Mac Support at CLASSE

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This page contains links to information specific to Mac users. A Macintosh computer with an Intel processor is required to run a supported version of the Macintosh operating system, now known as macOS, formally MacOS X.

CLASSE is currently supporting macOS v10.13.x, macOS v10.14.x. and macOS v10.15.x.

Apple is now shipping Mac systems ("M1 Macs") based on their in-house developed ARM processor technology, known as Apple Silicon. CLASSE-IT has not yet procured an Apple Silicon system for testing, thus devices based on Apple Silicon cannot be recommended at this time.

Why updating to macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) is not yet recommended at CLASSE

Early reports on the web about Big Sur are promising, BUT in addition to the Catalina list below, there are some addtional issues with upgrading to Big Sur at this time:

• Big Sur includes new security and privacy features that prevent Tunnelblick from connecting to the CLASSE VPN. We are currently testing a new VPN solution and hope to make it available to users in a few weeks. For more details about this VPN issue, please see https://tunnelblick.net/cTunTapConnections.html
• CLASSE antimalware sofware ESET is not yet supported on Big Sur. See https://support.eset.com/en/alert7666-eset-support-of-macos-big-sur-11 for details.
• CIT is reporting Performance Issues.
• macOS Big Sur may be bricking older MacBook Pro models - google "big sur bricking" for web pages detailing this problem (e.g. https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/11/16/apples-macos-big-sur-may-be-bricking-older-macbook-pro-models)

Notes and possible issues when updating to macOS 10.15.x (Catalina)

• Catalina might break some CLASSE-supported software (Spirion was just updated to work under Catalina).
• 32bit apps will NOT run in Catalina. You can check for 32bit apps on your Mac by running "Go64" which is in your /Applications folder
  (hint: click on the "Last used" column heading once or twice to see the last time you used a particular 32 bit app).
• Some warnings attributed to Randy B. Singer, Co-author of The Macintosh Bible 4th, 5th, and 6th editions:
  • APFS - the native disk format under Catalina, not optimized for spinning/mechanical hardrives, thus "it will become a bit of a dog" on non-SSD systems.
  • Apple has broken the ability to reliably create a bootable clone backup, see:
    Shirt Pocket Watch https://shirt-pocket.com/blog/
  • "I don't see any advantage to Catalina for hardly anyone, unless they have to run an app that absolutely requires Catalina. Otherwise, I feel that Catalina is best avoided".
    "Note that Big Sur 11.0, is just around the corner".

• Apple Mail bug warnings attributed to the "Michael Tsai Blog"
  • Catalina introduced several nasty bugs in Apple Mail that lead to data loss in Mail - some bugs haven't yet been fixed, even after six updates, see:
    Mail Data Loss in macOS 10.15 https://mjtsai.com/blog/2019/10/11/mail-data-loss-in-macos-10-15/

• UPDATE CIT now has some support for Catalina - there is support for the main three CIT-supported pieces of software but they not yet updated their web site
  See https://it.cornell.edu/news/cit-suggests-delaying-macos-catalina-1015-update/20191011

Cornell University Computer Recommendations detailed here: http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/guides/computer/

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macOS Specific Links

• Remote Access to CLASSE Macintosh Computers
• Macintosh Standard Software Installs
• Printing from macOS
• Accessing remote filesystems from macOS
• Killing an Unresponsive Application in macOS
• Viewing and/or Changing Permissions in macOS
• Remote Access to Windows Applications (From macOS, Linux or Windows)
• SSH FS for accessing remote Linux file systems
• Bmad Xcode/MacPorts set up
• LaTeX TeXLive on macOS
• Mac X2Go install wiki
• InstallingMultipleVersionsOfJavaOnMac
• Installing Anaconda Python On macOS

Smart Quotes

For compatibility with applications that require plain-text, you must update your system preferences using the following procedure. Please not that it is not sufficient to just tell Mail to compose in Plain Text.

• Open "System Preferences"
• Select "Keyboard"
• Select "Text" tab
• Un-check "Use smart quotes and dashes"

Show Macintosh recovery partition in Startup Manager

Run these 2 commands in a terminal.

• diskutil cs list
• diskutil coreStorage revert lvUUID (where lvUUID is the last lvUUID reported by the previous Terminal command)

Then restart for everything to get back to normal after you have run these commands in Terminal, and the recovery partition will show up again in the startup manager when you boot up with the option key.