Sleep works perfectly fine but after wake my machine has no internet connection anymore, at least it looks like this. It’s only domains that aren’t resolved anymore. It also affects wired and wifi networks. There are a lot of threads in the Apple forums that blame USB drives, Optical drives and the like but this sounds a bit like voodoo.

I found the following working solution:

Edit “/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist” like so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>com.apple.mDNSResponder</string>
	<key>OnDemand</key>
	<false/>
	<key>UserName</key>
	<string>_mdnsresponder</string>
	<key>GroupName</key>
	<string>_mdnsresponder</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>/usr/sbin/mDNSResponder</string>
		<string>-launchd</string>
		<string>-AlwaysAppendSearchDomains</string>
		<string>-DisableSleepProxyClient</string>		
	</array>
	<key>MachServices</key>
	<dict>
		<key>com.apple.mDNSResponder</key>
		<true/>
	</dict>
	<key>Sockets</key>
	<dict>
		<key>Listeners</key>
		<dict>
			<key>SockFamily</key>
			<string>Unix</string>
			<key>SockPathName</key>
			<string>/var/run/mDNSResponder</string>
			<key>SockPathMode</key>
			<integer>438</integer>
		</dict>
	</dict>
	<key>EnableTransactions</key>
	<true/>
</dict>
</plist>

and relaunch the mDNSResponder like so:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist 
sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.mDNSResponder.plist

This fixes to things: The domain resolution described here and the 2 hourly automatic wake from sleep described here.

Update:

It seems that fixed the problem just for that one time. To fix it every wake i use “SleepWatcher” by . Installed as said in the read me, save this file somewhere as restart_mDNSResponder

#!/bin/bash
killall -HUP mDNSResponder

and copy this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>de.bernhard-baehr.sleepwatcher</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/usr/local/sbin/sleepwatcher</string>
                <string>-V</string>
                <string>-w /path/to/restart_mDNSResponder</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

to /Library/LaunchDaemons/de.bernhard-baehr.sleepwatcher-20compatibility.plist.

and execute

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/de.bernhard-baehr.sleepwatcher-20compatibility.plist

This did the trick for me.

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This tip does only apply to an HFS+ formatted drive with a GUID partition table.

I already had a (bootable) backup that i create using SuperDuper! But for the migration purpose i wanted a bitwise copy of the old disk, so i used dd. I started the MacBook with the external drive containing the bootable backup and some space for the disk image (as i had no external SATA-USB adapter at hand. The (simple) commands for cloning (and zipping) the internal disk to an image are:

dd bs=128k if=/dev/disk0 | gzip > /path/to/image.gz

The internal disk is in most cases /dev/disk0 but it can vary. The process took about 7hours, i blame my old and slow external disk for that.

After switching the internal disk, which is irritating simple, i don’t know why Apple had to change that in the newer unibodies, i restored the image with

gzip -dc /path/to/image.gz | dd of=/dev/disk0

and rebooted.

The Mac came back immediately without a problem. If you don’t know dd you we’ll be surprised what you see: Your new disk and the partition on it has exactly the same free space as before. This is because dd does an exact bitwise copy of your disk and doesn’t resize the partition.

With the build-in OS X “Disk Utility” (“Festplattendienstprogramm”) you can easily resize the one partition (or create a second one if you like), altough you must boot from the OS X installer disk or as i did, from another bootable backup.

And there was the only problem i had. The german error message says

Partitionieren ist fehlgeschlagen

Beim Partitionieren ist folgender Fehler aufgetreten:

MediaKit meldet: Partition (Tabelle) zu klein

The english message is

Partition failed

Partition failed with the error:

MediaKit reports partition (map) too small.

Bummer. The filesystem itself is resizable but the partition table itself is not. When the original drive was formatted, the partition table was created just for that device.

I found the solution in the Life as i know blog. The author has the same problem while expanding a raid, but the solution can be used without problems for a simple drive. Note that this works only if the drive has just one partition on it! If you try this on your own, i’m not responsible for any dataloss.

Just use the following commands in a terminal (replace /dev/disk0 with your device) (the device must not be mounted while using the commands, therefor like stated above, boot from the installer disk or a backup):

sudo gpt show /dev/disk0

This shows the current partition table. Note the number in the column “SIZE” with the highest value.

Unmount the disk through Disk Utility

The Partitiontable cannot be changed when the drive is mounted.

sudo gpt destroy /dev/disk0

This destroys the current partition table, so be carefull.

sudo gpt create -f /dev/disk0

This creates a new partition table with the correct size for your new harddrive

sudo gpt add -b 409640 -s XXX /dev/disk0

Replace the XXX with the value from size in the first step.

Use Diskutility to mount the disk again. You now can resize the partition or add another

Eventually you need to reboot, but in my case it wasn’t necessary, the partition showed up immediatly. I hower did reboot after resizing it to see, wether the cloning did work.

The cloning did work and i now have a much faster system and more space available.

You can use the process of destroying and recreating the partition table for drives with more than one partition, you must repeat the gpt add step and change the start and end parameter correctly.

Please be sure what you do, when you try to repeat the tipps in this post!

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Invert the iTunes Store links in the list

The littler arrows can either point to the iTunes store or to the same artist or album in your library. Invert their behavior to let them point to your files instead of the store:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

Undo this with

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool NO

Disable them with

defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -boolean FALSE

Enable them with

defaults write com.apple.iTunes show-store-arrow-links -boolean TRUE

Restore the horizontal stoplight

Again, Apple messes with it’s own UI guidelines. To restore sanity, use

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -boolean TRUE

Reenable the vertical layout introduced with iTunes 10 through

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -boolean FALSE

Enable half-star ratings

The following will let you rate your songs with half-star ratings (i.e 3.5 stars):

defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool TRUE

If you don’t like the fact, that the half-star ratings will round on any i* device, turn it off again:

defaults write com.apple.iTunes allow-half-stars -bool FALSE

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OS X includes libxml which comes with xmllint.

To validate a xml file against a schema:

xmllint --noout --schema sitemap.xsd sitemap.xml

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I Am Rich.

Actually, i think it’s kinda funny, although i guess some people won’t get the joke.

Edit:

Oh and by the way, it seems, you’re never alone as the iPhone keeps iphoning ihome.

ipuke, iguess.

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The “Click through” property on both Apples X11 and the X11 provided by XQuartz is not set. This leads to the fact, that you have to click on each X11 window twice: First activating it, 2nd pushing a button or whatever else. I hate this, i really do.

With Apples X11, open a terminal and enter:

defaults write com.apple.X11 wm_click_through -bool true

With XQuartz X11 enter:

defaults write org.x.X11 wm_click_through -bool true

This will help you with all X11 apps, like Gimp, Inkscape, Open Office and the likes.

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As i do not have Apple Remote Desktop or any other VNC server enabled on my Macbook, i do have a problem.

I can vpn into my home and i can ssh into the Macbook, so i came up with the following solution:

Put the following three lines into a plain textfile, i.e. “sleep.txt” and save it somewhere:

tell application "Finder"
  sleep
end tell

Then, open Terminal.app, change to the directory you saved the file in and execute:

osascript sleep.txt

Your ssh connection will then timeout and the Mac sleeps.

Stupid me forgot that ssh can execute remote commands: From your workmachine execute

ssh my_home_computer 'osascript sleep.txt'

and you’re done. Thanks “tante” for reminding me

Alternatively, you can achieve similar with Mail.app itself, have a look at the solution here, but i like mine better.

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Hilarious, but true. Although being somewhat different and currently under heavy critic (i.e. here) as far as Apple is concert, both Apples and Googles interface designs are appealing, at least to me and the comic summarize this very well: Do one thing and do this well.

The strip was posted here, i found it on this blog

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The choice of hardware was kinda stupid. I thought, well this thing is not a special thingy but plain standard. Well, seems, it isn’t.

The first setback was, that the Debian installer booted from CD-Rom but didn’t recognize it afterwards. Yippie… I had to change the SATA Bios settings from IDE to RAID which means in reality, to AHCI. 2 things changed: Debian can be installed from CD-Rom and the dualboot Windows went nuts, i.e. crashed with a BSOD, even in safe mode. Solution to that was first switching back to IDE mode, installing some Intel driver for RAID thingies (really, there’s no raid in the machine… *sigh*), switch back et voila.

Next thing: The ethernet controller was to new. It’s kinda e1000 but not yet supported in the current testing kernel. The driver can be downloaded at intels site. I’ve chosen to skip network while installation and downloaded a full image. If you want to install from a netinstall image and have no 2nd nic at hand, here you’ll find a precompiled module. The blogs seems well written, but i wouldn’t call the Vostro a bunch of crap. The thing is very low noise, with Windows XP rock solid (at least at my workplace {i actually have two of them, at work and now at home}) and i appreciate the Dell pickup service. Another great howto is presented at the Ubuntu forums.

The next closed source thing i installed where the ATI drivers from here without a problem.

The things that lead to multiple reinstalls where the decision between KDE and GNOME. I just wanted to test them and didn’t want to purge every single package afterwards. In the end i went for GNOME.

So now i have a Desktop with the preinstalled Vista on a one partition and my new all day Debian system on a fully encrypted LVM partition. The later one was really no big deal to create with the Debian installer. The whole filesystem is encrypted except a boot partition and a relatively big space which i wanna spent on virtual machines.

prego stated that i should spent some energy into compiz. I already are accustomed to continuous zoom in the whole desktop, some nice effects and semi transparent windows through Mac OS X, for that to say, but i didn’t want to add non “official” repositories. In the end, i give it a try and followed the instructions here and used the instructions for the xorg.conf from here without that Xgl thingies. What can i say: It works and looks great. The wobbling windows are hilarious

For my photo collection i already installed digiKam, which is a great tool.

Next steps are migrating my email from Apple Mail.app to a local IMAP server. Anyone suggestions which email client to use?

A friend tried to convince me several times to reinstall my Macbook for good but i don’t want to. Things used to work and broke with an OS update. And no, i’m not using *any* of the OS X system hacks. I used to be able to upgrade from release to release (hell, the iMac made it from 10.3.8 to 10.5.1 without a problem) and all of sudden i’m back in windows times: Upgrade and you’re doomed. Suck my dick… I don’t wanna go this path ever again. And then there the recent developments with Apple. I’ve been wearing a t with “Think different” know for about 5 years, i always like their products, the integration of Unix and eyecandy. But the apps are getting worse with every new release the last months. Apples behaviour to make you pay for a simple software upgrade (sarbane oxley my ass…, i’m expecting the first bugfix to be payed because the OS is no abo related model). OS Xs unablity to encrypt the whole volume (it can encrypt your home folder in some silly image file) without external tools (recently, Truecrypt can do this.

Stop. Must… breath… again.

In the end, i think three days without much sleep were well spend.

As before, i’ll keep you updated, if you like

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