Bye bye Mac OS, hello Fedora Workstation!

Two weeks ago I’d written about how I upgraded my old Macbook Pro 8,1 (early 2011) to Mac OS Catalina, but I’ve found some issues that make an awful experience using it, for example, some apps don’t open, the wifi card doesn’t connect to hidden networks, the connection lost after suspend, is slow in some tasks, etc.

Therfore, I’ve decided to get back to linux, and it was the best decision that I’ve made because the latpop has a much better performance than OSX, this is important because I can get all the power of the laptop again and avoid the Apple Planed Obsolecense.

In order to select the best distro for my laptop I’ve found tree options:

• Fedora 36
• Elementary Os
• Pop Os

The main reason is that each one has support to multitouch gestures. In this entry I’m going to share some tips that I’ve found to solve some problems with Fedora 36.

Configure IntelliJ to open with old Java version in macOS

I’ve an IntelliJ 13 app but it can’t be executed with the new Java versions, but it could be configured to use a specific Java version.

1. Open the app with the context menu and select Shows Package Content

2. Edit the file Contents/Info.plsit and edit the next section to select the base version, in this example I’ve using the Java 1.8.

<key>JVMVersion</key>
<string>1.8*</string>

3. Save the file and execute the app.

References

• https://rotadev.com/how-do-i-run-idea-intellij-on-mac-os-x-with-jdk-7-dev/

bye =)

Upgrade MacBook Pro 8,1 to macOS Catalina with 16 GB of RAM

I’ve an old MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011), according to the apple support the last supported OS is macOS High Sierra 10.13.2 and the technical specs indicates the max upgradable memory is up to 8GB (two 4GB SO-DIMMs) of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM.

But reading on internet I’ve found that can be upgradable up to 16GB of 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM and it’s possible to install a superior version of macOS using a non official patches and installers, like Catalina Patcher or Open Legacy Core Patcher.

I know this is a very old device, in order to not dispose it I was thinking to install a linux system on it, but I’ve decided to given a second chance upgrading the RAM and testing with an unsupported macOS. In this entry I’m going to share my experience.

First, is truth, the max RAM supported is up to 16 GB of 1600MHz, I’ve bought in amazon these modules, note they are a DDR3L with support 1.35V or 1.5V and it works great.

Enable hibernation on Macbook Pro (Catalina)

I think the Hibernation is a very important feature for every laptop, it can be useful to preserve the battery life, saving energy and it could be a good option to continue the work session from a day to another.

But it is not enabled by default on macOS Catalina, I’ve an old Macbook Pro 8.1 (Early 2011). It’s support two modes:

• Sleep mode: Save the session data on memory RAM and allows to resume very quickly but the energy is consumed, if the power is cut off the data is lost.
• Hibernate mode: The session data is saved on disk and the it will switch off to save energy, there is no risk to lost data but it could take a few time to restore the session (a few seconds more).

I’ve prefer the Hibernate mode because I’ve don’t see a very significant difference on restore time vs the Sleep mode, also it keep a better battery life. But it’s important to mention that I’ve using a SSD disk to improve the performance.

Alternatives to KeyPass

How do you save your sensitive data? like a users, passwords, website links and other sensitive information (no docs), I used to store my credentials in a excel file but I changed it after my identity was stolen.

I’ve never think that gonna happen to me but and I’m still trying to resolve some legal problems after that incident.

Now I’m using software to keep my info «safe» (note the quotes), because the people like me, that works on IT,  we know there are a lot of nasty tricks to exploit vulnerabilities to get sensitive information, and ever exists a way to do this.

Then keeping in mind this risks, I was testing security tools like OnePass, LastPass and DashLane, but some of them are limited in features in their free versions, like the number of credentials that you can store or sync service in cloud, etc. And I can’t pay that service.

My option was the open source alternatives like KeyPass, but I have to use windows, macOS and Linux systems, and I want to recommend this tools with compatibility:

Mount EXT4 partition on macOS (High Sierra)

The easy way to mount a ext partition on macOS is buying the paragon software, but the problem is when you upgrade the OS because you need to buy a new license, the main advantage is the speed to read and write is very good.

The other way is using the Fuse for mac OSX with fuse-ext2  to support EXT file system…  I thinked it could be a easy task, but it’s not. The first is a simple package with a friendly wizard, but the add-on to enable EXT file system is the ¡source code! (a pain in the … you know). There is not a dmg or pkg installer, if you want it, you must to compile and packaging by your own.

This are the official descriptions about them:

• FUSE for macOS allows you to extend macOS’s native file handling capabilities via third-party file systems.
• Fuse-ext2 is an EXT2/EXT3/EXT4 filesystem for FUSE, and is built to work with osxfuse.

It means that you need both if you want to mount your EXT partitions in OSX.

After some 4 hours I’ve successfully created the distribution package, but I did a lot of fixes and apply a lot of tips that I read on multiple websites, honestly I don’t remember  how many websites I’ve visited over all process, I’m just write some notes on my sublime text editor, but I want to share it here if any want try to compile the source code, at the end of this post you can download my binary package ready to install it.

Prevent execute apps when do login in MAC OS X

Some applications in OS X are launched by default even if you disabled in the preferences on that app.

To prevent some of this apps are executed when you login you must edit a file with extension plist.

Go to the launch agent folder and after the tag RunAtLoad set tag <true/> to <false/>

cd /Library/LaunchAgents/

Saludos

Guardar tus libros de Kindle en Calibre.

Para los que leen…

Hace poco decidí comparar un lector Kindle para aprovechar mejor mis trayectos y leer un poco más, sin embargo me gusta más «tener/sentir» un libro físico que uno virtual. Además los libros de mi profesión (TI) son dificiles de conseguir y muy caros en mi país, por eso casí siempre termino leyendo material digital en mi teléfono, en una tablet y en mi computadora.

Y vaya que durante todos estos años ya tengo bastante material recopilado y lo organizo con la palicación llamada Calibre, que te permite tener una biblioteca completa y ordenada de libros digitales. Y ademas tiene funciones muy interesantes, como soporte para lectores digitales, crear un servidor web, plugins, conversión de archivos etc…

Por otra parte estoy probando el servicio de Amazon unlimited, el cual basícamente es un esquema en el que tienes acceso a un amplio catálogo de libros por una renta mensual. Sin embargo en este «servicio» los libros son prestados, pero aquí vamos a ver como puedes descargarlos y guardarlos en Calibre.

Requisitos

Tener instalado:

• Kindle (PC o MAC)
• Calibre Library
• DeDRM Tools (es un plugin para Calibre)

Abres la aplicación Kindle y descargas/compras el libro:

Tips and tricks for Mac OSX Mountain Lion

Bueno pues ya me tocaba la actualización a la nueva versión del sistema operativo de la manzanita Mountain Lion, he leeido buenos comentarios acerca del performance que presenta. Principalmente la mayoría se debe al salto que dieron a los 64 bits, ya que el sistema se basa en está arquitectura al igual que todas las aplicaciones.

Y es cierto intente instalar algunos programas que tenia guardados y ya no puede ejecutarlos, pero ojo yo no hablo de la restricción del gate keper, después de que instale mis aplicaciones aparecia un icono de bloqueo en las mismas.

Pero bueno hasta ahora pinta bien el sistema así pienso que vale la pena el haber abandonado las aplicaciones de 32 bits.

Y bueno fuera de comentar las características y otras aplicaciones que han agregado me encontre con este video que tiene unos simples pero sencillos tips:

Espero que siga con ese rendimiento cuando tenga que desarrollar… ya veremos si Leon de la montaña me puede seguir el ritmo.

Saludos

JRebel

Que es JRebel??

Antes de dar una descripción técnica quiero compartir este video animado que explica perfectamente bien que es y como funciona JRebel =):

jaja cierto o no, uno termina frustrado por cosas así y que en la vida real si pasan, por ejemplo en mi trabajo tenemos una aplicación con unos 70 wars y el despliegue puede tomar si bien te va varios minutos dependiendo de tu equipo ( si te hablo a tí Sakai!! ¬¬ ) , pero bueno ahora vamos a verlo en acción =) :