Lion Login screen - Computer Name, Additional Info... Help

[lokey]

I searched the forum and could not find a thread with a solution to this topic, so excuse me if this has been covered previously.

In previous versions of OS X, you were able to view the Computer Name at the login screen prior to logging in. The text allowed you to click it and toggle through other information such as OS Version, Build number, Serial number, IP address, etc. This was extremely useful in a support environment, but it no longer seems like it is an option in Lion.

You can see another example of how this works in Apple > About This Mac. Just click the Version 10.7 text below where it says Mac OS X. This exact info was on the login screen in Snow Leopard and previous version.

Is there an alternative to this? I can't even click on the Battery and Airport icons that now displays on the login screen of Lion. They are grayed out. Is that to be expected?

 

[lokey]

Found this article:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4787

It implies that this data is available at the login screen, but it says its for Lion Server and the sudo command doesn't work.

 

[lokey]

No one?

 

[racerx447]

I too noticed this little problem/annoyance with the GM build (and 10.7.1) of Lion. (This functionality worked in the developer previews btw) I consider this an annoyance since it is the least of my problems with Lion but I did find a way to make it work again and I thought I'd share what I found... I hadn't realized apple had even put a post on how to do this up but what I did is essentially the same command they give for an example. I ran the following to get mine working again:

Sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow AdminHostInfo IPAddress

To see the info click on the clock in the upper right corner of the screen. Keep in mind, running this command will not automatically show the info, you have to click the clock before it will show anything.

[RANT]Why did apple change this? My only thought is that they really want IT people to hate their products (even more) and thus completely remove themselves from the Enterprise/Education markets... Their plan is succeeding...[/RANT]

Good luck!