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Configuring Mac OS X 10.3 (general, hosts, Fink)

DO NOT USE THIS INFO FOR MAC OS X 10.2 "JAGUAR"!!! Read "Configuring Mac OS X 10.2" instead.

INTEL NOTE: It turns out that my Intel iMac came with a version of Mac OS X 10.4 that does not behave like 10.3 in many respects. The instructions below can thus be only an indicator of what has to be done on an Intel iMac. Email me if you have a specific question!)

After installing MacOS X, the Unix user will notice that nothing works.

This has to do with the fact that some of the most important features are not configured correctly, or not installed correctly.

Note that I cannot and do not guarantee that this actually works. It's only what I did and it worked on mymachine. I do not know whether it will work on your machine. Try it or don't, it's your choice and your risk. I don't think it will break anything though.


General Info

To allow the Finder to skip checksum testing when mounting a disk image type "defaults write com.apple.frameworks.diskimages skip-verify true" in a shell.

Check /etc/hostconfig. You might want to make sure everything is the way you want it, like the machine's name etc.:

"sudo open -e /etc/hostconfig" (or "sudo emacs /etc/hostconfig)

(Always remember that the "sudo" command asks for your own password, not a root password.)

This file is usually configured by the system control panels, but the system control panels do not let you configure everything.

Specifically, you might want to change the machine's hostname. Assuming you want to name your machine "charlie", replace

HOSTNAME=-AUTOMATIC-

with

HOSTNAME=charlie

SSHSERVER, WEBSERVER, and APPLETALK_HOSTNAME are modified by the System Preferences Sharing panel. Do it there.

Also check the xinetd folder (/etc/xinetd.d) and consider whether you want Telnet and RLogin to run:

/etc/xinetd.d/login

service login
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        wait            = no
        user            = root
        server          = /usr/libexec/rlogind
        groups          = yes
        flags           = REUSE
}

/etc/xinetd.d/shell

service shell
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        wait            = no
        user            = root
        server          = /usr/libexec/rshd
        groups          = yes
        flags           = REUSE
}

/etc/xinetd.d/telnet

service telnet
{
        disable         = no
        socket_type     = stream
        wait            = no
        user            = root
        server          = /usr/libexec/telnetd
        groups          = yes
        flags           = REUSE
}

But do remember that all three of them are potential security risks (if somebody with evil intentions happens to be able to access your network).

/etc/xinetd.d/ftp

(is configured by System Preferences)

Now continue to configure /etc/hosts (if you require it). Then install Fink. Have fun!


Configuring /etc/hosts

Making MacOS X consult /etc/hosts before the DNS server seems rather difficult. In fact, even making MacOS X consult /etc/hosts AT ALL seems rather difficult.

MacOS X uses NetInfo instead of flat files, or it at least wants to do so. In order to get /etc/hosts to work and be consulted first, you should do this:
Footnotes:

[1] This will load the input into NetInfo. "hosts" is the format, "." is the current machine, "</etc/hosts" is what is used as the input. Note that this is actually redundant. It accomplishes the same goal as the next steps do. But continue anyway.

[2] FFAgent is "flat file agent", aka /etc/hosts. NIAgent is NetInfo, DNSAgent is the DNS server.

[3] If you don't know what HUP means, reboot the machine instead. Reboot the machine anyway, since lookupd can become messy when HUPped.


Installing Fink

You can go to the Fink homepage or download Fink immidiately. It's always possible that the filename of the current release changes. In that case, follow the first link and click on "Download" and download Fink from there.

Fink is an online-installer for GNU and other Free software. It does for MacOS X what YaST does for SuSE Linux (except the system configuration). Other than that Fink is also the related project that brings Unix and GNU software to MacOS X. And distribution-aware software installed via Fink will then identify itself as being part of the "Fink" distribution.

Fink can also be used to install XFree86 and OroborOSX but I found it is better to install both of them manually. The Fink installer can manage by installing an empty package that represents the XFree86 package to the distribution.

Do read the readme files that come with the Fink installer!