macOS: install Oracle VirtualBox on macOS 10.13

Apple continuously enhanced the security of recent macOS versions and with High Sierra 10.13 it introduced a new feature that requires user approval before loading newly-installed third-party kernel extensions (KEXTs)

There are lots of complaints from users not being able to install applications with KEXT, like Oracle VirtualBox. The mechanism is relatively complex, but basically each developer is required to get a developer ID from Apple, and users can approve that software signed by that developer is allowed to run.

macOS: S.M.A.R.T. status checks

Recently I was off for a few days, and before leaving, I shut down the machines, including the Mac Mini server, which has an external disk.

macOS: com.apple.quarantine

I recently faced a weird behaviour from one of my Eclipse instances: all settings and plug-ins installed were forgotten, and the Eclipse looked like freshly installed.

OS X: How to start the NFS daemon?

I recently reactivated my backup Mac Mini as a server; for convenience, I installed the OS X Server package.

OS X: How to change an alias icon?

I recently did some backup/restores and I noticed that the restored aliases, although fully functional, did not preserve the original icons.

OS X: How to change the main screen?

In multi-screen setups, for example a laptop with an external monitor, OS X prefers the laptop screen, which makes things a bit weird when using mainly the big screen, especially when having to confirm message boxes in the other screen.

OS X: Time Machine backup after hardware repairs

Courtesy of Apple, my laptop suffered a brain surgery, and the main board was replaced. Now it is almost as good as new, but since it still has a history, I would like to preserve it.

Preventive maintenance & thermal paste replacement

The recent experience with the MacBook Pro repair revealed a maintenance operation that I completely ignored up to now: periodic cleanup and thermal paste replacement.

My backup Mac setup

My MacBook Pro recently died. It wasn’t a sudden death, since it started to exhibit video artefacts a few months ago.

MacBook Pro video repair experience

As everything else in this worlds, computers do not live forever, and even top brands like Apple experience hardware failures.

OS X: How to get the books out of iBooks

One of the first questions I had when evaluating iBooks, was “How do I get my PDFs back from iBooks, if needed?”. The answer is pretty simple, and very Apple like: “You just drag them from iBooks to your folder of choice”.

OS X: Time Machine preventive maintenance

It was one of those moment when many things went wrong and the only way out was to restore the entire Mac from the Time Machine backup. But, before starting the process, I ran a file system check and… surprise, the file system was broken and repairs were needed. Several hours later the file system was repaired, the install performed and the machine was up and running without any (visible) problems. But the lesson was learned: Time Machine is great, but disks need some attention.

OS X: How to disable Acrobat as the Safari PDF viewer

Soon after switching to Mac I discovered that one of the myths that I lived with for many years, i.e. that Adobe Acrobat Reader is mandatory in order to view PDF documents, is no longer true.

iPod nano USB battery charger

No questions about this, Apple designs are remarkable. Their products look great, are easy to use, and generally work great. The price? Yes, the price is high, but not prohibitively high.

What makes me angry is how they try to monetize even on small details, sometimes by bending the standards.

OS X: How to install EAGLE as a non-administrator user

There are few EDA programs that run on Mac OS X. One of them is CadSoft EAGLE PCB & Schematic software (v5), but unfortunately the integration with Mac OS X is minimal.