damians personal blog

Ever being hassled by the alert: "This software cannot be installed on this computer."? Make it the last time:

rm "/Volumes/Mac OS X Install Disc 1/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg/Contents/OSInstall.dist"

At the beginning of the installation, it will show the dialog that the installer will verify the hardware, but it will perform no checks anymore.

While I was already at it, I tried to copy the my favourite OS X App's (such as DiskWarrior) into the Applications/Utilities folder of the image. I modified the file

/System/Installation/CDIS/Installation\ Log.app/Contents/Resources/InstallerMenuAdditions.plist

to make those custom applications show in the menu during installation along with the Terminal and Disk Utility, but somehow this did not work. There must be some kind of protection that keep unintende applications from showing in that menu, but at least in the cleartext files I haven't found any hint.

Also I wonder if the PowerPC binary really would work, i.e. if Rosetta is present during the installation.

        19.Sep.2006, 12:10 :: mac os x :: Permalink :: Comments (0)

Actually, this is not really specific for intel DVD's but it might work for any OS X DVD:

• Use Disk Utility to make a read-write image of the (dual layer) original Apple DVD, mine is called AppleOSX_DVD.dmg and resides on the Desktop
• In order to make it fit on a single layer DVD, remove stuff from the disk image that won't be used: The XCode Tools Folder, and all files in /System/Installation/Packages (You can still put folders back onto the disk image after resizing the image file).
• In the Terminal: hdiutil resize -size 4.3g ~/Desktop/AppleOSX_DVD.dmg (online man page)

According to well informed resources on TUAW and onmac.net this works. Now if You receive the error: hdiutil: resize request is below minimum size allowed then You have not really deleted all the directories I indicated. Check back with hdiutil resize -limits ~/Desktop/AppleOSX_DVD.dmg and find the minimum size (first number, in 512b sectors) equal the current size (second number). And don't forget to empty the trash ;)

        18.Sep.2006, 17:49 :: mac os x :: Permalink :: Comments (0)

Yesterday, CodeWeavers relesed CrossOver Office Beta. In the beginning I was pretty thrilled about the possibilities, but I sobered pretty soon.

My test series and the results:

• MS IE 6 on Win98: installation without error, no binary found to launch
• MS IE 6 on Win2000: installation without error, no binary found to launch
• MS IE 5.5 on Win2000: installation aborts, "no pentium CPU present"
• MS IE 6 on WinXP: installation without error, runs, but doesn't display pages correctly
• MSN Messanger 6.01/7.5 on any Win ver: will not install without error message

And in the mean times: WFW - waiting for windows! Though I ran this on a MBP, the App is awfully slow, installing an application and rebooting windows takes forever.

Conclusion? Sure the guys did some great work @ CodeWeavers, but the result is far from useable. Rather use Paralells Desktop, Q or Apple's Bootcamp. I'll check back at CodeWeavers when they've released v1.0.1 of their software.

        3.Sep.2006, 18:48 :: unsorted :: Permalink :: Comments (1)

Soeben habe ich einen sehr aufschlussreichen Artikel über Tchibo in der Süddeutschen gelesen (via lawblog). Derjenige, der noch nie etwas bei Tchibo eingekauft hat, der werfe den ersten Stein...

Einige Zitate, die mich speziell erstaunt haben:

• Statistisch besitzt jede deutsche Frau einen Tchibo-BH.
  Meine Freundin auch! Verdammte Statistiken...

• Der Name Tchibo setzt sich aus "Tchilling" und "Bohne" zusammen.

• Heute lässt das Unternehmen in seinem "Non Food-Bereich" jedes Jahr 1500 Produkte entwickeln und in zumeist riesigen Stückzahlen herstellen. Tchibo macht vier Milliarden Euro Umsatz im Jahr (...)

• (...) bevor der Verkauf richtig losgeht, werden die Produkte in 16 Verkaufsstellen getestet - mit drei verschiedenen Preisen. Erst nach diesem Probelauf legen die Tchibo-Manager den endgültigen Verkaufspreis fest.
  Marketing in Reinstform! BWL-Studenten, Notizen machen!

• Das Label "TCM", unter dem die Produkte firmieren, ist keine Firma, sondern bedeutet schlicht "Tchibo-Magazin".
  Ha ha. Ich fühle mich irgendwie verarscht.

• Rund die Hälfte aller Modelle gibt Steffens zur Überarbeitung zurück. Sind bei der endgültigen Lieferung von vielleicht 100.000 Exemplaren immer noch Fehler, nimmt sie Tchibo nicht ab.
  Wie bitte? Ausgerechnet Tchibo soll strenge Qualitätskontrollen haben?

• Das Geheimnis erklärt der Marketingchef mit einem Lächeln. Bei seiner Präsentation wird eine junge Frau zitiert. Sie sagt: "Ich habe heute Kinderwäsche gekauft, die ist wunderschön und wirklich günstig. Und das Witzige ist: Ich habe gar keine Kinder."

Was gibt es noch zu sagen? Denke daran, wenn du das nächste mal durch den Tchibo-Katalog blätterst oder in das Schaufenster schaust!

        3.Sep.2006, 12:16 :: life outside computers :: Permalink :: Comments (0)

The plan
My sister's iMac G3 needed a new installation of OS X due to a harddisk failure. The Computer was currently running, but when it hit a bad spot on the drive, it became inreactive (spinning beachball of death) for about 5min. 'Easy job' I thought, 'pretty straight forward:'

• Prepare and configure a fresh OS X on an external firewire 2,5'' harddisk
• Buy a new internal 3,5'' hardisk and install it
• Boot from the external drive
• Carbon copy clone the system from the external to the interal drive

The problems
But things are not always as easy as they seem at first glance...

• For some unknown reason, the iMac will not boot from the external drive
• The system CD of a Mac Mini G4 I brought along will not install: "Hardware doesn't meet requirements"
• When booting from that CD there is no Terminal nor Finder available which could be used to copy the files (I really was convinced there was a Terminal available?!?)
• The 2,5'' disk can't be used as interal harddisk because I have no 2,5'' IDE adapter

The solution
I took me quite a second to figure out how I can transfer the system. But here is the solution:

• Boot from the system CD
• Use the Disk Utility to create a disk image of the firewire drive and save it to the internal harddisk:
  • Utilities -> Disk Utility
  • Select the partition on the external disk
  • File -> New -> Disk Image from disk1s3 (or similar)
  • Image Format: read-only
  • Save to the internal drive
• Restore the disk image with the Disk Utility to the internal drive (target can be the same partition where the disk image resides, thus disk image and target partition sizes doesn't have to match)

After all, easy job. If I'd only known from the beginning!

        2.Sep.2006, 21:03 :: mac os x :: Permalink :: Comments (0)