Having recently switched to Mac OS X, I stumbled upon issues when mounting shared folders on my Macbook Pro from our Linux development server. Previously, both Windows Vista and Ubuntu have had no trouble sharing a directory then mounting it from the dev server via smbfs. This enables me (and other developers) to edit files locally which then also appear as a local files to our development server, where we run Apache / MySQL etc.

After sniffing around System Preferences in Leopard, and juggling some account credentials so SMB login details pair up, I could successfully mount my workspace folder. Make sure the appropriate permissions are set on your shared folder, then click options and disable AFP, and enable SMB.

Unfortunately, some minutes later it unmounted itself. After some Googling, I found others with the same issue.

I read (unfortunately I’ve since lost the link) that changing from smbfs to cifs helps remedy this problem. I gave it a shot and it sure enough it cured the dropping issue.

However, when using cifs I would get permissions problems if I ran a script that manipulated / generated files in my workspace. My OS X uid and gid do not match those of the development server (Ubuntu); Mac uids start at 501 and Ubuntu creates users starting above 1000.

Fortunately simply telling the mount to ignore permissions seem to solve the problem. This is the mount entry in the development server’s /etc/fstab:

//192.168.0.1/workspace /home/greg/workspace cifs
      noperm,credentials=/home/greg/workspace.smb,rw 0 0

That should be all on one line but is broken over two for formatting purposes. Of course you substitute 192.168.0.1 with your Macbook’s UNC name or IP address. You should substitute ‘workspace’ with the name of your shared folder and change the mount point on the local server accordingly too.

The username and password specified in your credentials file will have to match your OS X user and password you set up when modifying the sharing options earlier.

If you choose not to sign up for MobileMe, there is no option in preferences to remove the sync icon (which you will never use) from the menu bar.

Fortunately, holding the Command (Apple) key and dragging the icon to the desktop should detach and remove it.

I started writing this post some months ago back in September but never got around to finishing it. At first this post was going to be me singing my praises for Ubuntu and how well Ubuntu supports the Macbook Pro. Unfortunately in that time I’ve now moved to Mac OS X…

I ran Ubuntu on my Macbook Pro seemlessly for just under 3 months before upgrading to Intrepid Ibex. The upgrade went smoothly, except for my office printer no longer working. This lead to Ubuntu’s demise on my MBP. After re-installing the driver 3 times I decided I’d remove CUPS in case there were left over configuration files causing issues. Unfortunately I stupidly marked all CUPS components with ‘remove completely’ via synaptic. I then watched synaptic systematically remove nearly all my system packages… nautilus, firefox, gnome, the lot. My bad.

After 3 days of recovering my data and failed attempts to re-install, and have my Macbook boot Ubuntu without live CD assistance, I gave up and installed Mac OS X. This in itself is no fault of Apple or Ubuntu. Apple never meant for Macbook’s to run Linux.

Two issues arose when I moved from Windows Vista running on Bootcamp to native Ubuntu.

1) Rewind to mid-August, after reading up on hardware compatibility, and how to put Ubuntu on my Macbook Pro, I wiped my Windows Vista and OSX partitions and installed Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy). That was a whole lot of fun – only realising Apple had crippled my “Superdrive” with a firmware update, I couldn’t read my Mac OSX Leopard DVD (I’m not the only one – £400+ for Apple to fix it, no thanks!) and only able to occasionally read the Ubuntu installation CD.

I managed to overcome these hurdles with a trusty 16GB Rally 2 USB stick and a WD Passport external USB hard drive. I even splashed out on an external DVD-RW to make future re-installs easier.

2) In early September I noticed when running on batteries my Macbook Pro would switch off after only 5 mins. No prompts about low battery, no shutdown sequence, nada. Just power off immediately. At the time I put this down to poor power management by Ubuntu. Just last night however (running OS X) it did exactly the same thing. So it looks like another hardware fault on my £1350 (with academic discount) laptop.

The firmware upgrade happened some months ago, possibly autumn 2007 but having no reason to use the DVD drive for months, I never noticed until I switched operating systems. The instant-power-off-issue-with-no-warming issue has only manifested since August. Co-incidentally just as my 1 yr of Apple Care expired.

So despite it’s low profile form factor and decent performance, I vow never to purchase another Macbook again. It’s a regular PC laptop for me next time…