Bootable USB Installer for Mac OS

Apple has created a guide here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

Their instructions state that you should do download and create the installer only if you are using Sierra (10.12.5), El Capitan or higher (10.11.6).

1.  Download MacOS.
    * El Capitan
        * http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg
    * High Sierra
        * https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?ls=1&mt=12
    * Mojave
        * https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828?ls=1&mt=12
    * Catalina
        *  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?ls=1&mt=12
Installers for each of these macOS versions download directly to your Applications Folder as an app named Install macOS Catalina, Install macOS Mojave, or Install macOS High Sierra. If the installer opens after downloading, quit it without continuing installation.

Note: El Capitan downloads as a disk image.  Open the disk image which installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan in your Applications Folder.  Create bootable media from this app, not the disk image.

2.  Insert USB Drive, minimum size of 12 GB
3.  Open Terminal.
4.  Type one of the follow into the Terminal, replacing MyVolume with the USB Drive:
    * El Capitan
        * sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume –applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app
    * High Sierra
        * sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume
    * Mojave
        * sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume
    * Catalina
        * sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia –volume /Volumes/MyVolume
5.  Follow the prompts to complete the creation of bootable USB Drive.

Using your Bootable MacOS Drive
1. Plug in your USB Drive.
2. Use Startup Manager or Startup Disk preferences to select the bootable installer as the startup disk, then start up from it. Your Mac will start up to macOS Recovery.

Note: The Internet is required to get information specific to your Mac model, such as firmware updates, not for the installer.

Turn off Smart TV Tracking (ACR)

Your Smart TV is most likely using automatic content recognition (ACR) to spy on your viewing habits.

Vizio
Recent Vizio Smart TVs with SmartCast:
System -> Reset & Admin -> turn off ‘Viewing Data’

Chromecast is built-in so you must deactivate data collection here, too:
Google Home app (on your smartphone) -> Menu -> select your TV from Devices -> click the three dots -> Settings -> turn off ‘Send Chromecast device usage data and crash reports’

Older Vizio TVs:
System -> Reset & Admin -> turn off ‘Smart Interactivity’ or ‘Viewing Data’

Sony
Sony Android TVs:
Settings – Initial Setup -> agree to Sony Bravia policy -> turn off Samba TV

Also go to Settings -> About -> Ads -> turn off ‘Ads Personalization’.

You may also need to go to the Apps -> locate ‘Samba Services Manager’ -> clear cache, force stop, and disable it.

Chromecast is built-in so you must deactivate data collection here, too:
Google Home app (on your smartphone) -> Menu -> select your TV from Devices -> click the three dots -> Settings -> turn off ‘Send Chromecast device usage data and crash reports’

If you own one of Sony’s non-Android TVs you may also check to see if Samba TV is running.

Samsung
Recent Samsung Smart TVs with Tizen:
Settings -> Support -> Terms & Policies -> turn off ‘Viewing Information Services’ and ‘Interest Based Advertising’ and ‘Voice Recognition Services’ (Nuance)

While you are at it, you may also want to disagree to ‘Online Remote Management’.

Older Samsung Smart TVs with Smart Hub:
Smart Hub -> Settings -> Support -> Terms & Policy -> turn off ‘SyncPlus and Marketing’ and ‘Voice Recognition Services’ (Nuance)

LG
Recent LG Smart TVs with webOS:
Settings -> All Settings -> General -> About This TV -> User Agreements -> turn off ‘Viewing Information’ and ‘Personalized Advertising’ and ‘Voice Information’.

Older LG Smart TVs with NetCast:
Settings -> Options -> turn off LivePlus

Roku
Recent Roku TVs:
Settings -> Privacy – Smart TV Experience –> turn off ‘Use Information for TV Inputs’ -> Advertising -> check the ‘limit ad tracking’ box

The same approach should work for Roku streaming players but you cannot completely disable data collection.

Other Android TVs
Other Android TVs do not typically use Samba TV but you can follow the other steps outlined in the above section for Sony Android TV.

This information originates from:
https://www.flatpanelshd.com/focus.php?subaction=showfull&id=1518081245

Links:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21899491
https://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-recommends-that-you-keep-your-iot-devices-on-a-separate-network/
https://www.consumerreports.org/privacy/how-to-turn-off-smart-tv-snooping-features/
https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1486471312

Remove GoogleSoftwareUpdate.app from your Mac

Remove Google Software Update app from Mac because unfortunately it has qualities that are similar to malware:

  • it installs in your computer without explicit asking for your permission, nor giving the options to decline it
  • it frequently sending data back to Google without your knowledge
  • it can’t be configured via a settings menu
  • there is no uninstallation tool for you; and it will re-install by itself if you delete it.

Using a Terminal you can adjust how often it checks thus allowing the software updates to continue to happen in the background at a reduced rate:
defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 604800
If you change the checkInternal to 0, Google’s no longer sending data, which should be
sufficient for most users.

If you wish to remove it completely on the other hand…
To uninstall GoogleSoftwareUpdate.app
sudo rm -R ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/
sudo touch ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate

Prevent GoogleSoftwareUpdate from being reinstalled.
sudo chmod 444 ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate

Google had changed a setting so GoogleSoftwareUpdate.app would install on the global level on a Mac if a user deleted it at the user level.  How devious.
sudo rm -R /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/
sudo touch /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate
sudo chmod 444 /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate

To verify the updater is no-longer able to install itself and run, using chome type:
chrome://help
You will see an error: Update failed.

Reference:
https://www.imore.com/how-stop-googlesoftwareupdateapp-trying-run-your-mac

Flash Asus BW-16D1HT when you have Linux

The Asus BW-16D1HT currently ships with firmware 3.10 which prevents the drive from reading UHD content, how annoying.

It appears some people have patched the firmware (3.10 MK) to allow it to read UHD discs.  To do this you will need to flash your drive.  Unfortunately Windows is required to flash the drive and as I run Ubuntu I’d have to install Windows just to flash it, or connect my drive to a windows machine.  Both options were unappealing.

Luckily the same folks have created a Window PE image that can boot and execute the flash software.  From the link below download the NS40 recovery image.  (Direct Link to Image Download)  In the link beloware all the details about dives that can read UHD discs after a firmware flash.

https://www.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=19634

After you download the image, extract it iso from the zip file.  They recommend using Rufus to create a bootable USB.
https://rufus.ie/

Using Rufus
1. Open Rufus.
2. Select USB Device.
3. Select the ISO file.
4. Set “Partition Scheme” to MBR (which should also change “Target System” to “BIOS (or UEFI-CSM))
5. Click “Show Advanced Drive Properties”.
6. Make sure “Add fixes for old BIOSes” and “Use Rufus MBR with BIOS ID” are checked.
7. To make it easier, I suggest you leave the “Volume Label” as Win10PE_x86_4UHD.
8. File system should be NTFS.
9 Cluster size should be 4096 bytes.
10. Click START.

When you are running this Win10PE, on the desktop open the User Tools\Windows Flashing Tools & Firmware folder.
Run the flash software: BH14NS40_N1.00-A4_patched.exe.
DO NOT use the default firmware (do not click the play button).
Select the firmware MK\DE_ASUS-BW-16D1HT_3.10_MK.bin

This should allow the drive to read UHD discs as well as allow further downgrades of the firmware (though it appears most recommendations are to stay on 3.10 MK).

Windows PE

Recently I needed to flash some hardware that could only be done through windows.  I didn’t want to install windows on that machine just for that.  Instead from my Window 10 machine I used Window PE to create a bootable windows environment for repairs and what not.

1. Download Window Assessment and Deployment Kit
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install
I just used the default options.

2. Download the Windows PE Addon
https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2087112
Install it.

3.  Create WinPE local files
Start Menu->Windows Kits->Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment
(I needed x86, but you could replace that with amd64)
copype x86 C:\WinPE_x86

4. Create USB Partitions using Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment
diskpart
list disk
select
clean
rem === Create the Windows PE partition. ===
create partition primary size=2000
format quick fs=fat32 label=”Windows PE”
assign letter=P
active
rem === Create a data partition. ===
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick label=”Other files”
assign letter=O
list vol
exit

5. Create Bootable Media where P: is the USB drive using Deployment and Imaging Tools Environment as Administrator.
makewinpemedia /ufd C:\WinPE_x86 P:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-create-usb-bootable-drive
https://recoverit.wondershare.com/windows-pe/how-to-create-a-windows-pe-bootable-usb-drive.html

 https://sourcedaddy.com/windows-7/customizing-windows-pe-image.html
imagex /mountrw c:\WinPE_x86\media\sources\boot.wim 1 c:\WinPE_x86\mount\

copy desired apps to c:\WinPE_x86\mount\

save image and do step 5.
 https://sourcedaddy.com/windows-7/customizing-windows-pe-image.html
imagex /unmount /commit c:\WinPE_x86\mount

RDP on Ubuntu 18.04

Install RDP on Ubuntu 18.04

sudo apt-get install xrdp xorgxrdp xrdp-pulseaudio-installer

Then restart the computer.

Should be able to connect to the RDP server using a Microsoft Remote Desktop Client now.

Note: RDP is not secure.  RDP will need a SSH tunnel if you want a secure environment.

Open a SSH Tunnel to the RDP Server
ssh -L [local port]:[target server address from ssh server]:[target server port] [remote username]@[remote ssh server]
In my case the XRDP server is the same as the SSH server which is
ssh -L [local port]:[xrdp hostname]:[xrdp port] [remote username]@[remote ssh server]
ssh -L 3389:localhost:3389 user@rdpserver

In your RDP client connect to localhost.  Since we are using the default port of 3389 it should not need to be specified.

http://colhountech-linux.northeurope.cloudapp.azure.com/how-to-_securely_-access-linux-ubuntu-over-rdp/
https://www.howtogeek.com/168145/how-to-use-ssh-tunneling/
https://blog.shichao.io/2015/01/06/tunneling_rdp_over_ssh_with_xrdp_and_xfreerdp.html

Bug
Source: http://catch22cats.blogspot.com/2018/05/xrdp-creates-strange-directory-called.html
You may notice a thinclient_drive in your directory.  This seems to be a bug in xrdp code which attempts to share drives, clipboard and other things. It is creating this directory and not mounting it correctly. Here is how to get rid of it.
edit /etc/xrdp/xrdp.ini
Update the allow_channels setting to say allow_channels=false
After saving the change, remove the spurious thinclient_drives directory. If the system will not allow you to remove it, first unmount it with
sudo umount $HOME/thinclient_drives

You will not be able to use shared drives, clipboard, and so on, but those do not seem to be working anyway.

iOS 13.2 not showing up in iTunes on Mac

After updating my iphone to iOS 13.2 iTunes was not showing my device.  Normally there’s a popup that states a software update must be downloaded, but it was not showing up on my old High Sierra iTunes 12.8.2.3.  To fix that follow the following directions:

In Finder
Go -> Go to Folder
Then type in
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework/Versions/Current/Resources

Double click MobileDeviceUpdater


Source:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250624460

Download Entire Mojave Installer

When downloading the Mojave installer I get a 22.8MB small installer file instead of the 6GB full version.

To build your own full “legit” macOS Mojave installer do the following.

Start the mini installer that you get from the App Store and follow the prompts until you get to the point that it starts counting down to reboot your machine. Quickly CANCEL the reboot.

Once you cancel, you will have the full 6gb installer files since the mini installer downloads all required files. It will create a folder titled “macOS install Data” on the root of your primary hard drive.

Once you have all of the files, you now have to make the installer package by running the following 3 commands in Terminal:

At the command line, first type the following for super user privileges:

sudo -s

mkdir /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/SharedSupport

cd /macOS\ Install\ Data

find . -mount | cpio -pvdm /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Mojave.app/Contents/SharedSupport

Right click the installer that you originally downloaded from the App Store in your Applications directory and you’ll see that its now 6GB instead of the 23mb or 25mb that you get from the App store.

Source: http://osxdaily.com/2018/09/29/download-full-macos-mojave-installer/