I had to re-image and re-configure a rebellious Mac Pro in one of our labs, but in the end forgot to enable Remote Management. Instead of wasting precious calories walking back to the lab, I found a way to enable it using terminal. Run these commands after SSH-ing into the remote machine:
cd /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/sudo ./kickstart -activate -configure -access -on -privs -all -restart -agent
This usually happens when you SSH into a different computer, reinstall the OS on that computer, and try to SSH into it again. In order to fix it you’ll need to delete a line of text from the “known_hosts” file.
Forgot the firmware password that you recently setup on your Mac? Look no further. The king of OS X himself, Topher Kessler posted an article on how to crack Mac firmware passwords using Apple’s stock Calculator (assuming you have admin access). However, if you don’t feel like reading so much, you can simply copy and paste this Python script created by davidwtbuxton (and edited by Kessler) into Terminal and it’ll do all the work for you:
python -c "print ''.join(chr(int(c, 16) ^ 170) for c in '`sudo nvram security-password`'.split('%')[1:])"
Answer: HippoRemote Pro from the iOS App Store
You might ask, “Why would anyone want to control their Mac with…an iPhone?” Allow me to explain. My wife usually gives our 7-month old son to me while she gets ready for the day (putting on makeup and all that stuff). However, I’m usually on the computer doing research and can’t really use the keyboard with baby on my lap. Enter HippoRemote Pro.
STEPS:
1) Click on the Apple logo at the far left of the menu bar and select “System Preferences”.
This command-line tool displays a history of user accounts that were logged into the computer as well as the time and date of access from up to 2 months prior. It will even tell you the amount of time users spent logged in. I’ve had to use this method several times to catch high school students who were using their college friend’s usernames and passwords to login to our lab computers. So here’s how, its really simple..
The “Other” account option at the mac login screen is enabled by default. Networked users can login via Active Directory (AD) or Open Directory by choosing this option. However, in some enterprise situations it’s safer to hide the “Other” option. For example, our Art Department’s file server uses AD to manage student access to its its network sharepoints. One day I noticed a student was logged into the server itself (it’s located in one of the labs and looks like any other computer…don’t ask). Not good. By hiding the “Other” option from the login screen I was able to prevent students from locally accessing the server.
I nearly had a heart attack when this happened. I was making configurations on our file server, and after rebooting came across the spinning wheel of death. Fortunately I was able to narrow the problem down to two things: either a file(s) required at launch became corrupt, or system-level file permissions got screwed up.
This is caused by copying certain plist files, or in some cases the entire English.lproj folder over to the User Template without closing all open windows first. Unless something is done about it, the app window(s) (Terminal, Finder, Safari, etc.) will pop-up at every student login.
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