Mac install

Update (May 2012): this entry is not quite up-to-date. The "Mac Install notes" on Google docs may be much better.

Software:

A few links to (free) software I want on the Mac when doing a fresh install:

• Firefox (the standard web browser)
• Smultron (text editor. After install, in Smultron's help menu, also do: "install command-line utility")
• Fink (essential open source shell tools like wget, etc.)
• NeoOffice or OpenOffice.org (Office documents like Word, Excel, etc.)
• Videolan VLC player (plays most audio/video formats which QT or iTunes don't)
• Lingon (launchd configuration editor)
• muCommander (File manager (and FTP client). Not as great as Total Commander, but better than nothing) (or the shareware Disk Order?)
• MediInfo (displays all the gory details about audio/video files)

A few other things that may be needed or wanted:

• ExpressCard SATA driver (OS X 10.5 driver for Silicon Image SiI3132 chipset, Vendor ID 0x1095, Device ID 0x3132. For 10.6 or other systems look here)
• Carbon Copy Cloner (disk cloning)
• Cyberduck (another FTP client for people who don't like muCommander or need more FTP features)
• DiffMerge (visually compare and merge files)
• Timecode Calculator Widget (a dashboard widget)

And some configuration notes:

File locations:

On the Mac, many standard Unix files are in different locations than expected:

• /var/db/smb.conf for the Samba configuration
• /private/etc/sshd_config for the SSH server config.
• /private/var/at/tabs/$USER for the user's crontab
• /private/var/mail/$USER for system mail (like cron output)

Configuration:

To change the silly default computer name: System Preferences -> Sharing. If it is not enough, try

$ sudo hostname my-permanent-name
$ sudo scutil -set LocalHostName $(hostname)
$ sudo scutil -set HostName $(hostname)

Configure Terminal

$ mkdir ~/bin
$ echo "export PATH=\$PATH:~/bin" >>~/.profile
$ echo "export EDITOR=nano" >>~/.profile
$ echo "export PS1='\[\e]2; \$PWD \a\e[32;1m\]\$PWD/\$\[\e[0m\] '" >>~/.profile

These preferences use the "Grass" look with a 12pt Andale Mono font. To use them:

cp Downloads/com.apple.Terminal.plist Library/Preferences/

Then "Force Quit" Terminal. (otherwise, Terminal will overwrite them on exit with it's current settings)

I also like a longer history:

$ echo "export HISTSIZE=2000" >>~/.profile

I use many external disks and Time Machine constantly asking me if I want to use that disk for backups annoys me. To disable it:

$ defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine DoNotOfferNewDisksForBackup -bool YES