Extra bits

Gliding photos

Photos from the MMUG meeting at Stratford on Avon Gliding Club.

Photos taken by Lindsay Newton, thanks to the gliding club & the MMUG team for an enjoyable evening.

More info on the club is at their site, stratfordgliding.co.uk

MMUG goes gliding at Stratford on Avon Gliding Club
Glider coming in to land
Launch preparations
Launch preparations
Still 'kiting' up to about 1400 feet
The trees look closer than they are in reality
Graham, our gracious host
Take off for another mmuger
Smooth landing.
Nice sunset to ride off into…

Change the login window background and text

Automator LogoThese scripts make changes to your loginwindow preference file. If the file doesn't exist it will be created.

This preference is set for the computer (all users) as it effects the login window we all see when we log in. The preferences are stored in a plist file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist

You could use terminal commands to add these things yourself - the scripts just add a confirmation dialog box and make it easier for novice users.

For the picture script the image needs to be a jpeg and needs to be stored in a public folder as the system needs access to the file before a user logs in.

The picture will be squished or stretched to fit on the screen.

Download the Scripts

I've made these mini apps in Automator and I've included the workflow files in case you want to edit them.

Once the automator workflow checks it is OK to run the the users is asked for input, the results of this are passed to some shell scripts.

for the loginwindow text
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText "New loginwindow text" 

and for the desktop picture
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture "PathToFile/pictute.jpg"

 

Locking the Screen on Mac OS X 10.6

I'm often asked by teachers, IT folks and mac switchers "How can the screen be locked on a mac?"

Cautious Windows users are used to pressing ctrl-alt-delete to be presented with a menu and a choice to lock the screen. Getting control of your computer back is as simple as entering your account password and you're off.
 
Such a feature does exist on the mac but it's hidden away a bit. Here is how you turn it on.
Open Keychain Access, it is in your Utilities folder which is in your Applications folder...
path to keychain access
Keychain Access is the application which looks after your Keychains! Keychains are used by the system to store private information like website passwords or passwords for services. Keychains are the files that store the passwords when you click that little "Remember my password" check box you sometimes see. 
 
From the Keychain Access menu choose Preferences... or press cmd-,
 
In the Preferences window that appears tick the checkbox labelled "Show Status in Menu Bar"
Keychain Access Preferences window
keychain menu iconIn the top right corner of your screen, along with the clock a new icon will appear looking like an open padlock. The open padlock shows that your login keychain is unlocked (the login keychain is the one storing your passwords)

enter your password dialog

Click on this padlock and you'll see some options the top one being Lock Screen. Choose this and your screen will turn black... it's locked!!
 
At this stage I should point out that once locked you'll need your password to unlock, so I hope you can remember it.
 
Just wobble your mouse or press a key and you'll get the enter your password dialog box. Type your password in and click OK, you'll be back to the computer as it was before you locked it.
 
That's really all there is to it, but some users may want to automate this process a little.
 
You could choose to activate screen locking after a few minutes or when you wake your computer from sleep. The option to do this is in the Security System Preference.
 
require password screen grab
 
So there you go. Just a couple of ways you can make your mac a little more secure.

Changing the Account Name on Mac OS X 10.6

BACKUP! The first thing to do before messing around with user folders is to back up.

 

Make sure you have a good current working backup before doing the following. You're not actually going to delete anything, but you are going to use the command line which doesn't have an undo so be careful.

 

In this example we are changing the Account Name from jonny to bobby.

1. In the Accounts pane of System Preferences make a new user by clicking on 

Call them whatever you want, but make them an admin user.

 

2. Log out as you and log in as the new admin user.

 

3. In the Accounts part of System Preferences select the user to rename and press  as if you are deleting them. When asked what you want to do with the users data choose "Don't change the home folder" This will rename the folder by adding (Deleted) to the name.

 

4. Open Terminal and type

sudo mv /Users/jonny\ \(Deleted\) /Users/bobby

 

Obviously replacing the names with the correct ones - spaces and slashes in the above are important. Make sure the new name is all standard characters (a-z 0-9) with no spaces

 

The sudo bit runs the command as the root user so you will be asked to enter a password, any Admin users password will do. As you type the characters won't appear on the screen, its a security thing.

 

You should now have a folder in the Users folder with the right name. Check the name is correct before you carry on. If you mistyped it then use the mv command again.

 

6. In the Accounts part of System Preferences make a new user by clicking on 

 

7. Enter the details for the new user making sure the Account name is exactly the same as the folder name you just used for the new user name.

 

8. When you click OK the computer will see that a folder already exists for the user and will ask if you want to use that folder for the home. Click OK - if you don't get this window then you've got the name wrong, you'll need to delete the users you've created and try again.

9. You can now log in as the renamed user.

 

When you log in a dialog box will appear saying the the system was unable to unlock your login keychain. The keychain stores passwords and other information, when you log in it will need to have its password updated to work with the new account. 

Click the button that says Update Keychain Password and enter the old account password. The keychain will be updated and will now use the new account password to unlock.

 

It is also worth running Disk Utility and clicking the Repair Disk Permissions button as some folder permissions especially your public and sites folders might not be correct.

 

That's pretty much it… good luck!

 

 

User login