Joakim's Mac OS X Setup

Below you will find my basic setup of my Mac running Mac OS X.
Note: This guide is intended for people at the Department of Physics, Stockholm Univeristy. It may prove useful for other pepole too, but some topics are clearly site and field specific.

Note: This guide is for OS 10.1, if you have OS 10.2 or later, please click here for an updated set of instructions.

Consider this as a tentative guide to how you might want to set up your Mac to get the most out of it as a physicist at Fysikum. In the following instructions I presume that you know how to configure your machine for the network (DHCP for laptops or static IP for stationary computers). If you have any questions, send me an e-mail.

Partition your hard drive.
Even though this is not necessary, I suggest that you partition your hard drive and put Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 on separate partitions. If you need to run UNIX or Linux software you should also create a UFS (Unix File System) partition since this is needed for some software. E.g. if you have a 30GB hard drive you could partition it into three partitions:
MacX: HFS+ partition for Mac OS X.
MacClassic: HFS+ partition for Mac OS 9 (Classic)
Unix: UFS partition for UNIX stuff
To partition your drive, start up from the Mac OS X Install CD and choose 'Disk Utility' from one of the menus. Then reformat your hard disk (NOTE! You will lose all your data, so only do this either on a new machine or make sure you have a backup of your things!)
Install Mac OS 9.
If you need Mac OS 9 (Classic), start by installing Mac OS 9 onto your MacClassic partition. If you want to, take your time and install needed Mac OS 9 (Classic applications) at this time.
Install Mac OS X.
Then install Mac OS X onto your MacX partition.
Upgrade Mac OS X.
Upgrade Mac OS X to the latest version by running 'System Preferences -> Software Update' until you have the latest Mac OS X version (currently 10.1.4). You probably have to run the Software update several times, run it until it says that your system is upto-date.
Install Developer Tools.
If you are going to program in e.g. C, C++ or Fortran, install the Developer Tools by running the installer on the 'Developer Tools CD'. There is a newer version available which you can download from Apple Developer Connection. You need to register to be able to download it, so if you don't think you need it, don't bother.
Install the Fortran compiler.
If you need Fortran, you can download the Fortran compiler from Gaurav Khanna's computation tools web page. Follow the instructions on that page on how to install it. Do not install the experimental 3.1 release, since it is not as stable as the 2.95 release. Note that you need to have root access to install the Fortran compiler. Either you can get this by preceding your commands by 'sudo'. You will then be asked about a password, which is your password (assuming you are classified as an Administrator which you probably are), or you can enable the root user in 'Applications -> Utilities -> Netinfo Manager' (choose 'Domains -> Security -> Authenticate' and then 'Domain -> Security -> Enable root user'. Only enable root if you know what you are doing!). To finish the Fortran installation, create a link from f77 to g77 to be compatible with some makefiles. Do this by typing
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/g77 /usr/bin/f77
Install fink.
fink is a package manager ported from Debian Linux to Mac OS X. It is quite useful when installing some X Windows programs. If you think you need it install it at this stage by downloading it from fink.sourceforge.net. Follow the instructions there on how to install it. At the moment, I am not sure how useful this is, so if you don't think you need it, skip this step.
Install X Windows.
If you need X Windows, you need to install it and a Window manager. The easiest way is to install it with fink, but there seems to be some problems with this at the moment. Hence I recommend the manual installation of X Windows. Download the binary files from www.xfree86.org. If you are not an X Windows expert, download all the binary files in the Darwin-ppc-5.x directory and follow the install instructions in INSTALL. You should do the installation as root.

You should then install a window manager. I kind of like OroborOSX, which can be downloaded from wrench.et.ic.ac.uk/adrian/software/oroborosx. Download and install this, and all you then have to do to start using X Window Applications are to start OroborOSX and start your X Window Applications from the xterm window that appear. Note: The version of Sutffit Expander included with Mac OS X doesn't unpack this tar archive properly. Instead unpack it by typing
tar zxvf <your downloaded oroborosx .tar.gz file>Start it up once so that the default settings are initialized. If you don't have an american keyboard you should then change the keymapping for the X Server. This is done by editing the lines about key mapping in ~/Library/Preferences/org.xfree86.XDarwin.plist so that they read:
<key>KeymappingFile</key> <string>Svenska.keymapping</string>
Install cernlib and paw.
Download cernlib and paw from Keisuke Fujii's HEP page. You need to install rpm first, then the three libraries dlcompat, lapack and blas and finally cernlib. Instructions are on Fujii's page. Install cernlib in /cern as usual and add /cern/pro/bin to your path (edit your .cshrc file and add the line
SETENV PATH "${PATH}:/cern/pro/bin"
If you now start OroborOSX and type paw in the xterm window that appears you should get paw running with graphics and all.
Install TeX.
The TeX installation I kind of like most on Mac OS X is TeXShop which uses tetex as the TeX motor. Follow the instructions on darkwing.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/texshop.html to first install tetex by downloading the tetex installer TeX-thin.dmg.When running the installer, you should install 'TeX Foundations', 'Ghostscript' and 'TeX Programs'. Then install TeXShop. TeXshop produces pdf files either directly by using pdftex or by using latex and ghostscript. Which one that is used is selected in the menu (or preferences). Use the latter if you have included eps figures. If you want A4 paper as your default paper, type
sudo texconfig dvips paper a4 sudo texconfig pdftex paper a4
Install whatever else you like.
Here is a little list of things I like to have installed:
– OmniWeb. A good web browser from Omnigroup.
– Microsoft Office. Kjell has the installation CD. Install it and report to Christian Walck that you have installed it.
– Free Classic Dockling. An easy way to start or stop Classic in the dock without having to go into the Classic preference panel.
– ASM. If you miss the Application menu in the upper right corner of your menu bar, this little application brings it back.
– A4 Paper Sizes. Makes A4 Paper Sizes the default when printing.
– DropPrint. Let's you print documents by dropping them on this icon. Also prints postscript files to the pre-selected printer.
– Emacs (Aqua version). The all-classic text editor.
Configure crontab.
If you want to, you can configure cron such that it automatically runs some system maintenance scripts at convenient times. As root install a crontab file like the following:
SHELL=/bin/sh #min hour mday month wday command 10 12 * * * sh /etc/daily 20 12 * * * sh /etc/weekly 30 12 * * 2 sh /etc/monthlyNote that there should be tabs between all fields (except between sh and /etc...). This will keep your system sane and the locate database updated. If you don't like these jobs to run at the specified times (12.10, 12.20 and 12.30), change to your liking.

Joakim's Mac OS X Setup

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