UNIX Administratosphere

The setup used here was MacOS X 10.4 (not MacOS X Server) on a PowerPC MacMini.

The wheel group is already set up, but is not called wheel. The group wheel does exist, but the group admin is used by su as the wheel group. The user root belongs to both the wheel group and the admin group.

Another point to remember is that the system uses the NetInfo database, not /etc/group. When NetInfo Manager starts, it presents a list of items (like a list of folders). Select group, then in the next pane, select admin. In the window pane below, look at the property labeled “users” and see that your user id is there as well as root.

If you want to add another user to the “wheel” group (in actuality, the admin group here), add a new value to the users property. First, click the lock at the bottom right and enter your password so you can make changes. Select the users property. Next, in the menu bar, select Directory, and under that, select Insert Value. Put the selected user in the entry box that shows up and press Enter when done.

Don’t forget to save this or no changes will take place. This can be done with the usual Command-S or under the menu Domain, select Save Changes.

Since I will be presenting soon (a talk on GNU Screen at the Chicago Linux User’s Group) I am once again considering how to present a slide show. I created the slide presentation in NeoOffice, and saved it to several presentation formats.

However, I was introduced to one presentation format which I was not aware of before: PDF. I had never thought of using a PDF for a presentation. That is, create a PDF from your slide show, and use a viewer such as Evince to present it. I think even the current Adobe Acrobat will support this, as do several others - I think Skim (for MacOS X) also supports a full-screen mode for presentations, as does KPDF for KDE.

In the past, I’ve used full-screen as a way to read the selected PDF; however, it looks like the full-screen mode was designed for presentations entirely - and this is true of all of these PDF readers.

Give it a try today!