This page has moved to http://mywiki.ncsa.uiuc.edu/wiki/Mac_OS_X.

What follows are my notes on setting up my PowerBook G4 running Mac OS X Version 10.3. Comments welcome to jbasney@ncsa.uiuc.edu.

OS X Setup

• Install X11 by running X11User.pkg from the /Applications/Installers directory.
• Install the Mac OS X Developer Tools. Run Developer.mpkg in the /Applications/Installers/Xcode Tools directory. Then install X11SDK.pkg in the Packages subdirectory.
• Install Fink. Enable access to 'unstable' packages for more selection. Then run the FinkCommander to install packages. (Alternatively, or additionally, you may want to install DarwinPorts.)
• The version of emacs provided with OS X 10.3.3 doesn't contain X11 support, so install emacs21 via Fink for a version of emacs with X11 support.
• In /etc/hostconfig, I changed

  HOSTNAME=-AUTOMATIC-
  

  replacing -AUTOMATIC- with my full-qualified hostname so my hostname doesn't change as I change networks.
• As I typically turn off my PowerBook at night, I installed anacron via Fink to run standard MacOS X cron jobs, uncommented the entries for "Standard MacOS X cron jobs" in /sw/etc/anacrontab and commented out the corresponding lines in /etc/crontab.

NCSA Setup

• See this page and this page for NCSA-specific instructions on setting up Kerberos and OpenAFS.
• Once you have AFS running, you can access NCSA site-licensed software at /afs/ncsa/packages/MacOSX. You'll need to email afs@ncsa.uiuc.edu and ask to be added to the macosx group so you can access that directory.
• Alternatively, if you don't want to run AFS, you can access the site-licensed software from smb://file-server.ncsa.uiuc.edu/software-mac.
• Follow instructions here for enabling automatic system backups.
• Subscribe to the NCSA macos-users list for announcements and discussion of MacOS topics at NCSA. Send email to majordomo@ncsa.uiuc.edu with subscribe macos-users in the message body.

Email Setup

• I decided to use MH-E for email. First, I installed nmh via Fink. Then I downloaded MH-E, ran make, and installed with sudo cp -r mh-e-7.4.3 /sw/share/emacs21/site-lisp/mh-e-7.4.3. An alternative would be to add the mh-e-7.4.3 directory to my emacs load-path following the instructions in the provided README. I then ran sudo vi /sw/etc/nmh/mts.conf to setup nmh for smtp by setting localname to my email domain name (ncsa.uiuc.edu) and servers to my smtp server (smtp.ncsa.uiuc.edu). I also setup a ~/.mh_profile:

  Path: Mail
  Draft-Folder: drafts
  Alternate-Mailboxes: jbasney@*
  

  To get threading working correctly, I followed these instructions to create ~/Mail/replcomps:

  %(lit)%(formataddr %<{mail-reply-to}%?{reply-to}%?{from}%?{sender}%?{return-path}%>)\
  %<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n%>\
  %(lit)%(formataddr{to})%(formataddr{cc})%(formataddr(me))\
  %<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )\n%>\
  %<{fcc}Fcc: %{fcc}\n%>\
  %<{subject}Subject: Re: %{subject}\n%>\
  %<{message-id}In-Reply-To: %{message-id}\n%>\
  %<{message-id}References: \
  %<{references}%(void{references})%(trim)%(putstr) %>\
  %(void{message-id})%(trim)%(putstr)\n%>\
  --------
  

  and ~/Mail/replgroupcomps:

  %(lit)%(formataddr{mail-followup-to})\
  %<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n\
  %|\
  %(lit)%(formataddr %<{mail-reply-to}%?{reply-to}%?{from}%?{sender}%?{return-path}%>)\
  %<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr To: )\n%>\
  %(lit)%(formataddr{to})%(formataddr{cc})%(formataddr(me))\
  %<(nonnull)%(void(width))%(putaddr cc: )\n%>%>\
  %;
  %<{fcc}Fcc: %{fcc}\n%>\
  %<{subject}Subject: Re: %{subject}\n%>\
  %<{message-id}In-Reply-To: %{message-id}\n%>\
  %<{message-id}References: \
  %<{references}%(void{references})%(trim)%(putstr) %>\
  %(void{message-id})%(trim)%(putstr)\n%>\
  --------
  

• I run fetchmail included in the OS X install. My ~/.fetchmailrc file contains:

  set daemon 900
  poll pop.ncsa.uiuc.edu proto apop ssl mda "/usr/bin/procmail -d %T"
  fetchsizelimit 0
  

  Note I use apop authentication; change proto apop to proto pop3 or proto kpop to use pop3 or kpop authentication instead. (It has been reported that OS X fetchmail doesn't support kpop. If you know how to get it working, please send me email at jbasney@ncsa.uiuc.edu.)
• I'm told kpop doesn't work with Eudora at NCSA. Use pop over SSL instead.
  1. In Checking Mail -> Set Authentication: Passwords
  2. In SSL -> Set SSL for POP: Required (Alternate Port)
  3. In SSL -> Set Alternate Port SSL Negotiation Maximum Compatibility
• Instructions are also available for setting up Microsoft Entourage and Mac Mail.
• The Insidious Big Brother Database integrates nicely with MH-E to remember contact email addresses. Run ./configure; make to build and copy to /sw/share/emacs21/site-lisp as with MH-E.
• I installed Emacs 21.3.50.1 via Fink, which contained Gnus 5.9.0. MH-E works better with Gnus 5.10, so I installed that from gnus.org.
• For reading text/html mail (yuk!), I installed w3m via Fink and w3m.el. I also installed mailcrypt and emacs-wget.
• Since fetchmail is sending my mail through procmail, I can take advantage of some nice procmail features. My ~/.procmail file looks something like this:

  MAILDIR=$HOME/Mail
  JUNKFOLDER=$MAILDIR/junk/.
  
  # send mail from some senders to junk folder
  :0
  * ^From:.*junk.com
  $JUNKFOLDER
  
  # don't deliver duplicates
  :0 Wh: msgid.lock
  | formail -D 8192 $MAILDIR/msgid.cache
  

• NCSA users will probably want to sign up for spam filtering.

My .emacs

;; MH-E setup
(global-set-key "\C-xr" 'mh-rmail)
(global-set-key "\C-xm" 'mh-smail)
(add-hook 'mh-before-send-letter-hook 'ispell-message)
(add-hook 'mh-before-send-letter-hook 'untabify-hook)
(setq mh-reply-default-reply-to "all")
(setq mh-yank-from-start-of-msg 'autoattrib)
(defun my-mh-letter-mode-hook ()  (mh-to-fcc "outbox"))
(add-hook 'mh-letter-mode-hook 'my-mh-letter-mode-hook)
(setq mm-text-html-renderer 'w3m)
(setq mh-show-threads-flag t)
(setq mm-discouraged-alternatives 
      '("text/html" "text/richtext"))

;; Insidious Big Brother Database
(require 'bbdb)
(bbdb-initialize 'mh-e)
(add-hook 'mh-folder-mode-hook 'bbdb-insinuate-mh)
(setq bbdb-offer-save 0)

;; mailcrypt
(load-library "mailcrypt")
(mc-setversion "gpg")
(autoload 'mc-install-write-mode "mailcrypt" nil t)
(autoload 'mc-install-read-mode "mailcrypt" nil t)
(add-hook 'mail-mode-hook 'mc-install-write-mode)
(add-hook 'mh-folder-mode-hook 'mc-install-read-mode)
(add-hook 'mh-letter-mode-hook 'mc-install-write-mode)
(add-hook 'gnus-summary-mode-hook 'mc-install-read-mode)
(add-hook 'message-mode-hook 'mc-install-write-mode)
(add-hook 'news-reply-mode-hook 'mc-install-write-mode)
(setq mc-passwd-timeout 600
      mm-verify-option 'known
      mm-decrypt-option 'known)
(setq pgg-scheme 'gpg
      pgg-cache-passphrase t
      pgg-query-keyserver t
      pgg-passphrase-cache-expiry 1800)
(if (not (fboundp 'comint-read-noecho))
    (defalias 'comint-read-noecho 'read-passwd))

;; w3m browser
(autoload 'w3m "w3m" "Interface for w3m on Emacs." t)

;; gnus
(setq load-path (cons (expand-file-name "~/elisp/gnus-5.10.6/lisp") load-path))
(require 'gnus-load)

;; load mailcrypt
(load-library "mailcrypt")
(mc-setversion "gpg")

Other Stuff

• I like Konfabulator better than Dashboard.
• For great documentation of all the LaTeX options on Mac, see the Mac OS X TeX/LaTeX Web Site.
• I hear quicksilver is an excellent launcher.
• Powerbook/iBook docking stations are available from BookEndz.
• Backup alternatives:
  • Maxtor Solutions
  • CMS Backup Systems
• Location X is a network location manager for Mac OS X. Alternatives include LocationChanger and this script. Also, SleepWatcher will run commands on sleep/wakeup/idle events.
• Apple Mail users might be interested in Mail Act-On to manage key mappings.
• Growl is a powerful notification system for Mac OS X.
• Skype works well on Mac OS X for cross-platform audio chat.
• MenuMeters provides nice CPU, memory, disk, and network meters for the menubar.
• DesktopSweeper is nice for keeping a clean desktop.
• Adium is an excellent multi-protocol IM client.
• SSHKeychain can manage your SSH keys.

Last modified 11/06/06.