Tag Archives: Terminal.app

fixed : frozen Dock in macOS ( Dock not responding )

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Question :

For some reason, when I started/opened my Mac today and tried to open an app by clicking on it’s icon in the Dock… nothing happened. The Dock didn’t respond… I couldn’t get any app, folder or file to open by clicking on it’s icon in the Dock…

I found a workaround by opening the search window (by clicking on the magnifier icon top right in the macOS menu bar), then typing the application’s name and starting it from there.

But, I want this fixed… what can I do to get the Dock working properly ?

Answer :

There isn’t a clear reason why the macOS Dock freezes up from time to time… so there is no solution that will work in all cases, but to get the macOS Dock working properly again try these (in this order) :

1 – try upgrading to the most up-to-date version of macOS :

  • in the macOS Menu Bar, click on the Apple-icon top left
  • in the pulldown menu that opens, click on “System Preferences” (or “System Settings”)
  • in the System Preferences window (System Settings window) that opens, click on “Software Update” ( the gear / sprocket icon )
  • in the Software Update window that opens, see if there are any new updates to macOS available
  • if there are any, update a.s.a.p. by following the on-screen instructions
  • if there are none, try the next option

2- try restarting your macOS :

  • in the macOS Menu Bar, click on the Apple-icon top left
  • in the pulldown menu that opens, click on “Restart” and follow the on-screen instructions
  • after your Mac has restarted, check if your macOS Dock works now
  • it the Dock now works properly ; great ! well done ! enjoy !
  • if the Dock still doesn’t respond, you can try restarting your Mac by using the “Shut down” option …or try the next option

3- try resetting the Dock using the Terminal.app :

  • in the macOS Menu Bar, click on the magnifier-icon top right
  • in the search field that opens, type “terminal”
  • click on the Terminal.app in the list that appears
  • in the Terminal window that opens, don’t be distracted by the info displayed, just type the following :
  • killall Dock
  • then press Return
  • most of the time it only takes a flash of a second to rested the Dock, sometimes it takes a few moments
  • now quit the Termini.app
  • then click on any app icon in the Dock to see if it starts up and the Dock behaves as expected
  • if it does ; great ! well done ! enjoy !
  • chances this doesn’t work are very, very low… so if this didn’t work, redo the reset of the Dock using the Terminal.app again before trying your last options : keep using a work-around (as mentioned above) until Apple releases a macOS upgrade …or reinstalling macOS on your Mac.

that’s it !

enjoy 😉

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fixed : quick way to make hidden files visible on macOS

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Question :

I sometimes need to view the invisible files on my Mac. I know I can do this using the Terminal.app, but isn’t there an easier way to do this ?

 

Answer :

To turn on the ‘Hidden File Viewer’ (or ‘Invisible File Viewer’) mode in MacOSX, you could use the command line in Terminal.app or you could use little apps named something like ‘Hidden File Viewer’ or similar.

In macOS 10.12 Sierra and newer, there is a far simpler way to do this :

  • press the [SHIFT] + [CMD] + [.] key-combo on your keyboard

Using this key-combo, you can switch the visibility of invisible files ON or OFF.

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

fixed : easiest way to hide & unhide hidden files on your Mac

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Question :

Yesterday my text editor app crashed, and even though I had automatic saving turned on, I can’t find the automatically saved latest version anywhere…

I expect I might find it in the hidden files and folders on my Mac.

What is the best app to hide (and unhide) hidden files on my Mac ?

( Note : I know this can be done using the Terminal, but I’m very hesitant towards using the Terminal.app )

 

Answer :

When your Mac is running macOS 10.12 Sierra or newer, you don’t need Terminal.app or any other application to toggle between showing and hiding hidden files, you can now use a simple key-combo to do this :

simultaniously typ [SHIFT] + [CMD] + [.] to (un)hide invisible files

That’s it !

enjoy 😉

 

Note #1 : this is even the simplest and quickest way to open the User’s Library folder.

Note #2 : if your Mac is running MacOSX 10.11 El_Capitan or older, you cannot use this key combo, so you’ll need to use an application like HideSwitch.app or ShowHiddenFiles.app or Funter.app (or the Terminal.app) to hide/unhide invisible files

 

fixed : reset password on QD520 IP-camera without a Windows-PC [Mac-only]

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Question :

A friend donated a QD520 IP-securitycam to me. It looks great and from what I’m reading, I should be able to get it working with Mac-software, but I when I try to access the device in Safari, it asks for a password (that my friend couldn’t remember), so I can’t login…

There’s no reset button on the QD520, so I will need to reset the password with special software, but it turns out that that software is Windows-only, and I only have Macs…

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

You are completely right about the Windows-only software… but I managed to port the reset tool to Mac using WineBottler, and using that, you can reset the QD520 and it’s password back to factory settings.

After the reset, the QD520 will be back to these factory settings :

login = admin

password =               [ BLANK / NOTHING / EMPTY ]

IP (static) = 192.168.1.10

interface language = (simplified) Chinese     [ yep, that’s a very uncomfy downside of resetting… unfortunately ]

 

Here’s how to reset the QD520 :

  • connect the QD520 to your network
  • use the free LANScan.app (or something similar) to find the QD520’s current IP address [ the LANScan app can be downloaded for FREE from the Mac App Store ]
  • download Winebottler here, and use it to run the Windows-only version of the PasswordResetTool you can get here or in this Xmeye Camera Software bundle (or use Winebottler to create a Mac-compatible version of the QD520passwordresettool)
  • as the original Windows-version PasswordResetTool needs a Telnet connection to communicate with the QD520 IP-cam, you now have to enable Telnet (or Netcat to be more precise) to it’s IP address on your Mac as follows :
    • on your Mac, go to Applications –> Utilities –> Terminal.app
    • double-click on the icon to run Terminal.app
    • there you will see your username-with-a-dollar-sign-attached-to-it ; immediately after that, typ this :
    • nc xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 23
    • so : N C space QD520-IP-address space 2 3 (in which 23 is the Telnet port number)
    • now you will see an ‘answer’ in the Terminal.app :
      • ????????LocalHost login:
  • when you see that text appear, doubleclick on the QD520passwordresettool to run it
  • when it’s open, at “Device IP”, fill in the QD520-IP-number, and click the “Reset” button
  • when you get the feedback message “Reset OK, Waiting for reboot your device, please!”, click the “OK” button
  • that’s it !
  • don’t forget to quit both the QD520passwordresettool and the Terminal.app

enjoy 😉

NOTE #1 : as mentioned before, the QD520’s IP address will now be 192.168.1.10 and the interface will be in Chinese unfortunately, however, you will be able login now ! ( using login = admin / password = [empty] )

NOTE #2 : unfortunately, there is no Mac-friendly solution to change the QD520’s settings like IP-address and Password just yet… for that, you will still need to use Internet Explorer for Windows with ActiveX and JAVA Runtime installed… [ we are working on a solution for that, but as ActiveX is not supported on Intel-Macs, that’s an extremely hard nut to crack and might even be too complicated… ]

fixed : run DOS commands on your Mac

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Question :

I need to run a firmware update for a hard drive, but there’s no firmware update available for MacOSX, there’s only a firmware .exe-program for MS DOS.

How can I run that on my Mac, since I don’t have a Windows-PC available ?

 

Answer :

MacOSX isn’t able to run DOS commands in the MacOSX Terminal.app…

and running FreeDOS from a USB-stick isn’t an option on your Mac, since your Mac can’t boot from non-EFI volumes…

but there’s a very simple option to run DOS commands in OSX :

– download & install Boxer by drag&dropping the app into your Applications folder

– run the Boxer.app and you will get 3 options, one being “Open a DOS prompt”, that’s the one your looking for

– click on it, and you will have your DOS-prompt

– and just as you can in OSX Terminal.app, you can drag&drop .exe-files (and other files) into the prompt, and the correct path to the file will be automatically inserted into the prompt

– there’s just one small drawback : the Mac’s keyboard layout is not supported… so even though the letters will be what you see on your keyboard, most other characters will not… to get a – [minus], you should type / [slash], and to get ” [brace], you should type @ [at] on your Mac keyboard… (you can figure out the other ones yourself by just trying)

That’s it !

Enjoy !

😉

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