Category Archives: Apple

Anything related to Apple, Macs, iPods, whatever.

Apple – OS X Lion 10.7.3 released with Safari 5.1.3, Wi-Fi bug fix

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The third update to OS X Lion, 10.7.3, has been released and is now available in Software Update. A list of some of 10.7.3′s fixes are below. Of potentially greatest interest is the fix that purports to “resolve a Wi-Fi connection issue when waking from sleep” — I know both of my Macs have fallen prey to this bug several times under Lion, and it’s been a fairly widespread issue. Hopefully this bug has indeed been squashed once and for all.

The OS X Lion v10.7.3 Update includes Safari 5.1.3 and fixes that include:

Add Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian language support
Address issues when using smart cards to log into OS X
Address compatibility issues with Microsoft Windows file sharing
Address an issue printing Microsoft Word documents that use markup
Address a graphics performance issue after sleep on some earlier iMacs that use ATI graphics
Resolve a Wi-Fi connection issue when waking from sleep
Address an issue that may prevent Safari from opening before joining a wireless network
Fix a potential issue authenticating to an SMB DFS share
Include RAW image compatibility for additional digital cameras
OS X 10.7.3 is available via Software Update, or you can download it directly from Apple’s support site.

In case it’s useful, the 10.7.3 Combo Updater can be found here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1484

How-To Flush DNS on Mac OS X Lion

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Flushing the DNS on Mac OS X Lion is quite simple. Just follow the below steps:

1) Change to “root” by using the following command:
su -
Enter the root password when prompted. If you don’t know the “root” password for your system, you can set it by following this Apple KB article: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528

2) Type in the following command to flush the DNS:
dscacheutil -flushcache

The DNS has now been flushed.

SSD Tweaks for Mac OS X (including Lion)

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I found a very helpful site that had a lot of “tweaks” for Mac OS X users that have a SSD hard drive. There are several other places that have some of this information as well, but this site has them in a single post and an easy to read layout.

http://sysadmin.flakshack.com/post/9253439680/ssd-tweaks-for-mac-os-x
The recommendations for the Windows Virtual Machine are good too. Some didn’t run on my Virtual Machine that I tried (invalid command, etc) but still good info none-the-less.

Internal Error Ugrading to IOS 5

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Trying to get all my devices up to IOS 5 and I’m having issues with my iPad 1. No joy. I’ve tried 2 different computers, two iTunes versions (after trying to restore to a down graded iTunes and IOS on another mac I have) and then even the second computer with new new iTunes and code. two different USB cables. resets, reboots.

After reading more posts it turns out It’s a timing thing. I guess it’s related to the apple servers being too busy. I tried again this morning and it worked just fine. Keep trying.

Macbook Pro taking forever to shutdown

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I’ve been struggling with this problem for a while now and I was trying Onyx to clean things up and other tips and tricks to no avail. As it turns out, there were the processes VMware Fusion Helper and Microsoft Database Deamon running in the background that was causing the problem. When I killed it using the activity monitor and shutdown the system, it shutdown very quickly. To fix the issue I had to modify my “login items” in my account settings. I removed them from the list so it wouldn’t automatically startup. All is well now.

Safari Based Malware (even on a Mac)

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Saw this today where an end-user clicked on a safe looking site for a background picture and got infected with “browser malware”, which completely hi-jacks the browser where you cannot do anything until “accepting” their “survey”. They were using Safari v4 on a Mac.
The message stated to go take a survey from “customersurveypanels.com” and locked the browser.

I found this very helpful discussion on the Apple forums, which had the resolution:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3247346?start=0&tstart=0

Steps to Solve:
1) Force Quit Safari
2) Disconnect from network / disable WiFi
3) Start Safari
4) “Accept” prompt that comes up (ok since you are not connected to internet)
5) Page will time-out, browser should be usable again
6) Click on Safari in the upper toolbar and Select Reset Safari.
7) Click at least (I’d recommend all checkmarks) Empty Cache and Remove All Cookies. 8) Click the Reset button.
9) Quit and re-launch the browser.

The above worked and resolved the issue in my situation. Hope it helps!

Maybe it’s a good time to go download FireFox and start using that browser ;-)

First few hours on the Motorola Xoom

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Just spend my first few hours on the Motorola Xoom that we have acquired for our Desktop Virtualization showroom!

http://danbrinkmann.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/my-first-few-hours-with-the-motorola-xoom/

The list of hardware and software continues to climb.  Any vendors want to get on the list?

  • Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop
  • VMware View
  • VMware vSphere
  • AppSense
  • Wyse Xenith
  • HP Thin Clients (various)
  • HP 8440p laptop (Citrix XenClient capable)
  • Streamed VHD delivery to HP All-in-one PC
  • Motorola Xoom
  • iPad 2
  • Dell Equallogic storage
  • HP P4000 (older Lefthand units running latest SANiQ)
  • NetApp
  • Dell m600 and m610 blades (thank you VERY much Dell for the additional memory!!!!

Soon to be added… Fusion-io card…wurd!

Converting Open Virtualization Format (OVF) -Virtual Machines to VMware Fusion

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Ray over at Yellow-Bricks.com has posted about how to get an OVF virtual machine (usually VMware Appliances) converted so you can open them in VMware Fusion on the Mac. Here’s his link:

http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2011/02/26/converting-open-virtualization-format-ovf-virtual-machines-to-vmware-fusion/

Copied here for reference:

I needed to run an appliance inside VMware Fusion on my Mac, the appliance was in OVF format. VMware Fusion currently does not support this format and requires you to convert the image with a tool called ovftool which can be downloaded at the following location:http://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn/vsphere/automationtools/ovf

Conversion is as simple as:

./ovftool "source.ovf" "target"

Optionally you could use parameters that are described in full detail when running ovftool –help. What remains is importing the created .vmx into Fusion, that’s it.