Some software can not be installed on the master image computer because it needs to be uniquely installed on each clone. So rather then have to copy packages to each clone after imaging, why not put the packages in a known location and then call the installer remotely using the command like:
installer -pkg /Users/labadmin/Desktop/post/Sophos_10.mpkg -target /
See the complete man page at:
Sometimes Apple Remote Desktop hangs on the remote computer and/or you get disconnected. When that happens you can get the message “can not control remote computer because it is running Apple Remote Desktop or another administrative application”. To “fix” this …
With ARD on the local computer, Send the Unix command:
ps -A
This will a list of processes which are running on the remote computer. Find the process number, the PID, for the Apple Remote Desktop application process and then give the command (send a unix command): kill -KILL “PID#” (change “PID#” to the actual pid #)
WARNING – the kill -KILL command is not kind. It will stop any process without additional double check and, therefore, if you kill the wrong PID you can cause the system to halt and become completely unresponsive.
as in:
kill -KILL 25204
I use lpadmin -x to remove printers when needed as in:
lpadmin -x Spencer-116-Color
lpadmin can be used for a bunch of other chores. See:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/Manpages/man8/lpadmin.8.html
Interestingly, the -x option isn’t listed in the man page!
See also: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20061203221317612 For additional options like clearing queues …
Sometimes it’s useful to use the computer description field to store information like the the image version. I typically do this in automated post imaging tasks, however, it is sometime necessary to manually reset this description field.
The command line to do that is:
net config server /srvcomment:computer_description
See: http://lifeofageekadmin.com/changing-windows-computer-description-from-a-command-prompt/
With Mt Lion, Apple introduced a unified notification center application that alerts you to a number of things like email, etc. Unfortunately, it also alerts you to recommended system updates. All of this is unwanted on lab/classroom computers.
I have found that the best way to stop the notification center is to hide the application were it lives. To hide things on Mac OS X, just like in unix, rename them to something that starts with a “.” Therefore, in /System/Library/CoreServices rename NotificationCenter.app to .NotificationCenter.app
This command may do the trick ….
sudo mv /System/Library/CoreServices/NotificationCenter.app /System/Library/CoreServices/.NotificationCenter.app
For some reason known only to Apple, Mt Lion (Mac OS 10.8.x) now hides the user’s library folder by default. This presents some issues for software that have been written to store information in this folder. So …
To unhide the user’s library folder:
Log into the user account, open terminal and give the following command:
chflags nohidden ~/Library
To control the network settings with the command line try:
networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder
Then:
To display current state of wireless:
networksetup -getairportpower <device name>
Or to turn wireless off or on:
networksetup -setairportpower <device name> <on off>
For a longer description of these see:
This is so easy that I forget how to do it !!!
Cut and paste your image onto the icon in the top left hand corner of the “Get Info” window for a file or folder.
For an example and for reference see:
http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_create_your_own_custom_desktop_icons_mac_os_x
On the mac to have an application start automatically for all users add the application to the file “loginwindow.plist” in /Library/Preferences.
An example:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>For details see:
https://sites.google.com/site/selkirkitknowledgebase/home/mac-os-x/startup-item-for-all-users
There appears to be an incompatibly between some installers, like SPSS, and Java version 1.6.0_51. The symptom is a blank screen when running the installer. Manually updating Java is the suggested fix.
For details see the link at: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21641495