There's a great blog post from Brendan Gregg's blog that covers a lot of detail around dtrace and its related tools:

• http://dtrace.org/blogs/brendan/2011/10/10/top-10-dtrace-scripts-for-mac-os-x/

One of the handier tools is iosnoop. It gives you a much easier to read (and easier to generate) view of the disk I/O on your Mac. If you remember, I talked about how to do this in Linux in the systemtap post as well as the post about finding elusive sources of iowait. This could give you a lot of handy information if you're staring at beachballs regularly while your disk drive churns.

Handy hints for using dtrace on the Mac is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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That led me to pick up a CradlePoint PHS-300 (discontinued by the manufacturer, but available from Amazon for about $35). It's compatible with my AT&T USBConnect Mercury (a.k.a. Sierra Wireless Compass 885/885U) USB stick.

Configuring the PHS-300 was extremely easy since I could just associate with the wireless network and enter the password printed on the bottom of the unit. However, getting the 3G stick to work was an immense pain. If you're trying to pair up these products, these steps should help:

• Access the PHS-300's web interface
• Click the Modem tab
• Click Settings on the left
• Click Always on under Reconnect Mode
• Uncheck Aggressive Modem Reset
• Put the following into the AT Dial Script text box:

  ATE0V1&F&D2&C1S0=0
  ATDT*99***1#

• Add ISP.CINGULAR to the Access Point Name (APN) box
• Flip the Connect Mode under Dual WiMAX/3G Settings to 3G Only
• Scroll up and push Save Settings and then Reboot Now

Once the PHS-300 reboots, the USB stick may light up, then turn off, and the display on the PHS-300 might show a red light for the 3G card. Wait about 10-15 seconds for the light to turn green. The lights on the 3G stick should be glowing and blinking as well.

So how did I figure this out?

After scouring Google search results, Sierra Wireless FAQ's, CradlePoint's support pages, and trolling through minicom (yes, minicom), I thought I'd try connecting with my MacBook Pro using the 3G Watcher application provided by Sierra Wireless. Before connecting, I opened up Console.app and watched the ppp.log file. Sure enough, two lines popped up that were quite relevant to my interests:

Fri Dec 16 00:37:51 2011 : Initializing phone: ATE0V1&F&D2&C1S0=0
Fri Dec 16 00:37:51 2011 : Dialing: ATDT*99***1#

I didn't have the exact initialization string in the PHS-300 and that was the cause of the failure the entire time.

If you'd like to talk to your USBConnect Mercury stick with minicom, just install minicom from macports (sudo port -v install minicom) and start it up like so:

sudo minicom -D /dev/cu.sierra04

For other Sierra Wireless cards and adapters, there's a helpful page on Sierra Wireless' site for Eee PC users.

Getting online with a CradlePoint PHS-300 and an AT&T USBConnect Mercury is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in.  It will keep retrying.  (Port 4 of Hub at 0xfa100000)
The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device.
The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in.  It will keep retrying.  (Port 4 of Hub at 0xfa100000)
The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device.
The IOUSBFamily is having trouble enumerating a USB device that has been plugged in.  It will keep retrying.  (Port 4 of Hub at 0xfa100000)
The IOUSBFamily gave up enumerating a USB device after 10 retries.  (Port 4 of Hub at 0xfa100000)
The IOUSBFamily was not able to enumerate a device.

The solution is a bit goofy, but here's what you can do:

1. Unplug the adapter from the USB port.
2. Disconnect the DVI cable from the DisplayLink adapter.
3. Power off the display you normally use with the adapter.
4. Connect the USB cable between your computer and the DisplayLink adapter.
5. Wait for your displays to flash (as if a new display was connected).
6. The light on your DisplayLink adapter should be on now.
7. Connect the DVI cable to the DisplayLink adapter.
8. Wait a few seconds and then power on the display connected to the adapter.

If this process doesn't work, try a reboot and repeat the process once Finder finishes starting up.

DisplayLink USB to DVI issues in OS X Lion is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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-E, -S, -save-temps and -M options are not allowed with multiple -arch flags

Sure enough, when I looked at the lines in the output, both x86_64 and i386 were passed to the compiler:

... -pipe -O2 -arch x86_64 -arch i386 -fno-common ...

I opened a ticket in trac and began looking for a workaround. Another trac ticket (from four years ago) on the MacPorts site gave some pointers on how to work around the bug for a previous version.

I changed up the instructions a bit since we're not dealing with the ppc architecture any longer:

sudo port -v clean irssi +perl
sudo port -v configure irssi +perl
cd /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_tarballs_ports_irc_irssi/irssi/work/
sudo find . -type f -exec sed -i "" -e "s/-arch i386//g" {} \;
cd
sudo port -v install irssi +perl

The build worked!

$ irssi -v
irssi 0.8.15 (20100403 1617)

Installing irssi via MacPorts on OS X Lion 10.7.1 is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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To change the setting in Firefox, open up a new Firefox tab and go to about:config in the browser. Paste word_select.stop in the search bar that appears below your tab bar and double click the layout.word_select.stop_at_punctuation line. It should become bold and the value on the end will flip from true to false.

Go back to another tab and open a web page which displays an IP address. Double click on any portion of the IP address and Firefox should highlight the entire address.

Highlight IP addresses with a double click in Firefox is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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I kept having an issue where the shift key would become stuck regardless of the settings I set for the client or server. The halfDuplexCapsLock configuration option had no effect. After installing xkeycaps, I found that both shift keys were getting stuck if I brought the mouse back and forth between Mac and Fedora twice.

I decided to run a test. I started the client with the debug argument and moved the mouse to my Fedora box. At that point, I pressed the letter 'a' and saw:

DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   032 (00000000) up
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   03e (00000000) up
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   032 (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   03e (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) up

I brought the mouse back to the Mac and then back to Fedora. I pressed 'a' again and saw:

DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) up
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) down
DEBUG1: CXWindowsKeyState.cpp,195:   026 (00000000) up

After dumping the keyboard layout with xmodmap I found the keys that corresponded with the key numbers:

• 032 - Left shift
• 03e - Right shift
• 026 - a

If I tapped the left shift, I could clear the key press, but I couldn't clear the right shift key (it was stuck down according to Fedora's X server). When I hooked up a physical keyboard and mouse, I was able to use them normally without any keybinding problems.

The root cause: When synergy started in /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default after the gdm login, the keyboard layout wasn't set up properly. The X server was setting up the keyboard layout later in the startup process and this confusion caused the shift keys to get stuck. Fedora 12 uses evdev to probe for keyboards during X's startup and eventually settles on a default layout if none are explicitly defined.

The fix: I added the synergy startup to the GNOME startup items and it works flawlessly.

Sticky shift key with synergy in Fedora 12 is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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Detaching from a screen session is done by pressing CTRL-A and then d (for detach). However, when I'm on my Mac, CTRL-A and CTRL-E send my cursor to the beginning and end of lines, respectively. Once I launch screen, I lose the CTRL-A functionality because screen thinks I'm trying to send it a command.

Luckily, this can be changed in your ~/.screenrc:

escape ^Ww

With this change, you can press CTRL-W, then press d, and you'll detach from the screen session. For all of the screen options, run man screen on your local machine or review the man page online.

Change the escape keystrokes in screen is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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I recently picked up a Magic Mouse and discovered that I like almost all of its features. The biggest headache is the funky mouse acceleration curve that it applies by default. When you make small movements, they barely even register on the screen. When you make big movements and slow down a little mid-move, the pointer slows down much too rapidly.

A quick Google search revealed a support discussion post where users were discussing possible solutions. Someone suggested running this in the terminal:

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

That improved things a little for me, but it's not perfect. If you adjust the tracking speed in System Preferences after running this command, the acceleration curve will be reset to the default.

Update: After some tinkering (and further Googling), I found that 0 or .1 seemed to work better for me than -1.

Disable acceleration for Apple's Magic Mouse is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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First off, credit for this fix on OS X 10.6.2 goes to Geoff Watts from his two tweets.

If you're using Snow Leopard, you'll find that the current version of MacFusion refuses to complete a connection to a remote server. You can fix this in two steps:

First, quit MacFusion.

Second, open System Preferences and then open the MacFUSE pane. Check the "Show Beta Versions" box and click "Check For Updates". Go ahead and update MacFUSE.

Third, open up a terminal and do the following:

rm /Applications/Macfusion.app/Contents/PlugIns/sshfs.mfplugin/Contents/Resources/sshnodelay.so

Your MacFusion installation should now be working on Snow Leopard. I've tested SSH and FTP connectivity so far, and they both appear to be working. Thanks again to Geoff for the fix!

Fix MacFusion on Snow Leopard is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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However, I stumbled upon some documentation that will allow you to VNC to a VMWare Server VM's main screen. It's equivalent to having a network KVM connected to the VM so you can have out-of-band management. With VMWare server 2.x, you can enable it by following these steps:

Step 1. Create a new VM in VMWare Server, but don't start the VM.

Step 2. SSH to the server and find your VM's .vmx file. Normally, you can find the file in a location like /var/lib/vmware/[vmname]/[vmname].vmx.

Step 3. Add the following lines to the end of the .vmx file:

RemoteDisplay.vnc.enabled = "TRUE"
RemoteDisplay.vnc.password = "vncpassword"
RemoteDisplay.vnc.port = "5900"

Step 4. Change the VNC port and password to values that suit your environment and then start the VM.

DUH! Don't set two VM's to use the same vnc port, but that should go without saying.

Enabling VNC as a pseudo-KVM with VMWare Server is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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Here are the steps to migrate your iTunes data from one Mac to another without having to erase and re-sync your iPhone:

• Make sure that iTunes is not running on both Macs.
• Disconnect your iPhone/iPod from both Macs.
• Copy your iTunes folder.
  /Users/username/Music/iTunes
• Copy your iPhone/iPod backups.
  /Users/username/Library/Application Support/MobileSync
• Copy your iTunes configuration files.
  /Users/username/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes*
• Open iTunes on your new Mac and verify that Applications and Ringtones appear.
• Connect your iPhone/iPod to the new Mac and accept any new authorizations.
• Use iTunes on your old Mac to de-authorize the computer.

If you choose to keep your MP3's separate from iTunes (and not in the library), this will only copy over the references to the MP3 files themselves.

Syncing an iPhone with a new Mac without hassles is a post from: Major Hayden's Racker Hacker blog.

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