November 3rd, 2009

Thursby updates DAVE and ADmitMac solutions for Windows networking

Posted by David Morgenstern @ 9:11 am

Categories: 10.6, 64-bit, Snow Leopard, Windows 7

Tags: Apple Macintosh, Windows Networking, ADmitMac Version 5, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows 7, Software, David Morgenstern

With recent changes coming to both Mac and Windows OSes, Thursby on Tuesday released new versions of ADmitMac, its Windows Active Directory client software for Macs, and DAVE, its file- and printer-sharing solution. The updates feature support for Mac OS X 10.6 Leopard and Windows 7.

The previous ADmitMac Version 4 and DAVE Version 7 did not support Snow Leopard and a link to uninstalling instructions was featured on the company’s support pages (and still is). The current versions of ADmitMac for CAC and ADmitMac for PIV are still incompatible with Snow Leopard.

ADmitMac Version 5 improves compatibility with Active Directory and now supports the Windows Group Policy console.

Administrators can manage their domain users in a consistent way – regardless of whether they use a PC or a Mac. And ADmitMac requires no Active Directory schema changes.

According to the company, DAVE Version 8 supports all current Windows operating systems including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and WIndows NT

When running on Snow Leopard, both products now support 64-bit multi-threaded operation and multiple processors.

The ADmitMac v5 upgrade is $89.95 for users of Version 4.x; the DAVE v8 upgrade is $69.95 for users of Version 7.x.

August 21st, 2009

More ways to boot 64-bit Snow Leopard

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 10:57 am

Categories: 10.6, 64-bit, Snow Leopard

Tags: 64-Bit, Network Technology, Processors, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Networking, Jason D. O'Grady

Previously I posted two ways to boot “capable” Macs (other than the Xserve) into 64-bit Snow Leopard: either a) hold down the 6 and 4 keys at boot or, b) edit the Kernel Flag string in the com.apple.Boot.plist file.

Apple Core reader Robert Nicholson notes that there’s another way to boot into the 64-bit version of Snow Leopard — by setting the nvram paramters (similar to verbose booting) as noted on My Grotto:

Print nvram settings

# nvram -p

Set boot-args to use 64 bit kernel

# nvram boot-args="arch=x86_64"

August 19th, 2009

Hold 6 and 4 keys at boot to enable 64-bit Snow Leopard (Updated)

Posted by Jason D. O'Grady @ 9:00 am

Categories: 10.6, 64-bit, kernel

Tags: Kernel, 64-Bit, Network Technology, Processors, Semiconductors, Hardware, Components, Networking, Jason D. O'Grady

As I mentioned in a post last night, the latest developer release of Snow Leopard, a.k.a. Mac OS 10.6 (build 10A432, presumed to be GM) doesn’t automatically boot into the 64-bit kernel except on an Xserve. To boot into 64-bit on any other Mac you must hold down the “6″ and “4″ keys at boot.

Update: There’s a solution to the “64 finger salute” at the end of this post…

Here’s how to tell if you’ve successfully loaded the 64-bit kernel in Snow Leopard:

1. Launch System Profiler (Applications > Utilities > System Profiler or About This Mac > More Info…)
2. Click on the “Software” heading in the left pane
3. Check the “64-bit Kernel and Extensions” line for a Yes or a No.

This is what it looks like in 32-bit:

This is what it looks like when the 64-bit kernel and extensions are loaded:

As I posted yesterday, you can check to see if your Mac has the 64-bit EFI (required to load the 64-bit kernel) by entering the following command in Terminal:

It will return either “EFI32″ or “EFI64.”

According to Apple all system applications except DVD Player, Front Row, Grapher, and iTunes have been rewritten in 64-bit. All we need now is for third-party developers like Mozilla, Microsoft and Adobe (hint, hint!) to start releasing 64-bit apps :)

What applications do you want to go 64-bit first?

Update: If you’re not a fan of having to remember to hold down the “6″ and “4″ keys each time you re-boot, there’s a fix courtesy of Netkas.org:

Edit this file:

Change this:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string></string>

To this:

<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>arch=x86_64</string>

Boots into the 64-bit kernel like a charm every time on my MBP.