APFS (Apple File System): A filesystem developed by Apple that uses “Containers” and “Volumes” and “Groups”, though no one knows the difference between them. The core features of APFS are the fact that it wasn’t created by a murderer and allows Macs to mount a huge number of “Volumes” for no specific reason. Secure Token:…
One of the very common things I do in bash/sh is look over item in a folder. However, bash and sh behavior when the directory is empty can be unexpected. For example, let’s say I want to loop over all the items in my web folder: When you run it, does exactly what you think:…
When testing with the M1 Mac mini, I booted into M1 recovery by holding down the power button (Apple refers this as 1TR, or one true recovery). I was then presented with the flashing mouse/trackpad, which was not unexpected. What was unexpected is that it cannot be dismissed with a simple space press. This was…
Auto Advance in Big Sur brings functionality to Deployment Enrollment and MDM that has been missing: Zero-touch setup. Prior to Auto Advance, a Mac that was enrolled in MDM and Deployment Enrollment had to click through the first few panes of the setup assistant before Remote Management took over. While this was fine for Macs…
Signing Manager for macOS provides an ideal system for securing the code and package signing identities. Implement secure access to the identities with API keys, access controls, and auditing. Gain full control over iOS, macOS, watchOS, and iPadOS signing operations without disrupting the current workflow. Signing manager works great for developers, CI/CD servers, or for…
Apple simultaneously released new Mac hardware, a new OS (Big Sur), and transitioned to a new processor (Apple Silicon) on a single day. We have been tracking the changes with Big Sur builds and the Developer Transition Kit (DTK), but with the release of Big Sur and the new Macs, we are able to test…
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I had feature request for our Secure Remote Access solution to lock a Mac locally while doing a screen sharing session to it. Apple Remote Desktop has had this feature for a while, but only worked if you were running an Apple Remote Desktop when connecting to a remote Mac. I wanted a way to…
All Macs now come with a Recovery partition to reinstall macOS and do some common maintenance. In order to restart into recovery, there are a number of keyboard combinations that must be held when the Mac is first started up. There are times when it is useful to select the mode ahead of time; also,…
We got a Mac Pro (2019) for testing software compatibility with Winclone and MDS. Both softwares depend on Mac hardware, so validating those apps on any significant hardware changes is important. It is one of the reasons why we charge for software updates. My focus was booting Windows and migrating Windows 10 with Winclone, and…
Code Signing with Apple Tools Outside The Keychain We have been working on a project that solves the problem of code signing with Apple tools with a private key that is not located in the keychain of the Mac that is doing the signing. The private key can be kept on a centralized server accessible…
Twocanoes Software is a small software company that focuses on macOS software. We make software that does things that some people may not need but others need very much. We started selling software in 2012 and the landscape has changed pretty dramatically in the past 7 years. App Stores are now very common as well…
Apple recently announced that new Mac developer accounts (and eventually all mac developers) who distribute Mac apps outside the App Store will be required to submit apps for notarization. The notarization was announced at WWDC 2018 and was optional, but Apple was clear that it was going to be required in a future version of…
macOS 10.14.5 will require notarization for macOS apps to run on a Mac. I had to modify our build scripts in Xcode to add in notarization. The hard part was that the notarization had to happen in the middle of the build process. Our prior process did this: Archive Build->Package->Add to DMG We use Packages…
I recently had to update a script that ran in bash that was failing. It was due to the lack of “bc” on the system (the script runs in recovery mode on the Mac). I was using bc to do some math to calculate a percentage of a number like this: While this might be…
I sent this letter out to our newsletter list today. Explains a bit what MDS is and why we did it. –tim Hello. This is Tim Perfitt from Twocanoes Software. We recently released MDS, formally known as Mac Deploy Stick. We shortened the name to MDS since it has already grown beyond just a USB flash…
The macOS installer has gone to a more sleek, black screen. However, sometimes it is helpful to see the installer log and get access to utilities. Check out the video above to see how to use the keyboard shortcut Command-Option-Control-w (⌘-⌥-⌃-w) to switch back to the standard macOS installer. Also, get access to a grayed…
I recently was working on a Mac app to flash an Arduino using the open source project avrdude in my Mac app, and got it working as expected. I then looked at submitting the app to the Mac App Store. I had expected that the avrdude binary needed to be signed and placed in the…
While investigating support for Winclone for the amazing new T2 Macs (including the new 2018 MacBook Air and 2018 Mac Mini), I discovered that the way Boot Camp Assistant installs Windows has changed a bit. The Old Way (prior to T2 Macs) Boot Camp Assistant creates two FAT32 partitions from space on the Mac volume…
NOTE: THIS UTILITY SHOULD NO LONGER BE NEEDED DUE TO APPLE UPDATING BOOT CAMP ASSISTANT TO USE EXFAT. WE HAVE LEFT THIS ARTICLE AND THE DOWNLOAD FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSES. IT IS NO LONGER SUPPORTED. In the last few months, people installing Windows on their Macs with Boot Camp Assistant have started seeing the message “An…
