Is it possible to put Mountain Lion's install on an HDD partition? I'm trying to do a clean install of Mountain Lion on my laptop..

There are plenty of of tutorials online explaining how to burn the Mountain Lion install (InstallESD) on a (dual layer!) dvd or on a usb drive.

I have neither of those things handy right now.

I do have plenty of spare HDD space though.

Is it possible to create some sort of Install Partition on the hard drive than can be booted from (Option-boot) to do a fresh install?

Can I create a partition a restore it from the InstallESD dmg? anyone knows if that works?

Yes you can do it with an internal partition or in an external HDD, just one partition, USB, DVD, all is more or less the same, I have to say that this is one of the best things on the Mac, so easy to backup and restore systems.

NOTICE: back up all your data, and make sure the partition that you are going to use is the correct one, this will destroy all information in that partition

Open Disk utility, and click the desired partition on the left column.
Go to the "restore" tab

At the source, select the dmg file containing the installer (you may need to scan the image first, to do that go to the images menu item and select "Scan image for restore").

At the destination, drag the partition that you would like to use.

Press Restore (erase everything on, at least I prefer it that way).

THIS DESTROYS ALL INFO IN THAT PARTITION.
If all went well, it should copy all info into the partition
Go to system preferences and select startup disk, select the partition that you restored the installer into
Restart.

If all went well, you should be seeing the installer running from your partition, just select the destination for the new installation and all should be ok.

If for some reason the restore didn't work, you may need to mount the installer image and use that "virtual" disk as the source and not the actual image, I've had some trouble in the past and this sorted my problem.


How to copy iTunes music from iTunes library to another, using my own music - not purchased I have digitised my CD collection and have it on my iTunes on a PC. How can I add it to my partner's iTunes on a different PC?

You can:

Send your partner the music files online (such as email)
Burn the files to a CD and transfer it to the other computer
Copy it to a thumb-drive and transfer it to the other computer

iTunes should automatically open the music files. If it does not, (I'm assuming your PC is a Windows PC) right click the file, select 'Choose default program', and then choose iTunes in the list. After opening the file in iTunes, it should automatically add it to your partner's iTunes library.


My contacts in Messages are not syncing on my new Mac I just got a new Mac and my contacts are not syncing in messages. I have turned off/on contacts sync on both the new Mac and my iPhone multiple times, but the issue persists.
Please note, not all my contacts are missing on my Mac, but most of them are. Certain contacts like my immediate family members are shown in Messages....not sure why. When I search in the Contacts app in my Mac, I do not seeing the missing ones. I can add them one-by-one, but obviously this is not a good solution.
How can I fix this?
EDIT: I'm on macOS Mojave and cannot upgrade yet because I must have some legacy 32-bit apps. However, iTunes has the sync functionality that was moved into Finder in Mojave (iTunes has been EOL'd, thankfully).

You can try following method

Connect your iphone or iPad to your mac using a usb cable.
Wait a few minutes and then open a new Finder window.
Your device should appear in the Sidebar of your Finder window.
Select your device and you should get a panel like the one below.

Click on info on the top line of your panel.

This should give you options on which things to sync. This method is described in more detail at this location


I accidental went swimming with my iPod Touch 5th Generation Today, I went to a river and forgot that my iPod was in my pocket. I was in there for about half an hour, and only noticed it once I was changing into my other clothes. Is there anything I can do to fix it? Please help :(

This is the generally first aid when a device gets wet.

TURN IT OFF as fast as possible. Don't even think about turning it on again till you are very sure it is dry. Don't try charging or plugging it in. Water and power do not mix well.
While leaving it off and unplugged, stick it in a bag container with dry rice. Rice ascorbs moisture, and if there is any chance your device is not already broken beyond repair then it needs to be completely dry before any attempt is made to turn it on again.
leave it in the rice for a week or so.
Remove it from the rice, turn it back on and hope for the best. If you are lucky it might still work. If it doesnt Apple can sometimes fix things but as it is water damage it will have voided any warranty and it will be somewhat expensive.

In your case since you already tried to turn it while possibly still wet, there is a good chance the circuits have unfortunately already been fried, leaving going to Apple or another fixit company as one solution or buying a new device as the other.


Karabiner-Elements cannot open new Terminal window unless Terminal already in focus I am on Catalina 10.15.7 and use Karabiner-Elements 13.3.
When I use the rule shown below for opening Terminal nothing happens unless Terminal is in focus (you can see Terminal on the menu bar).
Seems like something to do with security permissions. When I run the script itself from within iTerm (not Terminal) I got a pop up asking for allowing "access to control". Once accepted the shortcut worked when either Terminal or iTerm was in focus.
Obviously I want the shortcut to work regardless of what is in focus. How to achieve that?
{
  "title": "Open Terminal",
  "rules": [
    {
      "description": "Open Terminal",
      "manipulators": [
        {
          "type": "basic",
          "from": {
            "modifiers": {
              "mandatory": [
                "left_control",
                "left_alt"
              ]
            },
            "key_code": "t"
          },
          "to": [
            {
              "shell_command": "osascript -e 'tell app \"Terminal\"' -e 'do script \"tmux\"' -e 'end tell'"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

I played with your key def for Karabiner. (Note that I'm on Big Sur, Karabiner 13.3). Here's what worked for me:
After the first time that I installed and activated your shortcut and tried to use it a dialog came up asking to allow some accessibility or privacy permission. I accepted it without noting exactly what it said but looking through the Privacy permissions in System Preferences I saw that a permission for Automation to allow "karabiner_console_user_server" to control "Terminal" had been added and its checkbox was checked. At first I didn't think the shortcut had done anything but then I found that Terminal had been opened and the tmux script had been run. (I don't have the tmux script so it failed for me but was displayed in Terminal as a command.) Terminal was the bottom most application (shown last in the application chooser). So when testing the shortcut be sure that Terminal isn't hiding behind everything.
At one point I found that if Terminal was running but hidden behind other apps, using the shortcut did work but left it hidden. When it was visible the shortcut did appear to work as desired.
In continued testing I checked and unchecked the Automation preference checkbox at various times and when it was checked the shortcut did attempt to run the tmux script. When it was not checked Terminal did open (behind other apps) but the script appeared not to run. I was not asked to accept any privacy permissions after the first time it had asked after installation (probably because Apple prefers confusing someone by not displaying repeated permission requests rather than annoying someone with multiple requests and confusion tends to result in fewer complaints than annoyances).
So be sure that the Automation privacy permission in System Preferences that I mentioned above exists and that it is checked. It's probably a good idea to quit and restart Karabiner-Elements as well; I did that at various times just in case. If the permission isn't shown (checked or unchecked) then something else isn't working. Adding permissions for an application to automate another something that, for some reason, can't be added manually and is only asked for when one actually does something that requires the permission (and possibly only once), don't ask me why. (Note that I didn't ever shut down and restart to see if I'd be asked to allow the permission again though I think it wouldn't. I'm not sure.)
I hope getting the shortcut to work is as simple as this but I imagine there are plenty of other possibilities that might be the issue.


Calendar not sending acceptance notifications to meeting organisers (ICS invites) I am working with iCloud, iPhone and Macbook Pro on Yosemite.

I receive ICS calendar invites via mail from a user using Outlook. When I click on the ICS file in the mail, it opens and I can add it to my calendar without a problem. It also syncs nicely on all my devices.

However, the sender of the invite does not get a confirmation, in the meeting properties I'm shown as "did not reply". When I open the invite in my calendar, I have no option to accept or send a notification.

In short: ICS invites are added to my calendar but the organizer does not receive a notification.

How can I send an accept notification?

Open the Contacts app, select your own email address in the list of contacts. In the menu on top of the screen, go to "Card" -> "Make this my card". Reload calendar. Then it should work, you will get a notification popup with accept/decline buttons. (I just had the same problem, on a Mac running Yosemite)
Source


How to install and override Vim in Mountain Lion for +ruby +python support? I want to install and override the current vim version in Mountain Lion due to me needing +ruby & +python support. I am particularly interested in using the brew commands from Homebrew but I haven't seen a current best practice procedure for it (or even a bundled recipe covering vim). I am open to other ways to accomplish buildig +ruby and +python into vim.

Best setup I've seen yet is YADR:

https://github.com/skwp/dotfiles

Uses zsh, ruby, vim, etc all nicely configured, and very customizable.


bootcamp: automatic change of audio output device like in OSX ? (if headphones plugged in, mini toslink, ..) I don't really know if it is like that for everyone or if there are some bootcamp driver issues on my machine, but:

Every time I plug in headphones, a mini-stereoplug or a optical mini-TosLink cable and want the sound to be played via the attached device, I have to open the output devices settings and choose the desired one and "set it to default". (windows 7 64bit, bootcamp w/ most recent drivers)
Is there some possibility to have an app do this automatically on (un-)plugging the cables or at least something that changes audio output device via a hotkey/combination?
Or should it change automatically out of the box and something is nessed up with my bootcamp drivers?

macbook pro 15", i7 late 2011

Activate the 'Mute the rear output device when a front headphone
plugged in' under the advanced settings menu.
Click on the Folder Icon next to Analog.
Click on the 'Disable Front Panel Jack Detection' button.

I've got both green connectors set to headphone.

It has always worked for me.


Merging two Photos libraries? I have two libraries from the Photos app (version 1.3 on OS X 10.11.2).

Is it possible to merge them or to move pictures from one library into another?

I use PowerPhotos from FatCatSoftware to merge my libraries. I've merged more than 12 libraries and 500 GB of photos.


Can I make a retina iPad display websites at full resolution? In other words, can I make it appear to the web server as if the device is 2048x1536 pixels and device-pixel-ratio 1?

I'm happy to pay for an app that does does this if there is one…

I believe this could be a problem with how sites are interpreting the User-Agent string and are assuming that it's an older iPad / mobile device.

Try using the Google Chrome browser and it's "Request Desktop Version" feature.

https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/chrome/id535886823


Remove payment information from iOS I had connected my iPad mini to my net-safe card which creates a virtual debit card and lasts for 48 hours and automatically gets void after that for security purpose. But now I want to remove that information because the virtual card has expired but I am compelled to put some information. It does not have "none" option in payment method which most of the people say that it has. It is related to country?

Finally got it.

As per @duci9y it takes approximately 3 days to complete transaction.
Since my transaction wasn't complete, apple was forcing me to put my credit card details. When I put my credit card details the appropriate amount was deducted and then the option "none" was visible.


Output sound can't be changed My output sound on my Mac doesn't change at all when I have my earphones in. Not on the menu bar, not with the volume buttons, and not in the System Sounds settings with the slider. Without my earphones the slider works, but nothing else does. It's highly annoying. How can I fix it?

Try this alternate way to control volume from the terminal:

sudo osascript -e "set Volume 5"

Change the "5" higher or lower to make the volume go up and down in intensity.
This will put your volume at pretty much the lowest setting above 0.

sudo osascript -e "set Volume 0.25"

the highest I believe:

sudo osascript -e "set Volume 7"


Convert *stereo* .mov to mono .mp3? I need an easy way to take a stereo .mov file and convert it to a mono .mp3 or similar formatted audio file.

I use Ecamm's Skype Call recorder to record interviews, which I send out for transcription. The call recorder creates an .mov file with 2 channels--one for each side of the call. The transcription software only plays one channel, so the audio sounds like it's one sided.

I do this a lot, so I'd like a simple, one-step way to merge the channels and convert the file.

I've tried ffmpeg, which I like, but I'm only getting one channel when I do this:

ffmpeg -i call.mov -ac 1 call.mp3

Any suggestions? I'd like to use ffmpeg if possible, but a GUI app would be fine as long as it's pretty simple to use.

Max (freeware) can drop stereo to mono - though I'm not certain if it will take .mov as input (never tested it). You might need to convert it to a distinct audio format first.


App Store update not working in Mac after upgrading to Sierra I have recently upgraded my Mac to Sierra. After upgrading AppStore update not working. It shows I have to update for apps Keynote, Pages, Numbers and GarageBand. But while I want to update those individually or all at once every time AppStore ask for the password. If I put correct password it ask the password again and again. If I put incorrect password it shows that password is incorrect.

Here's some things to try:

Close and reopen App Store
Reenter iCloud credentials in System Preferences
Turn Mac off and back on

If none of those work, it might be an issue with Apple's servers, in which case you'll have to wait it out.


Optical out does not work on my new 2011 Mac Mini I use the optical out on my new Mac Mini to play high quality music over a separate D/A converter and a class A amplifier. This worked fine with the previous Mac Mini revision.

Now, when I connect the most recent mac Mini with HDMI to a TV set (for watching movies) and at the same time connect optical out for music, the music channel is dead. The read line on the optical cable is on, but the D/A does not receive any signal?

The selection in the system preferences for Audio can be toggled between HDMI and optical out, but does not give any result.

The only option I now have is to use the headphone out with an analog signal into my amplifier, but with a loss of quality.

New macs have 90 days of free phone and online support. Do get the hardware checked out since the optical switch in the port could be faulty or need cleaning from shipping debris.


How can I install Pages or iWork on a Mac running High Sierra 10.13.6? Is there  any way now of installing a version of Pages or iWork on a Mac running High Sierra 10.13.6?

From here I quote

Actually, if you have purchased/installed Pages, Keynote, or Numbers previously, if you sign-in with your AppleID and go to the Purchased section of the App Store, you will find the application install history.  When you click on the Install button there, it will ask you if you want to download the previous version of the app that will work on non 10.14 machines.


Same number of app icons on each page for iPhone and iPad? App icons on my iPhone are 6 rows by 4 columns = 24 per page but iPad has 5 rows by 4 columns plus ‘dock’

Is there a way to have 6 rows by 4 columns on the iPad also?

It's not possible to customise the number of rows and columns on iOS without a jailbreak.
However, iPadOS 13 brings an additional column of icons to iPad for more apps per page.


Looking for iOS music player which includes all id3 information I have open-ended tags stored in the Grouping field of my (iTunes) mp3 collection. I also have information written in the Comments field. A lot of my music is also BPM'd. How can I search by/sort by/access these fields in iOS? The Music app and the 3rd party apps I've looked at so far don't provide this.

Music Stats provides some of what you're looking for, I think. It doesn't show all ID3 tags, but it does provide a few of them.


date recorded on iPhone 4 from camera or phone? when sending a pic from nikkon camera to iPhone 4, will the date recorded be the one taken from the camera or the current date on the iPhone 4?

The data will be that which was written to the original metadata taken on your Nikon camera. Unless of course you're doing some kind of image conversion or editing on your phone, then something could change.


Compose an Email with a Selected Email address in Apple Mail App I want to compose an e-mail from my Mail Application on my desktop.  I have two e-mail addresses.  How do I select one, or make sure, that the email is being sent from one e-mail address and not the other?   I'm not replying to anyone, I'm composing a new e-mail.

Thanks!

I'm attaching the form field, it doesn't show an option to select which e-mail address to send the email from?

When I click the box next to orders@myemail.com, my other email address doesn't show?

What is shown in the top part of the Mail app can be customised

Click on the box I highlighted and choose Customise. You will get a list of fields to show.

One of them is the From fields which is the one you want. Strictly with well behaved mail clients and users the Reply-To is really more relevant as that is the one a reply will be sent to However I find that some correspondants don't use it - I don't know why.


iPhone 4 battery questions I have had an iPhone 4 with iOS5 for about 6 months.

Is it good to wait for the battery to be almost 0% to recharge it?
Is it good to recharge it to the fullest?
Is it bad to leave the phone plugged to the computer/wall when it is already 100% charged?
Is it bad never to charge the battery to its fullest?

Thanks.

This is from everythingicafe.com which is an unofficial source, but I have heard this same information about batteries many times:

  So, what else can you do to increase your battery life? Charge it
  often. I’m serious! Apple uses Lithium Polymer batteries (not a
  straight lithium ion!), which perform best when you keep them “topped
  off”, meaning if you have a chance to charge it, then do it. I
  generally never let myself get below 45% unless testing due to what
  seems like unusual battery drainage. Apple also recommends that once a
  month you drain the battery down below 10% and then fully
  (uninterrupted) charge back to 100%. This is more for the battery
  meter than anything. It helps the meter get a correct reading on the
  battery and not display inaccurate information.

  Source

Charging at least once a month keeps the electrons moving occasionally.

You can read what Apple officially says about batteries and how to maximize battery life.


How can I make a flash drive with a portable app that runs without admin permission? I'd like to have a flash drive with my common programs on it. That, combined with SkyDrive, allows me to be productive anywhere.

Unfortunately, I can't do this on Macs that don't give me admin permission. I get the portable app, download it to a flash drive on my PC, plug it in to a Mac, and lo and behold, it doesn't work. It needs admin permission.

Is it possible for me to download/create a portable app that I can run without admin permission?

You can run an App no matter where it is located - even on a write protected volume unless the app is severely non-standard and attempts to write to the application directory or self-modify itself.

Are you certain that there are not some other form of managed preferences or parental controls enabled that is restricting non-whitelisted apps?


How to export iBooks Author .ipa file to ePub iBooks Author 2.5

Blank ePub template.
Import file.
Make corrections.
Save. Now there's a *.ipa file.
The export procedure to create an ePub is supposed to be:
Share>Export>ePub.

But ePub is not one of the options.
The options under Share>Export are: iBooks, PDF, Text.
How can I create an ePub file??

I don't know if this will do what you want but have you tried using the app Calibre?  This is a free app for managing e-books. I use it at times to create PDF's from different formats. It manages many different formats. I'd suggest trying it and see if it will do what you want.


Can I "hide" the keyboard on my iPhone 4 the way you can on the iPad? When using my iPad to, for example, write an email, I have the option to press a button and hide the keyboard.  This is useful for reviewing an email prior to sending it.

Is there a similar feature with the iPhone?  If anything, this would seem particularly useful on the iPhone given its smaller screen.

Unfortunately not. I agree that this feature would be nice, especially since it's included on the iPad. The only way to review an email prior to sending it without having the keyboard on the screen is to save it as a draft, then reopen it. A little tedious, sure, but it might be worth it if it's a long email.


Downloaded ibooks get deleted when icloud sync is turned off, even under airplane mode Recently, I had all my iBooks deleted from local storage as detailed in this question: Books automatically deletes my books when offline, and when there is enough space on device.
I went through and downloaded all the books to local storage by tapping them. I believe that they are in local storage as they can be read on airplane mode, but they do not appear in iphone storage. However, turning off icloud sync of ibooks: settings -> Apple ID, iCloud... -> iCloud -> Books causes all the books to be deleted or hidden from my iphone, even if the phone is on airplane mode. How would I go about recovering these books without leaving sync on as it would delete the books again?

You need to get those books on iPhone via methods other than iCloud sync to keep them there with sync off.

Use airdrop to get the books onto iPhone, open them with Books app and then you can turn off sync and books won't get deleted. That's how, I understand, it works.


How to prevent html5 videos from using built in mac fullscreen The mac fullscreen mode has a slow animation which I have tried disabling but it seems that there is no way to do that as of now, so my question is, does anyone know of a way to disable html5 videos from using the mac fullscreen and just go instantly fullscreen like flash videos do?

Edit: If anyone is aware of some API in javascript which can make the videos go fullscreen instantly I may be able to write a chrome plugin that detects a native fullscreen api request, cancel it and initiate an instant fullscreen. Or if someone knows some type of workaround that can be done mac side, either from terminal or perhaps an objective-c native app I will develop them if necessary and post for all.

I'm afraid that's not possible.

Since all major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Safari) all use the native Fullscreen API, you're stuck with the slow animation...

I researched wether there were any work arounds or tricks but there doesn't seem to be. You're not alone in being annoyed.

Only thing you can do is to use Flash when available, or, upgrade to Mavericks where the animation is minimal and quite a bit faster. 10.9 happens to be free so the entry barrier isn't that high.


Applications folder not owned by root, cannot change it After a recent run of Migration Assistant from an old MacBook to a new one, my Applications folder is owned by my normal user account rather than by root.  This prevents VirtualBox from functioning (see here, for example).

Attempting to fix the permissions with a simple sudo chown root /Applications gives the error chown: /Applications: Operation not permitted.  This is pleasantly vague, and the Internet assures me that there may be many causes.  (I had other sources I could cite, but I'm new to this site, and thus can only post up to 2 links.)

I do not wish to just start removing flags carelessly from /Applications, so I've done some investigating instead.  Here's what's NOT the problem:

File flags:  Only the sunlnk flag is set, which prevents /Applications from being deleted.  Seems entirely appropriate for /Applications, so I think there's no problem there.  In particular, the suchg flag is NOT set.
SIP:  That feature doesn't govern the /Applications folder, as far as my reading indicates.  So I don't think I need to do any of the "Recovery Mode" business to disable SIP.
ACLs:  The only one reported by ls -le is group:everyone deny delete which, again, seems entirely appropriate, and doesn't seem to have anything to do with chown.

So that's what's NOT the problem (I think).  But I don't know what IS the problem.

Funnily enough this is a perfect example of one of the few situations where repairing disk permissions is actually called for.

Unfortunately the Repair Disk Permissions option has been removed from Disk Utility in El Capitan.

However you can still do it from the command line.

In Terminal run the following command to find out which permissions are incorrect.

  sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --verify --standard-pkgs /

And run the following command to repair the permissions.

  sudo /usr/libexec/repair_packages --repair --standard-pkgs --volume /

More information here: http://osxdaily.com/2015/11/04/verify-repair-permissions-mac-os-x/


iPhone: How to prevent maximum screen brightness when charging? I've set my screen brightness to about 50%. This works fine for me, except that the setting seems to be ignored when it's charging: then it's 100%. I've got a desktop charging stand on my bedside table, and this is exactly the place where I don't need maximum brightness!

How can I make my iPhone respect the brightness setting even when charging?

This is an iPhone 4 (iOS 4.1) but I noticed the same with the iPhone 3G (iOS 3.1.3).

Upgrade to iOS 4.2. It fixes both the charging brightness and the locked screen brightness bugs. I just tried it and it works.


Dual Boot USB installation with OSX and Windows I have a 16gb USB pendrive that I want to partition to be able to use it as a Window 7 and Mac OSX install drive (probably using a bootloader?!?)

I want to be able to use it on our Macs and PCs as a single all-singing all-dancing install drive.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to a guide to do this? is it even possible? I have both Windows and Mac machines at my disposal.

I just bought three 8 GB thumb drives to use as OS X, Linux, and Windows 7 installers.

I suppose you could split the thumb drive into two 8 GB partitions and create two installers.  Whether or not both are visible on Macs and PCs is unknown.  I suppose it will depend on the hardware.

To create the OS X installer, you need only run the following from Terminal.app.  Note the partition name, I used "Untitled" for the script below.

  /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\
  Yosemite.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia  --volume
  /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\
  Yosemite.app --nointeraction

To create the Windows installer, you take the Windows installation ISO file on a Mac, go here and scroll down to "Creating a Windows flash drive installer on an OS X computer".


How to diagnose an unknown apache setup? I've been using mamp for a while now and everything has been working great. Then today I go to start it up and mamp alert tells me that apache is already running on that port and to pick another one. So without starting mamp, I type in local host in the web browser - my usual way to get to the sites that I'm developing - and a page pops up and it reads IT WORKS!, which tells me that I have an index.php file somewhere on my computer that echos It works!. But mamp is not running and I can't find this stupid it works file anywhere. Is there any way to diagnose this and perhaps kill this apache server so that I can start mamp back up without switching my ports?

You can use lsof to find out which processes are listening on which ports.

For example:

lsof -Pnl +M -i4 | grep ":80"

(assuming the process is running on port 80)

You can then use ps to figure out the name of the process for that processID:

ps -p <pid>


How to find all macOS applications which are not from the App Store? How do I find all of the Applications on my Mac which are not from the App Store? Is it possible to find all those applications using a Finder search query?

The screenshot below shows how to use a Finder search query to find all applications that are not from the App Store. The “Raw Query” condition is kMDItemAppStoreHasReceipt != 1. This is the same, I think, as testing for a directory named “_MASReceipt” as in the answer by patrix. But using a Finder search query should be easier for people not comfortable with using Terminal.


How do I find the installed RAM layout in my MacBook without opening it up? I have a mid-2009 MacBook with 4 GB of RAM installed in it and I'd like to upgrade it to 8 GB of RAM. In order to do that I have to figure out what the installed RAM configuration is so I can determine what it is I need to order.

How do I see the installed RAM configuration in the MacBook without opening it up and actually looking inside?

You can see the current RAM configuration in a visual overview by:

Going to the  menu
About this Mac
more info
memory

If you'd like further detail, open the System Report... from the Overview tab of About this Mac. This can also be accessed by holding ⌥ while the  menu is open, then selecting System Information.


GRUB 2 error – "fb: switching to radeondrmfb from EFI VGA" Whenever I try to boot Arch, Mint or Debian Linux from a USB stick using GRUB 2 on my Mac with compatibility mode, it freezes on this error (given in the question title).

I've tried every available, up to date, method on the web.

Any help is appreciated.

I have managed to get into the GRUB 2 commandline. Is there an option to set or something else?

There seems to be a problem with the radeon driver when booting. You can test a fix by doing this:

When you see the grub menu, press 'e', which will allow you to edit the entry.
Go to the line with "linux...." and look for where it says 'ro'.
After the 'ro', add 'nomodeset' (without quotes), and then boot (press F10).

If that works, you can make it permanent by editing your /etc/default/grub file, and changing the line to look like this:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nomodeset"

Then run:

sudo update-grub

This isn't the best solution, since it seems to put your machine into software rendering. I'm hunting for a proper fix.


does iTunes DRM depend on the wifi connection with which the purchase was made This might be a fairly specific question but my WiFi card was having issues (the Wifi:No Hardware Installed error). I started using an usb wifi adapter. The issue is that now none of my iTunes media is playable. I suspect that these are tied to the the hardware WITH the specific mac address but this seems unreasonable (ie to have Apple fix it and have my laptop for several days)? Is this the issue? Is there a workaround? Can I reauthenticate it? The error I get is:

Blatantly stolen from Apple's support website, Make sure iTunes is closed and go into your iTunes folder and delete the following files:

iTunes Library Extras.itdb
iTunes Library Genius.itdb

You may even have an additional "Extras" file with a time/date stamp on it and delete that as well.

Of course, please do this at your own risk of losing any preferences that these files may contain. I don't know exactly what these files do, but I've done this fix for a number of iTunes related issues and it works almost every time.

Hope this helps!

Apple Support Community