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macOS miscellanea.md
# Useful keyboard shortcuts * Hold down ⌃⏏ to bring up the restart, sleep, and shutdown dialog box. * ⌥⌘⏏ or ⌥⌘⌽ will force the computer to go to sleep almost instantly. * Screenshot to clipboard: ⌃⇧⌘3 and ⌃⇧⌘4. * Choose window for screenshot: ⇧⌘4 then tap space bar. Hold ⌘ to capture modal dialogs/sheets (https://tidbits.com/2021/07/23/the-hidden-trick-for-capturing-document-modal-dialogs-in-mac-screenshots/). * Enable/disable scroll lock in Excel: ⇧F14 Lots of other good ones here: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/400/please-share-your-hidden-os-x-features-or-tips-and-tricks/ To get a list of all user-defined keyboard shortcuts: `defaults find NSUserKeyEquivalents` In the results, `@` = command, `~` = option, `^` = control, `$` = shift. # Spotlight Spotlight status: `sudo mdutil -a -s or mdutil -s mountPoint` Rebuild all indexes: `sudo mdutil -avE` Enable/disable indexing of a volume: `mdutil -i on|off mountPoint` # Miscellaneous * Anonymous AFP URLs: `afp://;AUTH=No%20User%20Authent@mac-support/mac-support` * Disable application resume per application: `defaults write com.[vendor].[AppName] ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES` (e.g., `defaults write com.Apple.Preview ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES`). * Create an internet location file to a mounted server (AppleScript): ```applescript tell application "Finder" to make new internet location file at desktop to "smb://registry.otago.ac.nz/mdr/Profiles/staff3/s/7/stani07p" with properties {name:"Staff Desktop Profile"} ``` * Change HFS attributes on an entire directory tree: `find . -exec setfile … {} \;`. See man page for `SetFile` (case-sensitive!). * MagicPrefs emulates the mouse, which prevents you from clicking on the “Allow…” button in the Security preference pane. Temporarily disabling MagicPrefs fixes this (see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8087342). In fact, this appears to apply to any button that involves a trust setting (e.g., when installing non-gallery Safari extensions). * Restart a borked internal camera: `sudo killall VDCAssistant`. * When exporting a Keynote presentation as a QuickTime movie for uploading to the web, the following settings are a reasonable compromise between quality and file size: don’t automatically open in full screen, H.264, 24 fps, key frame every 48 frames, quality slider halfway between medium & high. * `sudo postfix start` will start the mail system, as it has a tendency to switch itself off. Typical symptom: ```text % mailq postqueue: fatal: Queue report unavailable - mail system is down ``` To delete the contents of the queue: ```sh mailq | awk '$7~/@/{print$1}' | while read qid; do sudo postsuper -d $qid; done ``` # Create a RAM disk From https://stackoverflow.com/a/23359182. ```sh diskutil erasevolume HFS+ 'RAMDiskName' `hdiutil attach -nomount ram://XXXXXX` ``` where XXXXXX is a count of 512-byte blocks (e.g., 262114 for a 128MB RAM disk). Disk will be mounted at `/Volumes/RAMDiskName/`. # Fixing slow launch of Mail This is kind of the “nuke it from orbit approach” as it has to re-import all the messages from 365 and a bunch of settings will be reset, but it does fix the slow launch problem. https://appletoolbox.com/mail-not-working-after-macos-mojave-upgrade-how-to-fix/#Mail_Crashing_or_Slow_After_macOS_Mojave_Upgrade_How-To_Fix Hmm, watch out for the `DataVaults` folder under `Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data` in Catalina. It’s protected by SIP and only deletable via the Terminal in recovery (nice job, Apple). Need to mount the volume via Disk Utility first if it’s encrypted (always?). # Create macOS guest in VirtualBox 1. Install Bash ≥ 4.3 or zsh ≥ 5.5 if needed. 2. Clone `macos-virtualbox` from https://github.com/myspaghetti/macos-virtualbox. 3. Configure the script as necessary (note: minimum disk image size for installing Catalina is 25GB). 4. `/opt/local/bin/bash -i macos-guest-virtualbox.sh` 5. Once the install is done, shut down the VM and change the default resolution, e.g. (https://scribles.net/changing-screen-resolution-of-mac-os-virtualbox-guest/): ``` /Applications/VirtualBox/Contents/MacOS/VBoxManage setextradata "Catalina" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1920x1080 ``` where `"Catalina"` is the name of the VM. # Secure VNC/remote desktop See <https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/343989> for how to remote access a Mac without unlocking the local display. Short version: * VNC in. * Fast user switch to another account. * Lock screen. * Disconnect and reconnect. * You will be asked which display to use.
# Useful keyboard shortcuts * Hold down ⌃⏏ to bring up the restart, sleep, and shutdown dialog box. * ⌥⌘⏏ or ⌥⌘⌽ will force the computer to go to sleep almost instantly. * Screenshot to clipboard: ⌃⇧⌘3 and ⌃⇧⌘4. * Choose window for screenshot: ⇧⌘4 then tap space bar. Hold ⌘ to capture modal dialogs/sheets (https://tidbits.com/2021/07/23/the-hidden-trick-for-capturing-document-modal-dialogs-in-mac-screenshots/). * Enable/disable scroll lock in Excel: ⇧F14 Lots of other good ones here: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/400/please-share-your-hidden-os-x-features-or-tips-and-tricks/ To get a list of all user-defined keyboard shortcuts: `defaults find NSUserKeyEquivalents` In the results, `@` = command, `~` = option, `^` = control, `$` = shift. # Spotlight Spotlight status: `sudo mdutil -a -s or mdutil -s mountPoint` Rebuild all indexes: `sudo mdutil -avE` Enable/disable indexing of a volume: `mdutil -i on|off mountPoint` # Miscellaneous * Anonymous AFP URLs: `afp://;AUTH=No%20User%20Authent@mac-support/mac-support` * Disable application resume per application: `defaults write com.[vendor].[AppName] ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES` (e.g., `defaults write com.Apple.Preview ApplePersistenceIgnoreState YES`). * Create an internet location file to a mounted server (AppleScript): ```applescript tell application "Finder" to make new internet location file at desktop to "smb://registry.otago.ac.nz/mdr/Profiles/staff3/s/7/stani07p" with properties {name:"Staff Desktop Profile"} ``` * Change HFS attributes on an entire directory tree: `find . -exec setfile … {} \;`. See man page for `SetFile` (case-sensitive!). * MagicPrefs emulates the mouse, which prevents you from clicking on the “Allow…” button in the Security preference pane. Temporarily disabling MagicPrefs fixes this (see https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8087342). In fact, this appears to apply to any button that involves a trust setting (e.g., when installing non-gallery Safari extensions). * Restart a borked internal camera: `sudo killall VDCAssistant`. * When exporting a Keynote presentation as a QuickTime movie for uploading to the web, the following settings are a reasonable compromise between quality and file size: don’t automatically open in full screen, H.264, 24 fps, key frame every 48 frames, quality slider halfway between medium & high. * `sudo postfix start` will start the mail system, as it has a tendency to switch itself off. Typical symptom: ```text % mailq postqueue: fatal: Queue report unavailable - mail system is down ``` # Create a RAM disk From https://stackoverflow.com/a/23359182. ```sh diskutil erasevolume HFS+ 'RAMDiskName' `hdiutil attach -nomount ram://XXXXXX` ``` where XXXXXX is a count of 512-byte blocks (e.g., 262114 for a 128MB RAM disk). Disk will be mounted at `/Volumes/RAMDiskName/`. # Fixing slow launch of Mail This is kind of the “nuke it from orbit approach” as it has to re-import all the messages from 365 and a bunch of settings will be reset, but it does fix the slow launch problem. https://appletoolbox.com/mail-not-working-after-macos-mojave-upgrade-how-to-fix/#Mail_Crashing_or_Slow_After_macOS_Mojave_Upgrade_How-To_Fix Hmm, watch out for the `DataVaults` folder under `Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data` in Catalina. It’s protected by SIP and only deletable via the Terminal in recovery (nice job, Apple). Need to mount the volume via Disk Utility first if it’s encrypted (always?). # Create macOS guest in VirtualBox 1. Install Bash ≥ 4.3 or zsh ≥ 5.5 if needed. 2. Clone `macos-virtualbox` from https://github.com/myspaghetti/macos-virtualbox. 3. Configure the script as necessary (note: minimum disk image size for installing Catalina is 25GB). 4. `/opt/local/bin/bash -i macos-guest-virtualbox.sh` 5. Once the install is done, shut down the VM and change the default resolution, e.g. (https://scribles.net/changing-screen-resolution-of-mac-os-virtualbox-guest/): ``` /Applications/VirtualBox/Contents/MacOS/VBoxManage setextradata "Catalina" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1920x1080 ``` where `"Catalina"` is the name of the VM. # Secure VNC/remote desktop See <https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/343989> for how to remote access a Mac without unlocking the local display. Short version: * VNC in. * Fast user switch to another account. * Lock screen. * Disconnect and reconnect. * You will be asked which display to use.
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