly all Video formats
27. Nikon ViewNX 2
1. for Nikon Camera RAW stuff
28. Omni Disk Sweeper 1.7.2
1. for checking disk space issues
29. Libre Office 3.5.4
1. basically an off-shoot of OpenOffice
30. RealPlayer SP 12
1. for streaming stuff
2. might have to put in proxy settings?
1. not even sure if we're using this?
2. yes, it is setup by autodetect settings
3. set through ~/Library/Preferences/com.RealNetworks.RealPlayer
4. particularly "RealPlayer\UseSystemHTTPProxy" string "1"
31. Skype 5.8.0.945
1. you never know!
32. SMART board 10.8
1. Apparently rolling out 11 next year
33. VLC Media Player 2.0.2
34. Canon MFD drivers
1. whoops, missed off these!
4. Log out and back in as Networked user to connect to internet (with sendlogon)
1. Note: needs to be on the Mac VLAN to use sendlogon
2. Test Safari and other things for internet connectivity
1. working
3. Do an Apple Software Update
1. update from 10.7.3 to 10.7.4
2. airport update
3. iTunes 10.6.3
1. connection reset by peer
2. looks like a manual download
4. Camera RAW update
5. etc...
4. Microsoft Update
5. Adobe Update
6. App Store Updates!
1. it's a new one to me
2. you also NEED an Apple ID!
3. having a few problems downloading BIG updates for iPhoto and iMovie

1. seems to stop 400MB into the download and says it's having trouble
2. Lucky thing is that it carries on from where it left off, so just keep pressing the retry button and it'll eventually download it all
4. Install more Apps:
1. iBooks Author
1. for making iBooks!
5. SketchBook Express
1. made by SketchBook Pro people
6. Need to look into App Store Permissions
1. can anyone install via the App Store?
2. is it just saved to their Home Drive?
3. Confussed!
4. this forum might help
7. Test all Applications:
1. Illustrator
1. Working
2. Photoshop
1. Working
3. InDesign
1. Crashes when you try the Spell Check
1. turns out NHR gives the wrong permissions for the ~/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe folder
2. I changed NHR so that this Adobe folder is a symlink instead of the child folders for Illustrator and Acrobat
1. added these lines to LIclean.hook
1. rm -rf "$home_loc"/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe
2. mkdir /tmp/$1/Adobe
3. ln -s /tmp/$1/Adobe/ "$home_loc"/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe
3. overwrote LIclean.hook in NHR.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz
1. first unzip it
2. replace file
3. zip it back up again:
1. ditto -c --keepParent /Archive/Library Archive.pax
2. gzip -9 Archive.pax 
4. Fireworks
1. working
5. Flash
1. working
6. Dreamweaver
1. hangs when loading up.
2. updating to 11.0.4

1. now it prompts to load up extension manager every time!
2. but it does end up loading Dreamweaver
7. Acrobat Pro
1. Working
8. Aperture
1. Working
9. Audacity
1. Working
10. BookSmart
1. permissions issue with .app folder
1. gave everyone read only
2. crashes on load up
1. found this entry in Console Log
1. 06/07/2012 15:21:23.621 [0x0-0xb40b4].com.blurb.booksmart: log4j:ERROR setFile(null,true) call failed.
2. 06/07/2012 15:21:23.621 [0x0-0xb40b4].com.blurb.booksmart: java.io.FileNotFoundException: metrics.log (Permission denied)
3. 06/07/2012 15:21:26.275 com.apple.launchd.peruser.2069522553: ([0x0-0xb40b4].com.blurb.booksmart[6906]) Exited with code: 1
2. assuming it's a problem with folder permissions in ~/Library/
3. not sure it's worth fixing?
11. Word
1. worked
12. Powerpoint
1. worked
13. Excel
1. worked
14. outlook
15. Google Chrome
1. crashes on startup
1. loads a window with google mail login screen and then sends crash report.
2. just tried creating a symlink to the local drive for ~/Library/Application\ Support
1. ln -s /Users/Shared/temp/Google ~/Library/Application\ Support 
3. Works a treat
4. Need to add this to NHR scripts
1. Viewed the Package contents of NHR.pkg
2. unzipped Archive.pax.gz
3. went into Library/Scripts/
4. edited LIclean.hook
1. added these lines:
2. mkdir /tmp/$1/Google
3. rm -rf "$home_loc"/Library/Application\ Support/Google
4. ln -s /tmp/$1/Google "$home_loc"/Library/Application\ Support/
5. made it into an Archive.pax.gz file (found in this forum)
1. ditto -c --keepParent /Volumes/General\ Work/Problem\ Solve/NHR\ with\ new\ redirections/Archive/Library /Volumes/General\ Work/Problem\ Solve/NHR\ with\ new\ redirections/New-12-8-2012/Archive.pax
2. gzip -9 /Volumes/General\ Work/Problem\ Solve/NHR\ with\ new\ redirections/New-12-8-2012/Archive.pax 
6. put it back in the Package Contents
5. done
2. Picks up Proxy settings from operating system
16. Firefox
1. works a charm
2. Picks up proxy settings from system
17. Celtx
1. worked
18. Clickview
1. needs the server set as clickview.s*******.chesterfield.ac.uk
1. set in file: ~/Library/Preferences/clickview.player.server.plist
2. either set on xserves managed preferences
3. or on the OS X managed preferences
19. fix everything please
1. works beautifully
20. Sketchup
1. worked
21. HandBrake
1. Worked
22. iBooks Author
1. Worked
23. iMovie
1. Worked
24. iPhoto
1. prompts to upgrade library and fails as it is on an unsupported media
1. Known Problem
25. iTunes
1. worked
26. Pages
1. Worked
27. Keynote
1. worked
28. numbers
1. worked
29. Libre Office
1. worked
30. MPlayer OSX extended
1. Worked
31. realPlayer
1. worked
32. SketchBook Express
1. Worked
33. Skype
1. worked
34. Notebook
1. needed license but we have it
2. worked
35. Final Cut Pro
1. worked
36. Logic
1. worked
8. Log out of Networked user account
5. Image a Master from the machine
1. Unbind from Active Directory
2. delete unwanted files
3. Boot from another disk. Either:
1. Netboot (if possible?)
1. not possible because server is running OS X 10.4.9 with Deploy Studio RC20
2. boot from install CD, mount server drive and image machine using disk utility
1. does not come with disks anymore
2. found this article explaining the new procedures
1. boot up into Recovery Mode (command + R)
1. Nice article here about Recovery Mode
3. target disk mode to a machine which can netboot (or run the /Utilities/Deploy Studio Runtime)
4. Make a image from a disk
6. test the master image works
1. get another machine
2. Unmount disk which is being re-imaged and image it. Several Ways:
1. target disk mode to another machine
2. Recovery mode (command + R)
1. go to terminal
2. type:
1. mkdir /Volumes/Images
2. mount -t afp afp://admin:password@name.of.server.uk/Images /Volumes/Images
3. exit terminal
4. open disk utility
5. restore
6. source - select disk image on the server
7. target -  select partition
3. done
7. 
   
1. 
   

Apple Remote Desktop Task Server trouble

Just after rebooting the xserver I noticed an error in the logs made by ARDAgent:

Jan 27 14:20:19 Xserve ARDAgent[460]: Bind error on TCP port 3283.  Error number: 48 Address already in use

Looking at remote desktop on my machine I noticed it was having trouble communicating with the task server. I tried restarting the ARD service to no avail.

I looked through some more logs as it appeared that something else had taken that port. The only logical things would have been iChat and another VNC service running. I checked IChat out and it wasn't running. I did find another log entry just after reboot, but before the ARD error which was registered to OSXVNC. Sure enough this was running. I shut down the service and made sure it wasn't starting up any more at startup.

As soon as this was done the task server was back up!

Xserver OS X 10.4.11 no ping

We've been having this problem where the server doesn't return a ping for some time. The work around is to simply unplug the network cable and plug it back in. I have noticed on two occasions (I didn't check the other occasions) that in the system log:


Jan 27 14:38:44 Xserve servermgrd: servermgr_dns: no name available via DNS for 172.25.1.81
Jan 27 14:38:44 Xserve servermgrd: servermgr_dns: no reverse DNS entry for server, various services may not function properly
Jan 27 14:38:44 Xserve servermgrd: servermgr_dns: gethostname() doesn't match the configured name - use changeip to repair

It might be worth running this "changeip"

Deploy Studio RC20 MultiCasting on OS X 10.4.11 xserver

After finally finishing the Master image it came in at 72GB! Takes about 3 hours to image one machine and 6 hours for two. So I thought I'd give Multicasting another go (I tried it a couple of years ago with lots of lost packets!). Also just heard they refitted the server room so maybe this'll help.

It was set up a few months back when we had DHCP problems caused by upgrading DeployStudio to RC20. You get the option to set up Multicasting when you set up DeployStudio Server. Here's my post

So taking a new iMac 24" and an old white 21" iMac I thought I'd set up Multicasting. First in DeployStudio admin I clicked the image and clicked the Multicast button at the bottom (looks like the Airport icon)

Airport Icon at bottom denotes MultiCasting

This now shows it's multicasting in the Activity section.

I've set up a workflow to restore an image to a volume, and in this set up some Multicast options.

Setting up Multicast options in a workflow

So far I have tried:

• Attempt 1
• Stream Rate 6MB/s
• Clients Disk Speed 120MB/s (I wasn't sure about the older 21" iMac so I slowed it from 200MB/s)
• Start Trigger 2 client
• Result:
• Stream Rate 5MB/s
• Disk Rate changes from 5MB/s to 15MB/s

I've been writing this as the process is going, and just noticed at 12:48 that some errors occurred. I noticed that this happened around the time that I loaded DeployStudio Admin on my machine, so I think this might have caused a slight interruption on the server (and it is 7 years old now). I do remember that I once remote'd into a machine whilst imaging which interrupted it. So the process is a little delicate. I shall wait to see if it has effected the process or whether it can cope with a few byte missing here and there?

After waiting until the 100% marker (which took 3 hours) it seemed to have stopped with no more errors, although it didn't quite finish. It said something about "starting" but just stopped there. I waited for another hour with no more progress so decided to reboot. Upon reboot the startup disk was not set, and the came up with the white screen with a question mark!

My initial conclusion was that the process had failed, but in hindsight I think that maybe the computers were waiting the data that was lost to be broadcast again, but this might be me clutching at straws. I shall look into it at the end of August. For now we'll just have the old method to use.

ARD - Apple Remote Desktop - Authentication Problem Adding computers to list

I've had a problem with ARD for a long time now and only within the last few weeks found out a work around.

When trying to add new machines to my lists in ARD from the "Scanner", the authentication window pops up for less then 1 second and then disappears! The machine doesn't get added to any list. The same occurs if you try to do anything on an unauthenticated computer (i.e. not in a list) including; view the screen, control the screen, send unix commands etc... I have OS X 10.6.6, but I've had this problem also on 10.5.8, ARD 3, but this problem might have been present in ARD 2 also (it's been a while). I also have a 10.4.11 server running as a Task Server.

Things I tried.

• I thought it might be a problem with the ARD client so I reinstalled and updated, restarted the service.
• It might be a problem at my end. So I've reinstalled ARD, although I've not been brave enough to delete all my plist files and preferences. I could have also tried logging in as another user and adding the machine, this would have ruled out my preferences.

I finally just tried adding a machine manually (in the bottom left corner + sign of a computer list), all you need is the IP address and authentication details (username and password) and it worked perfectly.

Note (26-07-2012): Well, I finally figured it out (a year later). Turns out it's a conflict with IP addresses. We use DHCP addressing here, and if an IP address hasn't been used in a while it'll get given to another computer. I've replaced a few old ones and a couple had taken the IP addresses of the older macs. When I tried adding them it would notice another one in its' list with that IP address and not know what to do.

To fix, simply find the computer with the same IP address in the master list, right click and get info. Delete the IP address (as it obviously isn't that anymore), and adding the new machine will work perfectly.

Imaging OS X 10.6.6 on OS X server 10.4.11

I have over 100 Macs which need reimaging this summer. To make it nice and simple they will all have 10.6.6 installed. Unfortunately I only have a 10.4.11 server (PPC) which I don't think will be upgraded before summer ends! At the moment I have 9 brand new 27" iMacs which don't like the current version of Deploy Studio RC20.

The reason I only have RC20 installed it that this was the last version to support OS X 10.4.11. Now, I also have 9 24" new'ish iMacs which do work with Deploy Studio RC20, and some relatively new Mac Pro's which definitely work with Deploy Studio RC20. So it is still worth perhaps using it for the 90 or so Macs and resort to other techniques to reimage the 9 which don't work. Of course over time I will need a new system but to have a really good new system we'll need time.

So the plan is to carry on using deploy studio for 90% of the Macs, and resort to something else for the last 10%. Alternatives are:

• Carbon Copy Cloner
• SuperDuper
• The install disk
• the install disk on a removable hard drive
• A bootable 10.6.6 on a removable hard drive

Well, I've looked up CCC and can't find any reference to it having some bootable interface. It simply copies a hard drive to another, which to be fair could be bootable, so I might do this.

I'm currently trying the easiest of these which is to use the install disk. I've managed to find the command line for mounting an AFP share. So I've open terminal from the booted up install disk and typed:

mkdir /Volumes/tmp
mount -t afp afp://username:password@server.somewhere.ac.uk/Images/ /Volumes/tmp/

The image that was taken from the 10.6.6 27" iMac was either done in DeployStudio helper or Disk Utility. When trying to restore this image to a drive in Disk Utility it has come up with an error message:

Restore Failure Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned/scanned for restore

I did a quick search and came up with this. I do now remember that to restore off a network share using disk utility it does need to be scanned for restore. Put the image in Disk Utility and go to: Image > Scan for Restore. This takes a long time on the old Apple Server G4, but not so long on the new 27" iMacs!

It should be ready for restore now...

Restored 70GB compressed in 1 hour 45 over the old network, which isn't too bad. I don't think it'll be able to do multiple machines very efficiently though.

The next process is to try and create or use an old netboot image to netboot the slightly older machines. So it only gets easier from this moment onwards.

Mac OS X Default Paper Size plist file

For some reason in one room in particular when someone prints to the Dell Colour Laser 3110 the default paper size is Letter. I thought I'd set it up a long time ago not to be. So I've found this thread which mentions the file location for default paper size:

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.print.PrintingPrefs.plist

It contains:

DefaultPaperID
iso-a4

Add this to a plist file to the "details" tab in a computer list group in workgroup manager and see what happens.

Deploy Studio Set up RC20

So after my trials and tribulations with Deploy Studio RC20 we ended up uninstalling it completely so as to rule it out. But alas, it was needed and so upon reinstalling it, I found that I needed to set it up again. So refering back to my notes........ doh, didn't make many notes (in fact I only made one note), and so I am writing this 'note' on how I did it.

So, I worked out that you need to start the service before setting it up. It's because it gives itself it's name based on the server address, and does other things. So, after this I refered to the pdf I downloaded, which is a little out of date and NOT made by the people who made Deploy Studio (I have no idea why?). So basically:

This network sharepoint was setup previously

These groups were also setup previously

These settings are the default settings and haven't been tested. It did state in the PDF that the IP address should be that of the server, but this is incorrect. It has to do with multicasting.

So, hopefully this helps in the future. Let it be known that I have taken notes!