MacLochlainns Weblog

Installing MySQL 5.5.9 (updated for MySQL 5.5.16 and 5.5.18) on Mac OS X was on my list but it finally made the top. I needed to write instructions for a class that I teach because asking students who own a Mac to install VMWare and Windows before MySQL seems an unnecessary burden. Especially when you can install it directly on Mac OS X.

You can download MySQL for the Mac OS X. I downloaded the Mac OS X, Version 10.6 (x86, 64-bit) version for this installation. There were a couple shell syntax tricks beyond the instructions and then you need to configure database. That’s required because the database is installed with an unsecured anonymous and root account. After the step-by-step installation instructions, you’ll find the configuration steps to enable you to access the MySQL Monitor from a terminal session. It also configures your $PATH environment to enable you to start and stop the MySQL Daemon.

1. After the download completes, open the file folder in the download directory.

2. The open file folder and it will look like the following. Launch the mysql-5.5.9-osx 10.6-x86_64.pkg file, which installs the product.

3. After launching the executable, you are now on the first page of the Install MySQL 5.5.9 installation application. Click the Continue button.

4. This page contains the instructions, you can pause to read them or continue with these instructions. Click the Continue button to proceed.

5. This page contains the General Public License (GPL). You agree or stop the installation. Click the Continue button to proceed.

6. The following overlay dialog contains your agreement. Click the Agree button to proceed.

7. There are fewer options in this installation than the Windows installation. While you can change the installation location, the software installs by default in the /usr/local/mysql directory. The installation requires that you have a mysql user account on the operating system, and you don’t need to do anything because one exists as part of the default Mac OS X installation. Click the Install button to proceed.

8. This dialog requires the system administrator’s password. Enter the valid password and click the OK button to proceed.

9. Depending on the system, this could take more than a minute. All you can do it wait.

10. This page tells you that you’ve completed the installation. Click the Close button to proceed.

11. This step requires that you return to the download folder, shown in Step #2 above. Launch the MySQLStartupItem.pkg and you’ll see the following MySQL Startup Item Installer dialog. Click the Continue button to proceed.

12. This page contains the instructions for the MySQL Startup software, you can pause to read them or continue with these instructions. Click the Continue button to proceed.

13. This page asks if you want to change the directory. I’d recommend you leave it as the default because it requires the System Administrator’s password to start and stop the database. It should also start for you every time you boot the machine. Click the Continue button to proceed.

14. Like Step #8, this dialog requires the system administrator’s password. Enter the valid password and click the OK button to proceed.

15. You could see a progress dialog box but generally it happens so fast you should land at the Installation was Successful dialog. Click the Close button to proceed.

16. This step requires that you return to the download folder, shown in Step #2 above. Launch the MySQL.prefPane and you’ll see the following MySQL Preferences dialog. Click the Install button to proceed.

17. Like Step #8 and #14, this dialog requires the system administrator’s password. Enter the valid password and click the OK button to proceed.

18. Don’t click in the automatic start button unless you’re sure. Otherwise, there’s a lot of cleanup to be able to return to this point and start or stop the server as required. This is the last screen, you should click the Start MySQL Server button to start MySQL. While installing MySQL 5.5.18 I discovered that the service menu is no longer installed in the Preferences, and you must start it manually.

You can start and stop the service by opening your System Preferences, where you’ll find them in the bottom Other row. If the intent was to have it start automatically, sometimes the permissions are incorrect. You’ll get the following error in MySQL 5.5.9 but not in MySQL 5.5.16 because the MySQL DMG file is fixed. You can skip the instructions until you get to Configure User’s Shell Environment below:

"/Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM" has not been started because it does not have the proper security settings.

You can fix this by changing the permissions manually in a Terminal Session. Launch a Terminal Session from your Utilities folder inside your Applications folder.

Change directory to the /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM directory. Then, list the files. These commands should do the trick for you:

cd /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
ls -al

If you see these permissions, you have problem because the group for startup files should be wheel not staff:

drwxr-xr-x  4 root  staff   136 Jan 20 13:46 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root  wheel   136 Feb  9 21:11 ..
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  staff  1300 Jan 20 13:46 MySQLCOM
-rw-r--r--  1 root  staff   469 Jan 20 13:46 StartupParameters.plist

You can change the files with this command:

sudo chown root:wheel *

However, now you need to step up the directory tree one level to /Library/StartupItems, and change the ownership of:

drwxr-xr-x   4 root  staff   136 Jan 20 13:46 MySQLCOM

There are two commands to do this. The first changes directory by moving to the parent directory in the hierarchy (the parent directory is represented by two dots). The second changes the group ownership of the MySQLCOM directory.

cd ..
sudo chown root:wheel MySQLCOM

Now you need to configure your shell environment and harden the database. Hardening means securing accounts with passwords. They’re covered in the next two sections.

Configure User’s Shell Environment

Assuming you accepted the defaults, you should be able to copy the required instructions directly into a .bash_login file if one exists. Unless you’ve created one before there won’t be a file. Mac OS X doesn’t automatically create the file. If you don’t have the file, you can create one with the following syntax:

touch .bash_login

You can open the file with the vi editor or a text editor of your choice. MySQL 5.5.9 installed in /usr/local/mysql, which has changed to /usr/local/mysql-version as noted below. You can copy the following contents into the file for MySQL 5.5.16 but will need to change the file for earlier or later releases (added sudo per Don McArthur’s comment):

# Set the MySQL Home environment variable to point to the root directory of the MySQL installation.
export set MYSQL_HOME=/usr/local/mysql-5.5.16-osx10.6-x86_64
 
# Add the /bin directory from the MYSQL_HOME location into your $PATH environment variable.
export set PATH=$PATH:$MYSQL_HOME/bin
 
# Create aliases that make it easier for you to manually start and stop the MySQL Daemon.
alias mysqlstart="sudo /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM start"
alias mysqlstop="sudo /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM stop"

Changes between MySQL 5.5.16 and 5.5.18 introduce a new directory structure, you need to use the following in the .bash_login file (added sudo and status per Don McArthur’s comments):

# Set the MySQL Home environment variable to point to the root directory of the MySQL installation.
export set MYSQL_HOME=/usr/local/mysql-5.5.18-osx10.6-x86_64
 
# Add the /bin directory from the MYSQL_HOME location into your $PATH environment variable.
export set PATH=$PATH:$MYSQL_HOME/bin
 
# Create aliases that make it easier for you to manually start and stop the MySQL Daemon.
alias mysqlstart="sudo /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM/MySQLCOM start"
alias mysqlstop="sudo /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM/MySQLCOM stop"
alias mysqlstatus="ps aux | grep mysql | grep -v grep"

As pointed out by Shashank’s comment, you should now use the following aliases:

alias mysqlstart='sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server start'
alias mysqlstop='sudo /usr/local/mysql/support-files/mysql.server stop'

You need to save the file and close and restart a new Terminal session to place these environment variables in scope. You could also run the following to put them in scope without closing and opening the terminal:

. ./.bash_login

The preceding command sources the environment file into active memory. This should configure your environment. After restarting the shell, you should be able to run this command to confirm the new environment:

which -a mysql

It should return:

/usr/local/mysql-5.5.16-osx10.6-x86_64/bin/mysql

Secure the Database

This is presently necessary because of the different file structure in a Mac OS X MySQL install, which disables the mysql_secure_installation file from running successfully. You can manually edit the file or follow these steps.

You need to connect to the database as the privileged super user, root user. This is simple because the installation doesn’t set any passwords. You open another Terminal session to make these changes or you could install MyPHPAdmin or MySQL Workbench. The tools work as well in fixing the majority of issues.

mysql -uroot

Once connected to the database as the root user, you can confirm that passwords aren’t set and an insecure anonymous user account has been previously configured. You do that by connecting to the mysql database, which is the database catalog for MySQL. You do that by running the following command:

USE mysql;

You can query the result set with the following query:

SELECT USER, password, host FROM USER\G

You should see the following output plus the user’s name preceding the MacPro (or iMac.local) host name value:

*************************** 1. row ***************************
    user: root
password: 
    host: localhost
*************************** 2. row ***************************
    user: root
password: 
    host: MacPro.local
*************************** 3. row ***************************
    user: root
password: 
    host: 127.0.0.1
*************************** 4. row ***************************
    user: root
password: 
    host: ::1
*************************** 5. row ***************************
    user: 
password: 
    host: localhost
*************************** 6. row ***************************
    user: 
password: 
    host: MacPro.local

You now need to change the password for the root user. I would suggest that you do this with the SQL command rather than a direct update against the data dictionary tables. The syntax to fix the root user account require you enter the user name, an @ symbol, and complete host values, like:

SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = password('cangetin');
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'MacPro.local' = password('cangetin');
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'127.0.0.1' = password('cangetin');
SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'::1' = password('cangetin');

You should be able to drop both anonymous user rows with the following syntax, but I did encounter a problem. Assuming you may likewise encounter the problem, the fix follows the first commands you should try:

DROP USER ''@'localhost';
DROP USER ''@'MacPro.local';

If either of the anonymous accounts remain in the USER table, you can manually drop them from the database catalog. This syntax will get rid of them:

DELETE FROM USER WHERE LENGTH(USER) = 0;

You’ve completed the configuration and can now type quit; to exit the MySQL Monitor. To reconnect, you’ll now need a password, like this:

mysql -uroot -pcangetin

Also, don’t forget to use a real password. The one shown here is trivial, which means easy to hack. Use something that others might not guess.

Configure my.cnf file

You can copy one of the sample configuration files as a starting point (as provided by Don McArthur’s comment):

sudo cp /usr/local/mysql/support-files/my-huge.cnf /etc/my.cnf

Starting and Stopping the Database

You can manually start the database server with the following command, which you defined as aliases in your .bash_login shell script:

mysqlstart

Stopping it is also straightforward, you do this:

mysqlstop

You can check it’s status with this command:

mysqlstatus

I had a chance (30 minutes) to play with Excel 2011 on the Mac OS X today. I was shocked to discover that Excel 2011 didn’t appear to support User-Defined Functions (UDFs) like Excel 2010 for Windows. My understanding was that this release would be one where it implemented Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) like Windows. Initially I thought it didn’t but I bought my own copy, did a full install with Visual Basic, and it appears that Microsoft has delivered. Oops, my bad for assuming the machine I played on originally had a solid installation. It appears to have had only a standard installation.

Watch out because UDFs fail with a #NAME! error on a standard install of Excel 2011. While they’re found in the Insert Function dialog in both cases, they only appear to work with a full installation. The downside for Insert Function is that, like Excel 2008, it has no quick poplist to narrow the function choices to groups. We have the big list once more.

Here are my test functions:

Function hello()
  hello = "Hello World!"
End Function
 
Function hellowhom(nameIn As Variant)
  hellowhom = "Hello " + CStr(nameIn) + "!"
End Function

I think I found the trick to get Excel 2011 recognize and run User-Defined Functions. Make sure you do a custom installation and check Visual Basic for Application. Anyway, you can test these functions like that shown below. Column A contains the text of the formulas (a preceding single quote does that), and column B contains actual function calls.

Enabling the Developer ribbon took a few moments when I got my own copy. I figured that updating this was better than making a new post on the blog and linking them. It’s a three step process.

1. Navigate to the Excel menu item and select Preferences…, as shown below.

2. In the Excel Preferences shown below, click the Ribbon icon.

3. In the Show or hide tabs, or drag them into the order you prefer: box shown below, enable the Developer checkbox.

It’s awesome, now accountants and economists can switch to Mac OS X without having to host a virtual machine with Microsoft Excel.

It’s always interesting when I have to sort out problems with VMWare Fusion on my Mac OS X. Right, as you guessed, interesting means frustrating. 😉 What started the whole thing was my investigating why VMWare networking would sometimes not start. I noticed the problem began after my upgrade to VMWare Fusion 3.1.0 (261058).

Rather than reboot the Mac OS X, which has fixed the problem, I tried to restart the service after closing my VMs. You can find how to do that in this older post of mine.

When I tried to restart it with the following command:

# sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/boot.sh  --restart

I got the following error on VMWare file permissions:

VMware Fusion 261058: Shutting down VMware Fusion: 
Stopped DHCP service on vmnet1
Disabled hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet1
Stopped DHCP service on vmnet8
Stopped NAT service on vmnet8
Disabled hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet8
Stopped all configured services on all networks
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
(kernel) Kext com.vmware.kext.vmcrosstalk not found for unload request.
Failed to unload com.vmware.kext.vmcrosstalk - (libkern/kext) not found.
(kernel) Kext com.vmware.kext.vmmon not found for unload request.
Failed to unload com.vmware.kext.vmmon - (libkern/kext) not found.
 
VMware Fusion 261058: Starting VMware Fusion: 
2010-06-10 22:22:30.588 repair_packages[455:607] PackageKit: *** Missing bundle identifier: /Library/Receipts/vpn.pkg
Verifying files from package 'com.vmware.fusion.application' on '/'.
	Permissions differ on "Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMDKMounter.app/Contents/MacOS/vmware-vmdkMounter", should be -rwxr-xr-x , they are -rwsr-xr-x .
	Warning: SUID file 'Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/VMDKMounter.app/Contents/MacOS/vmware-vmdkMounter' has been modified and will not be repaired.
Finished verifying files from package 'com.vmware.fusion.application' on '/'.
Started network services
Verifying and re-installing files from /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/thnuclnt

Navigating to the directory, an ls -al found the two files below and their respective permissions.

drwxr-xr-x  4 root  wheel      136 Jun 10 22:51 .
drwxr-xr-x  5 root  wheel      170 May 27 21:22 ..
-rwsr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  1593620 May 21 03:51 vmware-vmdkMounter
-rwsr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  1475396 May 21 03:51 vmware-vmdkMounterTool

I thought perhaps both files required the same permissions but I was wrong. If you change the permissions on the vmware-vmdkMounterTool file, you’ll raise an error telling you that it should be -rwsr-xr-x. If you make that same mistake too, I’ve got the reset syntax at the bottom of the post.

You should only change the file permissions of vmware-vmdkMounter file. The following syntax lets you remove the sticky bit from the user permissions but you’ll need the root password (the administrator password).

sudo chmod u=rwx,go=rx vmware-vmdkMounter

That should leave you with the following permissions:

drwxr-xr-x  4 root  wheel      136 Jun 10 22:51 .
drwxr-xr-x  5 root  wheel      170 May 27 21:22 ..
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  1593620 May 21 03:51 vmware-vmdkMounter
-rwsr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  1475396 May 21 03:51 vmware-vmdkMounterTool

When you restart you should get the following pseudo clean output. Pseudo because apparently the two errors are not meaningful. At least, I couldn’t find anything on them and VMWare Fusion now works. I’ll probably investigate this a bit more later, and I’ll update anything in this post. If you know something, post it as a comment to help everybody.

VMware Fusion 261058: Shutting down VMware Fusion: 
Stopped DHCP service on vmnet1
Disabled hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet1
Stopped DHCP service on vmnet8
Stopped NAT service on vmnet8
Disabled hostonly virtual adapter on vmnet8
Stopped all configured services on all networks
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
No matching processes were found
(kernel) Kext com.vmware.kext.vmcrosstalk not found for unload request.
Failed to unload com.vmware.kext.vmcrosstalk - (libkern/kext) not found.
(kernel) Kext com.vmware.kext.vmmon not found for unload request.
Failed to unload com.vmware.kext.vmmon - (libkern/kext) not found.
 
VMware Fusion 261058: Starting VMware Fusion: 
2010-06-10 22:58:45.276 repair_packages[861:607] PackageKit: *** Missing bundle identifier: /Library/Receipts/vpn.pkg
Verifying files from package 'com.vmware.fusion.application' on '/'.
Finished verifying files from package 'com.vmware.fusion.application' on '/'.
Started network services
Verifying and re-installing files from /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/thnuclnt

If you fat fingered the resetting command and also changed the vmware-vmdkMounterTool file permissions, you can reset them to shared user by using the following syntax:

sudo chmod u=rwxs,go=rx vmware-vmdkMounterTool

As always, I hope this helps others.

I popped for QuickTime Pro for Windows 7 ($29.99). The reason for doing so, was to create native screen capture that would integrate with Mac Adobe Premiere Pro, CS4. That’s because my Camtasia output didn’t work due to a compression mismatch.

Unfortunately, QuickTime Pro on Windows 7 doesn’t support screen capture. Quite a difference between what the product does on a Mac OS X versus a Windows 7 OS. I thought only Microsoft shorted users on the other platform, like Microsoft Excel 2007 versus Microsoft Excel 2008 (a far inferior product). Oops, I was wrong! Apple does it too. 🙁

It’s been a terribly busy three weeks, needless to say when I got back to working my Mac Pro video card failed. That was Saturday, and I’m waiting on the replacement card. Thank goodness for AppleCare because the card is still $200.

In the meantime, I was stuck without being able to use Screen Sharing. A friend, Kyle, told me how to use Target Disk Mode to boot my Mac Pro on my MacBook Pro, which let me enable Screen Sharing without trying to sort through the configuration files. This basically lets me use my MacBook Pro as a bridge until I get the new video card.

I figured it would be nice to label how to do it. First, you’ll need a FireWire 800 cable or with older equipment a FireWire 400 cable will work. Connect the two machines, then:

1. Boot the disabled machine in Disk Target Mode by holding down the “T” key when turning on the physical machine.
2. Boot the target console by holding down the Option key.
3. You’ll see two disks, one should be the standard silver disk icon and the other a gold remote disk icon. Use the right arrow key to select the gold remote disk, then click the return key.

Your target machine is now booted off the remote machine. You can now navigate to System Preferences, choose Sharing, and check the Checkbox for Screen Sharing. Now you can shutdown both systems and use screen sharing or continue to work this way. It’s really your preference. I like screen sharing because then I can use the resources from both machines.

This may be old hat to many but I’ve got a hunch it’s news to others. While I knew there was a way to do this, I’d never had to try it until now.

An update 4/27/10, AppleCare got me the replacement video card. I installed it and it worked like a charm.

This is to correct an earlier omission and provide instructions for configuring static and dynamic IP addresses for Virtual Machines runing on VMWare Fusion on Mac OS X. The benefit of static IP address is important for those installing multiple development and test instances of Oracle Databases in virtual environments.

Back in September 2008, I blogged about how to configure the Oracle Client 10g on Mac OS X. It’s been used a lot but in hindsight it could have been organized more effectively. One thing that I noticed (through somebody bringing it to my attention) is that explaining the VMWare Fusion component by itself would have been more helpful then listing the IP ranges for releases through the date of my post. Hopefully, this corrects that omission.

VMWare NAT Configuration

There are only a few steps that you must do. These are they:

1. Read the subnet value from the dhcpd.conf file.
2. Dynamic IP address only require you to set the guest operating system to DHCP.
3. Static IP addresses require you to set the IP address, subnet, default gateway, and preferred DNS server.
4. Add assigned IP address and the guest operating system hostname to your Mac OS X /etc/hosts file.

The next sections gives the details of where to find all the things that you may want to experiment with. Remember if you make an error that damages these configuration files, you have to fix it or re-install VMWare Fusion.

VMWare NAT Files and Configurations

You can find the IP ranges for the Network Address Translation (NAT) here in VMWare 3:

/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf

VMWare 4 changes the location, qualified below.

You can find the IP ranges for the Network Address Translation (NAT) here in VMWare 3:

/Library/Preferences/VMware Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf

You can open the file for editing like this:

sudo vi "/Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmnet8/dhcpd.conf"

The file contains the subnet, which I’ve found changes with release. You can configure this file and assign fixed addresses in it. However, you don’t need to install fixed addresses in this file unless you want to reserve addresses in the dynamic range.

The dynamic range is between xxx.xxx.xxx.128 and xxx.xxx.xxx.254. The range of xxx.xxx.xxx.3 to xxx.xxx.xxx.127 is available for static IP addresses. You can set a static IP address inside the native operating system of the VM.

The dhcpd.conf file with it’s instructions, looks like this:

# Configuration file for ISC 2.0 vmnet-dhcpd operating on vmnet8.
#
# This file was automatically generated by the VMware configuration program.
# See Instructions below if you want to modify it.
#
# We set domain-name-servers to make some DHCP clients happy
# (dhclient as configured in SuSE, TurboLinux, etc.).
# We also supply a domain name to make pump (Red Hat 6.x) happy.
#
 
###### VMNET DHCP Configuration. Start of "DO NOT MODIFY SECTION" #####
# Modification Instructions: This section of the configuration file contains
# information generated by the configuration program. Do not modify this
# section.
# You are free to modify everything else. Also, this section must start 
# on a new line 
# This file will get backed up with a different name in the same directory 
# if this section is edited and you try to configure DHCP again.
 
# Written at: 02/18/2010 23:30:54
allow unknown-clients;
default-lease-time 1800;                # default is 30 minutes
max-lease-time 7200;                    # default is 2 hours
 
subnet 172.16.123.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
	range 172.16.123.128 172.16.123.254;
	option broadcast-address 172.16.123.255;
	option domain-name-servers 172.16.123.2;
	option domain-name localdomain;
	default-lease-time 1800;                # default is 30 minutes
	max-lease-time 7200;                    # default is 2 hours
	option routers 172.16.123.2;
}
host vmnet8 {
	hardware ethernet 00:50:56:C0:00:08;
	fixed-address 172.16.123.1;
	option domain-name-servers 0.0.0.0;
	option domain-name "";
	option routers 0.0.0.0;
}
####### VMNET DHCP Configuration. End of "DO NOT MODIFY SECTION" #######

Unless you’ve changed the location of your VM repository on your Mac OS X, you can set a fixed-address for the virtual machine. You add the following lines at the bottom of the dhcpd.conf file:

host mclaughlinxp32 {
	hardware ethernet 00:0c:29:55:38:1b;
        fixed-address 172.16.123.21;
}

You pick whichever IP address you’d like to use. You also need to configure the guest opearting system in the VM with that same IP address. You can find the ethernet hardware value in the following file:

~/Documents/Virtual Machines/VMName/VMName.vmx

You can open the file and hunt for it, or simply run this command from the directory where the file exists:

grep ethernet0.generatedAddress *.vmx

As always, I hope this helps some folks.

A couple months ago, I tried to install Oracle Database 10g, Release 2 for Mac OS X on Intel x86-64 on a MacBook running generic Snow Leopard. It didn’t work because you must have the Mac OS X Server. Somebody asked me to post more of what I found when I tried to hack the installation. Oracle’s documentation Oracle™ Database Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.2) for Apple Mac OS X (Intel), B25286-01 clearly states that the installation requires Mac OS X Server edition. By the way, this is one of the best installation guides I’ve seen from Oracle because it is very complete.

You can determine which version of Mac OS X you’re running with the following:

# sw_vers

It won’t work when you’re on a generic Snow Leopard release, like this:

ProductName:	Mac OS X
ProductVersion:	10.6.2
BuildVersion:	10C540

The first place you’ll get stopped cold is during the installation. You can specify the kern.sysv.shmmni value in the sysctl.conf file at the required 4096 but it won’t allow reconfiguration from the default value of 32. The inability to override this value stops the Oracle installer. You can see the default value of the shared memory parameters by running this command in a terminal session:

# /usr/sbin/sysctl -a | grep \\.shm

You should see the following:

kern.sysv.shmmax: 4194304
kern.sysv.shmmin: 1
kern.sysv.shmmni: 32
kern.sysv.shmseg: 8
kern.sysv.shmall: 1024

I haven’t tested it on the Mac OS X Server edition yet. I’ve a hunch that it’ll work like a charm. When I do get to that, I’ll update the post. Here’s the Apple support note on kern.sysv.shmmni for the Server version.

I’d upgraded from VMWare Fusion 2 to 3 and taken care of most instances. A NASTY surprise awaited me when I tried to upgrade my Linux installations this morning.

You MUST to uninstall VMWare tools from your repository of Linux operating systems before upgrading your VMWare Fusion or ESX server. If you don’t, you can’t access the console because the drivers make the console look like this:

Perhaps I missed this note when, as an early adopted I opted to move straight to VMWare Fusion 3. I would have complied with these instructions to avoid this headache.

All that’s required now, is that: (a) I export 500 GBs worth of virtual machines to another machine running VMWare Fusion 2; (b) Individually start each machine and run the uninstall VMWare Tools command individually; and, (c) Shutdown and reposition all virtual machines on the original server.

As stated in the note, the command to remove it is:

/usr/bin/vmware-tools-uninstall.pl

Click on the note in the event the link fails to resolve, which would mean the note vanishes into oblivion some day in the future …

While I’ve another machine that’s not yet upgraded, this is a major inconvenience. It’s a shame that the Linux components don’t install automatically. It’s a shame that the install didn’t say something like, “Don’t do this if you’ve Linux virtual machines, unless you’ve removed their VMWare Tools installation.”

Another word to the wise, you don’t get the Linux Tools automatically when you download the product. The software prompts you to download the additional components when you attempt to launch a Linux environment. A cruel irony since by the time you see the prompt, you can’t! This is a change from the prior upgrade process.

Yes, haste makes waste but now I know. In the future, treat all VMWare upgrades like those from Microsoft test, re-test, re-authenticate in a small way before upgrading. Do you think VMWare really want to send that message to its customer base?

I got back to this tonight, and thanks to Red Hat’s Session Manager I was able to fix the Red Hat VMs. Launching it, I simply switched to the Failsafe Terminal and ran the following command, as per the note:

# /usr/bin/vmware-uninstall.pl

After that, I rebooted. Then, installed (mounted the VMWare Tools disk) from the VMWare Fusion menu. Opening a terminal as root, I then re-installed and configured VMWare Fusion. Those are done. As more time allows, I’ll update about the others.

I’m now reconfiguring the network since the VMWare Fusion 2 bridged at a 172.16.153 subdomain and VMWare Fusion 3 bridges at a 172.16.123 subdomain.

This is probably defensive because I’ve had to answer the question about two dozen times since the iPad product announcement. The question is naturally, what do yo think about the iPad?

My perspective is biased by the fact that I’ve been using both DOS/Windows PCs and Macs since the 1980s. They each have merits but in short, unlike the media, I have a bias toward Apple products. In fact, I’m an old NeXT system administrator (software gone from the scene because as rumors have it, Steve wouldn’t think of letting the company become ONLY a software company).

I think the idea of the iPad for eBooks is awesome, the features are terrific. It clearly is a better opportunity for my digital movies but a bit awkward because of its size.

I can’t travel with an iPad by itself because it doesn’t support Microsoft Excel, Word, or Visio. That means I’d have to have my MacBook Pro and iPad. Ouch, the security folks will go nuts at the airport, and my bags are now heavier by about 2 pounds. The iPad is 1.5 pounds but the charger has weight too.

I understand all the logic for the device but there’s an underlying assumption in placing everything on the web. Some data can’t be on the web because of legal limits. This goes to my sticking point. Apple’s Office Suite isn’t as robust as Microsoft’s Office Suite. Keynote is easier to use and easily preferred over PowerPoint, but Numbers isn’t even close to Excel (here Apple fails). The problem with Pages is that many companies have templates built around Word and there’s no easy migration back and forth.

Perhaps Apple will reach out to Power Excel users and invest in Numbers to bring it into this millennium; and maybe they’ll also fix the portability between Word and Pages too. For example, one company I work with insists that I use Word 2003 because they’ve never updated their templates to Word 2007 (easy to do through VMWare Fusion). Then, all that’s needed is a rock solid replacement for Visio on Mac OS X.

I think that I might buy one to experiment with, just so I’m current with the product and new features. I’ve also got some product ideas that I’d like to explore but I don’t think this is a home-run like the iPod and iPhone without vitualization software to enable Windows. As an afterthought, maybe the announcement this summer will be “you can have it all now” when they port most features to the core OS X operating system. That would induce me to upgrade my MacBook Pro, wouldn’t it get you to do so too?

Coming from Solaris Unix and Red Hat Linux to Ubuntu, Mac OS X and other distributions of Linux was interesting a couple years ago. The fact that you couldn’t su to the root account was tedious. It didn’t take too long (a couple momentes) to recall that I could assume those privileges in a shell, like:

admin_user@machine_name:~$ sudo sh
#

Naturally, this avoids entering sudo before a series of commands and makes administering any box simpler. It should work on all distributions but I’ve not checked ALL of them because they’re too numerous anymore. I know it works on the Mac OS X, Ubuntu, and now Fedora distributions.

Today, I got a kick from the message provided by Fedora 10 when you assume root permissions. It’s been over 20 years since I got that lecture on an AT&T box at First Interstate Bank. I imagine that any equivalent box to that is in a museum, while that bank was acquired by Wells Fargo in the early 1990s. The message from Fedora is just too funny to pass on making a comment. Here’s the screen shot:

Hope it brought a smile to some faces …