Categories
Apple Errors Networking

Console Hamachi

I wrote before, that the console version of Hamachi didn’t seem to generate tun/tap driver errors. But after rebooting my Mac I was no longer able to start Hamachi.

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Nazgul:hamachi-0.9.9.9-20-osx yeri$ ./hamachi start
25 19:08:15.659 [   0] [14306] tap: connect() failed 2 (No such file or directory)

So I guess I’ll have to wait for a fix after all. 🙁

Categories
Apple Errors Networking Software

Hamachi(X) on Leopard

When playing with KisMAC, I noticed something weird in my /var/log/system.log;

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$date com.apple.launchd[1] (tuncfgd$pid) posix_spawnp("/usr/sbin/tuncfg", ...):
No such file or directory
$date com.apple.launchd[1] (tuncfgd$pid) Exited with exit code: 1
$date com.apple.launchd[1] (tuncfgd) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds

tun is (trying) to restart every 10 (!) seconds.
I tried updating Hamachi‘s tun/tap drivers, without any success. It kept restarting the process every 10 seconds.

After a bit of Googling, it seemed to be a known problem. So I decided to uninstall Hamachi & the tun/tap drivers.

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sudo rm -r /usr/bin/hamachi
sudo rm -r  /usr/bin/hamachi-init
sudo rm -r  /usr/sbin/tuncfg
sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tuncfgd.plist
sudo rm -r /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/tuncfgd.plist
sudo rm -r /Applications/HamachiX

This should solve the restarting problem. You might want to reboot to be sure.

When uninstalling the drivers, HamachiX will be gone; there will be no way to use it. You can decide to ignore the spawning-processes, and keep using Hamachi as-is, but the spawning processes might slow down your computer. But HamachiX should work (although it often crashed here).

I tried reinstalling the tun/tap drivers, but the same happens. I guess I’ll have to wait for a fix. 🙁

On the other side, I’ve tried the console version of Hamachi (so no HamachiX) which seems to be working fine (so far). Just missing out on the handy GUI. Edit

Categories
Apple Software

Mac OS X.5.2

Yes, it’s here, finally!

A 355 Mb patch, downloaded over poor UMTS/3G at school and in the train… Took a while, but it’s finally installed.

Some nice few features, like the fact you can now remove the semi-transparent effect on the menu bar (makes it nicer). They also added some nice stacks enhancements.

A Time Machine icon is added in the menu bar too, just too bad you can’t make it just pop-up when it is actually backing up. I like keeping my menu bar clean. 😉

And well, a lot more bug fixes, but haven’t noticed any of them, besides perhaps iCal that for some reason hides appointments, as if they were deleted. After changing weeks/refreshing the page, if reappears… (most iCal bugs were fixed in patch 15.1 for me)

The only thing they haven’t fixed is the Workgroup problem… Still can’t join one. If forgets the name of the workgroup I’ve entered when I close the window… Yes, there are some workarounds, like copying the network-location and so on, but I haven’t tried yet.

But hey, I’m glad with this. 🙂

No big changes, but I hope Leopard’s bugs are fixed now

Categories
Apple Software

EyeTV + ffmpegX = iMovie

EyeTV is a cool application that let’s you watch TV on your Mac. I happen to have the “lite” version, because it was significantly cheaper than the other version.

The cool thing is, you can easily record films or TV episodes with it, but with this version, there is no way to export it to a iMovie project, or to play the recording in a QuickTime based application.

When recording, it creates a folder “Live Recording – $date $time.eyetv”. And when double clicking it, it will open EyeTV.

Now if you would go into that folder (rather than opening it), for example with Terminal, you would see four files.

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Nazgul:Desktop yeri$ cd Live\ Recording\ -\ 31-01-2008\ 21_54.eyetv/
Nazgul:Live Recording - 31-01-2008 21_54.eyetv yeri$ ls -ls
total 1515968173
6 -rw-r--r--  1 yeri  yeri     886080 Jan 31 22:08 000000000d526cf1.eyetvi
8 -rw-r--r--  1 yeri  yeri       1137 Jan 31 22:08 000000000d526cf1.eyetvp
8 -rw-r--r--  1 yeri  yeri       1950 Jan 31 23:48 000000000d526cf1.eyetvr
1514216 -rw-r--r--  1 yeri  yeri  775275716 Jan 31 22:08 000000000d526cf1.mpg

The only important file is the .mpg file. You can open it with QuickTime, but you won’t have any sound.

To move your .mpg file to, e.g., your Movies directory, use (change $You with your username):

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Nazgul:Live Recording - 21_54.eyetv yeri$ mv *.mpg /Users/$You/Movies/

The only player that plays the file correctly is VLC. No way to import it in iMovie, edit it, or share it. But, have no fear, there’s a workaround using ffmpegX. Download and install it (follow the instructions on the website, you’ll need to install 3 extra binaries too).

When installed, open the program, import the .mpg file, and export it to, for example, a .mov (-mpeg4) file.

ffmpegX

Converting might take a while.

All you then have to do, is to import it in iMovie.

iMovie

Follow the steps on the screen. iMovie will ask you a few things, and then you’ll be ready to edit your recording!

With iMovie ’08, you can even directly share your records on YouTube, cool stuff!

iMovie

Categories
Apple Misc

MagSafe car adapter

As you probably know, the MagSafe adapter is a great invention. Someone trips over your power cord, and the connector pops off.

And if you think “well, cool, but won’t happen, a normal connector won’t break your notebook” you’re very wrong.

A few months ago, at school, during courses, someone tripped over my Powerbook’s power cord, and pulled everything off the table. This resulted in complete data loss + broken adapter + banana-looking case; 926 EUR repairing costs (Yes, this is when I dediced the get myself a Macbook (Pro), and the good thing was that Leopard was about to be released).

And today, at school again, MagSafe proved itself for the first real time. Someone again tripped over my power cord, and pop, all that fell on the ground was the power cable.

I must honestly say, the power infrastructure at school is terrible, we have tons of cables going to one power hub, and I haven’t been the first victim to such brutal hardware murder.

Anyway, the big downside of the MagSafe adapter, is the fact it’s patented… Apple has only released (some lame) plane adapter (it won’t even charge your Macbook)… Nothing for in the car.

The only alternative I’ve found on the web, was this. But look at the prices… Ridiculous!

So I’ve been searching on eBay for some alternative, I’ve seen some home-made adapters, but nothing I really trusted.

Because I still had my old Kensington Powerbook-car-charger, I tried to find some connector that would fit. No luck on the official pages.

This is when I came across weaudio. They were selling Kensington car adapters, with a home-made MagSafe switch. (Basicly, one ends fits in your Kensington adapter, the other end is what is left of an old MagSafe power cable.)

I’ve mailed the man, if it would be possible to sell just the MagSafe cable + Kensington-to-MagSafe switch; and guess what!

This morning, after a small week of patiently waiting for my item to arrive, i finally have it.

I’ve tested it, and so far my battery hasn’t blown up, it gets the juice from my car, and it even charges (although it’s only 70W)! This all for 30$ (including shipping costs from Hong Kong).

Eat that, Apple! 😉

Here are some pictures:

MagSafe car adapter (1)MagSafe car adapter (2)MagSafe car adapter (3)MagSafe car adapter (4)MagSafe car adapter (5)