Apple Time Machine backups to Ubuntu network drive

Apple's Time Machine is an awesome utility but gets frustrating when you have to use an external drive. An easier was to do these back ups is using a network drive. Fortunately, the netatalk package installed on an Ubuntu server can provide the functionality you want.

I am using Ubuntu 9.10 on my server. As a note, this is actually a MythBuntu server but functionality should be the same on any other Ubuntu 9.10 server/workstation.

First, as of this writing, the netatalk 2.0.5 packages are not available in karmic's repositories so let's add a debian repository by adding the following to /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian sid main

Now let's install the netatalk package:
sudo apt-get install netatalk

Create a directory for time machine backups:
mkdir /home/user/timemachine

Now we need to edit the /etc/netatalk/AppleVolumes.default file and add the following line:
/home/user/timemachine timemachine options:tm

And restart netatalk:
sudo /etc/init.d/netatalk restart

Now on your mac, open finder, select the Go menu and "Connect to Server". Fill in your server's ip address prefixed by afp:// (for example, afp://192.168.1.100) and you should be prompted for a volume to mount. Select "timemachine", of course. Once that volume is mounted, go to time machine preferences and select that disk and you're all set. If you don't see your network drive as an option then open up terminal and issue the following command:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

As a note, you may want to now go and remove the extra line from your /etc/apt/sources.list file so that future apt-get commands don't rely on debian's repository and not it's own

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Rapidly flashing light on MacBook

There seems to be a huge lack of information on this so I wanted to share it here. If all of a sudden your MacBook or MacBook Pro refuses to start and all you get is the rapid flashing sleep light then the problem is most likely related to the RAM. The MacBook tends to have RAM that is tough to install and, in mnay cases, you have to push the RAM into the slots MUCH harder than you would expect. Since this is the case it is also highly likely that the RAM wasn't 100% installed at the factory and simply the normal moving of the laptop can losen it enough to create this issue.

This isn't really a HOW-TO but just a bit of information for if your MacBook suddenly gives you the rapidly flashing light :)

Reference Link

Making a back up copy of OSX Leopard install disk on a SL-DVD

I got OSX Leopard tonight and I want to make a back up copy.... but there are a lot of weird things going on in the partitioning of the disk.... Not to mention it's more than 7GB. Of course, you know, a ton of that are language packs and such that you know that you are never going to use so let's shrink it down..... After searching google and experimenting with my own knowledge I've come up with this process.

Overview: Basically you just need to be able to edit what is on the CD. Of course, CD's are not read/write and if you create an ISO, it most likely will only mount read only. What we're going to do is create an brand new image that is read/write and then we'll dump what's on the entire DVD onto that image. Once we're in that position, we can delete things we don't need on the install CD. Once we have it the way we want it, we'll create another image for a 4.7GB DVD and copy it over to that.... then we can do what we want.

1. Insert the OSX Leopard DVD
   
2. Open Disk Utility
   
3. Create "New Image"
   
   • Name can be anything
     
   • It's easiest to save on your desktop
     
   • Size: 8.0GB (Dual Layer)
     
   • Encryption: None
     
   • Format: Spare Disk Image
   
   
4. Click the image you just created and then click the "restore" tab for that.
   Drag the "Mac OSX Install DVD" image into the source and then drag the image you just created into the destination field.
   
5. Click Restore
   
6. Go grab a soda . . . Take a Nap . . .
   
7. Create an "Extras" folder (or whatever you want to name it) on your desktop. We will use this to dump things to that we don't need on the first install procedure.
   
8. In Finder, go to to "Go To Folder" option under the "Go" menu and type in "/Volumes/[image name]/System" and click go. (Of course, replace image name with whatever you named your 8.0GB image above)
   
9. Go into the Installation folder and then into packages and delete what you don't need and move what you may need later but not immediately (Language packs, printer drivers, etc can safely be deleted or moved to your extras).
   
10. Drag the "Optional Installs" folder from the top of the CD tree into the extras folder you created above and delete from your image (we'll dump this to another DVD later, if desired)
    
11. Empty your trash and then "Get Info" for your mounted image. If it's less than 4.5GB or so, continue... if not, go back and delete/move some more.
    
12. Create 2 new images with the same settings as at the beginning of this how-to except both of these should be 4.7GB Single Layer DVD size (leopard-disc1 and leopard-disc2 would be good names for these). If you are an advanced user, you can create the size as custom and fill in variables that would hold the specific data that you have created - this would create smaller image files for archival purposes.
    
13. Drag anything you dumped in to the extras folder into the disc2 mount in finder
    
14. Click on your disc1 image in disk utility and click the restore tab.
    
15. Repeat the same thing as we did above except your source is the image that we just deleted the extras off of and the destination is your disc1 image.
    
16. Take another nap . . . You'll be well reseted for the install :)
    
17. You can now burn directly from those 2 images.
    

Theoretically, If you want an ISO image, you can get DMGConverter (http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32275) and use that to convert your sparseimage files to DVD/CD Master files and then simply rename those with an ISO extension.

Reference Link

Target Disk Mode (Macintosh)

For the last few days I have been pissed about not being able to boot an iBook from a USB CD-Drive. Apparently this is only possible by using a firewire external drive. The bigger issue is that God forbid anywhere local have a firewire IDE enclosure... hell, I had a hard enough time finding a firewire cable......
.... Then I learned about something that I will gladly trade the ability to boot from a USB drive. This little gem is called "Target Disk Mode". The uses of this are really endless. Basically any drive in a macintosh computer can be used as an external firewire drive. Yes, you can do backups of your hard drive this way..... AND it allows you to use the DVD drive of another macintosh as a firewire drive.... which means if you have an ibook with a dead optical drive, you can use the drive from another mac by starting that mac in this mode.

1. Make sure that the target computer is turned off. If you are using a PowerBook or iBook as the target computer, you should also plug in its AC power adapter.
2. Use a FireWire cable (6-pin to 6-pin) to connect the target computer to a host computer. The host computer does not need to be turned off.
3. Start up the target computer and immediately press and hold down the T key until the FireWire icon appears. The hard disk of the target computer should become available to the host computer and will likely appear on desktop. (If the target computer is running Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, you can also open System Preferences, choose Startup Disk, and click Target Disk Mode. Then restart the computer and it will start up in Target Disk Mode.)
4. When you are finished copying files, drag the target computer's hard disk icon to the Trash or select Put Away from the File menu (Mac OS 9) or Eject from the File menu (Mac OS X).
5. Press the target computer's power button to turn it off.
6. Unplug the FireWire cable.

Reference Link

Macintosh Boot Commands

I always seem to forget these so I'm putting them here so I know where to find them next time I forget :)

Command-S Boot into Single User Mode
Command-V Boot using "Verbose" mode (shows all kernel and startup console messages)
X Reset startup disk selection and boot into Mac OS X Server
Shift Boot into "Safe Boot" mode, which runs Disk First Aid. A reboot will be required afterward.
Option Boot into Open Firmware to select a boot device
Command-Option-Shift-Delete Bypass internal harddrive on boot
T Boot into Firewire target disk mode
C Boot from the internal optical drive
N Start from the Network (NetBoot)
Command-Option-P-R Reset Parameter RAM (PRAM) and non-volatile RAM (NVRAM)
(mouse button) Eject (internal) removable media

ALSO: if you use open firmware password... you'll need this:
Startup Manager -accessed by pressing the Option key during startup
Enter commands after starting up in Open Firmware -press Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106482

How to troubleshoot a computer with Open Firmware Password enabled
If you cannot access the Open Firmware Password application and need to troubleshoot your computer by:

Resetting the PRAM
Starting up in Single-user mode
Starting up in Verbose mode
Starting from CD-ROM

Then follow these steps:

Start up into Open Firmware by pressing and holding the Command-Option-O-F key combination during startup.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
Press Return.
When prompted for your password, enter it and press the Return key. It responds OK.
At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
Press Return.

The computer restarts and you are now be able to reset the PRAM and startup in Single-user mode, Verbose mode, or from CD-ROM.

Reference Link