I have a G4 desktop running Panther. It has a couple of internal drives, and
an external firewire drive. I want it to boot off the firewire drive, and I
do *not* want it to mount the internal drives (they have OS9 file systems,
and cannot be given appropriate user permissions, so to prevent the other
users from touching them, I want them not to appear on the desktop at all).
I've gotten an applescript which unmounts them. Can someone tell me, 1) how
can I tell the system (some Unix init file?) not to mount them in the first
place when booting? 2) barring that, how do I get the system to run the
applescript and dismount them on boot-up? (again, surely there's some
appropriate init shell script), or 3) if that's hard, then I was thinking to
simply add it to the "Startup items" tab on each user's login options -
whoever logs in first, that would unmount the drives. But the weird thing
is, in Accounts, my account (as the manager) is the only one which has a
"startup items" tab - the other people's accounts don't have one! That seems
odd to me - shouldn't all the users have the ability to have startup items?
Anyways, I guess any of these 3 options would do the trick. Can anyone tell
me how they can be accomplished? Thanks in advance!!


--

Mike Levin
mlevin77@comcast.net

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:44:08 -0500, Michael Levin wrote
(in article <BD21E318.1A98F%mlevin77@comcast.net>):

> I have a G4 desktop running Panther. It has a couple of internal drives, and
> an external firewire drive. I want it to boot off the firewire drive, and I
> do *not* want it to mount the internal drives (they have OS9 file systems,
> and cannot be given appropriate user permissions, so to prevent the other
> users from touching them, I want them not to appear on the desktop at all).
> I've gotten an applescript which unmounts them. Can someone tell me, 1) how
> can I tell the system (some Unix init file?) not to mount them in the first
> place when booting? 2) barring that, how do I get the system to run the
> applescript and dismount them on boot-up? (again, surely there's some
> appropriate init shell script), or 3) if that's hard, then I was thinking to
> simply add it to the "Startup items" tab on each user's login options -
> whoever logs in first, that would unmount the drives. But the weird thing
> is, in Accounts, my account (as the manager) is the only one which has a
> "startup items" tab - the other people's accounts don't have one! That seems
> odd to me - shouldn't all the users have the ability to have startup items?
> Anyways, I guess any of these 3 options would do the trick. Can anyone tell
> me how they can be accomplished? Thanks in advance!!

I had essentially the very same need, that is to eject (unmount) an internal
drive when I booted from an external drive. This was addressed by a simple
AppleScript which I placed in the startup items of each of the accounts I
might sign on with.

Here is the script....



tell application "Finder"

eject "Macintosh HD"

end tell



The current name of the drive needs to be the enquoted parameter to the
"eject" command. Additional drives can be added by including appropriate
"eject" commands.


The only problem with this script (and I am seeking a cure for that) is that
on startup the user is asked if the script is to be run, and if so the user
is then requested to enter the name and password of an administrating
account.


-- James L. Ryan -- TaliesinSoft

"My dog never came across a bush he didn't like!"

On 7/19/04 9:28 PM, in article
0001HW.BD21DF5300015674F03055B0@news...bcglo bal.net, "TaliesinSoft"
<taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:44:08 -0500, Michael Levin wrote
> (in article <BD21E318.1A98F%mlevin77@comcast.net>):
>
>> I have a G4 desktop running Panther. It has a couple of internal drives, and
>> an external firewire drive. I want it to boot off the firewire drive, and I
>> do *not* want it to mount the internal drives (they have OS9 file systems,
>> and cannot be given appropriate user permissions, so to prevent the other
>> users from touching them, I want them not to appear on the desktop at all).
>> I've gotten an applescript which unmounts them. Can someone tell me, 1) how
>> can I tell the system (some Unix init file?) not to mount them in the first
>> place when booting? 2) barring that, how do I get the system to run the
>> applescript and dismount them on boot-up? (again, surely there's some
>> appropriate init shell script), or 3) if that's hard, then I was thinking to
>> simply add it to the "Startup items" tab on each user's login options -
>> whoever logs in first, that would unmount the drives. But the weird thing
>> is, in Accounts, my account (as the manager) is the only one which has a
>> "startup items" tab - the other people's accounts don't have one! That seems
>> odd to me - shouldn't all the users have the ability to have startup items?
>> Anyways, I guess any of these 3 options would do the trick. Can anyone tell
>> me how they can be accomplished? Thanks in advance!!
>
> I had essentially the very same need, that is to eject (unmount) an internal
> drive when I booted from an external drive. This was addressed by a simple
> AppleScript which I placed in the startup items of each of the accounts I
> might sign on with.

sounds great - I've got such a script. The problem is that for some
reason, my account is the only one which has a "startup items" tab - the
other people's accounts have no such tab! Do all your accounts have a
"startup items" page?? Why don't mine?

--

Mike Levin
mlevin77@comcast.net

In article <BD2203C3.1A992%mlevin77@comcast.net>, Michael Levin
<mlevin77@comcast.net> wrote:

> On 7/19/04 9:28 PM, in article
> 0001HW.BD21DF5300015674F03055B0@news...bcglo bal.net, "TaliesinSoft"
> <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:44:08 -0500, Michael Levin wrote
> > (in article <BD21E318.1A98F%mlevin77@comcast.net>):
> >
> >> I have a G4 desktop running Panther. It has a couple of internal drives,
> >> and
> >> an external firewire drive. I want it to boot off the firewire drive, and I
> >> do *not* want it to mount the internal drives (they have OS9 file systems,
> >> and cannot be given appropriate user permissions, so to prevent the other
> >> users from touching them, I want them not to appear on the desktop at all).
> >> I've gotten an applescript which unmounts them. Can someone tell me, 1) how
> >> can I tell the system (some Unix init file?) not to mount them in the first
> >> place when booting? 2) barring that, how do I get the system to run the
> >> applescript and dismount them on boot-up? (again, surely there's some
> >> appropriate init shell script), or 3) if that's hard, then I was thinking
> >> to
> >> simply add it to the "Startup items" tab on each user's login options -
> >> whoever logs in first, that would unmount the drives. But the weird thing
> >> is, in Accounts, my account (as the manager) is the only one which has a
> >> "startup items" tab - the other people's accounts don't have one! That
> >> seems
> >> odd to me - shouldn't all the users have the ability to have startup items?
> >> Anyways, I guess any of these 3 options would do the trick. Can anyone tell
> >> me how they can be accomplished? Thanks in advance!!
> >
> > I had essentially the very same need, that is to eject (unmount) an internal
> > drive when I booted from an external drive. This was addressed by a simple
> > AppleScript which I placed in the startup items of each of the accounts I
> > might sign on with.
>
> sounds great - I've got such a script. The problem is that for some
> reason, my account is the only one which has a "startup items" tab - the
> other people's accounts have no such tab! Do all your accounts have a
> "startup items" page?? Why don't mine?

You do can only edit startup items for the account you're logged into,
I think.

--
Jerry Kindall, Seattle, WA <http://www.jerrykindall.com/>

Send only plain text messages under 32K to the Reply-To address.
This mailbox is filtered aggressively to thwart spam and viruses.

On 7/19/04 11:16 PM, in article
190720042016302084%jerrykindall@nospam.invalid, "Jerry Kindall"
<jerrykindall@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> In article <BD2203C3.1A992%mlevin77@comcast.net>, Michael Levin
> <mlevin77@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> On 7/19/04 9:28 PM, in article
>> 0001HW.BD21DF5300015674F03055B0@news...bcglo bal.net, "TaliesinSoft"
>> <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:44:08 -0500, Michael Levin wrote
>>> (in article <BD21E318.1A98F%mlevin77@comcast.net>):
>>>
>>>> I have a G4 desktop running Panther. It has a couple of internal drives,
>>>> and
>>>> an external firewire drive. I want it to boot off the firewire drive, and I
>>>> do *not* want it to mount the internal drives (they have OS9 file systems,
>>>> and cannot be given appropriate user permissions, so to prevent the other
>>>> users from touching them, I want them not to appear on the desktop at all).
>>>> I've gotten an applescript which unmounts them. Can someone tell me, 1) how
>>>> can I tell the system (some Unix init file?) not to mount them in the first
>>>> place when booting? 2) barring that, how do I get the system to run the
>>>> applescript and dismount them on boot-up? (again, surely there's some
>>>> appropriate init shell script), or 3) if that's hard, then I was thinking
>>>> to
>>>> simply add it to the "Startup items" tab on each user's login options -
>>>> whoever logs in first, that would unmount the drives. But the weird thing
>>>> is, in Accounts, my account (as the manager) is the only one which has a
>>>> "startup items" tab - the other people's accounts don't have one! That
>>>> seems
>>>> odd to me - shouldn't all the users have the ability to have startup items?
>>>> Anyways, I guess any of these 3 options would do the trick. Can anyone tell
>>>> me how they can be accomplished? Thanks in advance!!
>>>
>>> I had essentially the very same need, that is to eject (unmount) an internal
>>> drive when I booted from an external drive. This was addressed by a simple
>>> AppleScript which I placed in the startup items of each of the accounts I
>>> might sign on with.
>>
>> sounds great - I've got such a script. The problem is that for some
>> reason, my account is the only one which has a "startup items" tab - the
>> other people's accounts have no such tab! Do all your accounts have a
>> "startup items" page?? Why don't mine?
>
> You do can only edit startup items for the account you're logged into,
> I think.

even as manager? I am logged in as manager, to manage people's accounts.
Do you mean I have to log in as them to change their startup items?

--

Mike Levin
mlevin77@comcast.net

In article <BD249346.1AC53%mlevin77@comcast.net>, Michael Levin
<mlevin77@comcast.net> wrote:

> On 7/19/04 11:16 PM, in article
> 190720042016302084%jerrykindall@nospam.invalid, "Jerry Kindall"
> <jerrykindall@nospam.invalid> wrote:
>
> > In article <BD2203C3.1A992%mlevin77@comcast.net>, Michael Levin
> > <mlevin77@comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> >> On 7/19/04 9:28 PM, in article
> >> 0001HW.BD21DF5300015674F03055B0@news...bcglo bal.net, "TaliesinSoft"
> >> <taliesinsoft@mac.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 19:44:08 -0500, Michael Levin wrote
> >>> (in article <BD21E318.1A98F%mlevin77@comcast.net>):
> >>>
> >>> I had essentially the very same need, that is to eject (unmount) an
> >>> internal
> >>> drive when I booted from an external drive. This was addressed by a simple
> >>> AppleScript which I placed in the startup items of each of the accounts I
> >>> might sign on with.
> >>
> >> sounds great - I've got such a script. The problem is that for some
> >> reason, my account is the only one which has a "startup items" tab - the
> >> other people's accounts have no such tab! Do all your accounts have a
> >> "startup items" page?? Why don't mine?
> >
> > You do can only edit startup items for the account you're logged into,
> > I think.
>
> even as manager? I am logged in as manager, to manage people's accounts.
> Do you mean I have to log in as them to change their startup items?

Sorry. Strike the "do."

You can only edit startup items for the account you're logged into, I
think.

You could presumably set their startup items by copying your
loginwindow.plist file to their ~/Library/Preferences directory. If
you do this, they won't be able to change their own startup items,
because they don't own that file, which may be what you want. Of
course, this will also wipe out any startup items they have already
set, and foil the installation of any software that tries to set a
startup item (e.g. many system add-ons).

--
Jerry Kindall, Seattle, WA <http://www.jerrykindall.com/>

Send only plain text messages under 32K to the Reply-To address.
This mailbox is filtered aggressively to thwart spam and viruses.

In comp.sys.mac, on 2004.07.20 00:44:08,
You, the ever astonishing mlevin77@comcast.net, emitted:

<snip!>

> can I tell the system (some Unix init file?) not to mount them in the first
> place when booting? 2) barring that, how do I get the system to run the
> applescript and dismount them on boot-up? (again, surely there's some
> appropriate init shell script), or 3) if that's hard, then I was thinking to
> simply add it to the "Startup items" tab on each user's login options -
>

This may not help (I still have a lot of trouble flying
OSX), but: Would sticking something in a crontab do? I
was delighted to find that, e.g.,

@reboot su - seti -c 'cd distribfold;./foldit &'

released me from my struggle to understand "Startup..."
altogether :-)

<snip!>
Cheers, N.