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Updating to Mac OS X 10.6.8 - checklist

A last 10.6 update? Work remembering that 'point' updates of Mac OS X can be difficult.

Whether you run Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server, or Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Client heres what I would recommend: -

1. Run a Time Machine Backup
2. Run 'Software Update and update everything *except Mac OS X 10.6.8*
3. Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions
4. Take a second image backup to an external disk using Carbon Copy Cloner, test that it boots.
5. Download the 'combo' update (do not run the update from 'Software Update')
6. Apply the update
7. Run Disk Utility and Repair Permissions
8. Restart to 10.6.8
9. Put the image backup in an antistatic bag labelled 'perfect 10.6.7 - just in case' and keep it safe

iCal Server

iCal Server 2.0 - the one that comes with Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.4

It is not too hard to get this dark corner of Mac OS X working, but you do need to understand DNS, Time and International Settings, Authentication, and Calendaring. You also need to suspend knowledge of other systems and remember, Mac OS X Server is not a fully ‘developed’ in its GUI admin. You got that? Ok - Lets go.

iCal Server DNS SRV records

In order to better set up iCal Server on Mac OS X Server 10.6.4 you can set an SRV record using Server Admin contrary to the 10.6 Server iCal Server Admin Guide. Select the domain from the DNS, then create the SRV record for the domain and set:

Service Name: <leave empty>
Service Type: _caldav._tcp <non-ssl>
Host: <your server's hostname>
Port: <matching port for non-ssl or ssl>

SRV records are recommended but they are not required by iCal. If there is no SRV the iCal calendar application will try contacting the iCal Server on the default ports that are normally used for iCal Server on OS X server.

iCal Server notifications

iCal Server really tries to be a well engineered open source project from Apple. You can find out more at www.calendarserver.org or on twitter @calendarserver

The workflow is this:

1. Turn on iCal Server in Server Admin
2. Turn on notifications and email invitations and set a few details

General

Authentication

Enable email invitations

1. Leave running

The trouble is, the few details bit! I was only able to get it working with the simplest internal settings. I want to change this and tighten, but now its at least running I want to document it.

Invitations settings for iCal Server

iCal needs to email anyone external to your mail domain.

email address: 
 This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 

incoming server: localhost
port: 143
SSL: off
user name: com.apple.calendarserver
password: password from com.apple.calendarserver entry in system keychain (browse in keychain access, open, copy, paste)

outgoing server: localhost
port: 25
SSL: off
user name: com.apple.calendarserver
password: password from keychain

I was utterly unable to use a different account than this system defaut one.

Mail Server considerations

I had to tell my Mac OS X based mail server to relay ‘localhost’ email I dont think this is a very secure approach. Suggestions welcome.

Server Admin considerations

I had to turn off SACL's for mail and iCal as part of my debug. Havent turned them back on yet.

Setting up calendar account access for shared calendars in iCal 4.0

Go to Preferences -> Accounts -> Delegation. Here you can change who can access your own calendars by clicking ‘Edit’ to add or remove other users from the directory for the iCal Server. Likewise once someone else has added you to see their calendar, their name will appear in your "Accounts I can access" box. You can then check the box to view their calendar. Unfortunately this is a tedious manual process. Crying out for a guy admin tool or a managed account capability.

iPhone

If you have been using dot mac sync for calendars since the beginning of iTools time then it is a wrench to move iPhone calendars to CalDAV. It was a case of carefully setting the CalDAV settings on my iPhone. I found I had to turn of Kerberos authentication in iCal Server to get it to work. NB I also have an Exchange calendar controlled by ActiveSync. Annoyingly I found I could not control Calendar Colour for this calendar. Calendar colour is not supported by ActiveSync apparently.

Issues Delegate calendars do not show up on the iPhone. I could subscribe but I should not have to. I assume this will eventually be fixed. Manual setup is tedious. Documentation, in the form of the 10.6 Server iCal Server guide, is terse and complex with no illustrative examples, some typos and some wrong information.

Overall It is working. It functions well, and required the default calendar server http port to be opened to work correctly. It was hard, very hard, to make invitations work. Documentation and worked examples would help but there are none. I still have to try over SSL. That can wait.

British English in Apple iWork - Pages 09 for Mac OS X

Pages has been quietly driving me nuts for months now. I am trying to use it instead of Microsoft Word but have used Word since it first came out on the Mac so this is a hard unlearning exercise.

The main issue for me has been the stubborn refusal of Pages 09 to recognise British English spelling, and stick to it throughout the document.

Pages has a property inspector, which has a Text Tab, once you find this you can observe the problem. One of the elements is 'Language' For me, even when I modified it the next time I added a new styled paragraph it would be back to 'English' and not 'British English'. No matter what I did this would happen. And the templates all defaulted to 'English' making them borderline unusable for me.

I scratched my head about this for a long time. I determined it must be a system setting but could not find anyplace to set it. Looking in the Language and Text Preference Pane provided no immediate clues. English was at the top of the language list, British English was set in the Text tab, UK formats were set in the formats tab.

Eventually I found the answer. It should have been obvious I suppose, but it was not to me, so I hope this is helpful to you.

You have to click 'Edit List' and enable 'British English' to make it show up on the Language list. Quit and restart Pages 09 and hey presto, everything is in British English. Simple. No not really. It took me a long time to figure this out and I have been using Mac OS X since 2000.

Archive Utility

Hidden away in Mac OS X are all manner of things. Have a look in /System/Library/CoreServices 

And you will find Archive Utility.app in 10.5 and greater. Drag it to the Dock and you can load it with one click and now you can archive files or directories using the native file archiver that Mac OS X uses to install software. Neat.