MAC OS X - Maintenance & Performance Tips!

[downquark1]

Macintosh Cleaning tips

Since MAC OS X is UNIX based, it has a habit of running maintenance scripts during the night. Of course, most home systems are not left on at those times of the day.
There are three scripts:

• Daily (Designed to be run daily)
• Weekly (Designed to be run Weekly)
• Monthly (etc)

To run these scripts manually you can use a 3rd party app. There are many around MAC janitor is an example.
[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]
Mac Janitor will allow you to run all the scripts from one button.
Please note the weekly script will take longer than the others will

Alternatively, they can be run manually by typing †œsudo periodic <scriptname>†� into the terminal replace <scriptname> with daily or weekly etc. and remove quotation marks.
You will be asked for the administrator password


Repairing Permissions

UNIX has a permission setting for each file, which is sometimes altered by install programs and then not restored, this can slow the computer down as it may get confused when accessing that file as a different user. The repair procedure is simple. Open the disk utility from the utilities folder.
Select the start-up disk from the left menu
Select first aid
Repair Disk Permissions
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It is recommended you run this after any installation and to be safe, before one.

Standard Disk Check

Unfortunally, you cannot repair a start-up disk once booted, so if you donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t want to bother booting from a CD you can enter a type of DOS interface at the boot sequence and run the command from there.
Restart the computer
Almost immediately hold down Apple ([img]Download Failed (1)[/img]) + S when a black interface appears let go
When you are given a prompt, enter fsck this will then run the check and any repairs will happen automatically. If many errors are found then you should run it twice.
When done type †˜exit†™ to boot normally,
This does not work if pantherââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s disk journaling is enabled on that volume

Managing Fonts

This is a simple procedure for disabling duplicate fonts that have accumulated in your system.
Open the font book from the applications folder (panther and above)
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• Select all fonts and scroll down the list.
• Any font with a bullet point next to it indicates there is a duplicate font that should be disabled
• Select that font and select resolve duplicates from the edit menu.

Do this for any font with a bullet point

It may also help system performance if you disable any font you do not need, obviously start with exotic language fonts, and any fonts that look too similar to another one.

Simply click the font and press disable

Anti-aliasing fonts

One of the best features of MAC OS X, smooth fonts. If you are running on an older system, you may benefit from tweaking or disabling anti-aliased fonts.

Go to the appearance control panel
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And alter the smoothing boundary to a higher number.
If you have not already, change the style to the one appropriate to your monitor or the one that looks best to you.

You can set a number higher than 12 by entering a command in the terminal (note: this will stop adobe Photoshop from loading, it must be reset to 12 or below to use Photoshop)

In Jaguar type:
defaults write .GlobalPreferences AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 16
Replacing the 16 with whatever font size you want. Setting it to a very high number (IE 128) will effectively disable smoothed fonts and increase performance.

In Panther the command is
defaults write -g AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 16
(replace 16 with number required)

In order to see the changes you will need to rerun a program or reboot the computer to take complete effect.

Disk Journalling †“ panther only

This feature can help restore files in the event of a crash, however, home users may not require it and disabling can increase performance.

You can disable or enable it from the disk utility:
Select disk and choose disable journaling from the file menu
[img]Download Failed (1)[/img]

[danielf]

Nice one. Thanks for that (goes off to slut a little)

[Stuartbe]

Nice post m8

Better make this sticky

[John Smiths]

Originally Posted by downquark1

Macintosh Cleaning tips

Since MAC OS X is UNIX based, it has a habit of running maintenance scripts during the night. Of course, most home systems are not left on at those times of the day.
There are three scripts:
Daily (Designed to be run daily)
Weekly (Designed to be run Weekly)
Monthly (etc)
To run these scripts manually you can use a 3rd party app. There are many around MAC janitor is an example.

Yeah, this is using the underlying unix utility called Cron. Another useful interface for this is Cronnix .

Originally Posted by downquark1

Unfortunally, you cannot repair a start-up disk once booted, so if you donââ‚Âà ‚¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢t want to bother booting from a CD you can enter a type of DOS interface at the boot sequence and run the command from there.
Restart the computer
Almost immediately hold down Apple () + S when a black interface appears let go
When you are given a prompt, enter fsck this will then run the check and any repairs will happen automatically. If many errors are found then you should run it twice.
When done type †˜exitâÃà ‚¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ to boot normally,
This does not work if pantherââ‚à ‚¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢s disk journaling is enabled on that volume

If you want to force a system check then you can type:

fsck -f

also, adding the -y flag will do a more thorough check.

[Shaun]

I want to know why all the screen shots of Mac's are more sexy then ones of Windows

[danielf]

Originally Posted by dellwear

I want to know why all the screen shots of Mac's are more sexy then ones of Windows

Could someone post a screenshot of the pizza/beach ball of death please

[downquark1]

Originally Posted by danielf

Could someone post a screenshot of the pizza/beach ball of death please

This is the equivalent of the blue screen of death (puts windows to shame):

Can't remember the last time I saw this.


Haven't found the beach-ball yet. that was really a problem in the first 2 versions. I still get the beach-ball because I need more RAM, but I rarely get 'death' ones now.

Originally Posted by dellwear

I want to know why all the screen shots of Mac's are more sexy then ones of Windows

At the risk of stating the obvious ... Mac OS is just sexier than Windows

[Stuart]

A few more handy sites:

http://www.charlessoft.com/ Contains software to help you maintain Mac OSX. Also contains BootCD (a program for making your own Mac OSX boot CDs, which could be handy if the system does develop a fault).

http://www.jacsoft.co.nz/Tech_Notes/Mac_Keys.htm to find out how to control your Mac (all OSes) start up.

http://www.bombich.com/software/index.html for several useful tips and programs (my favourite is Carbon Copy Cloner which images your drive to CD/DVD or a second hard drive). I actually use it when we need to set up a Mac at work (takes about 20 minutes to set up Mac OSx + Macromedia Studio MX and Director MX from a blank disc).

Because Mac OSX crashes so rarely, Apple have produced a page to help people with the trauma of the Mac crashing. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106227

This site probably isn't useful for most of the Mac users on here, but may be for business/corporate users of Macs. It helps with integrating Macs and PCs on the same network. http://www.macwindows.com/

Finally, and I know this site has been posted on here before, but it is an interesting site. For this interested in the history of Apples, http://www.theapplemuseum.com/

[John Smiths]

Originally Posted by downquark1

This is the equivalent of the blue screen of death (puts windows to shame):

Can't remember the last time I saw this.


Haven't found the beach-ball yet. that was really a problem in the first 2 versions. I still get the beach-ball because I need more RAM, but I rarely get 'death' ones now.

Known offically as a "Kernel Panic Error", which sounds a lot more sophisticated than BSOD...lol

[danielf]

Originally Posted by downquark1

Haven't found the beach-ball yet. that was really a problem in the first 2 versions. I still get the beach-ball because I need more RAM, but I rarely get 'death' ones now.

I still get beachballs occasionaly on my dual G5 with one gig of memory. My 10.2.8 machine occasionally grinds to a halt which only a reboot/logoff will cure, but I think that's down to one of the apps I use (possibly a memory leak). The same app works fine under 10.3 on the G5 though

[John Smiths]

Originally Posted by danielf

I still get beachballs occasionaly on my dual G5 with one gig of memory. My 10.2.8 machine occasionally grinds to a halt which only a reboot/logoff will cure, but I think that's down to one of the apps I use (possibly a memory leak). The same app works fine under 10.3 on the G5 though

Dual G5?! Yeah boy!! My dad is about to get one...

What apps are you using that you think are causing the memory leak??

[danielf]

Originally Posted by John Smiths

Dual G5?! Yeah boy!! My dad is about to get one...

What apps are you using that you think are causing the memory leak??

MCL (Macintosh Common LISP)

[downquark1]

An interesting tweak from http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...40516220739506

To increase safari rendering speed:
Copy this into the terminal

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitInitialTimedLayoutDelay 0.25

[John Smiths]

Originally Posted by From Link

Note that in Dave's post, he explains how this may actually slow real page loading times, but that perceived page loading times will decrease.

Edit: Also, make sure that Safari is closed if you do this, othewise the preferences may be overwritten when Safari quits...