Mac OS X Server 10.3.9 Update Warning

Updating a server to 10.3.9 will break the ability for users to login.

• On the server, open /Applications/Utilities/Directory Access
• Authenticate if necessary
• Double Click on LDAPv3
• Click Authentication
• Click Add
• Add the /LDAP/yourserverstuff to the authentication
• Close the Directory Access application
• restart teh server

A team, made of  IBM consultants and server support personnel as well as BOCES and BPS technical support staff, will spend a week at  School 66, located at Parkside and Tacoma

For the most part, the work will take place behind the scenes, but, at some point during the week, users will not be able to log on to workstations in the labs, libraries, classrooms and offices.  These computers will be reimaged. The hard drive will be erased and a updated set of applications installed. When the team arrives at your school, if you  have – or think have– any documents on a computer, please notify one of the technicians, so the files can be copied.

Once the work is completed:
•  Teachers and students will have a new  screen name and password.
•  There will be no more generic users (ie. user099).
•  There will be a single user name for Macs and PCs
•  You can back up  your files from your PC laptop to the server
•  A teacher's or student's files will be available anywhere in the district

The worm attempts to use Bluetooth to propagate. Once it infects a computer it searches for other Bluetooth-enabled devices and sends itself to those it finds, Symantec said.

Inqtana is a "proof-of-concept" worm, according to Symantec and F-Secure, meaning it's an example of attack code, but itself likely won't affect many users, if any at all. Inqtana is not believed to have actually attacked Mac users. Furthermore, it uses a Bluetooth component that is locked to a specific address and expires next week, according to F-Secure.

"It is quite unlikely that Inqtana would be any kind of threat," F-Secure said on its blog.

However, two examples of malicious software to target Mac OS X in two days may be the start of a trend, Vincent Weafer, senior director at Symantec Security Response, said in a statement.

"We have speculated that attackers would turn their attention to other platforms, and two back-to-back examples of malicious code targeting Macintosh OS X this week illustrates this emerging trend," he said. "While this particular worm is not fully functional, the source code could be easily modified by a future attacker to do damage."

The new worm follows the Leap Trojan that was discovered Thursday. Symantec says it believes the two pests were developed on a parallel time line and that Inqtana was not created in response to Leap.

A screenshot (below) shows the missing address bar.

Because the link is a javascript it cannot be copied and used to create a link.   (in this example it looks like: javascript:openWin('http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eoswego%2Eorg%2Focsd%2Dweb%2Fmatch%2Fterm%2F draggeneric%2Easp%3Ffilename%3Dmcowellnyscon', 'ContentURL', 'width=750,height=450,left=100,top=100,screenX=75, screenY=50,location=no,status=no,menubar=no,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes');)

Workaround:

For now, if the actual URL is listed as the link, selecting and copying the text will give you the proper URL. 

If the URL is not part of the link text, we have no simple workaround at this time.

Please comment below if you have a workable solution, and we'll post the status of the issue when we hear back from the folks at NYlearns.org...

Fix: Adobe Shockwave Player 11.0 for Mac OS X is now a Universal plugin, meaning that the fix below is no longer necessary. Update the workstations as below. The installer is in the Package install format which can be deployed using Apple Remote Desktop.

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi

Mac OS X Version Download

Clicking the "Install Now" button means you have accepted the terms of the End User License Agreement.

Version 10 Workaround

This workaround below still applies for computers with Shockwave Player 10:

There are issues using Shockwave Player on the Intel-based Mac. Shockwave Player has not yet been ported to run natively on the new Intel-based Macintosh computers and currently only runs in Rosetta emulation mode. To install and use Shockwave Player on an Intel-based Macintosh, you will need to run the browser in Rosetta emulation mode. 

How does this rain on our parade?  Most of the Intel-based Macs are located in early childhood classrooms. Some of the resources on the Harcourt Website use this plug in. Instead of displaying the activity, it behaves as if the plug in was not installed.

To "fix" the problem, set your browser to run in  Rosetta emulation mode and reinstall Shockwave.

Follow the instructions below:

Applications like both Safari and Firefox default to running in native mode on the new Intel-based Macs and therefore you must follow a few simple steps to instead have then run in Rosetta emulation mode:

1. Quit out of the browser.
2. Go to your Applications folder and control-click on the browser application bundle.
3. In the context menu that appears select Get Info.
4. Under the General heading of the Info dialog select "Open using Rosetta".
5. Close the Info dialog box.

After completing the above steps the browser will now run in Rosetta emulation mode thus allowing you to install and use the Shockwave Player. Click here to download.

For more information:

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=82216d24

Mac OS X 10.4.9 improves the ability of Mac OS X to detect damaged or corrupted disk images before mounting them. Mounting a damaged or corrupted disk image can result in data loss or corruption. The alert appears when you try to open or (mount) a damaged disk image.

Apple has a work around to help users cope with this upgrade. If you have another copy of the files that are on the affected disk image, follow the steps below:

1. Make a new image in Disk Utility and copy the original files to the new image.

2. Discard the original, affected image.
3. As a precaution, open (mount) the new image, open Disk Utility, and repair the new image. Continue to repair until no issues are found

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305111

Application set ups that could be affected by this update are Quick Reads, any level of Connected Math, Sortegories or Word.

To determine if you already have the DST update, click on your hard drive icon and select Library > Receipts. If this folder contains a file called DSTUpdate (version information will be appended to this title, i.e., DSTUpdateTi-001.pkg) the update has already been installed.

If the updater has not been installed, you need to install it via the Software Updater.

For more information on DST Updates http://www.sfsu.edu/~helpdesk/daylightsaving/daylightsaving.htm
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305056

Posted at:  http://forums.bombich.com/viewtopic.php?t=6255

In CCC:
    Set the source, the target and the prefs.
    Set the schedule.

    sudo perl -p -i -e 's/\000//g' /etc/ccc.*

That's it! You only need to do this job again if you create a new schedule or modify an existing one.

At times Safari may show web pages in a strange font or language (see screenshot).

While it may be that the user made a change their International system preference to another language (this would also affect other apps such as Textedit), it may be due to bad system cache files.

There are numerous utilities that can clean these cache files, but you can also use Apple Remote Desktop to execute a unix command to remove the appropriate folders.

CAUTION- For experienced users with administrative privs only!!

Using ARD, select the affected workstations and do the following--

• Log out the users 
  
• Run the following Unix command as the 'root' user (BE CAREFUL):   rm -R /Library/Caches; rm -R    /System/Library/Caches   (BE VERY CAREFUL- TYPE IT CORRECTLY)
• Restart the system after the command completes

AOL (America Online) is a popular Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it does not use standard internet dialup methods for connecting a computer to the internet over phone lines- it normally requires that the AOL software package be installed for AOL Dialup users to connect to the internet.

Unfortunately, there are some problems with AOL's software in regards to the BPS teacher laptop (Mac OS X) setup:

• The software installer does NOT work with a standard Administrator password that has been given to the teachers- installation will fail.
• The AOL software is not secure and should not be used within the BPS Network
• The AOL software can cause serious problems with the standard networking setup as it uses its own protocol and makes changes at the system level.

AOL Does provide software that lets AOL members dial up WITHOUT the full AOL software package.  These software packages:

• Should install with a standard administrator password on the Mac
• Allows the user to dial in to AOL over dialup and use the built in Mac programs Safari, Mail.app, and iChat for Web, e-mail, and chat.
• Includes an AOL Service Assistant program that helps the user set up these built in programs to use their AOL Screename with these programs.

Since www.aol.com is blocked within the district, users have no easy way to get these programs.

We've provided in-district links to these packages for the convenience of BPS Teachers, with the following caveats/warnings:

• AOL (or any home internet provider) is NOT supported by the district or the BPS Instructional Technology Department- individual users are responsible for configuration of their home connections and for any problems that may be caused by this configuration and usage.
• This software is provided as it was downloaded from AOL- no guarantees or endorsements are given.
• Any support for this software should be obtained from AOL
• Users are  responsible for this software and any problems that its installation may cause.
  

In District Download Links

AOL® Connect

AOL® Service Assistant 1.0

The problem is the QuickReads v3 Config.txt

The fix is as follows

• Enter and exit the program once the error message appears
• Go to the Application Support folder of the Macintosh HD
• Click on the Soliloquy Learning folder
• Scrap QuickReads v3 Config.txt
• Replace with the attached QuickReads v3 Config.txt

Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system.

This has been a particularly frustrating problem for users in an OSX managed environment. This appears to be a user related problem–not a workstation issue– with the Firefox profile the culprit.

A possible fix is to trash the profiles.ini found in the Firefox Folder in the user's Home Directory:Library:Application Support folder. Once the profiles.ini file has been trashed, have the user log out and log in again. Firefox should now launch.

Hangs at Start-up

If you attempt to open Firefox and there is no bouncing icon in the dock or error message announcing Firefox is running but not responding, the application may have  hung at start up. 

It has been reported recently that malicious web pages with extremely long titles can fill the browsing history file "history.dat" with so much information that Mozilla Suite and Firefox will consume large amounts of CPU and memory resources and will appear to "hang" on startup (fixed in Firefox 1.5.0.1 and 1.0.8).  Close the browser completely and delete the file "history.dat" located in the profile folder to clear the browsing history.

Fails to Start

If Firefox does not display a browser window:

• Quit Firefox using Cmd+Q
• Open ~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<garble>.default/
  
• Remove "localstore.rdf"
• Restart Firefox. Any toolbar customizations or window placement changes you have made will be lost

Still Doesn't Start?

• com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist
• com.apple.internetconfigpriv.plist
• com.apple.internetconnect.plist

For more information about launching issues:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up