How do I su to root on OSX

So you are tired of typing sudo before ever command and you would like root shell running bash.  In OSX like Ubuntu the password for root is locked and you can not “su” or “sux” to root.  The way you get around this is to first “sudo bash” to get a root bash shell and then “passwd” to set the root password.  Make sure you set a really strong password for root if you are going to go this route.  And if you allow inbound SSH, you should probably change the sshd_config to not allow root to SSH in.  Make users SSH as a non-privileged user first and then su to root. 

Once you have this done you will probably want to set the shell that root uses by default.  Unfortunately you can not just edit /etc/passwd like in Linux.  OSX uses OpenDirectory to store all of this.  What I had to do is reboot/logout and then log back in as root.  You can then use the actual GUI tools (System Preferences ->  Users and Groups -> Control-Click the root user in the list and select advanced options) to change the shell for the root user.   

Taking a screen shot with Mac OSX

With OSX Lion, screens shots can be done a few ways:

Take screen shot of complete desktop and save to desktop

• Command-Shift-3: Save to desktop
• Command-Control-Shift-3: Save to clipboard

Take screen shot of a specific window or selection. With this option, if you press space after the key combo below instead of dragging your mouse while pressing the mouse button, it will select the entire window/object that the mouse is currently over. After selecting the entire window with the space bar, you will still need to press the mouse button/left mouse button to take the picture.

• Command-Shift-4: Save to desktop
• Command-Control-Shift-4: Save to clipboard

How to make the Mac terminal less painful

So coming from the Linux world, I love my terminal/shell and find it so much easier and faster to do so many things. The problem is, the Mac OSX default settings are really quite painful if you are used to a GNOME or KDE terminal. Here is some pointers to help you out. In the Terminal -> Preferences you can change all of the color and window size settings. You can also specify which terminal theme is to be used by default. One setting that I high recommend you set is the "Use option as meta key" in the Keyboard sub-menu of the Preferences. This will make the Apple Option key work like you would expect.

Another thing I like to do is add/edit the ~/.bash_profile file. This is my .bashrc file from Linux that I have changed to work on OSX.

# ----------------------------------------
# Prompt
# ----------------------------------------
#     \[     Start a sequence of non-printing characters
#     \]     Ends the non-printing characters sequence
#     \e     An ASCII escape character, older systems use \033 (octal)
#     ]0;    xterm new icon name and title (icon name is for AfterStep 
#            Window Maker)
#     ]1;    xterm new icon name only
#     ]2;    xterm escape sequence for the title
#     \a     End xterm escape sequence

#     \h     Hostname
#     \w     Current directory
#     \u     Username

# Foreground Colors
#   Black = 30, Red = 31, Green = 32, Yellow\Orange = 33, Blue = 34
#   Magenta = 35, Cyan = 36, Light Gray\Black = 37, Default = 39
# Background Colors
#   Black = 40, Red = 41, Green = 42, Yellow\Orange = 43, Blue = 44
#   Magenta = 45, Cyan = 46, Light Gray\Black = 47, Default = 49

TIME_COLOR="\[\e[0;34m\]"
USERNAME_COLOR="$COLOR_DEFAULT"
COLOR_END="\[\e[m\]"


# ----------------------------------------
# Check to see if we are root.  If so
# change background color to red
# ----------------------------------------
if [ $UID == 0 ]; then
    USERNAME_COLOR="\[\e[0;37;41m\]"
fi

# ----------------------------------------
# Check to see if we have a fancy Xterm if
# not do not display title and window bar
# changes.
# ----------------------------------------
case "$TERM" in
xterm*)
    PS1="\[\e]2;\u@\h:\w\a\]\n[$TIME_COLOR\t$COLOR_END] \h\n[$USERNAME_COLORu$COLOR_END]:\w-> "
    ;;
dumb*)
    PS1='\h[\u]:\w-> '
    ;;
*)
    PS1="\n[$TIME_COLOR\t$COLOR_END] \h\n[$USERNAME_COLOR\u$COLOR_END]:\w-> "
    ;;
esac

export PS1


# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
if [ "$TERM" != "dumb" ]; then
alias ls='ls -G'
alias ll='ls -l -a'
#    export CLICOLOR=1
#    export LSCOLORS=ExFxCxDxBxegedabagacad
fi

export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH

Where can I find my LInux software on my Mac

So you have made the switch from Linux to Mac OSX and you realize that owning a Mac is not just about cool software it is about some of the greatest hardware you will ever use. Things like back-lit keyboards, soft flat keys, and the general touch and feel is not something you can find in the PC world. Oh and the high-res glossy screen is wonderful. Yes, Apple is a furniture company and yes OSX is a prison, but it is the NICEST prison you will ever be in. Another point of full disclosure, I am not an Apple fan boy and I am not pro Apple (as noted that I used Linux as day to day OS for 6 years), I am just anti-Windows.

One of the first questions you will ask yourself after you convert to OSX is where are all of the neat programs and tools we were used to in the Linux world. I never realized how many of them I used on a daily basis and how many of them I took for granted. What I have found is:

1) Not all Linux tools are available natively on OSX
2) There is no native apt-get like solution for OSX
3) Not all tools have a native OSX binary versions that you can download
4) You have to have xcode installed in order to get gcc and glibc to even try building the code form source
5) A lot of source code will not easily compile on OSX and if it does, you find yourself in dependency hell really fast

There are a few solutions that help ease a lot of this pain for us. One is called Homebrew (http://mxcl.github.com/homebrew/) and another is Mac Ports (http://www.macports.org/). I prefer Homebrew as it tries to use the native system as much as possible. Mac Ports is more of a Linux subsystem drop in, in the /opt/local directory. Once you have these packages installed, they will work a lot like apt-get or other package management solutions we are used to in Linux. Example:

> brew search minicom
> brew install minicom

The thing to keep in mind is that Homebrew uses /usr/local and Mac Ports use /opt/local by default. If you use Mac Ports and try to compile something that needs a library you installed by Mac Ports you need to make sure you tell ./configure where to find it. Example:
> ./configure -I /opt/local/includes -L/opt/local/libs

Homebrew and Mac Ports will really help ease a lot of the initial pain as you go looking for your favorite tools.

Converting to Mac OSX from Linux

I recently made the day to day switch from Linux to Mac OSX running Lion. For the most part this transition has been painless, although there is just enough different for a Linux user to scratch his head and say "huh, Apple what were you thinking?". Now for completeness and full disclosure, I made the change from MS Windows to Linux over 6 years ago and only use Windows when I have to and only via VMWare Workstation (http://www.vmware.com), so these posts are not about how to do things from a Windows world because I have not lived in that world for a very long time and I will never go back. It is like once you drive a German car, it is really hard to drive anything else.

I hope you will find these random posts helpful if you are migrating from Linux to Mac OSX.