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Category: Tutorials

MacOS Performance Degraded during Timemachine backup

Published by A on January 7, 2022

I’ve upgraded my 12-year-old NAS from D-Link DNS320 with Synology DS920+ after it’s showing its age, especially with poor read/write speed, and also it’s missing a lot of modern protocols like NFS v4.1 et cetera.

Then I took this chance to configure Apple Timemachine to backup all my Macbooks. My Macbook Air’s backup worked flawlessly, but my work Macbook Pro seems to have a performance issue. The system performance will degrade, and the OS will freeze intermittently whenever the Timemachine backup runs. So I had to turn off automatic Timemachine backup during office hours, do all the tasks and restart the backup after I logged out from work.

I’ve been pulling hairs for days, and neither Apple Support nor Google is helpful at least to pinpoint me to resolve the problem. macOS Activity Monitor didn’t show any clue as my CPU utilization is >90% idle. I went as far as resetting my NVRAM/PRAM twice, but it didn’t fix the problem.

Then, I realized that I have ESET Endpoint Antivirus installed by my workplace’s MDM, and it has a “Real-Time File System Protection”. As expected, disabling the real-time protection resolved this issue. My MBP now behaves normally during the Timemachine backup.

Disabling real-time protection every time the automatic Timemachine backup is far from ideal, thankfully ESET has a feature to exclude file paths from being scanned.

In my case, I’m using NAS. Therefore you will need to exclude this path and restart the backup again.

/Volumes/.timemachine/*.*

If you have an antivirus other than ESET, you may want to explore the same resolution step with your antivirus product.

Reference: https://support.eset.com/en/kb3263-exclude-apple-time-machine-backups-from-scanning-in-eset-cyber-security-or-eset-cyber-security-pro

 

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Send iMessage to your signed iOS/Mac Devices from Terminal

Published by A on July 6, 2021

I just stumbled on a neat trick to send iMessage to your signed-in iOS/Mac devices from the macOS terminal. It will send notifications to your Apple devices, especially if you’re working on automation or long-running shell scripts / Docker build from your Macbook once they’re complete.

$ osascript -e 'tell application "Messages" to send "Hey, your long ass task is complete" to buddy "+6012xxxxxx"'

Replace +6012xxxxxxx with your phone number.

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Fixing loud and clicky iPhone 6s home button

Published by A on June 21, 2016

I bought a new iPhone 6s last month to replace my old trusty iPhone 5. Everything went fine and dandy as I’m enjoying the blazing speed of the latest iPhone hardware.

This morning I noticed my iPhone home button was very clicky and hard to press. The clicking sound was loud, even though it’s functioning properly. I had to apply twice as pressure to return to home screen. To make sure if I am the only one who is having the problem, I tested my wife iPhone 6s home button. As expected, hers is working as expected.

Afraid that I will break the home button sooner or later, I contacted Apple support. After 15 minutes talking over online support chat, they arranged me an appointment to nearest Apple Authorized Service Center, which is Machines IOI Mall Putrajaya. At the same time, I searched on the Internet if there’s any quick solution to fix the problem. Last time when I owned iPhone 3Gs, the quick fix was to ‘rub’ and ‘massage’ the home button.

I stumbled on one Youtube video asking the viewer if they have a solution to mend the issue, and there is one comment saying that you can fix the clicky issue by applying rubbing alcohol throughout the ring of the home button using tissue or cotton bud. Being adventurous, I followed the advice and it’s working!

 

IMG_0635

Other than cleaning your open wound from a bear attack, it also can save your iPhone home button.

So what needs to be done.

  1. Turn off your iPhone.
  2. Dip a tissue or cotton bud rubbing alcohol (isopropyl or ethanol)
  3. Press and hold your home button.
  4. Rub the tissue or cotton bud around the home button. Let it dry for a moment.
  5. Test your home button again.

If it’s still not working, I assume your home button flex ribbon was broken, and I advise you to contact Apple Support to arrange a proper hardware replacement schedule.

If it’s working, do share your experience in the comment section.

Until tomorrow.

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USB Tethering without iTunes

Published by A on November 10, 2015

For god-knows reason, sometimes Wifi tethering doesn’t work so another choice is to tether over USB cable. But you don’t want to install bloated iTunes in your computer. You may try this alternative to enable USB tethering without iTunes.

Install these two files in a given order (Important, or else it won’t work)

a) AppleApplicationSupport.msi

http://bit.ly/1QfljcF

b) AppleMobileDeviceSupport64.msi

http://bit.ly/1MlIL1R

2. Plug your iPhone to the USB cable and enable USB tethering. Voila!

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(Linux) Generate dummy segmentation fault

Published by A on August 26, 2015

Create a new C file.

#include <stdio.h>

int main()
{
    puts((void *)((unsigned long long)-1));
    return 0;

}

Compile and run.

[root@slave log]# gcc -o seg seg.c
[root@slave log]# ./seg
Segmentation fault
[root@slave log]# tail /var/log/messages
Aug 26 23:39:18 slave kernel: seg[7788]: segfault at fffffffffffffff0 ip 00007fee2413c231 
sp 00007ffdb268c488 error 4 in libc-2.12.so[7fee240bb000+18a000]
[root@slave log]#

It is very useful if you are working on custom monitoring to track segfault daemons/services/applications on your server.

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