News for Sunday, 30 November 2003

Laurent an issue and the way to solve it.

Hello Lionel, I was mentionning to you a couple of days ago the impossibility for me to boot in target mode (boot-up while holding T key down) my powerbook plugged into my iMac under Panther. I think I found the solution and it might be of interest to other MacUsers. I had de-activated the journaling of my iMac under Panther 10.3.1, using an (excellent though) little freeware, of the name of Onix, to allow for defragmenting the iMac, using Drive 10, that I had installed on a partition on a firewire drive with 10.2. Everyhting was fine and dandy... but for this bl**dy powerbook that would indeed mount on the desktop but would crash the Finder if I tried to open it :-( I had quickly blamed Panther, but this is far from being the case: you just have to disable the journaling of the powerbook (using Onix again) and everything is back into place:-)) I have not tried it, but there lots to bet on the fact that on 2 journaled computers it would work fine as well, which makes me think there most of us never encountered the issue.

So, pending more investigations, it seems that if you want to mount a drive in target mode, it must be like the main computer hard drive, journaled or not journaled.

If you are using Mac OS X 10.2 / 3, and that one network interface is using DHCP to obtain automatically an IP address, and that SSH is active, and that the root account is active, and that you re-boot your machine, whoever has access to this network could gain admin access to your machine.
But this "failure" does not affect defaut install, contrary to what is stated. The amount of conditions required makes it almost impossible to exploit. But who knows...
To work around and prevent this weakness, you should ensure that either the access to your network is restricted (especially with wireless networks), or that the network interfaces are not using DHCP, or again ensure that the DHCP is configured to refuse authentication from LDAP and Netinfo found through DHCP (it is something that you can set up in Utilities/Directory Access) or you could de-activate the Root account (with Netinfo Manager), or de-activate Netinfo and LDAP (again in Directory Access), or by blocking all distant connection via SSH or similar services (but you still want to chnage the LDAP and Netinfo configuration).
Or avoid to re-boot :)
[Upd.]
It has been now confirmed that this is not a security flaw, but a concession made for enabling some easier set-ups: this boot-up behavior is inherited from NeXT, it avoids to have to configure one by one all the macs recently installed on a network. Well, better to prevent that to cure!

Source : Recoil
Thx to Olivier for the link

Here's an original way to get your Cube recycled ! Cooler than the handkerchief box... All explanations on HERE.

Here's the testimony from Sylvain who used our iTunes tweak.

I own a USB burner Memorex 4424 (which I manage to get aworkingunder X thx to a driver freecom, unofficial). And my regret it would'nt work under iTunesis now done for !!! For iTunes : great. Just follow the steps and it will work To have it supported under disk utilities it is harder. First I had to type again what was in the news, (impossible to cut/paste as it was an image...). Nevermind, I had some serious motivation !!!. After typing the text in Text Edit no way to get the burner working... until I remembered a previous news about a guy who'd posted a file that enabled a burner to be supported (yet with no explanation at that time on how to fll the required spaces...)I thus d/l the file, and replaced the reseller and type infos by mine and so it worked !!!!. I don't know if indentation is important in that kind of files, with the file I had typed, I used tabulations from Text Edit to give the file a structure, and afterwards I managed to get back the pre-established indentation and there was no problem (dunno if that makes sense yet it is late already..). PS : finally this tweak wasn't that hard (for all those who know a little bit of stuff) wo I'm quite angry at Apple as they keep bridling the material !!!!

We never thought this patch was that universal and so we're glad.
Here's the file available for d/l so you won't have to type it :
LDW-811.drprofile.sit
We'll keep on working on universal burners under Panther in general.
[Upd] Thx to Fred to tell us that creating a .drprofile file for an unsupported DVD burner allows the installation of iDVD so the burner is able to burn a project. It of course requires the burner be in master.
[Precision] The driver that Sylvain mentionned for the Freecom cd-writer (and the memorex one) is probably this one:
http://freecom-usb-osx.sourceforge.net/ [xrissley]

Apple US has published on their site a buyer's guide of game peripherals compatible with OS X, also including mice.
It much looks like an ad for Logitech and an invitation to buy on the Apple Store.
To read the guide:
http://www.apple.com/games/gettingstarted/peripherals/

Today the 1st Apple Store outside the US was opened.
It's in Japan, on the main road of Ginza, the most "chic" quarter of Tokyo Apple has logically decided to open.
Undoubtedly Apple will end up doing the same in Europe. As we know them it couldn't be less than a simultaneous opening in 15 European capital cities.
But to do so they'll need to find 15 good places simultaneously (the Champs-Elysées in Paris?) and also manage to win over their current resellers' reluctance.
As a matter of fact, just like in the US, Apple's commercial policy has has caused resellers to become resentful.
Apple Stores' arrival would only ignite the powder...
Yet we bet the'yre going to do it, so we really are curious to see how they'll get on with that bomb.

Aerofly proposes this remote control device, that is to be plugged on the USB port of a Mac (OS 9 and X). It's compatiblewith X-Planeand RC Helicopter Simulator (only simulaor of RC Helicopters on the Mac).
Two models are proposed:
USB Edition: 4 axes (+ trims), 4 or 6 buttons - 105 €
Master Pilot: 4 axes (+ trims), 12 buttons, 8 points of view - 122 €

Surcouf [a big computer parts reseller in Paris] is the only reseller to propose a Powerbook G4 17" 1.3 GHz for 2,589 Euros VAT included. It's almost 1,500 Euros less than its normal price (Thx Frédéric).

Of course, this is a mistake. Surcouf will be able to prove it and won't have to deliver .

Startoof is a happy boy.
He ordered a custom PowerBook G4 15" 1,25 GHz on theApple Store . The laptop was delivered only a week later !
After all, Apple may secure a good end of year.