See http://oit.ncsu.edu/macintosh/views/labkit-all for information on software in previous kits.

OIT is providing a Universal Lab Kit for Power PC (ppc) and Intel (i386) based Macintosh hardware supporting 32 bit and 64 bit machines where possible.

OIT Unity Macintosh Lab kits create local home directories (ie /Users/<UnityID>)for each user that logs in on each machine.  Use the MyAFS link to save files to traditional Unity AFS file space.  This means that user preferences and Library files will not follow the users from one machine to the next.

List of Major Applications 
Known issues  
Full List of Applications 
Setting Up WolfCopy Printers

Major Macintosh Applications:

Known Issues:

2) vpython will not run on ppc. vpython was imaged as intel only binary. A new package installer that will overlay on the image the correct ppc frameworks and libraries  can now be found at: http://vpython.org/contents/download/VPython-MacPPC-Py2.6-5.11.zip Push the package with ard to fix.

3) Matlab 2009a will not run on PPC machines. This is because MathWorks has choosen to support only Intel Macintosh hardware with their products starting with 2008a and going forward. See http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/data/1-609GMS.html for vendor support information.

Fix by doing the following using ARD:

NOTE: If the AdminLauncher preferences have been changed then these commands will have unpredictable results.Verify before making the changes.

a) Copy the MathLab 2007b folder from a working PPC install to /Applications on the installed machine. OIT has created a zip archive of 2007b for PPC called MATLAB_R2007b.zip on the same server as the lab install image to make this easier. Just unzip the archive and copy the resulting MATLAB_R2007b folder to /Applications.

b) add MatLab 2007b to the AminLauncher's Default Tab using /usr/libexec/PlistBuddy by:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set AppTabs:0:Applications:26:path 'file://localhost/Applications/MATLAB_R2007b/bin/mac/StartMATLAB.app/'" /Library/Application\ Support/AdminLauncher/edu.ncstate.ALConfig.plist

Can verify both before and after with the command:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print AppTabs:0:Applications:26:path" /Library/Application\ Support/AdminLauncher/edu.ncstate.ALConfig.plist

The correct path string should be file://localhost/Applications/MATLAB_R2007b/bin/mac/StartMATLAB.app/

Also set the value in the Math Tab using the command:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set AppTabs:7:Applications:9:path 'file://localhost/Applications/MATLAB_R2007b/bin/mac/StartMATLAB.app/'" /Library/Application\ Support/AdminLauncher/edu.ncstate.ALConfig.plist

c) remove MathLab 2009a by:

rm -Rf /Applications/MATLAB_R2009a.app

d) Quit and Restart AdminLauncher.

4)  Print queue management in cupsd.conf has been opened up so users can cancel any job, start, restart and re-enable printers.

Here is the changed policy section from /private/etc/cups/cupsd.conf:

<Policy default>

  # Job-related operations must be done by the owner or an administrator...

  <Limit Send-Document Send-URI Hold-Job Set-Job-Attributes Create-Job-Subscription Renew-Subscription Cancel-Subscription Get-Notifications Reprocess-Job Suspend-Current-Job>

    Require user @OWNER @SYSTEM

    Order deny,allow

  </Limit>

  # All administration operations require an administrator to authenticate...

  <Limit CUPS-Add-Modify-Printer CUPS-Delete-Printer CUPS-Add-Modify-Class CUPS-Delete-Class CUPS-Set-Default>

    AuthType Default

    Require user @SYSTEM

    Order deny,allow

  </Limit>

  # All printer operations require a printer operator to authenticate...

  <Limit Pause-Printer Disable-Printer Pause-Printer-After-Current-Job Hold-New-Jobs Deactivate-Printer Shutdown-Printer CUPS-Reject-Jobs>

    AuthType Default

    Require user @AUTHKEY(system.print.admin) @admin @lpadmin

    Order deny,allow

  </Limit>

  # Only the owner or an administrator can cancel or authenticate a job...

  # NC State all uses can cancel jobs but everyone must authenticate to print

  <Limit CUPS-Authenticate-Job>

    Require user @OWNER @AUTHKEY(system.print.admin) @admin @lpadmin

    Order deny,allow

  </Limit>

 # NC State OIT changes for labs

 <Limit Cancel-Job Release-Job Restart-Job Purge-Jobs Cancel-Current-Job Resume-Job CUPS-Move-Job Resume-Printer Enable-Printer Release-Held-New-Jobs Activate-Printer Restart-Printer Startup-Printer Promote-Job Schedule-Job-After CUPS-Accept-Jobs>

   Order deny,allow

 </Limit>

  <Limit All>

    Order deny,allow

  </Limit>

</Policy>

5) Remove bad Keychains folder in the system user template. This causes all users of Safari to get and error like:

"Safari wants to use the "Login" Keyhain"

Fix by using the ARD send unix command. 

rm -Rf /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/Library/Keychains

6) Adobe CS 4 products may fail to run due to crashing after launch.  This issue has been observed by OIT staff on Design machines but no resolution has yet been found.  A work around in some cases is to reboot the computer but this is not 100% effective. It is possible that this issue is related to the Adobe license issue in item 7 of this list.

7) Adobe CS4 products may display license error dialogs on launch and fail to run.  Thank you to S. Lennon of CHASS for reporting this issue and the fix.  This is a known issue for multiple platforms running Adobe CS4 products and is detailed with fixes at the Adobe Support site.  See http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405970.html for details.

8) Menu Items that have been removed are reappearing as "ghosts". This issue have been observed by OIT but not yet resolved.