Tag: mac

Recover Administrator Account on Mac

If you lost your Administrator Account on your Mac for whatever reason here’s what you can do to recover it.

Boot into Single User Mode by Restarting your Mac and pressing and holding ⌘ + s
Using the Terminal:

Check the dive (I skipped): /sbin/fsck -fy
Mount the drive as read-write: /sbin/mount -uw /
Remove the Apple Setup Done file: rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
Restart the system: reboot

Upon restarting the system you’ll go through the setup process and create a new admin account.  Using that you can restore or give admin status to another account if so desired.

Link:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/164331/i-dont-have-administrator-account-on-my-mac

Using your Sony Camera and Canon DSLR as a Webcam on Mac OS X Without a Capture Card

During the COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place we’ve been on video conferences a lot more than usual. To use your Sony Camera or Canon DSLR as a webcam without a capture card here are some things you can do.
I have successfully tried this with a Sony RX100 VA and a Sony A7ii and a Canon SL1 though not every model works.  You will need CamTwist for either camera and additional software for Sony and Canon.

Install CamTwist for both Sony and Canon.

  1. Install CamTwist
    1. http://camtwiststudio.com/download/
  2. Start CamTwist
  3. Open Preferences
  4. Set your video size, I use Custom and 1920×1080
  5. Set your Frame rate, I use 30. 
  6. You will have to restart CamTwist for the changes to go into effect.

Sony (kind of a hack)

Sony cameras must support Display Live View which can be seen here https://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/app/imagingedge/en/devices.

  1. Install Sony Imaging Edge Desktop.
    1. https://imagingedge.sony.net/en-us/ie-desktop.html
  2. Install Sony Remote from the Imaging Edge application.
  3. With your camera set the USB Connection to PC Remote
    1. For the RX100 VA (new sony menu) it was under Setup3
    2. For the a7ii (original sony menu) it was under ……
  4. Turn on your camera
  5. Plug in a micro usb cable to your camera and the computer.
  6. Start Imaging Edge Desktop
  7. Click Start for Remote
  8. Double Click on your Camera with the pop up.
  9. The Remote Application should show up with a live preview.
  10. Start CamTwist
  11. Select Desktop+, then click Select
  12. Under Settings unselect Full Screen and select Confine to Application Window.
  13. From the Select from existing windows select Remote (Remote)
  14. Select Resizeable selection.
  15. Click Select capture area. 
  16. Position the rectangle over the live preview.
  17. When you start your video conference software, like zoom, go to Prefences->Settings->Video->Camera and select CamTwist.

Note that you must leave the Remote application running and up on the screen but you can obstruct it and put other windows on top of it and still use it as a webcam.

Canon

For a list of supported Canon Cameras go here: https://github.com/v002/v002-Camera-Live/blob/master/CAMERAS.md

  1. Install Camera Live, I’ve linked a stable release as of today.
    1. https://github.com/v002/v002-Camera-Live/releases/download/11/Camera.Live.zip
    2. Their github (for coders)
  2. Turn on your Canon DSLR.
  3. Connect your usb cable to the Canon and the computer.
  4. Start Camera Live
    1. You should see Active for your camera in Camera Live.
  5. Start CamTwist
  6. Select Syphon
  7. Click Select
  8. In the Settings section under Syphon Server select Camera Live.
  9. When you start your video conference software, like zoom, go to Prefences->Settings->Video->Camera and select CamTwist.

Brew Package Manager for Mac

Homebrew, via the command brew, is a package manger for Mac like apt-get is for Debian.
brew installs packages to their own directory /usr/local/Cellar and then symlinks their files into /usr/local/bin.

Basic Usage:
Install brew
/bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)”

Update Homebrew
brew update

Install an App
brew install wget

Uninstall an App
brew uninstall wget

Upgrade an App
brew update wget

Remove stale file and outdated downloads
brew cleanup

Analytics:
Recently brew has turned on analytics recording from your device to a google cloud server.  If you wish to disable this you can run
brew analytics off

Or you can enter the following in your environment, .bash_profile
export HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS=1

Links:
https://brew.sh/
https://docs.brew.sh/Analytics

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.

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

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/