Category: Common

Apples and Berries

I really like Blackberry Smartphones and I used them over the last 10 years. Never needed a case for protection. All devices dropped on any type of ground for many times. You can see it at the edges and corners but no broken screen.

Some months ago my Blackberry Passport dropped very hard directly on a piece of stone and the screen broke completely. I would buy this phone again but Blackberry has stopped the development for their OS.

My first thought when I was able to compare Samsung Galaxy with an iPhone was about the advantages of a single vendor for hardware and the operating system. IOS feels more whole integrated and you have not to care about long time updates for the software. This is what I am used to. So I finally decided for an iPhone 8 – together with a case.

I also would like to think that the business model of Apple and Google is at least slightly different. Apple as manufacturer for devices running their own software with a high pricing. And Google as big data company with Android and any device vendor as yet another data source (#yads).

It will take me some time until I stop scrolling to the far left screen searching for the message hub. The far left screen on iOS is rather useless. I also miss the separated spaces for business and private which is directly and fully integrated on Blackberry OS. By contrast, the app container sandbox used by MDM solutions on iOS look like a work-around.

Mac OS X: Switch between windows of same application

I’ve been working for quite a while with Apple Mac OS X. As a former Windows user I missed the possibility to switch between windows of the same application with an keyboard shortcut.

Cmd + TAB only changes between the open applications and does not replace the alt + TAB, which is known from Windows.

At least in the most recent version of OS X you can use cmd + > (german keyboard layout, cmd + ` with US layout) to change between windows of the same application. You can change this shortcut in the System preferences: System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Keyboard & Text Input

Basic troubleshooting with ldapsearch

Ldapsearch is a simple comannd-line tool, helpful for checking LDAP connection parameters and building LDAP search filters.

On many Linux and Mac OS setups it’s installed by default. Fortunately a ldapsearch.exe running on Windows is included in the program directory of IBM Notes Client and Domino Server.

Syntax: ldapsearch -h HOST -p PORT -D BINDUSER -w PASSWORD -b BASEDN (LDAP_SEARCH_FILTER)
# For example: Use a LDAP account for bind to ldap service and search for a single user account with it's CN

ldapsearch -h "ldap.domain.com" -p "389" -D "CN=LDAP Bind,OU=User,DC=DOMAIN" -w "secret" -b "OU=User,DC=DOMAIN" "(cn=Connections ServiceUser)"

You might see some more output from this command. Pay attention to the following messages and probable failure reasons:

‘invalid credentials’

  • Wrong credentials for the LDAP bind user
  • TCP connection to LDAP service is working

’32 No such object’

  • The LDAP Base DN is most propably not available
  • LDAP bind works

‘numResponses: 1’

  • No result for your LDAP search Filter. You can try a search sring like (cn=*) to get an overview of all LDAP entries available.
  • LDAP bind works and Base DN is available

‘numResponses: 2’

  • Search for an single user was successful

Mac OS X and TRIM with 3rd party SSD

In short: If you have installed a SSD device from a 3rd party vendor to a Macbook ALWAYS disable tools for trim support in Mac OS X BEFORE resetting the NVRAM/PRAM for troubleshooting. Your Mac will stop during next startup with a stop-sign on grey background:

Mac OS X stop sign

After the last reboot on my Macbook Pro (late 2011) I have seen this error for the first time.

I tried the common troubleshooting steps (safe boot, reset SMC and repair disk/filesystem with Disk Utility) with no success. The safe boot stopped with the message “waiting for root device”.

At next I removed the SSD from the Macbook and could successfully boot from another SSD with OS X installed. So I tried to connect the estimated defective SSD with a SATA/USB Adapter to check if I can backup some files.

Surprise – the system booted automatically from my SSD when connected via USB.

I had no luck finding some tips for further troubleshooting. I finally decided to install the SSD back to the Macbook and re-install the OS with a bootable USB install device. All data and configurations were still available after the re-install and the system was working again.

To enable TRIM for a non Apple SSD device that was installed to my Macbook I am using Trim Enabler. The application disables a Kernel extension named kext-signing. This security setting prevents from installing 3rd party vendor firmware.

One week ago I had issues with high CPU usage and performed the NVRAM/PRAM reset. As described in the FAQ kext-signing needs to be enabled again before NV/PRAM reset.