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jwoltman

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 15, 2004
11
0
I'm typing this on my brand new 12" PowerBook, and I must say I'm impressed. However, I am used to Linux/Solaris/*BSD, and was wondering if there was some kind of guide or FAQ that details what's different with OS X compared to other UNIX-type systems.

Like, what is the root password? Where do my personal preferences get stored? I installed Firefox, and went looking for my .mozilla folder but couldn't find it. Basic stuff like that is what I'm looking for.

Thanks.
 
jwoltman said:
I'm typing this on my brand new 12" PowerBook, and I must say I'm impressed. However, I am used to Linux/Solaris/*BSD, and was wondering if there was some kind of guide or FAQ that details what's different with OS X compared to other UNIX-type systems.

Like, what is the root password? Where do my personal preferences get stored? I installed Firefox, and went looking for my .mozilla folder but couldn't find it. Basic stuff like that is what I'm looking for.

Thanks.

I haven't seen anything in particular.

You can activate root and set a password through NetInfo Manager in /Applications/Utilities in the security menu. You have to authenticate with your administrator password first.

Preferences are stored under your user area, usually in Library/Preferences but application options are also stored under Application Support.
 
Sorry, don't know about any such FAQ or guide (maybe someone else will), but I can answer your questions.

OS X ships disables the root account by default for security purposes. Any admin account can use 'sudo' so you're never completely locked out. If you want to enable the root account: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106290

Your prefs are stored in ~/Library/Preferences/. Not familiar with the .mozilla folder - what's typically in there?

edit - bous' beat me by 2 minutes. :mad: ;)
 
Folders and files that start with . are hidden in Finder. You can see them with Terminal by doing a 'ls -al'.
System-wide preferences are stored in the /Library folder.
User Preferences are stored in /Users/username/Library

I used google a lot, and i figured things out after a short while.

Lee Tom
 
Thank you both for your quick responses. I will be poking around a lot this weekend. I already re-installed everything once :) just to see what the process was like (and disabled Classic while I was at it)
 
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