Newbie Mac question

A

A-N

Registered
Hello, please bear with some silly questions :)

My class has just got a pair of eMacs with OS X 10.2.8. We're supposed to make a "survival kit" on Mac OS X, and since no-one there knows Mac, I have a few questions.

1. You boot in to safemode by holding Shift just after the startup tone sounds, right? What other boot options are there? How do you boot in to Darwin?

2. Related to 1; is there anything akin to the BIOS Setup of a PC?

3. When troubleshooting a Mac, is there any reason to boot in to Darwin? (Is there any critical troubleshooting you might have to do in Darwin because you can't in the shell?)

4. Antivirus programs; I heard there is no reason getting them unless you work with MS Office docs?

5. Is the built-in firewall good enough for home users? Any difference here from 10.2.8 to 10.3 and on?

6. Defrag. I heard somewhere that OS X is supposed to do some defragmenting as you go? Are there any free defrag programs worth using?

Thanks for any help!
 
A-N said:
Hello, please bear with some silly questions :)

1. You boot in to safemode by holding Shift just after the startup tone sounds, right? What other boot options are there? How do you boot in to Darwin?

2. Related to 1; is there anything akin to the BIOS Setup of a PC?

3. When troubleshooting a Mac, is there any reason to boot in to Darwin? (Is there any critical troubleshooting you might have to do in Darwin because you can't in the shell?)

6. Defrag. I heard somewhere that OS X is supposed to do some defragmenting as you go? Are there any free defrag programs worth using?

Thanks for any help!
Click to expand...
I'll try to hit my views on these selected questions
1,2 and 3. This is called 'Safe Boot', not quite like Safe Mode with Windows, but similar (prevents certain startup software from loading)
Other startup options:
Opt-s : single-user startup, brings up a prompt (perhaps this is what you mean by booting into Darwin?), Many users boot here to run fsck, which is boot volume disk testing. Lots of commands can be used here.
Opt-v : verbose startup. Same beginning as single-user, but continues to the GUI (the Finder) with text scrollin by, showing various parts of the start process as text, useful for toubleshooting booting problems, giving you a chance to see where the problem begins in the boot process.
Also, opt-command-o-f brings up a light grey screen with a prompt in dark text (the open firmware boot screen) someimes useful when troubleshooting hardware problems, giving you the oppotunity to do essentially ROM level resets, and other system maintenance (although the precise commands are not easy to find, there are some who claim to be experts in manipulating this hardware level stuff) Maybe this is as close as you get to a BIOS screen, although hardware configuration, at a hardware level, has always been the Mac's strong point, and generally needs no input from the user (real plug-and-play)
6. Defrag is not some much an issue on the Mac, Panther has some defrag built-in, (actually in Darwin) associated with the journaling option for the boot volume (not part of journaling, per se, but activated when journaling is enabled). Darwin calls this 'Adaptive Hot-file Clustering'

these questions will have additional answers, I'm sure, and this is just some high points to lead some searching to other areas.
 
Hmm... single user mode and verbose mode work for me by holding COMMAND-S or COMMAND-V, not OPTION-S or OPTION-V.

There are two kinds of "safe modes" that involve holding the Shift key. The first is, as you say, booting with the Shift key down after the startup chime. That disables much of the startup things that are loaded, but is rarely used. The second is to hold down Shift as you're logging in (or keeping the Shift key held down if you have automatic login enabled) and that disables your login items (programs you have that automatically launch when you log in). You can find these in the System Preferences > Accounts > Startup Items.

To answer number 4, you may want to check out Virex available to members of .mac. I personally don't use ANY virus software, simply because that day that OS X gets a virus is the day that I research other options... hehe... just kidding.

There are no known Microsoft Office virii that can harm OS X. They may corrupt your document that you're working on, if that document came from somewhere else with a virus in it, but as far as I know, you're safe from Windows virii.

For number 5, the built-in firewall is great. Unless you're hosting web sites or are in a corporate environment, your chances of someone getting access to your computer are pretty slim -- hackers don't usually target home users, for the simple fact that there's nothing on your system that they'd want or couldn't already get more easily. External firewalls are better, like a router with a built-in firewall, but Apple's firewall does a pretty good job.

I doubt you'll ever need to boot into single-user or verbose mode, or ever use open firmware. If you're a casual home user, just go with the basic install -- you're not missing anything important with verbose/single user/open firmware. That stuff's for techies. You'll probably rarely ever touch the terminal as well, unless you're a UNIX junkie.

I don't know of any FREE defrag programs, but there are a few programs out there that will defrag a drive... Panther 10.3 introduces a journaled file system, which helps keep disk integrity if you crash or a power outage occurs, and I don't know if the defrag programs out there are compatible with that yet. Under normal use of OS X, I don't ever see a need to defragment a drive. OS X will do a little for you, and the rest will get fragmented again quickly with normal use. OS X puts the files where it likes them, and I don't like to tell it otherwise. You won't see any performance gain much above a half a percent or so from defragmenting, unless you're a digital video editor, in which case you should be using an external drive anyway, not the internal system drive to capture and edit video.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
Hmm... single user mode and verbose mode work for me by holding COMMAND-S or COMMAND-V, not OPTION-S or OPTION-V.

I doubt you'll ever need to boot into single-user or verbose mode, or ever use open firmware. If you're a casual home user, just go with the basic install -- you're not missing anything important with verbose/single user/open firmware. That stuff's for techies. You'll probably rarely ever touch the terminal as well, unless you're a UNIX junkie.
Click to expand...

My brain must be going!,,of course, command, not option for those two modes. Terminal is available for those with the intent of trying out many unix options, with a command line. The thread here, was asking about other boot options, so I listed some
You're right, under normal use, those options may never be necessary.
 
Thanks for all the help, folks! A few more questions, then I'll stop bothering you :)

1. Generally, to we who don't know Mac, Mac is viewed as a really good (stable) workplace computer, and excellent at creating graphics. What else can be said on the pros of Mac?

2. Sys reqs of Mac OS X? I heard 128mb RAM was needed? What else?
 
A-N said:
2. Sys reqs of Mac OS X? I heard 128mb RAM was needed? What else?
Click to expand...

Apple says 128 MB is minimum required, but most here would agree that 512MB or more, is a more practical amount for smoother, more stable use of OS X

--leecollings-- Is that your opinion or your condition? This is a Mac SUPPORT forum, I'm sure there are PC troll sites that would welcome your uneducated 'comments'
 
...and don't worry about bothering us, it's not a bother at all.

Macs, as you said, are great for graphic design, stability, lack of virii, ease of use, beauty, elegance, and an overall superior computing experience. Plus, the community of Mac users is tight, and you've got forums like this where people are eager to help you.

I would suggest a minimum of 256MB of RAM to run OS X smoothly -- of course, more will always help. It depends on what kind of Mac you've got -- older models will benefit from more RAM, and with RAM prices so cheap, it's a great upgrade to make to your computer.
 
Thanks folks. Reason I asked here (besides being easier than searching around for myself ;)) is that I'll get "real life"answers like these. Official answers aren't always the best ones, like with the RAM question.

In this survival kit we're putting together, we're supposed to provide links for FAQs and online help. MacOSX.com will be the only one I'll have to list for that purpose.

Thanks a lot for the help!
 
Mac OS X is just great! :)

It is Unix/Linux made simple and very nice to use! :)

I've just got a new book that is nice to read to discover more...
"Mac OS X Haks" RD & KH


Well, what can I say... I cannot stand Windows... Linux is nice, but it is not easy to start with and still misses something... Mac OS X has all (except for a few games) and it is a good System, not just a Computer to use...


:o
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top