Spen's Notes

Mac OS X printer sharing from Panther to Leopard

spencerharvey — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:19:58 +0000

I recently dusted of my mother-in-law’s trusty G3 iMac (333MHz) and installed Mac OS X Panther (10.3.9) after acquiring some more RAM. As other computers in the house are Mac laptops, the iMac was a good place to connect the USB printer and share it out for the rest of the network.

After sharing the printer on the iMac I could not see the printer in the add printer dialogue on the Macs running 10.5.

A quick google revealed that OS X 10.4 and above uses Bonjour to search for shared printers and 10.2 – 10.3 uses CUPS. An Apple knowledge base article gives a solution:

Open Terminal (located in /Applications/Utilities).
Type or paste this command, followed by Return:
cupsctl BrowseProtocols='"cups dnssd"'

Voila! The next time you add a printer, you should see printers shared by Mac OS X 10.2 through 10.3.9.

Sync OS X Address Book with GMail contacts

spencerharvey — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:28:35 +0000

I have pieced this item together from a few forums on the web, so kudos to those involved.

In OS X 10.5, the Address Book application has a “Synchronize with Google” option that is only enabled if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch. To use this option regardless requires a few steps to set up a dummy iPod Touch.

First you have to register a dummy iPod with the correct family ID into your com.apple.iPod.plist.

cd ~/Library/Preferences
plutil -convert xml1 com.apple.iPod.plist

vi com.apple.iPod.plist and add a new key for your dummy iPod with the family ID of 10001 (copy the following XML if you don’t have a com.apple.iPod.plist file). Note: if you do have an existing iPod you must change the key ID number (twice) for the dummy entry.


 
 
 
 	Devices
 	
 		000A27001000D03E
 		
 			Connected
 			2009-05-17T06:57:29Z
 			Device Class
 			iPod
 			Family ID
 			10001
 			Firmware Version
 			582
 			Firmware Version String
 			1.1.5
 			ID
 			000A27001000D03E
 			Serial Number
 			XXXXXXXXXXX
 			Software Version
 			18186240
 			Updater Family ID
 			128
 			Use Count
 			14
 		
 	
 	com.apple.PreferenceSync.ExcludeAllSyncKeys
 	
 	conn:128:Last Connect
 	
 	xkCjIQ==

plutil -convert binary1 com.apple.iPod.plist

Now open Address Book and enter the preferences. You can now select the option to sync with Google.

To get the Address Book to sync you have to use the iSync menu bar icon (Sync Now). If you have no devices defined in iSync you may have to do the following to enable the Sync Now menu item.

sudo defaults write /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Resources/ClientDescription Type 'server'

sudo chmod 644 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Resources/ClientDescription.plist

Solaris Live Upgrade

spencerharvey — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 14:56:51 +0000

Solaris Live Upgrade allows for the creation of alternate boot environments (ABE) for upgrading or patching without modifying the running (primary, P)BE. Once the upgrade / patching is complete the ABE can be activated. After a restart (not reboot), the system is running on the upgraded BE. If problems are identified the system administrator can simply re-activate the unmodified BE.

Solaris Live Upgrade documentation is available as part of the Solaris documentation set.

Sun have published a few blueprints for using Live Upgrade. A handy one demonstrates how to patch mirrored systems using Live Upgrade (two disk set-up).

Create Alt Boot Environment

The following will name the current BE Main_boot and copy this to a BE called Alt_boot on d40 and d50.

root@labt2000:~> lucreate -c Main_boot -m /:/dev/md/dsk/d40:ufs -m /var:/dev/md/dsk/d50:ufs -n Alt_boot
Discovering physical storage devices
Discovering logical storage devices
Cross referencing storage devices with boot environment configurations
Determining types of file systems supported
Validating file system requests
Preparing logical storage devices
Preparing physical storage devices
Configuring physical storage devices
Configuring logical storage devices
Analyzing system configuration.
No name for current boot environment.
Current boot environment is named .
Creating initial configuration for primary boot environment .
WARNING: The device for the root file system mount point is not a physical device.
WARNING: The system boot prom identifies the physical device as the system boot device.
Is the physical device the boot device for the logical device ? (yes or no) yes
INFORMATION: Assuming the boot device obtained from the system boot prom is the physical boot device for logical device .
The device is not a root device for any boot environment.
PBE configuration successful: PBE name PBE Boot Device .
Comparing source boot environment file systems with the file
system(s) you specified for the new boot environment. Determining which
file systems should be in the new boot environment.
Updating boot environment description database on all BEs.
Searching /dev for possible boot environment filesystem devices

Updating system configuration files.
The device is not a root device for any boot environment.
Creating configuration for boot environment .
Source boot environment is .
Creating boot environment .
Creating file systems on boot environment .
Creating file system for on .
Creating file system for on .
Mounting file systems for boot environment .
Calculating required sizes of file systems for boot environment .
Populating file systems on boot environment .
Checking selection integrity.
Integrity check OK.
Populating contents of mount point .
Populating contents of mount point .
Copying.
Creating shared file system mount points.
Creating compare databases for boot environment .
Creating compare database for file system .
Creating compare database for file system .
Updating compare databases on boot environment .
Making boot environment bootable.
Setting root slice to Solaris Volume Manager metadevice .
Population of boot environment successful.
Creation of boot environment successful.

List Boot Environments

root@labt2000:~> lustatus
Boot Environment           Is       Active Active    Can    Copy
Name                       Complete Now    On Reboot Delete Status
-------------------------- -------- ------ --------- ------ ----------
Main_boot                  yes      yes    yes       no     -
Alt_boot                   yes      no     no        yes    -

Activate Alternate Boot Environment

root@labt2000:~> luactivate Alt_boot
**********************************************************************
The target boot environment has been activated. It will be used when you
reboot. NOTE: You MUST NOT USE the reboot, halt, or uadmin commands. You
MUST USE either the init or the shutdown command when you reboot. If you
do not use either init or shutdown, the system will not boot using the
target BE.
**********************************************************************
In case of a failure while booting to the target BE, the following process
needs to be followed to fallback to the currently working boot environment:
1. Enter the PROM monitor (ok prompt).
2. Boot the machine to Single User mode using a different boot device
(like the Solaris Install CD or Network). Examples:
     At the PROM monitor (ok prompt):
     For boot to Solaris CD:  boot cdrom -s
     For boot to network:     boot net -s
3. Mount the Current boot environment root slice to some directory (like
/mnt). You can use the following command to mount:
     mount -Fufs /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0 /mnt
4. Run  utility with out any arguments from the current boot
environment root slice, as shown below:
     /mnt/sbin/luactivate
5. luactivate, activates the previous working boot environment and
indicates the result.
6. Exit Single User mode and reboot the machine.
**********************************************************************
Activation of boot environment  successful.

Apply Patches to Alt Boot Environment

root@labt2000:~> luupgrade -n Alt_boot -t -s /mnt/10/2007-01/10_Recommended patch_order

Validating the contents of the media .
The media contains 58 software patches that can be added.
Mounting the BE .
Adding patches to the BE .
Validating patches...
Loading patches installed on the system...
Done!
Loading patches requested to install.
Done!

The following requested patches have packages not installed on the system
Package SUNWgzipS from directory SUNWgzipS in patch 120719-02 is not installed on the system. Changes for package SUNWgzipS will not be applied to the system.
Package SUNWdtrc from directory SUNWdtrc in patch 120900-04 is not installed on the system. Changes for package SUNWdtrc will not be applied to the system.
<…etc…>

The following requested patches are already installed on the system
Requested to install patch 121296-01 is already installed on the system.
Requested to install patch 120900-04 is already installed on the system.
<…etc…>

Checking patches that you specified for installation.
Done!

The following requested patches will not be installed because they have been made obsolete by other patches already installed on the system or by patches you have specified for installation.

0 All packages from patch 119254-06 are patched by higher revision patches.
1 All packages from patch 118833-24 are patched by higher revision patches.
<…etc…>

The following requested patches will not be installed because the packages they patch are not installed on this system.

0 Packages from patch 120467-05 are not installed on the system.
1 Packages from patch 122856-03 are not installed on the system.
<…etc…>

Approved patches will be installed in this order:
120719-02 122032-03 120824-07

Checking installed patches...
Verifying sufficient filesystem capacity (dry run method)...
Installing patch packages...

Patch 120719-02 has been successfully installed.
See /a/var/sadm/patch/120719-02/log for details

Patch packages installed:
SUNWgzip
<…etc…>

Unmounting the BE .
The patch add to the BE completed.

Sync Offline BE With Updated/Patched BE

UPDATE: You can use lumake to refresh an alternate BE:

# lumake –n Main_boot

The following is kept for posterity…
No flashy sync; just delete out-of-date BE and re-create:

root@labt2000:~> ludelete Main_boot
Determining the devices to be marked free.
Updating boot environment configuration database.
Updating boot environment description database on all BEs.
Updating all boot environment configuration databases.
Boot environment  deleted.

Note: If supplying SVM meta devices for the BE, use -C to indicate what the physical boot slice is. Sometimes Live Upgrade can not determine this.

root@labt2000:~> lucreate -C /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0 -m /:/dev/md/dsk/d0:ufs -m /var:/dev/md/dsk/d30:ufs -n Main_boot
Discovering physical storage devices
Discovering logical storage devices
Cross referencing storage devices with boot environment configurations
Determining types of file systems supported
Validating file system requests
Preparing logical storage devices
Preparing physical storage devices
Configuring physical storage devices
Configuring logical storage devices
Analyzing system configuration.
Comparing source boot environment file systems with the file
system(s) you specified for the new boot environment. Determining which
file systems should be in the new boot environment.
Updating boot environment description database on all BEs.
Searching /dev for possible boot environment filesystem devices
Updating system configuration files.
The device is not a root device for any boot environment.
Creating configuration for boot environment .
Source boot environment is .
Creating boot environment .
Creating file systems on boot environment .
Creating file system for on .
Creating file system for on .
Mounting file systems for boot environment .
Calculating required sizes of file systems for boot environment .
Populating file systems on boot environment .
Checking selection integrity.
Integrity check OK.
Populating contents of mount point .
Populating contents of mount point .
Copying.
Creating shared file system mount points.
Creating compare databases for boot environment .
Creating compare database for file system .
Creating compare database for file system .
Updating compare databases on boot environment .
Making boot environment bootable.
Setting root slice to Solaris Volume Manager metadevice .
Population of boot environment successful.
Creation of boot environment successful.

List Packages Installed on a BE

root@labt2000:~ > luupgrade -n Alt_boot -I

Mounting the BE .
Retrieving package information from the BE .
system      SUNWadmap                    System administration applications
system      SUNWadmc                     System administration core libraries
<…etc…>

Pkgchk BE Packages

root@labt2000:~> luupgrade -n Alt_boot -C

Mounting the BE .
Checking packages from the BE .
ERROR: /a/etc/default/init
    modtime <11/10/06 05:51:49 AM> expected <07/31/07 01:13:10 PM> actual
    file size <667> expected <662> actual
    file cksum <54863> expected <54496> actual
<…etc…>

Remove Packages from Alt BE

root@labt2000:~> luupgrade -n Alt_boot -P SUNWtcsh SUNWzsh

Mounting the BE .
Removing packages from the BE .

The following package is currently installed:
   SUNWtcsh  Tenex C-shell (tcsh)
             (sparc) 11.10.0,REV=2005.01.08.05.16

Do you want to remove this package? [y,n,?,q] y

Install Packages on Alt BE

root@labt2000:~> luupgrade -n Alt_boot -p -s /mnt/Solaris/10_2006-11/Solaris_10/Product SUNWtcsh SUNWzsh

Validating the contents of the media .
Mounting the BE .
Adding packages to the BE .

Processing package instance  from 
<…etc…>

Some TSM commands

spencerharvey — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:21:40 +0000

Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) is IBM’s enterprise backup and recovery software. Full documentation is available from IBM. Here are a few commands that come in handy.

dsmc query sched
dsmc query restore
dsmc restart restore
dsmc cancel restore
dsmc help
dsmc sel /appl/data/ -subdir=y
dsmc query backup "/etc/*" -subdir=y
dsmc query backup -inactive

Compile a static binary

spencerharvey — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:09:45 +0000

For some reason you might want to include the linked libraries in you compiled binary. This is easy peasy:

gcc -static hello.c

Compile with enhanced symbol table

spencerharvey — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:06:27 +0000

If you want to debug a core from your executable you must compile it with the enhanced symbol table option:

gcc –ggdb hello.c

Hello world!

spencerharvey — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:50:38 +0000

Hi there, and welcome to my first post on this new blog. Now I know that there are loads of sites out there that provide a large amount of background information on the various Unix technologies; this is not one or those!

What you will find here the bare-bone details or instructions to help me get the job done. I will try to link back to the full documentation where appropriate.

Do not trust a word I say, or complain that content here broke your production server.

Now then, seeing as WordPress gives you a starter post called Hello world!, the obvious edit is:

#include 
int main(void)
{
    printf("Hello, World!\n");
    return 0;
}