pmusumeci: Unix Computing

Everything in my (computing) world has a little unix within. Here are related survival tips:

Unix (desktop and servers)

FreeBSD minimalist network services (x86) - Running FreeBSD single board computer as a network gateway. (January 2019)
Minimalist automounting NFS synology-to-macOS - It seems that a UNIX-level auto mounting NFS export from Synology NAS to macOS client is the best "no hassles" way to access a NAS on macOS (and Linux too). (August 2018)

Setting up a NAS Box with FreeBSD and a Raspbery Pi 4-W Toomey 2019, demo on RPi-3
Running a July-2020 FreeBSD-13 build on the RPi4 - my RPi4 was bought 2020-07 and these notes get it working with a USB3 SSD. However, it is not quite ready for serious work. Update for FreeBSD-14: it is better but heavy duty SSD disk IO still can cause the USB3 SSD to detach (have not tried to identify the exact cause)

Package management systems will generally make the management of software tools close to automatic. On FreeBSD and macOS, there is pkg and homebrew respectively. Typical update commands:

The "pkg" tool itself is ready to use on FreeBSD but you need to manually install the "brew" tool on macOS (see below)

Linux systems have package management built-in but, if you want a BSD type experience, then "homebrew for Linux" is recommended. The one-line install command is at brew.sh
The "brew" command is similar to the FreeBSD "pkg" command
You gain access to the usual build tools (and easy selection of versions)

The essentials are homebrew and XQuartz ...
macOS Workspace Setup by Nenad Novaković covers the basic install of Xcode (command line tools), the package manager homebrew (with great hints for brew command use for common unix tools and also macOS GUI tools), and support services like up-to-date Apache httpd, dnsmasq, php, etc. (written July 2018). From Nenad's article, just 4 shell commands entered in a Terminal window get you the basic setup for new users:
xcode-select --install

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

brew upgrade && brew update

brew install cask
The above commands install the software build system (compilers etc.), then uses ruby to install homebrew, then uses homebrew to update itself, and then uses brew to install a component that allows you to also manage the macOS type GUI apps.
A handler for "command not found" can be triggered in recent versions of shells like zsh, bash, etc. The Homebrew Command Not Found handler can automatically suggest how to install a command using brew if checking shows that it exists.
From Unix to Mac OS-X, by Tom Loredo at Cornell, is an excellent introduction to OS-X for FreeBSD users. New users should at least skim this documentation, right through to the end, where you will find a link to the very thorough Unix and OS X: The Absolute Essentials from UCSC Scott Lab. (updated April 2017)

Windoze applications can sometimes be run in WINE and packaged up into standalone OS-X applications using WineBottler.
OS-X miscellaneous: Open generic files in a preferred app via Services (or search); Mac Book OS-X can't boot due to missing disk? Try fixing any intermittent connection to the disk as per ifixit instructions.
Hacking (often with help from support.apple.com and/or stack-exchange):

restart holding down the Command+S keys for Single User Mode
check the filesystem via fsck -fy
remount / as writeable via mount -uw /
clear a system setup flag so an admin user is added at restart so enter rm /var/db/.applesetupdone and reboot

Use of resetpassword recovery command
Firmware password removal
(remove/change RAM, power up with PR ram clear, restore RAM)

Wine Bottler is a macOS tool that automates the repackaging of Windows apps into standalone macOS apps (essentially packages them with all necessary WINE run-time components). This can be very useful in restricted engineering teaching environments.

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