You use Directory Utility  to join a Mac to an Open Directory in Leopard. It’s convenient because you only need to use one application. When I tried to add a new iMac running Snow Leopard to our Open Directory, I found that there is no Directory Utility in /Applications/Utilities . The utility is hidden in /System/Library/CoreServices , and you cannot use it to join the computer to the Open Directory. Therefore, it’s not very useful.

The function of joining the computer to OD has been integrated into the System Preferences. To do it, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Apple icon on the menu and select System Preferences.
2. Click on Accounts -> Login Options.
3. Click on the Join button to join the computer to a Network Account Server.
   

You can open the Directory Utility from the poped up dialog. However, the ability to mount NFS shares is also stripped out from the Directory Utility. To mount NFS shares, use Disk Utility instead.

1. Invoke Disk Utility.
2. Click on File -> NFS Mounts.
   
3. Add the shares.

When you run a Java application on Snow Leopard, the 64-bit Java is used by default. This might be problematic when you run some older applications. We ran to this problem earlier when a user tried to activate his Matlab license. The message he got is

There was an unexpected exception: Can’t load library: / Applications/ MATLAB_R2009aSV.app/ / bin/ maci64/ libactivation.jnilib See the log file (/ var/ folders/ Mp/ Mp0PQFo9GbKznsjhgBiZf++++TI/ -Tmp-/ TMW_svact_christophergiuliano.log) for more details.

The solution is to set the 32-bit Java as default. Here are the steps:

1. Invoke Java Preferences in Applications -> Utilities.
   
2. Click on the entry of Java SE 6  32-bit and drag it before Java SE 6  64-bit in the Java Applications section.
   
3. Close Java Preferences. The 32-bit Java will be used next time you run a Java application.

MacHeist offers their nanoBundle for free today. Originally priced at $154 and it’s now free for a limited time. The bundle includes the following 6 apps:

• ShoveBox
  “Catch all the little scraps of information that you can’t immediately act on, but don’t want to forget. ShoveBox sits up in your menu bar, waiting for you to drag in text, images, URLs, and more.”
• WriteRoom
  “WriteRoom is a simple, but powerful app that provides you with a distraction-free writing environment. WriteRoom does one main thing and does it incredibly well: It’s all about writing…”
• Twitterrific
  “Twitterrific is an exquisite app that enables you to make the most out of your Twitter experience. It has a clean user interface that’s designed to take up little of your precious desktop space.”
• TinyGrab
  “TinyGrab is a simple, powerful app that enables you to quickly share screenshots of everything on your Mac.”
• Hordes of Orcs
  “Hordes of Orcs is a Tower Defense strategy game where you build walls and towers to defend your village from orcs gone rogue.”
• Mariner Write
  “Mariner Write is a fast, streamlined word processor that’s useful for everyone… professional writers, educators, students, casual computer users, and everyone in-between. It has a simple, elegant user interface so that you can create beautiful documents the very first time you start using it.”

Interested? Here is the site:

http://www.macheist.com/

We just got some new Mac Minis last week. I helped one user to set one up with a Dell 30″ monitor. We used the included Mini-DVI to DVI adapter to connect the Mac Mini and the monitor. When the machine was up and running, we found that the maximum resolution is only 1280×800 which is way to low.

I first thought it’s software related, so I tried different software to use customary resolutions. The software I tried are ResSwitchX and DisplayConfigX. They did allow me to define resolutions, but neither of them would let me use the monitor’s native resolution 2560×1600. I then checked the spec of the Mac Mini and found that I need a Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter to connect it to a 30″ monitor.

The adapter is kinda expensive at $99.00. I cannot seem to find a cheaper 3rd party alternative. After we got the adapter connected, we were able to get the native 2560×1600 resolution. Note that the adapter is not plug and play, you might need to reboot your Mac to get it to work.

Snow Leopard is out today. If you are considering upgrading to it, the first thing you need to know is that all the software for PowerPC are not working any more. There are some other Intel based software which are not compatible. For a complete list of those incompatible software, please visit this link.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3258

[Update] There is an unofficial Wiki page about application compatibility under Snow Leopard. This list is much more comprehensive than the official page.

http://snowleopard.wikidot.com/

Snow Leopard is due out in a few days. If you have bought a new Mac without Snow Leopard after June 8, 2009, you might be qualified to get the upgrade for $9.95 plus tax. For detailed information, please visit this link.

Ever since Windows 7 Beta, I have installed various versions of Windows 7 on various MacBook and MacBook Pro. When I got the new 13″ MacBook Pro, I thought it’s a cake walk to install Windows 7 RTM on it. I was only half right.

The installation of Windows 7 RTM itself is not very difficult. The procedure is similar to the steps in my previous post about installing Windows 7 Beta on my own MacBook. The problems lies in the drivers installation.

The Leopard DVD has most of the drivers. At first, I could not get the drivers to install, because Windows 7 is not officially supported. I then found out this patch that lets you install the BootCamp drivers on the Leopard DVD. The patch is called Apple BootCamp Patch LIMO. Here is the link to the download site. Follow the instructions on the readme file to install the drivers.

The sound chip driver was not installed even after the BootCamp drivers installation. This took me the longest to figure out. I tried the Realtek driver first, because that’s what I did for the other MacBook. However, the sound chip was not made by Realtek. Using the vendor ID and device ID, I identified the sound chip’s manufacturer is Cirrus. There is already a Cirrus driver on the Leopard disc. You can use the Cirrus driver for Vista. The driver works, but the volume output is low. This is a major complaint on the Apple’s discussions forum. Here is the original thread. cmosquera, henry128 and others have figured out a way to fix the volume problem. Here are the downloads:

Vista/Windows 7 32 bit

http://rapidshare.com/files/265858428/FixCirrusAudioVista32.exe

Vista/Windows 7 64bit

http://rapidshare.com/files/265858429/FixCirrusAudioVista64.exe

Here is a problem that I do not have a solution yet. That is the microphone volume. I am able to record voice using the sound recorder program and the bulit-in mic. However, the other applications like Skype cannot use the microphone at all. The program recognizes the microphone as the sound input device, but it keeps complaining that the sound level is too low. If you know how to fix this, please tell us in the comments section.

The last part is the graphic card driver. The card is not recognized, so manual installation is required. The graphic card is a Nvidia GeForce 9400M. A simple download from the Nvidia takes care of it.

I worked on an Open Directory problem on a Leopard server for 5 hours straight yesterday. With the help of an Apple’s consultant, the system is finally fixed. The computer setup is like this. We have two Leopard servers, one is the Open Directory Master (ODM), the other works as a client for the Open Directory. We noticed that the changes made on the ODM don’t reflect on the client. I tried to unbind the client from the OD and re-bind it again. After re-binding, the ODM shows up in the Directory Utility windows with a red light and the message “The server is not resonding.” .

It turns out this client was an Open Directory Replica. Somehow, it was not demoted to a regular client properly, therefore a copy of Open Directory is running on this client. Here are the steps that we took to fix this problem.

1. On the client, use Directory Utility to unbind it from the server. You might need to force unbind it.
2. On the client, type the command to delete the Directory Service preference. If you have other settings in there, you might want to write them down first.
   sudo rm -R -v /Library/Preferences/DirectoryService
3. On the client, use Keychain Access to search the items related to kerberos and delete them.
   
4. On the client, type the following commands to delete the setting related to kerberos and them again.
   sudo rm -fr /var/db/krb5kdc
sudo /usr/libexec/configureLocalKDC
5. The client was previously setup as an OD replica. We want to delete all the previous settings related to the replica. You do not need to do this, if your situation is different. On the client, type the following command.
   sudo slapconfig -destroyldapserver
6. Reboot the client.
7. On the server, use the Workgroup Manager to delete the computer accounts related to the client.
8. On the client, use the Directory Utility to bind the machine to OD.

If this does not fix your problem, google “Open Directory Administation” and read the PDF docuement from Apple. It has some troubleshooting tips about OD.

The Windows 7 Beta on my MacBook was about to expire, so I reinstalled Vista on it. After the installation, I put in the Leopard DVD and installed the drivers. Initially, the drivers installation was not successful. I just downloaded the BootCamp 2.1 update from Apple and intalled it. All the drivers except the audio driver were installed.

I tried different methods to install the missing audio driver, but Vista cannot find the proper driver for it. My other MacBook (early 2008) uses Realtek driver, so I thought this uses the same driver. I downloaded the latest driver from Realtek and tried different versions and they all failed to install.

Finally, I looked up the VEN(DOR) ID for the device and found that it’s from SigmaTel! I installed the SigmaTel driver from the Leopard DVD and it started to work right away. I am not sure why the BootCamp drivers installation did not figure out the right driver the first time, but I learned that I’d better checking the VEN(DOR) ID next time I ran into the same problem.

Just in case you don’t know how to check the VEN ID. You can right click on a device in Device Manager and select Properties. Under the Details tab, select Hardware Ids and you can see the VEN ID and DEV ID.

Here is a screenshot of one example.

In this case, the VEN ID is 1106 and DEV ID is 3403. After you know the VEN ID, you can use the site like PCIDatabase.com to search for the company.

One of my MacBook was purchased back in 2006. The battery was working fine until the beginning of this year. The capacity dropped like overnight. Suddenly, the fully charged battery could not last more than 40 minutes. At first, I thought I only need a replacement battery since the I had it for more than two years.

I ran across this page about battery problems for MacBook or MacBook Pro purchase between February 2006 and April 2007. If your battery has the following symptoms, you might get a free replacement.

• Battery is not recognized causing an “X” to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
• Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
• Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
• Battery pack is visibly deformed.

I took my MacBook to Apple Store last week. They tested my battery on the spot and ruled my battery is eligible for a free replacement. They changed it with a brand new battery.

Note that not every MacBook or MacBook Pro battery is eligible. To recap the  three requirements:

1. The MacBook and MacBook Pro must be purchased between 2006/2 and 2007/4.
2. The battery has one or more of  the aforementioned symptoms.
3. The battery must be tested as BAD.