System Management Flashcards
What are the 4 primary peripheral bus technologies supported by Mac computers running OS X
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
FireWire
Thunderbolt
Bluetooth wireless
Which action must take place in order for a Mac to communicate with a Bluetooth peripheral? Where can this be configured?
Bluetooth devices must be paired to each other for communication to occur.
Bluetooth preferences in the System Preference application (or the Bluetooth status menu if enabled)
What’s a device driver? Which 3 primary types of device drivers are there?
It is software specially designed to facilitate the communication between OS X and a peripheral.
Kernel extensions
Framework Plug-ins
Standalone applications
How does OS X support third-party devices without needing third-party device drivers?
OS X uses built-in generic drivers based on each device class.
What can you infer about a connected peripheral if it doesn’t appear in the System Information application?
The issue is likely hardware related.
What does CUPS do?
Common UNIX Printing Systems manages all printing for OS X, including both local and shared printing
What are PPD files responsible for?
PostScript Printer Description files are printer driver files that instruct the CUPS system on how to communicate with specific printer models.
What’s the best source for acquiring printer drives for OS X? (2 things)
Allow Software update system automatically download and install the appropriate printer drivers.
Manually download and install printer drivers from the Apple support website.
Under what circumstances can a standard (nonadministrative) user configure a printer?
A standard user can only configure directly attached or local network printers from the Print dialog (appropriate drivers must be installed).
How do you share printers with other users?
By enabling printer sharing from Print & Scan or Sharing preferences.
How can you select a new printer driver for a configured printer? (2 ways)
It depends on the printer. Sometimes Printer and Scanning preferences allow you to simply select a new printer driver from the Options and Supplies dialog. In many cases you must delete and then re-add the printer.
If it appears that all configured printers are having problems, what’s a potential quick fix?
Reset the entire printing system by using secondary click in the printer list and then choosing “Reset printing system.”
What are the primary system initialization stages in OS X? What are the visual and audible cues of these systems?
Firmware: a startup chime or bright flash of the power-on light, followed by a light gray screen on the primary display
Booter: a dark gray Apple logo on the primary display
Kernel: a small dark gray spinning gear or spinning Earth icon below the Apple Logo
System launchd: a white screen on all displays followed by the login screen
What does the firmware do? What’s the POST?
The firmware initialized the Mac computer’s hardware and locates the booted file on a system volume.
The Power-On Self-Test (POST) checks for basic hardware functionality when the Mac powers on.
What role does the system launchd process serve during system startup?
The launched process is ultimately responsible for starting every system process. It also manages system initialization and starts the loginwindow process.
Which items are automatically started by the system launchd during the system initialization process?
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/StartupItems (via SystemStarter), and the /etc/rc.local UNIX script if it exists
What are the primary user session stages in OS X? What are the visual and audible cues of these items?
The loginwindow process displays the login screen
The launchd process loads applications like the Finder after user authentication
The user environment is active any time the user is logged into the system
What’s the difference between launch daemons, startup items, launch agents, and login items?
Launch daemons and startup items open during system initialization by the system launched process on behalf of the root user.
Launch agents and login items open during the initialization of the user environment by the user’s specific launchd process
What are Safe Sleep and Power Nap?
Safe Sleep (found on all OS X portables) saves the system’s state to permanent storage in cases where the computer’s battery drains completely.
Power Nap (introduced in mid-2011 with all flash storage Macs) allows the Mac to automatically wake in a low-power mode so the system can perform a variety of application and system updates.
What happens during user logout? (6 things)
Requests that all user applications quit; automatically quits any user background processes; runs any logout scripts; records the logout to the main system.log file; resets device permissions and preferences to their defaults; and quits the user’s loginwindow and launchd processes.
What happens during system shutdown?
The loginwindow process logs all users out and then tells the kernel to quit all remaining system processes. Once the kernel quits all system processes, the Mac shuts down.
Which keyboard shortcut is used to Safe Boot OS X?
Press the Power button while holding the Shift key.
Which keyboard shortcut can be used to temporarily choose another startup disk?
Press the Power button while holding the Option key.
Which changes are made when OS X Safe Boots? (3 things)
Attempts to repair the system volume structure; Deletes system KEXT caches; deletes font caches.
Which items aren’t loaded when OS X Safe Boots? (7 things)
Third-party KEXTS Third-party launch agents Third-party launch daemons Third-party startup items Third-party fonts Any user login items Any user-specific launch agents
How do you further resolve an issue that disappears when the Mac successfully safe-boots?
You must find and remove the third-party startup resource that causes the issuel
