Unix (desktop and servers)
- 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)
- FreeBSD
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 Updates
- Package management systems will generally make the management of software tools close to automatic. On FreeBSD and macOS, there is pkg and homebrew respectively. Here is a list of typical update commands that keep all the tools up-to-date.
- FreeBSD package: pkg update ; pkg upgrade
- macOS homebrew: brew update ; brew upgrade
- The "pkg" tool itself is ready to use on FreeBSD but you need to manually install the "brew" tool on macOS (see setup instructions below)
- Thinking BSD Unix with Linux
- 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 equivalent to the FreeBSD "pkg" command
- You will gain convenient access to all the usual compiler tools (and easy selection of versions etc.)
- Using Unix with macOS
- 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 --installruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"brew upgrade && brew updatebrew install caskThe 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)
- OS-X/macOS hacks
- 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):
- Create a bootable installer for macOS
- Using and booting from external disk
- About the screens you see when your Mac starts up
- Startup key combinations
- Move your content to a new Mac
- OS X: Manually migrating data from another Mac
- System preparation before reset to new user
- Removing partitions via shell cmd/recovery (handles hidden bootcamp)
- Reset passwords via shell cmd/recovery
- Create a new admin account
- 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
- Unlock drives
- sudo chflags nouchg / or /usr/bin/sudo chflags nouchg /
- mount -uw /
- chown root /
- chmod 1775 /
- 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.
- Embedded FreeBSD
- Panasonic Viera HDTV
- No system hacks required. Note that the optional external disk is formatted with a UFS file system (FreeBSD-5).
- Configuration quirks: the Panasonic user interface removes menu options relevant to external devices like AV Receivers when such devices are not attached or fully configured. In a catch-22, this can lead to much confusion when attempting to configure the link to such devices. To make use (or at least some sense) of ARC in HDMI between a Viera HDTV and Yamaha AV Receiver, try this sequence:
- AV Receiver: enable HDMI control and ARC options;
- Connect and power up TV and AV Receiver;
- On the TV remote control: press menu button->Setup->Viera Link Settings-> enable all HDMI or Viera options (or at least set to auto);
- On the TV remote control: press VIERALink button-> set control to Player, set sound to Cinema Surround (this latter menu option only becomes visible if external equipment is detected to have ARC enabled, and is critical).
