The Ultimate macOS Thread

So I finished doing all my hardware/software upgrades. But after upgrading to 10.5.8, my user account is now standard and not administrator. Apple says I should boot from the dvd and reset the password or something, but everytime I try to boot from the install dvd (using keyboard keys) I just hear the DVD drive spin and it boots from my hard drive. How they heck can I make it boot from the DVD or is there another way to create another admin (or change) account?
 
Have you tried holding down the Option key when you first turn on the computer to open the boot drive selection screen?
 
Yeah. I tried option, C, and a combination of shift, command, option, del (i think).
 
This may sound stupid, but could the problem be that I am using a wireless keyboard. Because on startup, if I hit the caps key the light won't come on. Only after OS X loads
 
Oh yes, I think it's exactly the problem!

The solution to do that would be to go into the System Preferences->Startup Disk but you need to be an administrator to do that, so we're back to square one. In essence, what you need to do is find an USB keyboard (not necessarily an Apple one) and try the 'c' key :)
 
Crap. I have 2 wireless keyboards and 2 PS/2 keyboards. I'll have to check with a friend.

Thanks dude.
 
It sure isn't very practical when you only have a wireless keyboard, Apple should make a way to boot the DVD without a USB one!

Edit:

It seems I was a bit quick, most shortcuts should be doable using a Wireless keyboard:

Link to the Apple kbase

:-/
 
Last edited:
Nice find. I'm using the D-Link DBT-120, not sure what rev. I'm gonna check it out and see if running an update on it helps. :cool:
 
Of course, I need to have admin access to run the firmware updater! Back to hunting for a wired keyboard
 
I snatched the usb keyboard from my store, and it worked. Yipee!
 
Yeah, I had to set a password for the root user or something and then log in with that and restore admin privileges to my account.

I can officially say that my Mac is running pretty much perfectly now. More HD space, memory, wireless and 2 OS's higher.

I tried to +rep you but it says I have to spread it around more.
 
My trackpad periodically stops working for a few minutes and has bowed a bit in the middle any similar cases?

Cleaning mine very thoroughly helped with similar issues. Use water with a shot of dishwashing fluid in it...
 
Whats the best freeware for handling PDFs in OSX?
 
Preview does a lot out of the box, and the system allows you to generate PDFs from any application (just go File->Print->PDF). PDFLab may have a bit more functionalities, you can give it a try.
 
Preview is good, but gets slow (very slow) when it comes to slides with badly composed imagery on them. Say, a fine grid made up of a lot of single lines - unfortunately, I came across that in some slides this semester. Rendering those can take Preview some time, Adobe Reader does the job better there.
 
Ok, Mac geeks, I come begging for help, on hands and knees. I have been trying, in vain it seems, to start a video chat with a friend over iChat. She is using the latest version of AIM, and I am using the latest version of iChat on 10.6. Whenever I try to start the chat, it just sits there and sits there, telling me it is connecting, but she never gets an alert that someone is trying to start a video chat with her. If SHE trys to start the video chat, iChat promptly crashes. Quite annoying, I must admit.

I have followed all of Apple's guides to getting iChat Video working properly, including opening the 42 billion ports it requires. Ive disabled every firewall I can think of, had her do the same, and yet, the results are the same. This is starting to wear very thing, considering that it works perfectly in Windows 7 (And please don't say "Well, just use Win7, then!"). Has anyone else run across this problem before? If so, how the fuck did you fix it?!
 
Top