We boot into single user mode off the internal hard disk, then reset the target user password.

1. Boot into single user mode (press Command-S at power on)
2. Check the root filesystem first
   fsck -fy
3. Mount up the root filesystem
   mount -uw /
4. Load system directory services
   launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist
5. Edit user information
   dscl . -passwd /Users/username password (replace username with the targeted user and password with the new password)
6. Reboot then sign in with the new password.
   reboot

This is too fine for words.

After working through successively newer notebooks (iBook, PowerBook, MacBook Pro), I have recently upgraded my first gen MacBook Pro to a new uni-body MBP. All the way through the online store (with the complication of being a grad student and navigating the education part of the online store), the process was pretty painless. But the real wow was when my new MBP showed up three weeks ago and I decided to use the Migrate function to just suck the contents of my old MBP to my shiny new uni-body MBP (thanks for the encouragement, Jonathan). I figured since I didn’t have the time or energy to setup another computer from scratch, I would try this migrate feature – with a heavy dose of battle earned skepticism. When I turned on the power on my new MBP, it seamlessly guided me through the setup .. and asked me if I wanted to migrate from an existing Mac or even a TimeMachine backup of a Mac.  I said yes, hooked the old and the new together .. fully expecting this to not end well and have to restart some install process.  Well a little while later, the migrate was done .. I restarted my new MBP (didn’t have to), and it looked exactly like my old MBP. All of my Applications were there. All my documents where there. iTunes was there. iPhoto was there. The positioning of the icons and documents on my desktop was exactly like my old MBP. Wow. A migrate function that actually worked.  Really. All the way.  Ok, well I did have to re-setup my home wireless connection .. for some reason that didn’t seem to come across, but with the totally customized settings I use, I’m not too surprised although it only added about 120 seconds onto my migrate time.

So at the time I’m writing this, Apple has announced the next generation of the MacBook Pro (the Intel i5 and i7 processors).  Since I’ve only had my shiny new uni-body MBP for a week, I call the folks at Apple and speak to a very pleasant customer service rep (send me an email or website message and I’ll forward his name), who not only cheerfully agrees to accept my new MBP back, but helps me order the new generation. They waived the return shipping and any refurbishment fees, as well as the express shipping for the new unit to me.  Gives me his direct line so if the Apple provided UPS return sticker expires before I get the old-new MBP migrated to the new-new MBP, I can call and get a new label. All this (and I ordered a new mouse) and they refunded a net of nearly $900 back to my credit card.

Well, I’ve just finished the migrate from the old-new MBP to my new-new MBP and again, it was seamless. I don’t think I’ll rebuild a new Mac from scratch any more – this is just too fine for words.  So I can get back to my Master’s thesis and life in general, and not worry about the software out there that is half baked or just barely good enough to get by .. with lots of manual care and feeding.

Thanks Steve and crew – this is why I’m an Apple shareholder.

Initially I followed the guidance at sanity, inc.”How to OS X Leopard Screen Sharing with Linux“, on Ubuntu I installed tightvnc:

apt-get install tightvncserver

Then tested it out by starting up the vnc server on the Ubuntu system as the user I want to run the remote session as:

tightvncserver -geometry 1024x700 -depth 24 :1

As tightvncserver starts up the VNC service, it will check for a .vncpasswd file in the user home directory. If it doesn’t exist, you will be prompted for a password to use to protect the remote session.  Note VNC is not designed to be used for multi-user remote access.
On the Mac, rather than use Bonjour to automatically discover the Ubuntu screen sharing service, I just referred to the VNC session directly within Finder which invokes the built in VNC viewer. Enter the VNC session password when prompted and the Ubuntu desktop is displayed. Within Finder, either use Go -> Connect to Server or Apple-K to bring up the Connect to Server window.  The server address is the URL that points to the Ubuntu VNC instance vnc://10.10.1.2:5901 where the port is 5900 + the display number specified when starting up the tightvncserver (5901).

This all worked fantastic, except for the keyboard mapping within Gnome – it was scrambled.  After googling several possible solutions, the only one that was successful for me was to disable the keyboard plugin in Gnome

Amit Gurdasani wrote on 2008-04-28: #51

I’ve also encountered this issue with TightVNC and the hardy release. My solution was to capture the xmodmap -pke output as ${HOME}/.Xmodmap at the login screen (DISPLAY=:0 XAUTHORITY=/var/lib/gdm/:0.Xauth sudo xmodmap -pke > ${HOME}/.Xmodmap). When gnome-settings-daemon starts up and finds an .Xmodmap, it asks if it should be loaded — I answer yes. As a side effect, if gnome-settings-daemon were to be restarted without the .Xmodmap, it’d scramble the keyboard layout again. With an .Xmodmap in place, it’ll load the .Xmodmap every time.

Due to another issue (#199245, gnome-settings-daemon crashing with BadWindow every time a window is mapped), I disabled the keyboard plugin using gconf-editor, at /apps/gnome_settings_daemon/plugins/keyboard. Since it’s not being loaded, I suspect it might not garble the layout even if I remove the .Xmodmap now.

So maybe disabling the keyboard plugin is a better fix.

On the Ubuntu system, invoke the Gnome configuration editor (gconf-editor on command line), then navigate to apps -> gnome_settings_daemon -> plugins -> keyboard uncheck the Active keyword.  Kill the VNC daemon and relaunch it – problem fixed.

pkill vnc
tightvncserver -geometry 1024x700 -depth 24 :1

Various methods exist to automatically start and kill the VNC server, but for now this will do it for me.

Mac OS X:

sudo /usr/sbin/sysctl -w net.inet.ip.fw.enable=1
sudo /sbin/ipfw -q /etc/firewall.conf
sudo ifconfig en0 lladdr 00:1e:c2:0f:86:10
sudo ifconfig en1 alias 192.168.0.10 netmask 255.255.255.0
sudo ifconfig en1 -alias 192.168.0.10
sudo route add -net 10.2.1.0/24 10.3.1.1


Linux:
rpm commands:
List files in an rpm file
rpm -qlp package-name.rpm

List files associated with an already installed package
rpm --query –-filesbypkg package-name


hdiutil attach -verbose -readonly /path/to/sparse.bundle.directory

This will mount up the sparse bundle located at the directory path specified.  To unmount the sparse bundle, use:

hdiutil detach /Volume/sparse.bundle.name

Adding entries to /etc/hosts
Although simply editing /etc/hosts should work, there are times where the new entries may not be recognized, in these cases the OS X name cache daemon needs to be kicked:

dscacheutil -flushcache

Mac OS X Hostnames
Although you can change the hostname of your Mac OS X device through the System Control Panel -> Sharing, the following command line can lock the name so DHCP and other dynamic networking protocols don't mess up your hostname (from RichardBronosky):

sudo hostname my-permanent-name

sudo scutil –set LocalHostName $(hostname)

sudo scutil –set HostName $(hostname)

Handy Command Lines
Command line short cuts:

pmset -g batt   Show battery status

rsync -av -e ssh "Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/" ahull@10.20.1.103:"/Users/ahull/Music/iTunes/iTunes\ Music"