MacOS on

Fix INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE with Boot Camp Windows Systems

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 01:21:00 +0000

Like any self-respecting computer geek, I like everything. I typically run-up Windows on my Macs by installing it via Boot Camp, and then booting it as a VM. This lets me run everything in parallel, but also go full native mode when needed.

Recently, I found I couldn’t boot my Windows natively any more, though it would still work fine in my VMware Fusion. When booting natively, my Windows install with BSOD on an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE exception. After a bit of googling, I found that this was likely related to storage drivers. I ultimately managed to fix my Windows environment (without a reinstall), here are the steps:

Make an old Mac OS X install DVD from macOS Catalina

Wed, 27 Nov 2019 22:35:51 +0000

This brief post is just my notes specifically on how to make a Mac OSX Lion install DVD from within macOS Catalina. This isn’t really meant to help anyone other than my future self. But I hope it helps the odd other person too.

Step 0. Optionally order a copy from Apple, do a search online and you can find Lion and Snow Leopard disks still available for order directly from Apple, as of late 2019.

Introducing ml1610-blaster - how you get a Samsung ML-1610 to work on macOS 10.13

Fri, 03 Nov 2017 14:32:43 +0000

The highly retro monochrome laser printer, Samsung ML-1610, continues to work just fine on macOS 10.13 High Sierra. However, getting driver support took me a long time to figure out a while ago. I got something worked out for macOS 10.12 (Sierra) and posted about it here.

To my great surprise, my old post on getting this going has become the most popular, heavily visited post on dawning.ca. So… I’ve revised things and spun this in to what I’m calling “ml1610-blaster”. There’s a github repo hosting it, here: ml1610-blaster.git

Using Apple Script to launch System Preferences in to highly specific location

Sat, 21 Oct 2017 14:00:28 +0000

I’m working on my next update for my goofy little macOS application Trash Talker. This app heavily leverages macOS’s built-in Speech Synthesis engine.

I wanted to add some user-support to help them edit the available voices. I could have just written-out instructions, but reading is for the literate. It took me a while to find a method that I guess will be a good starting point, which is to invoke an Apple Script to direct System Preferences to the right location.

Unix Magic Trick: Rename stuff in bulk

Fri, 14 Jul 2017 12:39:14 +0000

Here’s a magic-trick I rock from time to time. I only graze the basic abilities of the “rename” program, but even in my basic use of it, I find it super helpful.

In this case, I had a situation where my eBooks had been resorted from a massive flat directory in to one containing sub-dirs named with the prefix “Categories - “. I might have sorted them in another manner if I didn’t know about the rename command. When I was done sorting and thus left with my category-based directories, I then wanted to rename each dir to dump the prefix.

Dear Diary: Samsung ML-1610 on macOS 10.12 Sierra

Tue, 11 Apr 2017 08:25:20 +0000

New Version

A newer version is here. I now call this ml1610-blaster.

I have a trusty Samsung ML-1610 printer that I think I bought for like $90 back around 2003. It’s been an outstanding little cheapie that so far has seen me through two undergrad programs and is now seeing my wife through her third such program. Overall, it’s unremarkable, but I like it enough to keep it going.

Trash Talker for macOS

Thu, 23 Feb 2017 18:37:20 +0000

I’ve released my first application for the macOS App Store. It’s a rebrand of a remake I did years back. I added some small new features based on requests I’ve had from users of the earlier version.

A little over 8 years ago I posted Shit Talker Phoenix for Mac OS X here on dawning.ca for download. I eventually also made a Windows build. STP was an attempt to give myself a bit of a functional Hello World project and to resurrect the classic Shit Talker by Jaundice which had become so old it was no longer functional in most cases. After posting my remake here on my blog, I found it actually has something of a user base.

MacPro3,1 upgrade to macOS Sierra

Sun, 16 Oct 2016 03:45:03 +0000

The time came to upgrade my trusty MacPro3,1 to macOS Sierra. As many know, El Cap is the latest build of OS X macOS that supports this platform. How to a MacPro3,1 on Sierra is well-documented, nevertheless this blog is half just a diary that I use to re-trace my steps later.

After making a backup image of my system, I used the guide here to create a modified Sierra installer. I then simply ran an in-place installation and sure-enough everything seems to be working. During the install, I swapped back in the original (coal-burning) video card. Afterwards I swapped back in my current GPUs and all was well. So far Sierra seems to run as good as El Cap, maybe.. Just maybe even better.