The Mac Admin's Blog

Few special key commands while start up. This can be of great use while troubleshooting start up issues in Mac. Action/Explanation Keystroke Eject CD on boot Hold Mouse button down immediately after powering on OS X Safe boot Press Shift during startup Start up in FireWire Target Disk mode Press T during startup Startup from a CD Press C during startup Bypass primary startup volume and seek a different startup volume Press Cmd-Opt-Shift-Delete during startup Choose Startup disk before booting Press Option during startup Start up in Verbose mode Press Cmd-V during startup Start up in Single-User mode (command line) Press Cmd-S during startup Force Powerbook screen reset Press R during startup Force OS X startup Press X during startup

If you want to set your Mac so that it turns ON exactly on the time you want, you can do that I used this command syntax: pmset repeat wakeorpoweron MTWRF 00:00:00 Let me simplify the command so that you can understand it. pmset is the command, wakeorpoweron is to tell your Mac to turn it ON if it is OFF or to wake up if it is sleeping. MTWRF are the weekdays where R represents thursday, I know you are smart enough to understand the reason and  00:00:00 is the time you want your Mac is to be back in action. Now, if you want to cancel this schedule, then type the following command:  pmset repeat cancel Though, this is not a big help as it can also be done from energy saving options in your Mac, but there is limit of setting only couple of schedules.  Using command line you can set as many rules as you want. This is what we call being a step ahead of the crowd. In coming posts we will discuss more about pmset command and its versatility.

Working at helpdesk, very often I get tickets from users requesting to synch their Entourage data with their iPhone. Though the steps to synch iPod touch with Entourage is same, but I would prefer using the word iPhone considering its popularity. All you have to do is go to Entourage Preferences, under General Preferences, select ‘Synch Services’. If you have a MobileMe account, you don’t have to bother about connecting your iPhone to the Mac. In our next post we will discuss how Mac synchronizes the data with iPhone.

Sometimes while connecting to a server, you may get  a prompt of Kerberos log in failed. Kerberos is a "single sign on" technology in Mac for the convenience of the users. Next time if yu get this error then have a look at the clock on your Mac. It might be incorrect and hence creating this issue. So now as you are aware of the root cause, you can fic it yourself. Though it is easy for you to change the time ion your Mac, but if in case you face any issue while setting up time and date, please drop a mail at Laeeq.Humam@MacMasters.net

Here are the steps to get this done: Open the System Preferences (either from the Dock or from the Apple menu).   Go to the Display Panel and choose the 'Display' tab. On the left of the Displays tab you can select one of the Resolutions from the list. Higher resolutions allow you to see more “stuff”. IT is recommending at least 1024x768 unless you have a specific reason to use a lower resolution.   Quit or close the System Preferences when done. Also make sure: At higher resolutions, you may not be able to see as many colors (Thousands instead of Millions) Flat panel monitors have a prefered resolution. If you set the display lower or higher, the display will be noticably more blurry. The prefered resolution should be noted in your display manual. For example, the new 17 inch Apple Studio Display (flat panel) is most crisp at 1280x1024.

The trendiest thing happening in the world of Hackintosh is running OS X 10.6 on a Dell mini, the Intel Atom notebook. If you get a refurbished Dell it could cost you around $200. The reason why we prefer Dell and not any other is the really easy way to get this done. It is running successfully across the world with 100s of members of Hackintosh community. I personally do not prefer hacking a Mac OS X, but if you are a real Mac fanatic and you cannot afford to buy a it, you can always try this. If you are on Twitter you can get great deals in Dell Machine by following this DellOutlet . There are 1,371,431 followers already availing the benefit from these Dell tweets. Once you get the deal, you can start the installing Mac OS X on you Dell mini. The step by step procedure is explained beautifully by Gizmodo here . Many thanks to the team who worked behind this.