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.

No preboot keyboard shortcuts working on White iMac 17" and 21"

We've had both 17" and 21" white iMacs for about 5 years and in that time I've re-imaged them at least 5 times (once a year) using NetBoot (hold down "N" on preboot). But recently I've noticed that these iMacs no longer register any pre-boot shortcuts including reset PRAM ("alt" + "cmd" + "p" + "r"). This means if I have a problem with them (i.e. if the hard disk fails) I won't be able to work any magic on them. Luckily I've not had any trouble yet but in time it'll need sorting out.

I originally assumed it was the last image i'd put on them, or the way in which I'd done it but noticed, but I didn't think that would effect anything pre-boot, like firmware.

I've done a few searches and found mostly mentions of Bluetooth/Wireless keyboards having this issue and one mention of 3rd party keyboards, but no real success finding anyone with this particular problem. I did a few more searches and found this which does sound more promising. The only difference being it does holding down "c" and "alt", but I didn't try these as I just assumed they would work after trying PRAM reset and "cmd" + "s" single user mode. (Never assume anything!)

A person down the bottom says the PRAM battery might have failed, which would make sense as they are over 5 years old and are unplugged for large periods of time (for security measures). The next question: How to replace battery in old white iMacs?

For the time being I shall just have to rely on them working and use the system prefs to alter startup disk.

OS X 10.6.6 Active Directory login Extension Manager doesn't load

Well, what do you know. I updated from Dreamweaver version 11.0.0 to 11.0.3.4964 using AdobeDreamweaver-11.0-All-Update.dmg. Seems to work nicely now, I see a splash screen and next it tells me Adobe Extension Manager needs to load to finish the update.

Of course now this "Extension Manager" has the same problem DreamWeaver had. It just pops up and sits there not doing anything. But it does let Dreamweaver finish loading and lets me use Dreamweaver. The only real downside is that I get this message every time I load dreamweaver. In console I get about 20 similar error messages:

27/07/2011 15:04:35 Adobe Extension Manager CS5[3434] *** __NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object 0x210a5f0 of class NSView autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking

Pretty funny: "no pool" and "just leaking"

On a quick search I found this post. Someone mentions a problem with Adobe Air but might be refering to a Windows problem. I shall update just in case.... updated from 1.5 to 2.3, which doesn't solve the problem.

I'll try loading this up using a local account, maybe it updates files on the Hard Drive, or maybe it updates files on the Users Home Drive?

Loaded it up on a local login to find that extension manager is a manager which helps control updates! I wish it could be easier, why another program? It updated Dreamweaver just fine. I think all it had to do was to log down that an update had been carried out.

It appears this Extension Manager runs on a "per user" basis, and hence does keep coming up on Active Directory logins until the process is complete. So if I don't want to see the error message again I'd have to fix the Extension Manager problem.

As a work around, I could copy whatever files it creates in a local users library to the active directory users library which might work, but it might create special codes.

OS X 10.6.6 Active Directory login Dreamweaver doesn't load

On trying to load Dreamweaver up on an Active Directory account running OS X 10.6.6 Dreamweaver trys to load but stops almost straight away with no error! It still runs but doesn't even load a splash screen. When logging in on a local account Dreamweaver works a charm.

A quick search drew up a few posts, heres an example. Most point to permissions issues on the "Configuration" folder in /Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver CS5. This was mainly caused by FileVault which is obviously more common then people using Active Directory logins. The only solution of which is to switch FileVault off! Of course we can't just switch off Active Directory logins though!

I do have NHR installed, and with the Caches folder being relocated to the local drive I know it is not this. I figured it might be another folder dreamweaver tries to use. Here are the other files:

• /Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/Dreamweaver\ CS5
• /Library/Preferences/Adobe\ Dreamweaver\ CS5\ Prefs

there's also a plist file in the Preferences folder but I deleted it and it has not been recreated. Something like

com.adobe.dreamweaver

I've also been having a few issues with the Application Support folder, which occasionally doesn't let me write files or folders to it, which causes problems like these. I originally thought it was this which caused the problem, but since rebooting I can now access the App support folder and dreamweaver still doesn't work.

Just playing around with NHR. I've adapted the script so that it creates a symlink for /Application Support/Adobe rather then some of the folders inside. Should be simpler. Didn't solve the problem though.

An error does keep appearing which is related to the file used in /Library/Preferences. Called:

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Prefs

Whenever I load Dreamweaver up (or try to) this appears in Console

27/07/2011 14:04:59 Finder[2463] CFPropertyListCreateFromXMLData(): Old-style plist parser: missing semicolon in dictionary.

I've tried to create an alias of this file on the local hard drive which doesn't seem to make any difference. My only guess is this always comes up.

I shall endevour to locate any other files Dreamweaver may use. Upon loading dreamweaver on a local login I found a lot more files in the Configuration folder in Application Support. I also found that the "Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Prefs" file had more text in, so I copied these over to the networked account to see if it would change anything. Nope.

If anyone has any other information I would be glad to here it. I'm going to have to revert to a local account to use Dreamweaver until then!!

Well, what do you know. I updated from Dreamweaver version 11.0.0 to 11.0.3.4964 using AdobeDreamweaver-11.0-All-Update.dmg. Seems to work nicely now, I see a splash screen and next it tells me Adobe Extension Manager needs to load to finish the update.

Of course now this "Extension Manager" has the same problem DreamWeaver had. It just pops up and sits there not doing anything. But it does let Dreamweaver finish loading and lets me use Dreamweaver. The only real downside is that I get this message every time I load dreamweaver.

I'll try loading this up using a local account, maybe it updates files on the Hard Drive, or maybe it updates files on the Users Home Drive?

Installing Canon Multi Function Devices iR C4080/C4580 on OS X 10.6.6

We've got a print server set up which controls the print queues for the new(ish) Canon MFD devices around college with the potential for charging. I think it uses some Canon type software to keep a track of it all. So, on speaking to the guy managing all this he has tried and tested it. Pretty simple really, not sure why I'm writing this down. I guess just in case I have acute amnesia.

So:

1. Install the PPD's from the downloaded PKG file (not sure where it's from but I did find something similar here on the Canon Website under PPD drivers. Same name and size.) called - CanonPPD300.pkg.
2. Load up System Preferences and go to Print & Fax
3. Add printer (the little plus sign in the bottom left)
4. Setup an IP printer
1. Line Printer Daemon - LPD
2. put the DNS address of the server (no "LPD://" at the beginning)
3. put in the queue name - CanonCOLOUR - for our printer
4. whatever name you want
5. whereever
6. Click "select printer software"
1. do a quick search for "4080" and click on "Canon iR C4080/C4580"

Done. Tested and works a treat. 

To print black and white, in the File > Print dialogue box:

Click:

1. Printer Features option in the main drop-down just below "Orientation options"
2. Change Feature Sets to "Color 1"
3. Change Color Mode to "Black and White"

Done.

Animation thumbnails as Animated GIFs

I have an idea to thumbnail all my animations for my website. The problem is: In what format should they be?

Well, the only universally acceptable format is of course "Animated GIF". Supported on ALL browsers, across ALL devices! With JAVA being another more complex alternative.

Anyway, to start testing it I was using my "Letters in a Box" animation.

So, I started by opening it in "Quicktime Pro" and exporting as an image sequence, but the images had bad facets (MPEG encodings) issues. It looks like quicktime looks at individual frames but the movie was compressed in DIVX which probably requires DIVX pro to re-convert into nice looking images again. Doh!

So my next idea was to take it into Final Cut Pro, which did a fantastic job at converting to an image sequence! Even though it should be the same as Quicktime Pro (in a way).

So now I open the image sequence into Photoshop, and file > export for web and devices. Click on any of the GIF options. The file sizes were VERY big though. But I am quite adamant that I want the entire animation thumb-nailed as it's one of the principals of the website.

So I made it 100px width and tried all the different GIF variants. I also played with the frame rate. Here's some examples:

1 fps, 128b dithered, 104K

12 fps, 32b dithered, 548K

12 fps, 32b dithered, 100% lossy, 84K

5fps, 32b not dithered, 156K

Oh, and in Photoshop I forgot to loop it. It's in Export for Web and Devices > loop option bottom right.

I shall conclude this another day

Just found this Red Design website which has pretty much the same idea, well executed. I had a look at image sizes and all came in at around 1kb. I think this would be due to the amount of frames, which is about 10 - 15 frames long, whilst these are around 100 - 200 frames long.

iPad setup and Deployment

So, I was shown this document on iPads in Business and it seems quite relevant to our situation. Looks like the setup is controlled by xml files which is nice, and there is potential for managing them wirelessly. The app we need is the "iPhone Configuration Utility" of which the latest version, 3.2, is only supported on OS X 10.6. Looking at back-dates I've found version 2.1 which apparently works on 10.5 and was the last to support it.

The information for iPhone Configuration Utility is found here. Nice simple interface which should make the job easier.