James Tauber

journeyman of some

Headless Tiger

This page is for my notes on running non-Server Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) remotely via ssh. Feel free to add information in the comments.

Before You Say Goodbye

Things to set while you still have physical access:

What else?

Server Software Setup

Postfix

Note that inet_interfaces is set twice in main.cf so change the second one, not the first (or get rid of one altogether)

Open up port 25. My rule is: 

allow ip from any to any dst-port 25 in

Common Tasks

Software Updates

The command is softwareupdate.

You can list available updates with:

sudo softwareupdate -l

The following will install the recommended updates:

sudo softwareupdate -i -r

You can also install specific updates. See

man softwareupdate

Mounting Disk Images

The command is hdiutil.

To mount a disk image:

hdiutil attach SomeDiskImage.dmg

Although I haven't tried it, I believe the disk image can be referenced by URI.

To unmount:

hdiutil detach /Volumes/SomeDiskImage/

Installing Packages

The command is installer.

For example, to install the Xcode Tools package on the main volumne:

sudo installer -pkg XcodeTools.mpkg -target /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/

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Comments (6)

extra88 on July 15, 2005:

Before you say goodbye: enable ARD Client (aka VNC server), do *not* open port 5900 in the firewall, tunnel VNC over ssh.

James Tauber on July 16, 2005:

Can one enable ARD from the command line?

extra88 on July 16, 2005:

Looks like it.

<a href="http://www.afp548.com/articles/system/headlessg5.html">AFP548.com | Headless Xserve G5 installation instructions</a>

This has refreshed my memory a little. You can find more information about it by searching for "ard" and "kickstart." It brings up pages like this <a href="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=108030">Apple article on ARD</a>.

Evan on July 18, 2005:

At one point, I ran a cube as a headless media server. Here are some of the things I did: http://evanrose.com/?entry=172

carsten whimster on July 18, 2005:

how do you open the cd drive remotely, if you want to install some software?

MacMedix on Sept. 15, 2005:

Before you leave, you might want to make sure to boot the Mac with a monitor attached. Even better, attach a little monitor plug adapter to trick the Mac into thinking it has a monitor and will act properly. It should be a monitor adapter that supports a good enough resolution, or you'll have other problems. 640x480 won't cut it.

So if you later need to attach a monitor, you won't have to reboot to get the mac to recognize & use the monitor.

If it's a Mac Mini, you might want to allow the hard drive to spin down when possible. This is in the energy saver, but is NOT sleep. Look for the checkbox at the bottom. Those Mac Mini's use 2.5" laptop drives, and don't seem to do well spinning 24/7.

MacMedix

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Created: July 14, 2005
Last Modified: March 3, 2006
Author: jtauber