[ Mac OS X Tips ]

What if Angry Birds fails to run?

Fabricio Lima — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 15:04:59 +0000

If Angry Birds or Flight Control fails to run even if your MacBook is powered by GeForce, and you have already installed 10.6.6 Update, then type this command bellow to allow it become an executable:

cd /Applications

chmod +x “Angry Birds.app/Contents/MacOS/Angry Birds”

Autoplay movies in QuickTime X

Fabricio Lima — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:20:26 +0000

In order to automatically start playing recently opened movies, just type this command at Terminal:

$ defaults write com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX MGPlayMovieOnOpen 1

Get read/write support for NTFS drives in Snow Leopard

Fabricio Lima — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:18:33 +0000

If a huge flash disk like WD Passport or generic USB enclosures with SATA drives are mounting as read-only in Finder, you can remount it as full read-wride without using any third-party software.

Snow Leopard already has the NTFS driver included, but is not enabled by default.

(some SD cards like SDHX has 64GB or more, but must be formated as exFAT, so this isn’t the case)

First, attach your disk and let it mount as read-only, then open the Terminal and type:

$ diskutil info /Volumes/External_Disk_Name

Some info will show up. Take note the disk’s UUID. It looks like a big number: DF000C7E-AE0C-3B15-B730-DFD2EF15CB91

Now edit the fstab using the command below.

$ sudo vifs /etc/fstab

Then copy the UUID field and add the line below to /etc/fstab

UUID= none ntfs rw

Restart the system.

Another instant option, less intrusive. Just type:

$ sudo mount -u -w /Volumes/External_Disk_Name

Adjust Time Machine backups period

Fabricio Lima — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:05:22 +0000

If the default backup period of Time Machine doesn’t satisfy your needs, the you can adjust it for watherver you wish.

It will require the root’s password, and remember to specify the last parameter in seconds. In this case, 30 minutes.

$ sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800

Use network volumes as Time Machine drives

Fabricio Lima — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:01:27 +0000

If you already has some kind of personal Storage like NAS or some USB hard disk plugged into another computer in your home (or workplace), sure you can use this available space for Time Machine bacukps.

Or if you own some desktop computer with plenty free space and wish to backup your macbook through the network, just type this command at the terminal:

$ defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

Use Expanded View in Save Dialog

Fabricio Lima — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:56:46 +0000

To allways use the expanded view in Save Dialog, instead of must have to click in the blue button in your Mac programs, type this command bellow:

$ defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE

Folder previews in Quick Look

Fabricio Lima — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:36:27 +0000

To enable folder preview in Quick Look, just type this command at terminal and it will change the folder icon at quick look window. It’s worth.

$ defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableXRayFolders 1

IPhone as an external disk

Fabricio Lima — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:28:32 +0000

DiskAid is a tool (freeware) for PC and Mac which enables to use your iPhone or iPod Touch as external Disk. With DiskAid you can transfer files and folders via USB between your device and your Computer.

http://www.digidna.net/diskaid/

Create compressed .dmg Images to distribute applications

Fabricio Lima — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:46:58 +0000

If you desire to create a compressed .dmg images to distribute applications like commercial apps do, follow these commands bellow:

$ hdiutil create -size 40m image.dmg -srcfolder /path/sourcefiles -format UDRW -quiet -volname “Application Name”

$hdiutil convert image.dmg -quiet -format UDZO -imagekey zlib-level=9 -o ImageCompressed.dmg

If some resource forks and HFS meta-data wasn’t copied, mount it and use:

$ hdiutil attach image.dmg -noautoopen -quiet -mountpoint /Volumes
$ ditto -rsrc /path/sourcefiles “/Volumes/Application Name”
$ hdiutil detach “/Volumes/Application Name” -quiet -force

Convert .dmg files to .iso

Fabricio Lima — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 02:42:46 +0000

If you are trying to open .dmg files in Windows, or if you need to mount Mac OS X Server images in the new VMware Fusion 2, you’ll be in troubble. Both of them are not compatible with .dmg files.

So you need to convert your images to .iso format, which is readable in Windows and VMware Fusion. To achieve that, use the command bellow:

$ hdiutil convert /path/filename.dmg -format UDTO -o /path/savefile.iso