Setting Up And Configuring Your New Mac

Pre-Installation

Here are some of the information you need before initiating the installation process.

1. Have Your Mac-Related Credentials Ready

If this is not your first Apple device, chances are you already have an existing iCloud ID and/or App Store ID.

If you wish to have your emails, contacts, calendars, Safari bookmarks, iPhoto photo streams properly sync’ed, you’ll need your iCloud ID. If you wish to be able to re-download previous purchased app without paying again, you’ll need your App Store ID.

2. What To Name This New Mac?

During the installation, you’ll be ask to fill in the username and the computer’s name. The username should be a no-brainer; but pay a little attention to the latter. Your computer name will show up in networks you connect to as well as if you are a Terminal user. You can get them changed later, for one reason or another, but it’s better to get it right from the start.

We suggest using the naming convention of: [Firstname]‘s [Device].

Here are some examples:

• Yourname’s Macbook Pro
• Yourname’s MBP15
• Yourname’s MBPr
• Yourname’s iMac
• Yourname’s iMac27
• Yourname’s Macbook Air
• Yourname’s MBA

3. Is Your Internet Connection Working?

To get your iCloud properly set up, you’ll need a working Internet connection. The installation can be done without an Internet connection, but it’s best to get everything set up complete from the very start.

Post-Installation

4. Perform A System Update

Apple releases updates from time to time, so there is a chance that the new OS installed has yet to be updated with the latest fixes. Check for a system update before doing anything else to avoid double work. Do it once, twice, or until there’s no update required.

5. Have Your Mouse And/Or Keyboard Pheriperals Ready

If you’re not a fan of the trackpad, then this is the step when you get your mouse connected.

6. Adjust Trackpad Scrolling Direction

If you work exclusively with the trackpad, you need to calibrate it. By default. when you scroll down, the trackpad page scrolls down. if during the test run, it doesn’t feel natural go to System Preferences > Trackpad > Scroll & Zoom and uncheck "Scroll direction: natural"

7. Setup Sharing Settings

Do you want to share screen with another Mac? Are you working with peers or have a need to share your local files with them? Do you need remote access to this Mac when you are away? Or is there a need to share other pheripheral devices (scanners, printers, etc) this mac is connected to with other people on a local network?

If you answer ‘Yes’ to any of this, then you might need to visit System Preferences > Sharing to check/uncheck your preferences.

8. Clean Up The Menu Bar

Like any operating system, Mac includes pre-conditioned selections of apps to make things easier to access. if you are the minimalist type, preferring a clean menu bar, you might want to:

• remove the sound icon (System Preference > Sound > Uncheck Show volume in the menu bar)
• remove time machine icon (System Preference > Time Machine > Uncheck Show Time Machine status in menu bar
• view clock as analogue (System Preference > Clock > Select Analog)

9. Personalize Your Menu Bar

Want to display your name on the menu bar like what you see in the image below?

It’s simple. Just do the following:

1. System preference > User & Group
2. Click Login Options
3. Select Show fast user switching menu as..

10. Enable Access For Assistive Devices

There are some productivity apps for example, TextExpander, which requires access to Mac’s assistive devices option. If you anticipiate using such apps, it’s advisable to turn them on. To do this, go to System Preferences> Universal Access > Check Enable access for assitive devices.

11. Lock System Preferences

To avoid accidental changes to the settings you’ve made, it’s good to lock the settings in system preferences. Upon locking, no further changes can be made unless you click to initiate an unlock option which requires a password.

12. Remove Unwanted Icons On Your Dock

Dock is a convenient way to fire up apps you use on a regular or daily basis. However, default installation of the Mac provides you a set of suggested apps on your doc regardless of whether or not you actually will use them. If you don’t use them, this becomes a source of flutter.

You can remove unwanted apps on your dock, by holding the icon and dragging them upwards to remove them.

13. Remove Unwanted Apps

If for some reason you got a Mac with a lower spec which gives you less storage space, you might want to remove some of the default apps you are not going to use.

To remove apps efficiently from Mac, we recommend appzapper.

Here are some default apps you may not require (depending on one’s needs of course) and therefore can remove to free up some significant amount of storage space:

• Garage band
• iMovie
• iPhoto

14. Show Hard Disks On Desktop

By default, your Mac keeps your desktop clean. That means that the icons or shortcuts to hard disks, devices or networks you are connected to as well as the discs you’ve mounted are hidden or invisible.

If you want to have these icons displayed on your desktop but have no idea how, do the following:

1. Select Finder app
2. Go to Finder > Preferences
3. Check the required items under Show these items on the desktop under the General tab.

15. Customize Desktop Icon, Grid And Text Size

Whether you want smaller icons on your desktop so you can fit more, or bigger icons so they are more noticable, either approach are customizable via desktop configuration menu. Just right click on on the desktop, then choose Show View Option.

You can experiment with ‘Icon size’, ‘Grid spacing’ and ‘Text size’ to customize them to your preference. Select ‘Snap to grid’ to allow your icons and folders to fall nicely into the grid you set with less effort.

Essentials For Designers / Developers

I – Install Java Run Time

Java run time may be required by a couple of applications you’ll be installing later, the Adobe Suite of apps in particular. Click here to install it.

II – Install Git

The default Mac OS X does not comes with Git. Click here to download and install Git on the fly.III

III – Get Your Browser Of Preference

If you are not a fan of Safari, it’s probably time to download an alternative browser.

• Firefox for Mac
• Chrome for Mac
• Opera for Mac

How To Clean Install Mac OS X Mountain Lion

1. Re-Download Mountain Lion

First, grab hold of a copy of the Mountain Lion installer file. The installer you downloaded fro the App Store automatically deletes itself after you’ve successfully upgraded your Mac.

Here’s how you can download and obtain a soft copy of Mountain Lion.

Launch App Store, and go to the Purchases tab.

Look for OS X Mountain Lion, hold down the Option key and click Download.

Re-enter your App Store credentials if required. If you’ve previously purchased a copy of Mountain Lion, don’t worry, you will not be recharged. Note that this may take up between 10 and 60 minutes, depending on your Internet connection speeds.

While you wait, get a coffee, a break and a USB drive with at least 8 GB capacity. Make sure that you won’t need any of the contents of the flash drive, if you do, keep a backup of it somewhere first.

When you get back, we will look at how you can create a bootable copy of OS X Mountain Lion on your USB drive.

2. Create Bootable OS X Mountain Lion

Do not start the installation process when your download finishes. Our goal is here to keep a soft copy of the installer and in the flash drive.

Once your download is done, go to Finder > Applications. Look for the file called "Install OS X Mountain Lion", right-click and select Show Package Contents.

Navigate to Contents > SharedSupport, then look for the filename "InstallESD.dmg"

Double-click InstallESD.dmg to open/mount it on your Desktop. This may take a minute or two.

Plug in the flash drive into your Mac and launch the Disk Utility application. You can do it quickly by searching via Spotlight.

In Disk Utility, do the following 4 steps carefully:

1. Select the USB drive on the left menu,
2. Select the Erase tab,
3. Select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) for the format.
4. Click the Erase button.

Note: This will remove everything in the flash drive. Keep a backup of the files within if you still need them, then come back to this section.

Once the flash drive is formatted, re-select the formatted USB drive from the left menu, and click the Restore tab.

Next, we are going to create a bootable OS X Mountain Lion in the flash drive. Do the following steps carefully:

1. Drag the formatted drive from the left menu to the Destination field.
2. Drag "Mac OS X Install ESD" on the left menu to Source.
3. Click the Restore button. Installation may take about 10 – 20 minutes.

Once it’s done you’ll have yourself a flash drive with a bootable Mountain Lion.

3. Reboot, Clean Up And Reinstall

So we’ve downloaded a new copy of Mountain Lion and made it bootable in a flash drive. Next up, we’ll attempt to remove everything from the current OS and reinstall a new copy of Mountain Lion.

First, a reboot! Hold down the Option key as you restart and you’ll end up at the screen below. Then, select the Mac OS X on the right.

You’ll be taken to the OS X Utilities dialogue. Select Disk Utility.

At the Disk Utility screen, make sure you have these selected:

• You are selecting your Mac’s hard disk drive (and not your flash drive’s) on the left menu.
• You are on the Erase tab.
• You have selected the "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" format.

Click the Erase button button and everything (including files, applications, settings, etc) in your Mac will be completely deleted.

Note: Do this with caution as there will be no way for recovery from this point onwards.

(3.4) When you are done, you’ll be directed back to the OS X Utilities dialogue. This time, selectReinstall OS X, the second option from the list.

That’s It!

Your Mac will now reinstall from the flash drive and you’ll end up with a clean piece of Mac OS X Mountain Lion OS, as if your MacBook or iMac was brand new.

How to Install Flash Player on Ubuntu

Steps

1. 1
   Click on the Ubuntu Software Center icon. This icon located on the launcher bar at the left hand side of the screen.
   
   

   
   

   1. 2
      Type in "flashplugin-installer" on the search bar and press enter.
      
      
      
   2. 3
      You should find the Adobe Flash plugin pop up in the search results.
      
      
      
   3. 4
      Click on the "Install" button.
      
      
      
   4. 5
      After installing, try opening a web browser and going to a website that requires Flash.
      
      
      
   5. 6
      If it works, you have successfully installed Adobe Flash Player. If not, repeat the steps carefully.
      
      

How to Use Linux

Steps

1. 1
   Become familiar with the system. Try downloading and installing it on your computer. If you're not sure, be aware that it's possible to keep your current operating system and dedicate part of your hard drive to Linux (and you can even run both at the same time with VirtualBox).
2. Test your hardware with a "Live CD" that is supplied by many of the distributions of Linux. This is helpful if you feel uncomfortable with installing a second operating system on your computer. A live CD will allow you to boot into a Linux environment from the CD, without the need to install anything on your computer. Ubuntu and some other Linux distributions also offer CDs or DVDs that allow you to boot into a Live mode, and then install from the same disk.
3. 3
   Attempt the tasks you usually use your computer for. Search for solutions if you can't word-process or burn a CD for example. Make a note of what you want to do, can do and cannot do before you take the plunge.
4. 4
   Learn the distributions of Linux. When referring to "Linux", this most often means a "GNU/Linux Distribution." A distribution is a collection of software that runs on top of a very small program called the Linux kernel.
5. 5
   Consider dual-booting. This will help you understand partitioning as well as letting you continue to use Windows. But be sure to back up all your personal data and settings before you try to set up a dual boot.}
6. 6
   Install software. Get used to installing and uninstalling software as soon as you can. Understanding package management and repositories is good for fundamentally understanding Linux.
7. 7
   Learn to use (and enjoy using) the command-line interface. This is known as 'terminal', 'terminal window', or 'shell'. One of the primary reasons many users switch to Linux is because it features the terminal, so don't be intimidated by it. It is a powerful ally that doesn't have the same limitations of a Windows command prompt. You can just as easily use Linux without ever using a terminal as you would on Mac OSX.Using "apropos" can help you find a command that does a certain task. Try "apropos user" to see a list of commands that have the word "user" in their description.
8. 8
   Familiarize yourself with the Linux file system. You will first notice that there is no longer the "C:\" you are used to in Windows. Everything starts at the root of the file system (aka "/") and different hard drives are accessed through the /dev directory. Your home directory, which you typically find in C:\Documents and Settings in Windows XP and 2000, is now located in /home.
9. 9
   Keep investigating the potential of your Linux install. Try encrypted partitions, new and very fast file system (like btrfs), redundant parallel disks that increase both speed and reliability (RAID's) and try to install Linux on a bootable USB stick. You'll soon discover that you can do a lot of things!

How to Set up a Wireless Network in Puppy Linux

Steps

If your router isn't new, then turn it on and skip to "Detecting your wireless adapter" (below). make sure to connect it to your computer

Set up your new router

1. 1
   Plug your router into your internet socket if you want to share your internet.
2. 2
   Plug your router into your PC with an ethernet cable.
3. 3
   Go to your browser and type in the address "http://192.168.0.1 192.168.0.1" or "http://192.168.2.1 192.168.2.1", or "http://192.168.1.1 192.168.1.1".
   
   
   
   
4. 4
   Enter your user name and password from your router (often "admin" and "admin") then your internet service provider.
   
   
   
   
5. 5
   Enable wireless and set your encryption (WPA as a minimum, WEP can be cracked in seconds) use AES encryption if you have it available, skip if you do not. and type a memorable passkey that is at least 64 characters. It's a hassle, but you only have type it a few times.
   
   
   
   

Detecting your wireless adapter

1. 1
   Click the "Connect" icon on your desktop.
2. 2
   In the "Connect" box, click "Connect to Internet by network interface".
   
   
   
   
   • If under "Interfaces" (or "Driver Modules" if Puppy 2 series) a wireless device appears skip to "Connecting to a network" (below).
     
     
     
     
3. 3
   Click "Load module", choose automatic and click OK, if this is successful skip to "Connecting to a network" (below).
   • If your wireless adapter isn't found automatically, find the manufacturer and model, choose it from the list and click OK.
   • If your wireless adapter isn't on the list, check WirelessWorking for a list of cards which may work with Puppy.
   • If your wireless adapter isn't on the list, choose "ndiswrapper" from the list and choose your Microsoft Windows driver (.inf file) and click OK until you return to the Network setup screen.
4. 4
   Click "Save".

Connecting to a network

1. 1
   Under "Interfaces", click on the newly detected wireless adapter.
2. 2
   Click on the "Wireless" button.
   
   
   
   
3. 3
   Click on "Scan" (this may take a number of attempts), choose your own network (find your manufacturer and model), then click OK.
   
   
   
   
4. 4
   Choose your "Encryption" by clicking on "WEP" or "WPA/skip, then enter your passkey where it says "Provide a key".
   
   
   
   
5. 5
   Click "Use This Profile".
6. 6
   Click "Auto DHCP" (or "Static IP" and enter the IP addresses manually if "Auto DHCP" doesn't work) then you are connected.
   
   
   
   
7. 7
   Click "Save" and this connection will be launched at every boot.
   
   
   
   
8. 8
   If everything works, and you can check by opening Google in a browser, thenclick Done.