Avoiding Cisco AnyConnect on the Mac

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I haven’t had much luck with Cisco VPN software on the Mac in the past.  Unfortunately, the Cisco AnyConnect software that we use at Towson doesn’t accept connections from the built-in Apple VPN client.

Luckily (and predictably), the open-source community has a solution to this problem.  OpenConnect is an open source replacement for AnyConnect.  It was a pretty easy install as these things go.  I use homebrew for packages on Mac OS X, so if you use something else your mileage may vary, but here’s the steps I used:

  1. brew install openconnect
  2. download and install TunTap virtual network drivers
  3. startup drivers manually, or reboot.
  4. test out your vpn connection.
In my case, I had a few other small things to do, I needed to extract and install the root certificate for Towson, and allow access to openconnect in /etc/sudoers.

For the record, uninstalling should be pretty simple, just:

  1. Re-edit /etc/sudoers
  2. delete the cert in ~/Library/Certificates
  3. brew uninstall openconnect
  4. rm  -r /Library/Extensions/tun.kext /Library/Extensions/tap.kext /Library/StartupItems/tun /Library/StartupItems/tap

BasicTeX 2012

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I just upgraded to BasicTeX 2012, and here’s a quick synopsis of the steps:

  1. tlmgr uninstall
  2. download and install the current BasicTeX package from tug.org
  3. update PATH environment variable to include the current install location: /usr/local/texlive/2012basic/bin/universal-darwin
  4. tlmgr update --self
  5. tlmgr update --all
  6. tlmgr install collection-fontsrecommended
  7. tlmgr install subfigure
  8. tlmgr install exam

The Exam package is new (chalk it up to the new job), and the impetus for the updated install. The rest of the steps are really based on my previous TeX posts: here and here.

Synergy

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I’m such a geek. I just got Synergy running at work. Now my Mac keyboard and mouse are controlling both the iMac & PC.

To generate the ctrl-alt-delete sequence needed to log-in to Windows, I need to modify the Group Policy to allow Synergy to generate the attention sequence.

  1. Open the Start menu, and type gpedit.msc in the search line and press Enter.
  2. Navigate to: Local Computer Policy\Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Logon Options
  3. Set the Secure Attention Sequence to enabled for “Services and Ease of Access applications”

Now whenever I need to generate a ctrl-alt-delete sequence on the PC, fn-control-command-delete on my Mac does the job.

Update #1: I had to modify power settings on my Windows 7 system to get around a bug:

    For Windows 7 Synergy servers


powercfg -REQUESTSOVERRIDE process synergys.exe system display awaymode

powercfg -REQUESTSOVERRIDE service "Synergy Server" system display awaymode

    For Windows 7 Synergy clients

powercfg -REQUESTSOVERRIDE process synergyc.exe system display awaymode

powercfg -REQUESTSOVERRIDE service "Synergy Client" system display awaymode

Uninstalling Java for OS X

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Wouldn’t you know it, I install Oracle Java SE 7 for my Mac just days before a serious exploit is found in this newest version of Java. If you’re like me, it’s easier to just uninstall Java until Oracle has a chance to fix exploit. Here’s how:

Using the Terminal application (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) enter the following commands one at a time:


sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/*.jdk
sudo rm -rf /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/*.jdk
sudo rm -rf /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin
sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/JavaControlPanel.prefpane

The first one should request an Administrator password, but the rest should run without it. You may encounter a “No such file or directory” error with some of these commands… no worries then, you just didn’t have that component installed.

Since I need a version of Java installed for development purposes and to use Photoshop CS4 (??), I went ahead and re-installed Apple’s supported version of Java SE 6. Java for OS X 2012-004 sounds like it requires a previous install of Java, but it seems to work fine with Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8.1) and no existing SE 6 install.

Why I DIY (again)

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About four months ago I mentioned that we were having the Kim’s bathroom remodeled. Here we are 4 months later, and I’m still fixing problems the contractor left after ‘finishing the job’. The amount of time is my fault, but the amount of FAIL is his.

  • Mis-installed light switch – works…sometimes
  • Missing toilet gasket – flushing causes water explosions
  • Sink drain kludged – washing hands leads to water on floor
  • Tub fixtures not accessible
  • Tub drain full of plaster/debris

So these guys were a pretty awful. It’s taking months for me to get around to fixing these issues, but at least when I’m finished everything will be done right.

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CS4 Service Manager complaining about JRE

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I finally got around to installing Mountain Lion (OS X 10.8) this week. Most things seem to have gone smoothly, expect Adobe CS4 is now whining at after the initial boot. Specifically, I’m getting the following error:

To open "CS4Service Manager,", you need a Java SE 6 runtime...

Very annoying, especially since I think Adobe’s update systems are getting more and more invasive without giving significant benefits versus other applications I use.

Anyway, there’s a simple fix for the problem. Start up a terminal windows and type the following command:

launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchAgents/com.adobe.CS4ServiceManager.plist

This prevents the CS4 Service Manager from launching automatically. I’m sure I’ll run into other problems with it in the future, but for the time being the pop-up dialog isn’t showing up anymore.