17/02/05
462 OS X Questions updated
Sometimes, no end of searching can find the answers your looking for. Indulge me a while, and answer if you can!
- Does anyone know of a way to attach a powerbook in target disk mode (assuming that Airport would be too slow) to my G5, and work from it’s home folder, instead of the one on my G5? Remote Desktop would sort of do this for me, but it seems like a expensive solution for just 2 computers. I guess I’m looking for a powerbook equivalent to the ‘Home on an iPod” idea, where my powerbook has all the files.
Simply connecting the powerbook to my monitor isn’t that simple, as I would have to get a ADC to DVI convertor and use up the only firewire port on the powerbook. Sure, I have a Firewire hub, but there are other issues there.
FIXED : Thanks to Ole. I’ve now booted up from the powerbook, by starting it in target disk mode, and then booting the G5 with the alt key down. I choose the other machine and boom! It works a treat! I can also access any files on the G5, as well all use all the devices attached to it. This is perfect, apart from one bizarre side effect. iTunes will suddenly ask for authorization to play your iTMS music, and then when you reboot as just the powerbook, it asks you again! Therefore using up your 5 computer limit in no time. Eek!
- Has anyone had issues using the Apple Wireless Mouse? The movement on mine is decidedly odd and jerky, even with full batteries. Is this just how they are – do people put up with this for the benefit of wireless? Or does everyone else’s move as slickly as their USB mouse?
Even as I post this, I have the nagging voice in the back of my head saying ‘Ask Shaun Inman…’.
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Colin Barnes said 1280 days ago:
For your first question, would VNC being any good for you? I use that to virtually controll mac mini.., as for the mouse I had the same problem and went back to a logitech wired mouse, i’ve never found wireless mouse that was sturdy.Jon Hicks said 1280 days ago:
Colin – as far as I know, VNC is only available on Windows, is that right?Brian Rose said 1280 days ago:
I was really happy to try out the Apple Pro Bluetooth mouse when it rolled out and was pretty disappointed when I experienced the same jerkiness you have noticed. Thinking it was the mouse, I tried a Microsoft Bluetooth mouse instead. Same thing.For design work, it just didn’t cut. I decided to go back to a plain-Jane wired USB mouse after only a month of use.
Dan Poltawski said 1280 days ago:
You can use OSXVnc as a VNC server and VNCViewer to use the powerbook from the G5. You can get VNC for most oses, not just windows.I’ve not had any issues with the Apple Bluetooth mouse which arrived on monday, however I don’t do much in the way of high-precision design type things.
Josh Bryant said 1280 days ago:
For your powerbook, you seem to have already mentioned the solution. Just connect it to the g5 in firewire target disk mode.First, restart the pwoerbook and hold the “T” down at startup. Your screen will then come up with a very large firewire sign indicating that it is ready. Connect a firewire port on the powerbook to the firewire port on your g5. Your powerbook will mount as an external HD and you can work right off of there. You just need to be sure you are on the right HD when you are working. You can create alias’ to the right one in the sidebar of the finder if that would help.
The disadvantage of this of course is the slow HD in the powerbook. Even if you custom ordered yours with the 5400rpm drive, its still slower than the standard 7200rpm drives that come in the g5. Most powerbooks however ship with a 4200rpm drive which is obviously significantly slower than both. I personally never worry about this though because I do design, not video editing, so HD speed is the least of my worries. I am mainly concerned with RAM.
This should be okay for permissions, writing to the disk, but you may have to enter your admin password.
As for the mouse, yes, any bluetooth mouse will be slightly jerky. Apple seems to have the best of them, out of Logitech, MS, Apple and all the other 3rd party mice. I bought a bluetooth mouse and returned it after 2 weeks because of this very behavior. I have yet to use a bluetooth mouse on any system where you don’t experience the jerkiness that you are referring to. Most people are fine with it, but I am picky and work with graphics a lot making it extra annoying. Bluetooth is great for keyboards, but just not up to par for mice yet.
As for wireless, they are still great. I really recommend the Logitech MX 1000 Laser mouse. It uses fast RF which is 20 times faster than normal RF. I have this particular mouse and it actually feels smoother than my old USB optical, if thats possible. I am really impressed with laser (as opposed to optical) and the fast RF feature. I have all the side-buttons mapped to Expose as well, which makes productivity on OS X amazing. Of course, though, because it is RF and not bluetooth, I still have to connect a USB cable to my powerbook to use it. For your G5, this is not a problem, but for the powerbook, its just one more thing to have to plug in. After I got an airport express however, power cable and mouse are the only cords attached. The mouse also comes with a recharge dock. I have gone almost a full month with continual day-to-day usage without needing a charge. I have heard, in the UK, the best place to buy it is EBuyer.
Matt Grayson said 1280 days ago:
In regards to your first question: if you want to do this “permanently,” you can relocate your home area on your G5 to your PowerBook – http://www.bombich.com/mactips/homedir.htmlI haven’t done this with a machine in target mode, but I have successfully moved home areas to different partitions without any problems.
Steve Hubbard said 1280 days ago:
No problems with the mouse here Jon.I use it when editing photos and crafting webpages (together with small icons!) without fault. Note that it only gets used on surfaces of differing colours, such as woodgrain. My old plain black blotter use to produce the occasional mouse skip to elsewhere on the screen. But there has never been any lag or jerkiness.
Ole Saalmann said 1280 days ago:
You can also boot from your PowerBook drive:– connect both computers with a FireWire cable – turn on the PB in Target mode by holding ‘T’ – turn on the G5 holding ‘alt’ and select the PB as boot volume.
Jon Hicks said 1280 days ago:
I know how to boot the powerbook into target disk mode. The thing is that if you work from that, your email, applications etc are still being used from the G5, rather than the powerbook, so you still have the problem of keeping files in sync.I’ll try the boot mode thing Ole – but is there any particular way I need to shut down to avoid problems?
I’ll try VNC too -thanks for that Dan!
Gary Yuen said 1280 days ago:
Maybe you can wait for Tiger server. I believe you can sync your home folder with both your desktop and powerbook.Richard Earney said 1280 days ago:
VNC is ‘very’ cross-platform. So no worries there – Chicken of the VNC is also a good client.BTW: you also have a VNC capability built into your computers. Look at System Preferences—> Sharing—> Apple Remote Desktop :)
But Target Disk Mode makes more sense.
Apple Wireless Mouse – you mean you still use one of them 1 button things!!!! Mac Mice make a very nice Apple Stylee alternative that has 2 buttons and a scrollwheel – you’ll never look back!!
Chris McElligott said 1280 days ago:
I have an Apple Bluetooth mouse and at times the cursor will jump from the bottom of the screen to the top, it feels weird even as if the mouse is rebuffering its connection. It happens rarely but when it does I have this uneasy feeling thinking I should have stuck with my wired mouse.matthew said 1280 days ago:
Chicken of the VNC along with OSXvnc and rendezvous enabled in Chicken is very good, I use it to admin our Xserve and music jukebox.Sounds like booting as target and then selecting that as the boot disk fromt he G5 might be what youre after though.
Jon Hicks said 1280 days ago:
Richard – funnily enough, I got one of the MacMice mouses. I had high hopes, but couldn’t get on with the way it ‘felt’. So I have one for sale if anyone is interested!lt said 1280 days ago:
I just bought for my PowerBook 1.5 a Microsoft wireless notebook optical mouse that works like a dream. The previous mouse, a Logitech wireless, had some problems, specially when using the wheel.James Crossett said 1280 days ago:
I use Chicken of the VNC to connect to my PC using WinVNC, just because i can’t be arsed to move to resart the proxy or re-connect the internet. But I don’t think that solves your issue.As for the mouse mine is dodgy too, erratic and it just doesn’t feel right, cost £60 too! Then Apple reduced it to £40 a month or so later, cheeky beggars. I find myself using the Powerbook trackpad again, pain in the rear though. I must admit the one-button-non-scrolling thing is annoying.
Josh Bryant said 1280 days ago:
Funny enough, the bluetooth mouse that I refered to in my earlier post was the mouse from macmice, one of the worst pieces of hardware I have ever purchased.Jon – There is nothing special to do about the shut down. Just restart the G5 normally while holding the option key down and you will get a list of boot devices. If your powerbook is connected with FWTDM, then it should work fine.
The link that Matt provided should work great as well.
Jon Hicks said 1280 days ago:
Ole – Thanks again. I’ve now booted up from the powerbook, and it works a treat! I can also access any files on the G5, as well all the devices attached to it. This is perfect. thankyou!!Richard Earney said 1280 days ago:
>Richard – funnily enough, I got one of the MacMice mouses.Ah right – I wondered if perhaps it was a style reason to use the Apple one – hence the suggestion.
Personally I always use Micro$oft mice – which is something they seem to do right. The software is pretty good too – seems more stable than Logitech!
Ste Grainer said 1280 days ago:
Not sure about the Apple wireless mouse, but if you want any other recommendations for a wireless mouse, I really like the Logitech mx1000. It’s quite a bit more complicated, but feels nice in the hand. The laser (not just optical, but actual laser) feels very precise when I’m working at pixel level and the buttons are very customizable. My only complaint right now is that their drivers for Mac don’t seem to support the horizontal scrolling that the mouse purportedly should have. The little quick app-switching button under the thumb is a great trigger for Expose. (I think its default action is Cmd-Tab, but that was easy to change.)Finally, there’s no need to worry about changing batteries like you do with many wireless mice. This one comes with a charging station, and charges last (for me at least) roughly 5-7 days. (That depends on how much World of Warcraft I’m playing, though. ;)
matthews said 1280 days ago:
I happen to be getting a Kingston studio pro wireless mouse with the recharge stand. I’ll let you know how it works when I get it. It looks beautiful.Roger Herbert said 1280 days ago:
I’m using an Apple BT mouse on my iMac G5, and I too find it very sluggish compared to the logitech optical on my windows box. I’d dearly love logitech to release an ambidextrous version of the MX 1000, as I’m a lefty, but until then I’m going to perservere (or cave in and get a cheap USB optical next time I see one!). Apple’s wireless keyboard is great though, nicely minimalist (and I can type with it on my lap, feet on the desk).Garrett said 1280 days ago:
I too have experienced these same issues with the mouse. Considering the high quality of all of the other Apple products I’ve used, I’ve been fairly disappointed.neil said 1280 days ago:
If you really, really want to use the home directory on your target-disked PB in place of the one on your tower, here’s what you can do (under 10.3 – I can’t remember if this works on anything below 10.3)Obligatory warning: I haven’t done this in quite some time, so you most definitely are proceeding at your own risk. This should work, though, and it’s easy to back out if you want to revert back to the way things were. But any time you’re editing system-level configurations like this, you gotta have a warning. So here it is.
# Connect your PB and boot it into Target Disk mode
# Once the PB’s volumes appear on your desktop, launch NetInfo Manager (aka NIM) located in your Utilities folder.
# Authenticate yourself by clicking on the padlock in the lower left-hand corner and entering your admin password.
# In the NIM column view, select Users.
# Find your username – for this example, my username will be horatio (because it’s a cool name)
# Below the column view you will see all of the system details for that user. # Double-click in the Values column beside the home property.
# Change the directory path from ”/Users/[your username]” (here,/Users/horatio) to ”/Volumes/[name of your main PB partition]/Users/[name of user folder on PB]”.
# To commit your change, click on any other username in the users column. NIM will ask if you want to commit the changes.
# Save your changes and immediately restart your computer. If this works, you should see the contents of the Users folder on your PB displayed as your home folder on your tower.
# To back out of this change, run through the process again, except change the home property back to ”/Users/[your original username]”.
Again, it’s been a while since I did this, but it worked for me back then!
Neil
Kai Bernau said 1280 days ago:
jon, i have the apple wireless mouse and it works quite well with me, the only glitches that appear to me are the normal »optical mouse« glitches that you almost inevitably have: glass tables, sometimes on plain white, unstructured surfaces (although there, especially on the wonderful Egon Eiermann tables , the wireless mouse performs much better than apple’s pro mouse…)may i be so bold as to suggest thoroughtly cleaning the lens of the optical pickup? mine was very dirty at some point… i thought not having to clean the mouse’s guts what was that optical thing was all about…
alternatively, you may want to check the mouse & keyboard discussion board at apple, where, for example, one user reported problems with his cellphone disturbing the bluetooth input devices.
by the way: this built-in real-time review is incredible! how d’you do that?
spk said 1280 days ago:
Great – so the Macmice BT is a piece of crap? Fantastic! I’ve just bought this on bloody eBay. Mar-vell-ous. BTW, I’m switching to Mac next week (a 1.67Ghz 17in Powerbook). How does one loose one’s Mac cherry round here? I.e., any advice, recommendations for a switcher?I’m happily leaving a Dell Latitude and Win XP SP2 behind – forever!!! Jon, you couldn’t set up a SMB connection to your Powerbook (as I’ve done between Windows and my girlfriend’s Mac)? That might be a stupid question of course – I just don’t know enough about OS X yet.
Michael Heilemann said 1280 days ago:
I’ve also got some odd issues with the Apple mouse; it’s generally slightly laggy, and once in a while it’s gets super laggy, almost as if only a fourth of the information is being transmitted properly. Disable bluetooth, enable again, reconnect and it works ‘fine’ again.Nik said 1280 days ago:
I’ve got the Apple BT mouse and never had any problems with it… guess I’m just lucky?Matt said 1280 days ago:
With regards to the mouse topic, what surface are you using it on? My wireless mouse acts funny on multi-coloured mouse pads and certain colid colours as well.Nik said 1280 days ago:
Yeh good point about the surface.. .my works great on my leather Greenpeace mousemat!Jon Hicks said 1280 days ago:
spk said:> Great – so the Macmice BT is a piece of crap? Fantastic! I
I think its a matter of personal preference. I just didn’t like the way the mouse clicks felt. I don’t need a 2 button mouse anyway, and I still love how the standard apple mouse feels!
Chris Ellison said 1280 days ago:
I can’t comment on the Apple BT mouse movement being jerky but I can say that the Logitech MX1000 I bought recently is as smooth as any corded mouse I’ve used. The MX1000 doesn’t use Bluetooth it has something Logitech calls “Fast RF” that they claim “equals the speed of a USB corded connection”. As someone else mentioned it’s not a good choice if you are a leftie though.Roger Johansson said 1280 days ago:
I’ve had nothing but really bad experiences with wireless keyboards and mice. Dropped connections, batteries constantly running out, jerky movement… IMO wireless input devices just suck – and I’ve tried Apple, Microsoft, and Logitech, on Macs and on PC:s. They’re all the same.I don’t get why so many people are willing to put up with all that trouble just to get rid of a couple of cables.
So yes, I’ve had issues with the Apple Wireless Mouse ;-)
John said 1280 days ago:
That first tip is a timely lifesaver for me. My desktop computer’s main drive has irretrievably crashed (just makes godawful noises now) and I’ve been trying to figure out how to export the data from one of the 2 other (non-backed-up) internal drives in order to wipe it and install OS X there. It’s not easy to get at those drives if you can’t boot from the machine they’re in—and this should do the trick!This problem presented itself only yesterday, so this is going to save me a lot of headache – thanks!
Andrew Ho said 1280 days ago:
I’ve been using the Apple Bluetooth mouse for about six months now. I know what you mean about the jerkiness, but this was rectified by doing two things. I changed the mouse mat that I was using (optical mice, especially this one, are particularly sensitive to this kind of thing). Also, I set the sensitivity a bit lower than the default – it seemed to go a mile when I moved it half an inch before.jdb said 1280 days ago:
The person who said that OS X comes with a VNC server isn’t exactly right. You have to download the latest client from Apple, but it is free so it’s cool. I can’t quite figure out if it is better than OSXvnc or not. It sometimes seems slower but other times seems faster. The only box in the sharing control panel that matters is “VNC viewers may control screen with password”. This is found under the Access Privileges… button.Go here for the updated client:
ARD2.1 Client
I just bought a Mac mini and it didn’t come with this version so I don’t think you get it with OS X automatically.
If you need to get through the OS X firewall you have to set VNC by hand; it doesn’t get setup when using the checkbox in the sharing panel. This is a good thing since I want to use VNC but with real security.
If you want real security using VNC you should tunnel with SSH. Make sure VNC port 5900-5902 aren’t allowed through the firewall. You also need to have remote login (SSH) enabled on the remote machine. Then use the following command in the terminal to tunnel VNC with SSH:
ssh user@mini.local -L 5900:127.0.0.1:5900
Leave the terminal logged in to the remote machine. Now in your VNC application (I use Chicken of the VNC), connect to localhost (127.0.0.1). I’ve had trouble using localhost on the command line because of IPV6 so I just use the dot quad version. I haven’t had trouble with localhost in the VNC application. You can also match up different displays using this command. If you want to use display 2 instead of 0 it would be:
ssh user@mini.local -L 5902:127.0.0.1:5900
The user is optional if you are logging into the same account short name on the remote machine, and substitute your machine name for mini :)
Dave Manley said 1279 days ago:
Love my Apple Bluetooth mouse paired with a PB17 (first generation). I often sit on the floor with the laptop in front of me and had problems at first with the mouse on the carpet.My problem was due to the carpet itself catching the mouse and impeding smooth movement. I set the mouse on a Fellowes-brand mousepad that provides a gel wrist cushion.
Try moving your Apple Bluetooth mouse onto a mousepad of some sort and it should work fine. Also try adjusting the setting in the Mouse preferences pane of System Preferences for tracking speed.
kev said 1279 days ago:
I’ve probably been beaten above, but the “alt” key? Eh? Do you perhaps mean the Command-key? :)Jon Hicks said 1279 days ago:
Kev – no he means what he says, the ‘alt’ key, otherwise known as the option key!Vincent Grouls said 1279 days ago:
Cool, such an obvious solution and I wouldn’t have thought of it either! Thanks for the light, Ole. This will be helpful when I’m at my parents’ again.I’m currently using my laptop as a “Mobile Home”. I share the Users folder on my main machine as an NFS volume – since I didn’t get AFP to work the way I wanted :-/ – and use a login hook to check if the network share can be found. If yes, I make a symlink to /Users; if not I make a symlink from the local Users (situated on a separate partition) to /Users. And to make sure the laptop stays up-to-date, I’ve got a cron set up to clone the Users folder daily.
I can’t comment on the wireless mouses as I haven’t got one and I don’t want one. I’d probably wipe it off my desk or something… No thanks!
Kevin Evans said 1278 days ago:
Jon check out this article: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050215110210846Sounds like a easy way to do it.
Kevin
Vincent Grouls said 1276 days ago:
Kevin, re Enable multiple home folders on different disksThe problem is that this setup either ignores the second value you add to the home property (set up in the wrong order) or that it creates a folder where the first Users folder should be but is not available at that time.
The best way is to use a login hook. You check if the folder/volume is available and symlink it to /Users or you symlink the secondary folder/volume to /Users.
Scott McMillin said 1274 days ago:
I had dreadful problems with the Apple BT Mouse and Keyboard and gave up. But I do love my new Logitech MX1000.Damian said 1272 days ago:
Sometimes, no end of searching can find the answers your looking forTypo, Jon: *you’re*
I can’t help with the mouse: I’m (mostly) still wired here. My only Bluetooth “discovery” is that you need to disable firewall software before using iSync.
I had thought that M$’s mouse was using a proprietary wireless system and not Bluetooth, despite what one of your interlocutors says … but perhaps they’ve changed.
I find all kinds of strange incompatibilities on OS X all the time. I found that X-File knocks Finder into a cocked hat:
http://rixstep.com/4/0/xfile/
Apple’s own file browser stinks beside X-File. X-File shows all the hidden files and also works at those times when Finder grinds to a halt. But if I set the com.apple.loginwindow.plist file to load X-File on startup instead of Finder, then I find that my USB modem coughs and stutters. Perhaps the modem is set up to look for Finder … I guess I should dump it and buy a NAT router anyway. :-)
Zachary Jones said 1265 days ago:
I type this from a wireless keyboard and mouse from Microsoft’s Wireless Optical Desktop. I did have jerking problems with my mouse, but I found it was because my laptop was between the receiver and my mouse. My laptop has always emitted a strange frequency which blocks out others. Such as radio frequencies, etc.The keyboard does seem to have a slight delay to it, but I’ve gotten used to it. One problem with it though, is I seem to type too fast and the computer thinks when I press the same key twice in succession (as in all, and carry), it doesn’t register the second one. Maybe I type so fast, it thinks its receiving the signal again is my still holding down the key from the first time?
Stephane said 1260 days ago:
I had problems with my mouse on my table and some mousepad, it seems to want a particular surface. I just bought a 3M optical mousepad (the really thin ones) and it is as good as any other mouse I’ve use before now, it’s the best accessory for you can buy to your mouse.