OS X High Sierra Allow Apps in Security & Privacy

I use Mac laptops, up till now they have been close enough to linux and useable that I like them. However increasingly they are starting to annoy me and my next laptop might be linux only. One example of how annoy they are is this new ‘feature’ in OS X High Sierra where if you are installing something like a system extension, when you go to Security & Privacy to ‘allow’ it, pressing the ‘allow’ button doesn’t work.

For me I was enabling a file system feature of an app, in order to do this I had to allow the app, by going to Security & Privacy and allowing the extension to install. However, I go there, unlock the settings and press ‘allow’. Nothing! Nothing happens, the button remains and the system extension isn’t allowed. So annoying, this is my computer! Have I no control!?

There is a ridiculous fix, and that is too use an apple script to ‘click’ in the correct place. The code is below, to get the coordinates that you need use cmd-shift-4 and you get the screenshot crosshairs that will give you the coordinates that go in the {}.

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to click at {584, 819}'

Mount linux partition in OS X 10.8

I have recently needed to mount an ext3 formatted partition on my MacBook Pro laptop. Silly me thought all I would need to do is plug it in and at most mount it with the command line. Not so…

First you need to install the new fork of the ext2-fuse module called OSXFUSE. Download and run the install. Make sure you tick the box to install the MacFUSE compatibility layer otherwise you will have problems later.

Next install Fuse-ext2, once done if you plug in a ext2/3 drive it should just mount automatically. Currently it is read only. I restarted my computer after installation but this might not be required. I was due a restart anyway.

Why they can’t include native support for a few more formats I don’t know. Seems very silly not too.