Snow Leopard Tips » Tutorials

How to display the date on the menu bar

admin — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:01:24 +0000

it can be a big pain when all you need is a quick way to find the current date. Before Snow Leopard you would have to install a new application to get the job done. Now with a simple change in the system preferences you can display the current date on the menu bar.

Just go to the ‘Date & Time’ pane of the system preferences. On that page you can click ‘Show Date’ to start displaying the date. It’s a really simple tweak but one that can be extremely useful in everyday use of OS X.

Spoofing your MAC address in Snow Leopard

admin — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:24:14 +0000

A MAC address, sometimes also refereed to as “physical address” is a unique identifier assigned to every network device. Contrarily to the IP address, which can change dynamically, a MAC address is a bit like a serial number intended to differentiate every network device on the planet. Here’s what it looks like : 01:23:45:67:89:ab.

Changing or “spoofing” your MAC address can be desired for multiple reasons and is quite simple to do in Snow Leopard.

In this tutorial, we’ll assume you want to change your wireless adapter’s physical address.

To find out what is your AirPort card’s current MAC address, type this in the Terminal.

ifconfig en1 | grep ether

Step 1 : disassociate from all wireless networks

This means to disconnect all current wireless network connections while leaving AirPort enabled.

Open the Terminal and paste this command :

sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport -z

You will be asked for your password to execute this command.

The airport command is part or Apple’s Apple80211 framework. Essentially, it’s what connects you to Wifi networks. The -z option disassociates from any network.

Tip: You can set up a simpler access to the airport command by creating a symbolic link. To do this, paste the following command in the Terminal:

sudo ln -s /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources/airport /usr/sbin/airport

Next time, you will simply need to type ariport -z to disassociate. You may also use airport -I to get information on your current connection.

Step 2: Change your MAC address

Once disassociated from the wireless network. You can change the MAC address with:

sudo ifconfig en1 ether 00:00:00:00:00:00

You can of course enter what ever you want as long as it is in the correct format. You can verify with ifconfig en1 | grep ether that your address is changed.

To revert your MAC address back to its default, simply reboot your machine.

How to do a clean installation of Snow Leopard

admin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:55:04 +0000

Hardcore geeks (you know who you are) who want the top of the line Snow Leopard experience can format their hard drive, install a clean copy of Mac OS 10.6, restore their data and reinstall their applications from backup.

The advantage of going this route as opposed to simply upgrading from 10.5 is that you know your installation will be 100% clutter free. It’s also a good occasion to clean out the ol’ home folder from any files that have been lingering since your last re-install (the Download folder can quickly get to be enormous).

The disadvantage of course is that this approach takes time. Depending on your personal settings and the number of apps you use, it can take a few days to get your system back to the way you like it.

So if you’ve made it this far, its probably because you’ve decided to take the long way home and do a clean install. The actual installation takes about 45 minutes so make sure there’s something good on TV before you start.

So let’s get started:

Insert your cool new Snow Leopard disk in your Mac and reboot.
Once the system restarts into the installer, select your language and click Continue at the Install Mac OS X screen. The following screen will show the available partitions on your system.
Before we select which drive to install Snow Leopard on, we’ll select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. This is the part where we format the drive. From the list on the left, select your hard drive and click on the Partition tab. Partition the drive to your liking and make sure your primary has the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format.
Notice: If you plan on later installing Windows with Bootcamp, now is a good time to make a second partition for that purpose. Leave at least 10Gb depending on your use.

Once you’re all done, click Apply to partition your drive.
Once the partitioning magic is over, close Disk Utility. Back at the drive selection screen, you can click Customize to pick and chose some of the different components you wish to install. I personally like to disable the additional language support since I only use English, but you may have other language needs. Also, you can enable Quicktime 7 for legacy format support or Rosetta, a utility that translates Power-PC apps to Intel.
Once you’ve selected your drive and tweaked your installation, click Install.
Watch TV for about 45 minutes.
When the installer is done doing it’s thing and you hear the chime, click Done to restart into Snow Leopard!

If you have anything to add this or would like to talk about your 10.6 installation experience, don’t be shy, leave a comment.

How to Install Snow Leopard on PC with Dual Boot

admin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:07:15 +0000

Taranfx, a technology blog, has put out a very instructive and easy to follow tutorial entitled “How to Install MAC OS X Snow Leopard on PC – Dual Boot“. As the name of the post suggests, this step-by-step guide will walk you through the process of installing Snow Leopard on a PC. Yes PC users need love too. Not everyone is fortunate enough to be blessed with a Mac.

The 8-step guide is simple to follow and shows you how to prepare your hard disk, install the Chameleon Bootloader need for dual-boot through to the install of Mac os 10.6.

PC users, prepare to fall in love.