Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Why does the "w" command display bash's arguments as "ÿ¿"?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 01:59 PM PDT

The venerable w utility reports who's logged on, what processes they're running, etc.
Why does it print two non-ascii characters, apparently as the (nonexistent) args for bash?

In iTerm2 they render as white question marks on a black background.
Piped to a file and viewed with vi, I see:

15:41  up 5 days,  1:46, 11 users, load averages: 1.67 1.69 1.47  USER     TTY      FROM              LOGIN@  IDLE WHAT  me       console  -                Fri13   5days -  me       s000     -                Fri14   28:15 -bash         ÿ¿    /bin/bash  me       s001     -                Fri15    3:21 -bash         ÿ¿    /bin/bash

When ssh'd into the mac from an xterm, they render as ▒▒ .
Its man page suggests that it might print a hyphen, but doesn't even hint at Unicode.

Accessibility: Mouse Pointer goes back to default Size during Screen Sharing (or Jump Desktop)

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 12:59 PM PDT

I need to have the mouse pointer larger than normal (I also use different colors). But when I screen share from Mac to Mac (both running Monterey), the cursor is the tiny default size.

If I go into accessibility, the slider is still over to the right (large), and I even try moving it.

I'm having this with both Mac's built-in screen share, and using Jump Desktop.

I've also tried changing the "scaling" in the settings, but didn't make any difference.

And what's really weird, even though the size is ignored, it DOES display the cursor in my alternate colors, just really small.

iCloud file and sync

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 12:46 PM PDT

I have recently activated iCloud drive sync so, my I have basically uploaded the ~/Documents folder into the cloud. Everything worked as expected and now I can see documents on all my devices.

When I work and I update a file, I see that it is synchronized with Cloud, as expected but, last week, it started to resync all the documents folder instead of the changed only and took one day. Today it still doing again. So, why? Is a normal behavior or a problem? How the sync with cloud algorithm works? The problem I can see is CPU is running at 70% and the fan is running at max speed for hours due to bird process execution.

How to force quit a frozen system command prompt that asks for permissions?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 01:52 PM PDT

I want to press "Don't Allow" but it has become a no-op, doesn't act. I don't want to press OK. This does not show up in the Force Quit applications option. I opened VS code in the Desktop directory by mistake and it started to ask me for permissions. I also quit (command+Q) VS Code.

How can I move ahead without giving VSCode permissions to read my Documents or any folder?

Update 1

I tried to force quit the Finder, relaunch it, and it did not work. enter image description here

I can't turn on "Check spelling while typing" in Notes app

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 10:42 AM PDT

I can't turn on "Check spelling while typing" nor "Check Grammar with spelling". when I click on either the menu vanishes and nothing happens. Why is this happening? how can I fix this?

enter image description here

Can I use a iMac 2013 as an external monitor to a MacBook Pro 2021

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 11:28 AM PDT

I've tried using target display mode and AirPlay - neither seem to work. Am I missing something? Surely there's a way to join the two…?

HID driver not attaching to USB interface

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 09:52 AM PDT

I have a Blackstar ID:Core amp that I'm trying to connect to their "Architect" application.

The Architect application looks for HID devices with Blackstar's vendor ID (as can be seen in IDA):

enter image description here

Debugging using lldb, it can also be seen that IOHIDManagerCopyDevices returns 0 devices. This is not surprising given what is shown in IORegistryExplorer:

enter image description here

However from Wireshark, it appears that interface 0 should be recognized as HID:

enter image description here

but for some reason Apple's HID driver is not attaching to this interface. Is this because the USB audio driver is already attached to interface 1? If so, is there any way to detach the driver on this interface?

Run Pixelmator ML Super Resolution on multiple images from terminal?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 06:07 AM PDT

Have about 1000 images with the size of 480x320px, and they are very poor quality. I tried the Pixelmator ML Super Resolution to increase the quality (1440x960) and it seems to perform well! So I thought to iterate the 1000 files, from terminal, and change the format from jpg to HEIC.

When I tried this, the HEIC file is 142K and the originl jpg is 400K. So a win win??

But how can I iterate the files, use ML Super Resolution, and save the file to a new HEIC format?

install docker engine without docker desktop on MacOS

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 04:32 AM PDT

Docker recently upgraded its license that using Docker Desktop is a paid feature. I don't use Desktop but I do use the built-in Docker Engine. The Docker > About implies they are two separate things:

desktop vs engine

My question is really two: (1) if I'm not violating licensure by only actually using the engine, then don't really need the rest but if not or just for grins' sake then (2) how to install docker engine without docker desktop?

My macbook doesn't turn on by attempting lot of times

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 01:03 PM PDT

I am having a issue with my Macbook where it doesn't turn on (power-on) randomly, And turns on randomly by attempting lot of times to open it, what issues could I be possibly be facing? My laptop is heating up but but no signs of turning on.

Application toolbar reduces height and spaces out icons very widely [closed]

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 06:53 AM PDT

I have developed a MacOS app with a toolbar in Catalina running on a 2013 Macbook Pro and the toolbar height is sufficient to show all icons in half the screen as shown below:

Catalina App Toolbar

However a user has reported that their toolbar appears as shown below, where the toolbar is reduced in height and the icons so widely spaced that some are not shown and appear as pop-up menu items which are disabled. The version of MacOS being used is not known but is probably newer than Catalina. Is this a consequence of using a newer version of MacOS than Catalina? Is there a way of increasing the application toolbar height so that all icons are shown in newer versions of MacOS?

Problem Toolbar

How to enable hibernation on M1 Mac Mini? [duplicate]

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 06:11 AM PDT

I did some research and found materials saying that Mac mini has this feature but I can't find it in pmset. There was an entry on changelog that big sur added hibernation.

pmset

Notes:

A related but different problem is here: How to enable hibernation on M1 Mac This problem is likely about macbook instead of mac mini

The reason why I want to enable hibernation mode on mac mini, which usually has a stable wall power and thus make hibernation mode pointless, is that I use my mac mini as a portable device, breaking this assumption.

Can't click to allow giving permissions

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 01:50 PM PDT

For many apps, I can't give them permissions. This prompt pops up

enter image description here

But I when I click on it, both buttons don't do anything, and it just stays there, until I restart the computer.

I've read that this could be due do some apps having control of the screen, and I've disabled both amethyst and hammerspoon, but the prompt stays there. I also cannot manually give Emacs permission, since Emacs doesn't show up under Security and Privacy, under the Reminders section.

I believe I started having issues after the previous system update.

The problem is the same as what is described here and here

What is the cause of this and how do I fix it?

Should my CPU load be that high?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 12:03 PM PDT

I have a mid-2009 13" core 2 Duo MacBook Pro running High Sierra w/ upgraded 8 Gb RAM.

On Activity Monitor I usually get 20-40% 'idle CPU' with only Finder, Safari (3 tabs) and Activity Monitor opened. There's also nothing plugged in. 'User CPU' load varies quite a lot, but never above 'System CPU' which is always around 50%. So I wonder if those are normal CPU loads for my mac.

high CPU load

My mac always feels kind of hot despite having just these 3 apps opened and using it on a flat, wooden surface, slightly below room temperature with no direct sunlight. I read that it could be an issue with the cooling system, but the fan seems to work fine and I already took some dust off inside my mac (without detaching/disassembling anything except the metal case; maybe I should clean some parts separately?). Apple Hardware Test also gave me nothing on a simple test. Thank you to anyone who might respond.

launchd script file access blocked by sandboxd

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 11:05 AM PDT

I've written a small shell script that downloads some server data and saves them into a restic repository. The restic repository files are on a mounted volume. The script works fine if I run it in the Terminal.

To run this script daily I created a launchd .plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents

Watching the output logs, I can see that the restic command fails to access its files.

The system logs show a sandboxd warning that blocked restic. I've granted Full Disk Access to the restic binary, but that didn't do the trick.

What am I missing?

How do I solve the Magic Trackpad 2 lagging on macOS Monterey?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 12:57 PM PDT

The past week I upgraded from macOS 11 Big Sur to macOS 12.3 Monterey. My Magic Trackpad 2, which connects via Bluetooth, lags. If I simply move my finger, it takes a short time before the mouse movement starts onscreen. The same for a swipe for Spaces: I'd swipe, and only the second half of the swipe gesture was responded to. If I tap, I have to press, even though Tap to Click is turned on. Some experimentation showed that if I rested my finger on the trackpad for half a second, movement was then immediate, so it seems the trackpad is taking some time to realise my hand is present and then respond.

I have tried connecting it via USB; restarting my Mac; and ensuring its battery is fully charged. But it's still lagging. How do I solve this?

Magic Trackpad 2 - Orientation (Rotate by 180) [duplicate]

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 09:04 AM PDT

I've done enough googling and found the solution of:

  • writing defaults to com.apple.trackpad.orientation
  • writing defaults to com.MultitouchSupport.
  • reboot of the trackpad.

Neither of them work to rotate it for 180.

Is there any other solution than third party software? (that somehow does manage to change the orientation).

Thank you very much.

MacBook does not shutdown from Terminal: "NO LOGINS: System going down at 14:54" [duplicate]

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 09:16 AM PDT

My MacBook is suddenly not working normally. I cannot restart or shut it down. When I try to use terminal it shows:

NO LOGINS: System going down at 14:54

I logged out of my Apple ID and logged in again. However, it's still not working. I cannot use any buttons or applications. I only can use Siri to help start the applications. Anyone know how to fix it?

Many thanks!

enter image description here

How to remove .Trash folder from iCloud?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 07:45 AM PDT

There's an invisible folder in my iCloud folder -> .Trash

iCloud seems to sync the mac's trash folder to the cloud. How do I remove/exclude it from there? If I try to delete it conventionally I get error code -50.

How to reset graphics driver under macOS? Screen static/garbage but only on internal display

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 09:09 AM PDT

I have a Early 2015 MacBook Pro Retina 13" which suddenly developed a very odd and specific issue earlier today.

When running only the internal display under macOS, the display is unusable - multicoloured garbage and static, moving across the screen. Yet when I hook up an external display the problem disappears and both the internal display and the external one show macOS correctly.

When rebooting and choosing the boot menu with only the internal display, all is well again. When loading macOS, it's fine until about two thirds of the way through the progress bar, and then the static psychedelic freakouts happen again and you can't even see the login screen. Again, hooking up an external display makes both displays work again, until the external one is disconnected (HDMI or Thunderbolt, makes no difference)

When rebooting to Windows 10 Pro under Boot Camp, with just the internal display, everything is fine. If I load from a Gparted Live USB I have, also fine. If I boot a macOS installer, again fine, up until the point a clean install of macOS is performed. It was running Catalina, but I've also tried Big Sur and El Capitan (which is what it shipped with from new I believe). Booting to Recovery from any version of macOS, or Safe Boot, and no issues, perhaps because Metal GPU drivers aren't loading. Not sure.

Having done fairly extensive testing before reaching out here, this leads me to believe it is a software issue with macOS because the internal Retina display clearly works. I'm wondering if it's related to Display Scaling because I usually run it at the "Look like 1440x900" setting and for some reason when booting macOS, the  Apple logo and progress bar are smaller as if the scaling is applied from boot, and that's causing a macOS-only problem.

I've looked for potential Terminal sudo commands I could use to try and force a display driver reset or some such, but have not found any yet.

I've seen display faults on Macs before, but never anything like this. It's incredibly bizarre and specific, not a complete display fault across the entire machine, just macOS when not Safe Booted.

Any advice please? I literally can't work out what the issue is. And I don't want to just use it in Windows 10; it's a Mac, I need it running macOS and it needs to work when not hooked up to another display to get around the issue.

Wifi Drops when in Clamshell Mode

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 05:07 AM PDT

I have a MacBook Pro (13-inch, M1, 2020) in clamshell mode, connected to a 4k monitor and power through a USB-C hub. If I use only the external screen, with the lid closed, wifi becomes unusable. As soon as I open the lid (both screens on, mirrored) the problem goes away.

In closed-clamshell mode:

moe@Moes-MBP ~> ping google.com  PING google.com (142.250.217.110): 56 data bytes  Request timeout for icmp_seq 0  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=1 ttl=117 time=254.020 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=2 ttl=117 time=206.079 ms  Request timeout for icmp_seq 3  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=3 ttl=117 time=1207.436 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=4 ttl=117 time=214.452 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=5 ttl=117 time=224.992 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=6 ttl=117 time=230.388 ms  ^C  --- google.com ping statistics ---  8 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 25.0% packet loss  round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 206.079/389.561/1207.436/366.069 ms

Immediately after opening the lid:

moe@Moes-MBP ~> ping google.com  PING google.com (142.250.217.110): 56 data bytes  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=0 ttl=117 time=17.263 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=1 ttl=117 time=17.297 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=2 ttl=117 time=44.884 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=3 ttl=117 time=13.996 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=4 ttl=117 time=19.013 ms  64 bytes from 142.250.217.110: icmp_seq=5 ttl=117 time=22.815 ms  ^C  --- google.com ping statistics ---  6 packets transmitted, 6 packets received, 0.0% packet loss  round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 13.996/22.545/44.884/10.329 ms

What could be causing this?

Use "startosinstall" to install macOS Catalina on External Drive

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 01:00 PM PDT

I want to use "startosinstall" so that I can install macOS Catalina onto an external hard drive in order to preload MacOS onto multiple SSD's quickly.

I've researched into this and have found websites such as https://grahamrpugh.com/2018/03/26/reinstall-macos-from-system-volume.html which suggest using:

/Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall \    --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Catalina.app \      --agreetolicense --nointeraction --volume /Volumes/External\ Macintosh\ HD

I've tried running the above but have had no success and always find that I get this returned:

Usage: startosinstall    Arguments  --applicationpath, a path to copy of the OS installer application to start the install with.  --license, prints the user license agreement only.  --agreetolicense, agree to license the license you printed with --license.  --rebootdelay, how long to delay the reboot at the end of preparing. This delay is in seconds and has a maximum of 300 (5 minutes).  --pidtosignal, Specify a PID to which to send SIGUSR1 upon completion of the prepare phase. To bypass "rebootdelay" send SIGUSR1 back to startosinstall.  --converttoapfs, specify either YES or NO on if you wish to convert to APFS.  --installpackage, the path of a package (built with productbuild(1)) to install after the OS installation is complete; this option can be specified multiple times.  --eraseinstall, Erase all volumes and install to a new one. Optionally specify the name of the new volume with --newvolumename.  --newvolumename, the name of the volume to be created with --eraseinstall.  --usage, prints this message.    Example: startosinstall --converttoapfs YES

but can't seem to actually get anything to run.

If anyone could provide me with some working code or show me how to solve this problem, I would be eternally grateful.

Thanks for your help

Can a Mail.app smart mailbox take *nesting* into account?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 04:01 AM PDT

I'm using the fairly old version 9.3 of Mail.app on a computer running El Capitan; I just set up my Gmail account with it, and it seems to be correctly syncing.

For organization purposes, I would love to have a smart mailbox that simply contains every message not in another specific mailbox (edit: that is, a folder), which I'll call A. The problem is that I don't keep any messages directly in A -- I keep them in A's sub-mailboxes (sub-folders) B, C, etc, and the sub-sub-mailboxes of those in turn. So the smart mailbox is not very useful.

Is there any way I can make my dream a reality: A mailbox that only lists messages that are not inside Mailbox A at any level?

Find string anywhere, not only at the beginning of words, in Safari on the iPad

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 12:40 PM PDT

In Safari on macOS one can choose whether to match a word that starts with the string or that contains it (see answer to Safari web browser do not find strings on a page in the common way). For example, if Find on page is set to contains, searching for "os" in this page matches the "os" in "choose", while if it's set to start with it doesn't.

Apparently I'm stuck with "starts with" on my iPad, but I would like to match all occurrences, anywhere. So is there a way to search for contains in iOS Safari?

⌘ Command+ C doesnt work and I cant do an "E" by holding ⇧ Shift

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 07:06 AM PDT

I already tried:

  1. Force quit Finder
  2. sudo launchctl start/stop com.apple.pboard
  3. System Preferences> Keyboard> Modifier Keys > Restore Defaults
  4. System Preferences> Shortcuts> App Shortcuts> + (when I tried to write the shortcut in "Keyboard Shortcut" Command C doesnt work)

When I try to paste it's ok, it works. The problem is to copy, the shortcut doesnt work and the edit flash doesnt work too. Its the same with Shift + e

The keys Command, Shift, C and e work separately. They dont work like shortcuts

Model: Macmini6,1

How do I drag a text box in Preview?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 10:02 AM PDT

When using Preview, I can create a text box to add text on top of a PDF. However, the text box is not always created in the correct area. I find that I can use the Arrow Keys to move the text box. Or, I can stretch the text box with my mouse and pointer. However, I cannot move the text box using my mouse. What am I missing? How do I do that?

Apple's reference says, "To move the text box, just drag it." But, I haven't figured out how to do that.

Open New Terminal From Finder When Terminal is Already Open

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 09:55 AM PDT

Is there a setting that will let me open a NEW terminal window when I select the Terminal application from finder if one is already open? What happens now is that it yanks me to the terminal window that is already open, which is a frustrating feature. Thanks

How to see count of unread emails from the Mail app in the Mac OS menu bar?

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 08:04 AM PDT

What's the best way to see the count of unread emails from the Mail app in the Mac OS menu bar? (Bonus points if I can use it to open the Mail app as well.)

I don't really use the Dock, and I've gotten used to apps like Airmail and Fantastical that use the Mac OS menu bar to show information, like e.g. the count of unread emails.

The best I could find after a quick search was https://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22042/mail-unread-menu (from this thread), which looks like it hasn't been updated in ~6 years and might not work without also installing the MailPluginFix plugin. Is that really the best way to do this?

I'm using Mojave.

socketfilterfw and repeating error messages

Posted: 13 Jul 2022 06:41 AM PDT

Every two seconds I get the following messages via Console:

Standard    13:47:41.404793 +0100   socketfilterfw  MacOS error: -67065  Standard    13:47:41.405321 +0100   socketfilterfw  UNIX error exception: 3  Standard    13:47:43.393518 +0100   socketfilterfw  MacOS error: -67065  Standard    13:47:43.393927 +0100   socketfilterfw  UNIX error exception: 3

And they keep on and on. Turning off the firewall, they disappear, of course. Now I wasn't able to find the meaning of the mentioned error codes. Does anybody know what goes wrong here?
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