User:Magill/Mac-Client-scratch

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Misc notes

System Profiler Reports

Generating a System Report

A System report details the hardware and software configuration of machines running Mac OSX - these reports allow our technical support department to review your machine for hardware and software conflicts to recommend solutions to crashes and other issues. Please observe the following instructions to run and save an System report if requested by Steam Support

  • Snow Leopard and older versions of OS X
  1. Open Applications > Utilities > System Profiler
  2. From the top menu select View > Full Profile
  3. From the top menu select File > Save
  4. Name the file SystemProfiler, choose the save location as your Desktop, and select Rich Text Format (RTF) from the File Format drop-down menu
  • Lion
  1. Open Applications > Utilities > System Information
  2. From the top menu select File > Show System Report
  3. From the top menu select File > Export as Text
  4. Name the file SystemProfiler, choose the save location as your Desktop, and select Rich Text Format (RTF) from the File Format drop-down menu
  • Mountain Lion
  1. Open Applications > Utilities > System Information
  2. From the top menu select File > Print
  3. In the bottom left corner of the print window select PDF Menu > Save as PDF
  4. Choose the save location as your Desktop

Note that this will likely be a fairly large file as it does include system logs.

Console Log

Console logs are able to give us vital information about activities that are occurring when Steam is launched. In order to get a new console log for Steam please do the following:

  1. Exit Steam
  2. Click on Applications > Utilities > Console
  3. Click on Clear Display at the top to remove any history of messages
  4. Type Steam in the search field in the top right corner
  5. Launch Steam and login

After the error message appears from Steam you will need to save out the console spew:

  1. Click on File > Save a Copy as
  2. Save the file to a location that is easy to access
  3. Attach the file to your support ticket reply


Case Sensitive File system

Solution for Server Too Busy Messages and Case-Sensitive Filesystem

Note: This dates from May 2010 and therefore Snow Leopard. It needs to be both verified and "de-Steamified" Wm Magill - Valamar - OTG/OTC talk 15:27, 5 January 2013 (EST)

I finally figured out that the "server is currently too busy" messages I was seeing were another side-effect of running from a case-insensitive disk image mounted on a case-sensitive filesystem. I documented what I've done to work around the problem; hopefully it'll help someone else out as well.

RUNNING STEAM ON A CASE-SENSITIVE FILE SYSTEM

If you have a case-sensitive filesystem, you've noticed that Steam refuses to install. It expects a case-INsensitive system. By default this is what you get with a Mac. This guide is for those of us who, for whatever reason, want or need to run with a more Unix-y case-sensitive filesystem.

I'm going to assume that anyone who's gone to the trouble of making a case-sensitive filesystem can deal with Disk Utility and Terminal. You'll need to make a disk image and some symbolic links, and maybe write a little AppleScript.

1. Decide Where You Want Steam to Live

The first thing to do is to decide where you're going to keep this disk image and associated files. I tend to keep big things (VMware images, CD ISOs, that sort of stuff) in /Users/Shared rather than in my home directory. I'm going to keep all things Steam in /Users/Shared/Library/Steam. You can choose wherever's convenient for you and substitute your own path in the instructions below.

2. Make a Disk Image

Use Disk Utility to make a case-insensitive disk image. I chose to make a 32 GB sparse image. I figure 32 GB is big enough for my needs, and using a sparse image means it won't consume a lot of real disk space until it starts to fill up. I saved it as '/Users/Shared/Library/Steam/Steam.sparseimage'.

3. Pick a Mount Point

This isn't as straightforward as it seems. Normally disk images are mounted in '/Volumes/{image name}'. It turns out that Steam not only wants to be on a case-insensitive filesystem, it wants the whole path to the mount point to be case-insensitive. The easiest way to ensure this is to avoid letters in the path altogether. I decided to make the mount point '/.000'. If you're an old Unix hand (and why else would you have formatted the disk as case-sensitive?) you're probably appalled at that. Yeah, me too. At least the dot means I don't have to look at it.

4. Mount the Disk Image

I wrote a little shell script to do this, but I had trouble getting it to run as a login item like I wanted. So I pulled up the AppleScript Editor and wrapped it in some really cheesy AppleScript. I saved it as an application in '/Users/Shared/Library/Steam/MountSteam.app'.

Code: 

do shell script ("if [ ! -e /.000 ; then /bin/mkdir -m0777 /.000; fi")
do shell script ("/usr/bin/hdiutil attach -mountpoint /.000 -nobrowse
   /Users/Shared/Library/Steam/Steam.sparseimage")

This creates the '/.000' mount point if necessary and mounts the disk image there. It makes a dandy login item (System Preferences->Accounts->Login Items) to make sure the image is mounted whenever you're logged on.

5. Make Folders

Steam needs two folders to store its data. These normally live in your home directory as '~/Library/Application Support/Steam' and '~/Documents/Steam Content'. Substitutes for these need to be made on the disk image. You can use Finder or Terminal; I'm a Terminal guy.

Code: 

mkdir /.000/Steam
mkdir /.000/Steam\ Content

6. Make Symbolic Links

Now you need to link these directories to where Steam wants to find them.

Code: 

ln -s /.000/Steam ~/Library/Application\ Support/
ln -s /.000/Steam\ Content ~/Documents/

7. More Link Love

You'll want to make a lowercase path to your home directory, and to the Steam directories. Steam itself doesn't need it, but I've already come across at least one game that does.

Code: 

cd /; sudo ln -s Users users
cd /users; sudo ln -s {YourName} {yourname}
 
cd ~; ln -s Library library
cd ~/library; ln -s Application\ Support application\ support
cd ~/library/application\ support; ln -s Steam steam
 
cd ~; ln -s Documents documents
cd ~/documents; ln -s Steam\ Content steam\ content

8. Run Steam

Have fun with your new toy!

9. The Price of Freedom Is Eternal Vigilance

Some games will try to drop their own files in '~/Library/Application Support' instead of in the Steam directories. This is good; that's where they should go. Unfortunately, those same games are not always careful about case sensitivity. Torchlight, for example, makes its home in '~/library/application support/runic games', all lowercase. If you see a game acting funny, it's probably a good thing to check where it's keeping its files. You might need to add more symlinks or move the game's support directory onto the disk image.

Code: 

mkdir /.000/Support
mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/runic\ games /.000/Support/
ln -s /.000/Support/runic\ games ~/Library/Application\ Support/runic\ games

Signature experiments

MBisanz talk 07:13, 6 February 2008 (UTC)

Wm Magill - Valamar - OTG/OTC talk 15:27, 5 January 2013 (EST) 

'''[[User:Magill|Wm Magill - <span style='color: #FFFF00;background-color: #0000FF;'>Valamar - OTG/OTC</span>]]''' <sup>[[User talk:Magill|<span style='color: #FFA500;'>talk</span>]]</sup>

Corrupt client explanation and fix

The connection to the server has been lost

That has happened to me multiple times and I tried several different support tickets before I was finally connected with a tech who gave me a method to fix it that works every single time:

  1. turn off your computer AND your router
  2. unplug your computer from your router OR disable your wireless connection
  3. get a DOS command prompt by going to the Start Meny and selecting "Command Prompt" from the Accessories folder OR typing that into the run box#) once in the command prompt type " ipconfig \dnsflush" and if that doesn't work use flushdns (having trouble remember which one it was off the top of my head"
  4. shut down your computer again
  5. reconnect your computer to your router and restart everything

If it doesn't work the first time, do the dnsflush with your computer hooked into your router. But it works everytime for me.

Apparently, the LOTRO client uses an odd connection protocol to your computer that not many other online games use and it can hang during a disconnect if there is a crash and the server isn't able to go through the entire logoff procedure causing your computer to mistakenly believe that you are still in the process of logging off and keeping you from logging back in on that character even if you can use all of your others.

This procedure clears the cache and lets you start back over.

That should be "ipconfig /flushdns.

I'm not sure all the other messing about with turning off and disconecting the router etc. is really necissary to be honest; you should be able to accomplish the same by simply typing "ipconfig /release" +ENTER, "ipconfig /flushdns" + ENTER and "ipconfig /renew" + ENTER into the command prompt window. There may be a reason they want you to reset your router to get a new dynamic IP address (if your IP is dunamic in the first place) but disconnecting it is really not needed.

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