Embracing the Messiness in Search of Epic Solutions

Tag: MacOS

Mac: Managing Startup/Shutdown Schedules on macOS Ventura

PROBLEM Since upgrading to macOS Ventura, managing custom startup/shutdown schedules directly from the GUI (via Energy Saver) is no longer possible. SOLUTION While this feature is not accessible from the GUI anymore, it can still be accomplished using pmset command. To list all the existing schedules: By default, it is empty. To schedule a daily… Read More…

cron MacOS power management

April 19, 2023
Wildcard Subdomains in /etc/hosts

This post illustrates how you use a DNS forwarder to manage wildcard subdomains so that you don’t have to explicitly list each subdomain in /etc/host file. PROBLEM When trying to map multiple subdomains (ex: a.localhost, b.localhost, c.localhost, d.localhost) to the same IP, it is not possible to do the following in /etc/hosts: Rather, each subdomain… Read More…

DNS dnsmasq MacOS resolver

March 29, 2022
GCP: Accessing GUI-Based App in GCE from Mac using X11

PROBLEM You want to access a GUI-based software that is installed in a GCE instance without using NoMachine. SOLUTION GCE Instance (One Time Configuration) Ensure X11Forwarding is enabled and set to yes. If not, change it. If a change is made to this file, restart the service. Mac (One Time Configuration) Apple no longer include… Read More…

Google Cloud Platform Google Compute Engine MacOS x11 xquartz

February 23, 2022
Ansible: Handling Multiple Hosts via SSH

PROBLEM To run Ansible playbook in multiple hosts via SSH. SOLUTION Configuring SSH environment Ensure SSH keypair exists on the current machine (ex: ~/.ssh/id_rsa for private key and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub for public key). If you do not have one, create one: Copy the public key (ex: ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to each remote host’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. If this file doesn’t… Read More…

Ansible MacOS SSH

May 19, 2021
macOS Big Sur: Poor Screen Quality When Connecting to Old Monitor via HDMI

PROBLEM You have a shiny Mac laptop running macOS Big Sur. This laptop is connected to an old external monitor via HDMI. The screen quality looks pixelated and fuzzy. Running font smoothing (as below) doesn’t fix the problem: You are poor enough to buy a new 4K monitor. SOLUTION The usage of HDMI seems to… Read More…

edid hdmi MacOS

March 9, 2021
macOS + Eclipse: The ‘X’ Executable Launcher was Unable to Locate its Companion Shared Library

PROBLEM When attempting to launch Eclipse-based app (ex: MyApp.app) on Mac, the following error is thrown:- SOLUTION This problem seems to occur on macOS Sierra and later. When unzipping the app, the lingering extended attributes prevent the app from launching. To fix this, run the following command to remove these extended attributes:- Then, double click… Read More…

MacOS

June 13, 2018