The JK Buzz 3.14.2011, in this edition...

Mac OS X: 64-bit boot for new MacBook Pros (& fix for Cisco VPN), Older apps and Macs not supported by Lion, Big change for OS X Server, Another Trojan blown out of proportion

Macintosh Miscellaneous: Thunderbolt!, Thunderbolt target disk support!, Firmware password crackdown

Office Applications: Pictures not printing in Word 2011

Creative applications: Out with the old Quark technique

Mac OS X

64-bit boot for new MacBook Pros (& fix for Cisco VPN)

Apple’s new 2011 MacBook Pros boot into 64-bit mode by default. Previously only late model Mac Pros and Xserves booted into 64-bit mode, everything else booted into 32-bit mode.

Cisco VPN client versions 4.9.01.0280 and older will not work on a Mac booted into 64-bit mode, giving an error 51 at launch.  Until Cisco releases a new version that is 64-bit compatible, Macs that boot into 64-bit mode will need to be manually booted into 32-bit mode in order to run Cisco VPN.  See this page for instructions.

Older apps and Macs not supported by Lion

Preview testers of Apple’s next operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 (a.k.a. Lion), have confirmed that Rosetta has been removed. This means it is likely that only applications have been written as Universal or Intel-only will run under 10.7. It has also been reported that Lion will not run on older Intel-based Macs that don’t support 64-bit (specifically all Macs with Core Duo or Core Solo processors can’t run 10.7).

Big change for OS X Server

Apple has announced that Mac OS X 10.7 will no longer have a separate client and server version, and that any Mac running Lion can be configured as a server using built-in server software. Lion Server will not be a stand-alone product, and it will not be sold

Another Trojan blown out of proportion

A new Mac OS X Trojan horse has been getting some the-sky-is-falling press lately, dubbed MusMinim by Sophos, and know as BlackHole RAT elsewhere. If you believe the hype, this one is as bad as they get, including the ability take remote control of the Mac and redirect web traffic.

I did some research, and this Trojan is just a proof of concept written by a German kid, and poses absolutely no risk to the public. To become “infected” you have manually download it from the guy’s website, and enter an activation code to install it (in addition to authenticating as an admin user, as with any Trojan install). I personally would not even classify this as a Trojan.

Macintosh Miscellaneous

Thunderbolt!

Apple’s new 2011 MacBook Pros come with a new hardware feature called Thunderbolt, Apple’s implementation of Intel’s Light Peak technology. Thunderbolt provides a new way to interface with external devices at blazingly fast speed, up to 12 times faster than FireWire 800.

Thunderbolt is integrated into the new MacBook Pro Mini Display Port. It is designed to connect multiple drives and devices, daisy chained together, and supports connecting a monitor with a DisplayPort connection at the end. Theoretically Thunderbolt is capable of driving multiple displays, but new displays will need to be developed to tap into that potential.

At the moment there aren’t any devices on the market that support Thunderbolt, however a variety of hard drives makers have announced plans to build new peripherals and storage products soon, and there will likely be dozens of devices out this summer.

Thunderbolt target disk support!

Thunderbolt supports Target Disk Mode just like FireWire. If you hold down the T key during boot on Apple’s new 2011 MacBook Pro, both the Thunderbolt and FireWire symbols on displayed on the screen.

Firmware password crackdown

According to Apple’s Knowledgbase article TS3554, only Apple authorized service providers can unlock a forgotten firmware password on a 2010 MacBook Air or 2011 MacBook Pro. Previous tricks/hacks for resetting firmware password no longer are applicable to these models.

Office Applications

Pictures not printing in Word 2011

If you insert a picture into a textbox in a Word 2011 .docx document, the picture will be missing if you print it or save it to PDF. This bug only occurs when placing a picture into a textbox (placing a picture directly to the page works). A confirmed workaround is to save the document in .doc format, which isn’t affect by this glitch.

Creative Applications

Out with the old Quark technique

One old school Quark troubleshooting trick/technique was to create a Preferences folder within the QuarkXPress application folder, which Quark would magically see and create it’s preference file there instead of in the ~/Library/Preferences folder. Apparently this technique isn’t compatible with Snow Leopard, and it can cause Quark to crash at launch. If you are troubleshooting a problem where Quark won’t open, check to see if this folder exists, and delete it if found: /Applications/QuarkXPress/Preferences.