Category Archives: Mountain Lion
no sound or volume after upgrading
A problem that seems to be affecting quite a few users after the Mountain Lion upgrade is loss of sound in iTunes, QuickTime and other apps. Some people are reporting that the Volume control is greyed out or won’t move.
The resolution here is to quit and resart the coreaudio process. To do so:
1. Open Activity Monitor.app (Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor.app)
2. Select ‘All Processes’ from the drop down menu next to the search bar (called ‘Filter:’) and type in ‘coreaudio’.
3. Select the process name and click the ‘Quit Process’ button at the top. Chose ‘Quit’ or ‘Force Quit’ from the resulting dialogue box.
The coreaudio process will automatically restart itself (if you look closely at the PID number in Activity Monitor you’ll notice it changes after you hit ‘Quit’) and your sound problems should be solved. However, if you find that this procedure only partially solves the problem or doesn’t work for you, also try this:
4. Open Terminal.app (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and copy/paste this command into the Terminal window
rm /Library/Preferences/com.apple.soundpref.plist
then press ‘return’ on your keyboard.
5. Restart your mac and test.
6. Still not working? Check your audio configuration here:
/Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup.app.
Make sure the window has the title Audio Devices, and click ‘Built in Output’ in the sidebar. Are any of the boxes under ‘Mute’ in the main panel checked? If so, uncheck them. Is the format set to 44100.0hz? If not, change it so that it is.
Hope this helps!
🙂
Mountain Lion’s hidden wallpapers
If you’ve been enjoying Mountain Lion’s beautiful new Screensaver images, like National Geographic, Aerial and Cosmos, you might like to have some of those images as wallpapers for your Desktops in Mission Control.
First, from a Finder window, navigate all the way to here:
[Macintosh HD] > System > Library > Frameworks > Screensaver.framework > Versions > A > Resources > Default Collections
Select the four folders inside and then press ‘command’ and ‘c’ on the keyboard. Navigate to your Pictures folder from any Finder window’s sidebar and press ‘command’ and ‘v’ to copy the folders and images.
You can now add them to your collection of available Desktop pictures by clicking the Desktop tab in
> System Preferences… > Desktop & Screensaver
and clicking the plus ‘+’ button in the box underneath the list of folders on the left. From the window that pops up, choose ‘Pictures > National Geographic-1’and hit ‘Choose’.
Repeat for any of the others (Aerial, Cosmos, Nature Patterns) that you want to add. 🙂
Related Posts
get ready for Mountain Lion
With the last seven days of July upon us, the suspense is just killing some people waiting for the release of Apple’s latest version of OS X, 10.8 Mountain Lion. While rumours abound for just about every conceivable day left being the ‘official’ release date (with the 25th being the most popular, it seems), the sensible are making sure they’re prepared. So here’s a few things to do both before and on the big day:
1. Check the tech specs
Check out the tech specs for Mountain Lion and the list of supported machines to make sure you can run it on your current system. If you are upgrading from Snow Leopard, you should also check out will my old apps work with Lion?.
2. Run Software Update
Make sure you have the latest version of everything by running
> Software Update
before you upgrade. This will help to cut down any compatibility problems when installing Mountain Lion.
3. Backup your current install
Without a doubt the biggest cause of trouble and frustration with every OS release is among users who didn’t backup their systems before trying to install the new one. Like Lion, Mountain Lion will be delivered as a download from the App Store, and while this method is certainly convenient, corrupted downloads are not uncommon. Moreover, even when the install proceeds as expected, you want to be able to get back to your previous system if you find things are not to your liking. An OS installation is like performing major surgery on your computer and the chances of complications are always a significant risk. As the old boy scout saying goes ‘Be Prepared’. Backup, backup, backup.
4. Remove everything from your Login Items.
For Lion users, that’s
> System Preferences…> Users & Groups | Login Items
If you’re upgrading from Snow Leopard 10.6.8, go to
> System Preferences…> Accounts | Login Items
There’s a couple of reasons for doing this, but mainly it’s to ensure that you can log in without difficulty. Login Items are one of the main causes of OS problems at the best of times, but with a major upgrade like this, you don’t want any incompatible software choking the system from booting up. See Steps 8 & 9 below about re-activating your Login Items after the installation.
5. Uninstall AV software & other utilities
If you have Sophos, VirusBarrier, iAntiVirus, F-Secure, or similar uninstall these prior to upgrading. After upgrading, if you must use them, look for updates. Uninstall MacKeeper, Little Snitch, LogMeIn or any other 3rd party utility that runs prior to user login.
6. Be prepared for slow download times
Apple’s servers will be hotter than a forest fire on release day, so you can expect download times to be pretty poor. At the very least, connect your computer to your router via ethernet cable rather than wifi – that’ll at least help push things along a bit faster at your end. If you can do it from the office or somewhere else that has a lot more bandwidth than the usual home connection, do so.
7. Save the installer
After the download completes the installer will run automatically. Do NOT click ‘Install’, but instead quit it. Then go to your Applications folder and copy the ‘Install OS X Mountain Lion .app’ and save it to your Downloads folder or somewhere else. Then you can run the installer in your Applications folder.
The reason for doing this is that when you install Mountain Lion the Install app in your Applications folder will self-delete. If the install shouldn’t work for some reason the first time round, you won’t have to go through the whole tiresome wait of a download from the App store again if you save a copy to your Downloads folder.
8. Update 3rd-party apps
Assuming Mountain Lion boots up just fine, the first thing you’re going to want to do (after having a nose around, of course!) is update your 3rd party apps. Start off by opening the App store to see if any that you’ve sourced from there have updates waiting for you. After that, start up all the main apps that you normally use and use their ‘Check for Updates’ option (usually in the Apps main menu), or contact the developers through their websites. If you use Parallels 7, you will need to update that before trying to run your virtual machines.
9. Test your Login Items apps
In particular, you’re going to want to test out the apps that you want to put back in your Login Items, before you put them back in there. Run each app and play around with the system for a couple of hours before deciding to put it back in your Login Items list. If you notice any weird behaviour with Finder, the Dock or Desktop backgrounds, problems with wifi or graphics, chances are one or more of your 3rd party apps needs updating to work with Mountain Lion. If there is no update yet, stop using that app till one becomes available or find an alternative. In general, it’s always best to keep Login Items down to a bare minimum. Running apps at login is a sure fire way to slow down boot up times.
10. Check back with Applehelpwriter.com
As always, I’ll be here with tips on how to get the most out of OS X and how to solve some common problems. See you then!🙂
creating secure folders and files
With FileVault 2 having a number of drawbacks, a common question I’m seeing is how best to secure data on Lion and Mountain Lion without using FV2.
There’s a number of tricks on offer, from making transparent folders, excluding folders from Spotlight, or using Terminal to make them invisible or hidden.
However, all of these methods suffer from one inevitable drawback: anyone who knows their way around Terminal can open, read, copy or delete your folders as if you had never employed any of the above tricks at all. Well, not many people know their way around Terminal you say? But everyone knows their way around Google, and learning how to find files via the Terminal is information easily found, even on Applehelpwriter! In short, all those methods listed above are really a waste of time if it’s security that you’re after.
Fortunately, there is a simple answer to securing localised files or folders, and that’s to make a local encrypted disk image with Disk Utility and then move your data into it. To do so, follow this procedure:
1. Open Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app)
2. Click near the bottom of the sidebar in empty space to make sure none of the disks in the sidebar are selected.
3. Click the New Image icon in the task bar.
4. Give the image a name and choose a location to store it. Storing it in the User Library is not a bad idea. Give it a boring name like ‘old system’, ‘old data’ or something like that, but don’t hit ‘Create’ just yet.
5. At the bottom of the dialogue box is a field for encryption. Click on the option button and choose either 128-bit or 256-bit (the second choice is the strongest but also slower. 128-bit is still so strong that almost no-one save the CIA will be able to crack it!)
6. Create a password that you’re not going to forget. Do NOT use the same password that you use for your Admin account or for anything else for maximum security. Uncheck the ‘save in my keychain’ option.
Warning!
Warning!
if you forget the password don't waste time seeking help trying to break it. The system is designed to be uncrackable. If you forget the password, your data is lost for good.
PRO TIP: For that reason, you might like to use a password manager like ‘1Password‘ for this and all your other passwords. The main reason people forget passwords is infrequency of use. With 1Password you use a single password to unlock all your other passwords and to have them entered automatically into web pages and other fields.
7. Set up the rest of the options as in the screenshot below.
8. When you’re ready, press ‘Create’ to make the disk image.
9. Once the image has been created, copy the files you want to protect into the disk image window, just like you would a hard disk or other connected device. Now, whenever you want to access your protected data, just click on the disk image and enter the password and your data is ready to be used.
10. Test mounting and ejecting the disk image a few time. Open a few files and save your changes. After you’re sure everything is working as expected, delete the files from the original location that you copied them from. Also, don’t forget to eject the disk image in Finder’s sidebar each time when you’re done using it to prevent anyone else accessing your protected files.
🙂
Camtasia 2 reviewed
I’ve been a long time user of TechSmith’s Camtasia screen capture software, primarily for two reasons: ease of use combined with a rich set of editing features. Camtasia for Mac 2 strengthens this product in a number of significant ways although there are still some usability issues that need addressing, as well as room for further improvements in the feature set. In this review, I’ll walk you through what Camtasia has to offer as well as indicate the kind of uses where it excels as an aid to the technical communicator. Read the review…
how to change all Desktop backgrounds
With Lion came the welcome ability to have individual background wallpapers for each Desktop. However, what Apple forgot to add was an option to easily make all the Desktops have the same background image when you want it that way.
There are a few workarounds, but probably the simplest – once it is setup – is to use this little script I wrote for some ASC members. It should take you about 5 to 10 minutes to set this up if you follow the procedure carefully.
1. Open TextEdit, and choose TextEdit > Preferences.
Change the settings from ‘Rich Text’ to ‘Plain text’ for New Documents. Close the Preference pane and chose File > New.
2. Copy everything in the box below and paste it into the TextEdit file you just opened:
#! /bin/bash
#script to change all desktop backgroundsecho -n “Drag and drop an image file here then press ‘return’ or
press ‘control-c’ to cancel…”
read -e WLPR;function change_wallpaper
{
defaults write com.apple.desktop Background “{default = {ImageFilePath=’$WLPR’; };}”; killall Dock
}
change_wallpaper
3. Save the file to
/Library/Desktop Pictures
with the name ‘ChangeAllDesktops’.
IMPORTANT: Make sure you remove the ‘.txt’ file extension in the name field AND uncheck the option at the bottom of the Save box that says ‘If no extension is provided, use .txt’.
Note that you will need to press the ‘authenticate’ button when prompted in order to save anything into the ‘Desktop Pictures’ folder. Type your password in the dialogue that pops up.
4. Open Terminal.app.
Make the ‘ChangesAllDesktops’ file executable by copy/pasting this into the Terminal window:
sudo chmod a+x /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/ChangeAllDesktops
Press ‘return’ and type in your password. The password won’t echo to the screen, so type carefully.
5. Make Terminal the default app for the file
Open a Finder window. Click on your hard disk icon in the sidebar (if you can’t see it, go to Finder > Preferences > Sidebar and check Hard disks under the ‘Devices’ section). Navigate to the Library/Desktop Pictures folder and right-click on the ‘ChangeAllDesktops’ file.
Select Open with and then Other…. In the window, navigate to Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities. It will be greyed out, so change “Recommended Applications” to “All Applications” in the menu at the bottom of the window. Do not check “Always Open With”. Choose ‘Terminal.app’ and ‘OK’.
6. Make a shortcut for Desktop Pictures
Drag the folder ‘Desktop Pictures’ to the Finder sidebar to make a convenient shortcut. Now when you want to change all Desktop backgrounds at the same time, click in ‘Desktop Pictures’ in the Finder sidebar, run the ‘ChangeAllDesktops’ file, and drag an image from the (already) open Finder window into the Terminal window that appears.
Press ‘return’ and your desktops are all changed! 🙂
Related Posts
learning the Terminal — Part One
learning the Terminal — Part Two
change Flag names in Mail
‘Red’, ‘Green’ and ‘Yellow’ aren’t particularly meaningful ways to categorise messages, but changing the names to something more useful can make the ‘Flags’ feature a handy tool.
The procedure is quite simple, but the first thing you have to do is actually flag a couple of messages:
1. Flag some messages (one of each colour if you want seven categories):
2. Next, go into the sidebar in Mail. Click the little disclosure triangle:
3. Click on one of the names and press ‘return’ on the keyboard:
4. Type in a new name and press ‘return’ again:
5. Of course, you can change the flag names at any time:
mac keeps starting in Safe mode
If you see a screen with a progress bar (something like the shot above), your Mac is starting up in Safe Mode. This shouldn’t happen unless the user intentionally wants to do so for troubleshooting purposes. However, if you find that your Mac is defaulting to Safe Mode when you try to start up normally, try the following tips.
1. Stuck Shift key
Check that the Shift key is not accidentally being pressed down or stuck. If you suspect the keyboard may be faulty, plug in a different keyboard.
2. Use Terminal to reset boot-args
Allow the machine to finish booting into Safe Mode, then open Terminal (Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app) and copy this command into the Terminal window:
sudo nvram boot-args=""
press ‘return’ on your keyboard. Enter an Admin password (type carefully as it will not be echoed to the screen) and restart the Mac.
3. Do a PRAM reset.
In this case, a PRAM reset effectively does the same as No.2 above. However, if No.2 didn’t work, it’s worth trying this way of doing it in case for some reason the boot memory failed to hold the preference setting. You can also do this step instead of Step 2 if you are not comfortable with using the Terminal.
The PRAM reset is done like this:
1. Power down the machine.
2. Locate the following keys on your keyboard in preparation for Step 4:
command–option–P–R
3. Press the ‘power on’ button.
4. Immediately – and before the grey screen appears – hold down ‘command-option-P-R’ all together.
5. Keep them held down until you’ve heard the start-up chime twice. After you release them you should hear it again, and hopefully your Mac will boot up as it should normally.
how to get Spaces and Expose on Lion
(Note: If you’ve just installed Mountain Lion, be sure to run ‘Check for Updates’ by clicking on the Total Spaces icon in the menubar)
Yes, it’s possible to bring back most of those beloved Snow Leopard features that Apple unwisely did away with in Lion, and – if you get them now – for free with 3rd-party apps. I’ve been hunting down a way to get rid of all the Mission Control behaviour on my trackpad, to return the app-switcher trackpad gesture, the 2-dimensional Spaces grid and, of course, Expose.
OK, so here’s how I finally got all those lovely Snow features back to Lion. You’re going to need two free tools (free for now, so don’t hang around…), namely:
Total Spaces from http://totalspaces.binaryage.com
Better Touch Tool from http://blog.boastr.net
Once you’ve downloaded these you’re half way there, but you’ve got to complete the job by setting them up properly. In the remainder of this post, I’ll walk you through how I’ve got them set up. Try it this way first, then once you’ve got the hang of it, you can tweak it to your own style. 🙂
1. Total Spaces > Preferences:
</p?
In BetterTouchTool Preferences:
In > System Preferences > Trackpad:
Finally, disable the Mission Control hotkeys in > System Preferences > Keyboard | Keyboard Shortcuts:
With this configuration, you change spaces by holding down ‘option’ and any of the arrow keys to move round a grid of 9 spaces (you can have more or less if you want in TotalSpaces prefs).
You see all spaces (like the screenshot at the top of the page) by holding down ‘command-option-left_arrow’.
You bring up Expose with a 4-finger downward swipe on the trackpad (note: Expose is unavailable while an app is in Full Screen mode), and the App Switcher with a 3-finger tap.
Oh, and Mission Control? Drag it off the Dock to about centre screen and release. Should you ever need it you can always go and double-click on it in your Applications folder, but otherwise you’ll soon forget it ever existed.
And that’s it — proper Spaces, Expose, and Trackpad functionality restored! 🙂
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