FileVault and Powerbook

I am trying to decide whether to turn on FileVault on my 12" PB. It is a 1.5 Ghz, 80GB HD, 1.25 megs o ram, running OS 10.4.5. The only non-Apple apps I have are Dreamweaver and Photoshop. I have read through the threads and have seen some problems folks have had. It looks like some are when people want to turn FileVault off. And some issues with 10.3.XXX. Once I go with FV, I won't be turning it off. I have critical/sensitive data I want to protect. Once I turn it on, I understand I can, through Disk Utility I can erase the unused portion of the HD. Are there issues with turning this on after I already have used this computer for 8 months? Should I back all data up on CD and reinstall OSX and go from there? All thoughts appreciated. EL P

El Perdido,
Welcome to Apple Discussions.
An Unencrypted Look at FileVault, by François Joseph de Kermadec is an excellent discussion of the features, pitfalls, and cautions regarding Filevault.
Although the article discusses Panther and is dated 12/19/2003, the concepts as they apply Tiger have not changed.
The cautions and warnings are prominent in any of the Apple Knowledge Base articles referring to the use of FileVault. If a user is unfamiliar with any aspect of FileVault, it should not in my opinion be activated.
As good as FileVault is in protecting your sensitive data, it also presents the danger of locking up your files in an irretrievable ball of one's and zero's. Backups are critical. You must ensure that you have a comprehensive backup plan. Backup and Recovery, by Dr. Smoke is a fine example of what you need to consider.
;~)

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Filevault and user web site

Is there any way to access my local web site (http://127.0.0.1/~me/) and my powerbook, prtotected by filevault. Actually I have a "Forbidden" message.
I have changed the group of httpd, but still the same probleme.
I just want localhost to work, no access from the outside (i.e. the sparseimage is then mounted and unlocked)
Is it possible to enter the ".sparseimage" used by filevault ?
(Powerbook, 10.4.4)
G5, 10.4.4 Mac OS X (10.4.2)

I had the same problem with the Personal Web Server. I think filevault may be a red-herring.
If your issue was the same as mine it is because Apache has been upgraded from 1.3 to 2.2.
The thread with the details is:-
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=5649480#5649480

Turned on fileVault AND firmware password, can't boot into verbose mode?

Just out of curiousity, I turned on fileVault AND firmware password on my retina macbook pro,
and when I boot up holding command-v, instead of getting the firmware password screen, I get the filevault password screen.
Is this normal and expected behaviour?

The firmware password disables that shortcut; verbose mode can still be used by using the Terminal to change the NVRAM boot arguments, which requires an administrator password.
(100118)

IBook and Powerbook Poster

I just bought this Fabric Poster from apple. It has a picture of the iBook G4 and Powerbook G4 and in the middle it says "Too bad you only have one Lap"
Is this a geniune product, on the back it has a copyright date of 1996.
Where do you think this was used? When? Is it rare?
Its pretty big too, probably 2 feet wide and 4 feet tall?

Have you seen:
http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/USAToday_Features_2-Page_Ad_For_PowerBook_iBook_WithPics/
This was 2001

I do not remember my password of filevault and i can not install some softwares on my mac please help me

i do not remember my password of filevault and i can not install some softwares on my mac please help me

Are you sure FileVault is active? You could not have started up without entering the password.
If you are sure, see below.
If you forget the password and FileVault is on

I have keynote on ipad2 and powerbook g4. if I send a keynote work from mac to Ipad, I cannot read it. any solution?

I have keynote on ipad2 and powerbook g4. if I send,by mail, a keynote work from mac to Ipad, I cannot read it.there is no problem fram Ipad to mac. any solution? thanks

How are you trying to transfer the Keynote presentation?
You can email the presentation to yourself and open it with Keynote on your iPad.
You can use iTunes. Connect your iPad to your laptop, start iTunes, go to the App Tab for your device and add your presentation to the Apps/Keynote section. Now if you touch the "+" in keynote on your iPad you will get the choice Copy from iTunes.
Your can setup iCloud on your laptop & iPad and save your Mac laptop presentation to iCloud and just open it on your iPad.
There are, of course many other ways, Dropbox, etc.

FileVault and the 10.7.2 upgrade (or any restore, too)

My first Mac (mid-2011 MBA).
I did a (network) restore after the 10.7.2 upgrade, because it was taking so long (and I killed it). Then after the restore everything was looking good except after the login screen the spinny just keeps going, no desktop yet.
Could this be because I use FileVault, and I just need to wait it out until my desktop finally appears (is it encrypting the disk again?) It has been over an hour since I logged into the (restored) machine.

Fellas,
Just to rule out the obvious: are you using a non-US keyboard? Do you have y's and z's in your password (or any other special characters)? So you might just have hit the following problem:
http://hymnos.existenz.ch/2011/10/13/probleme-bei-der-passworteingabe-nach-updat e-von-mac-os-x-lion-mit-aktivierter-festplattenverschlusselung/
This page is in german, but roughly speaking it boils down to OS X not being able do detect the keyboard layout in the login screen (naturally, because the disk is still encrypted at that point) and defaults to US-keyboard layout.
And apparently you don't see the keyboard layout anymore in the 10.7.2 login screen. So just enter your password as if it was a US-keyboard and see whether that makes a difference.
Cheers

Filevault and Secure Virtual Memory

If I have filevault enabled and secure virtual memory am I reducing my system performance because it would be encrypting already encrypted data?
What sorts of security breaches can occur by not enabling secure virtual memory?
P.S would this protect against the hack where a thief can extract my RAM and read my system password stored inside?
Thanks
-IP20

Hi, Bob,
Yes, you are right but "not exactly."
If the computer is a laptop and is stolen with an intact battery and has not been shut down, then data in RAM may be accessible. It may be difficult, however, to take a desktop Mac without removing power which would cause the RAM's content to be lost (except for PRAM.)
As for cryogenically freezing the computer that would most likely require removing the computer to another location. Removing frozen chips would be difficult if one wished to avoid having them increase to a temperature where the data would be lost.
In any event I don't think the above are even relevant concerns for the consumer user. What would the typical home user have on a computer that would merit such extreme measures. Handling something cold enough to freeze RAM sufficiently to recover its content requires special equipment. I don't think my neighbor really cares that much - and the hacker would need direct access to the hardware. I don't think I would let someone have access to my computer that showed up at my door with a large thermos of liquid nitrogen! Furthermore who would leave their computer turned on and accessible, then walk away from it if they were so security conscious that they needed to use FileVault and Secure VM?

FileVault and searching

I recently launched FileVault and now I cant seem to use the search function, does anyone know if this is a bug or a fact of life with FileVault encryption?

There is really no need to do that. "lsregister" is automatically run when you startup anyway, and running a secondary instance is only likely to cause problems. See Launch Services Programming Guide: Application Registration:
All applications available on the user’s system must be registered to make them known to Launch Services and copy their document binding and other information into its database. It isn’t ordinarily necessary to perform this task explicitly, since a variety of utilities and services built into the Mac OS X system software take care of it automatically:
•A built-in background tool (lsregister), run whenever the system is booted or a new user logs in, automatically searches the Applications folders in the system, network, local, and user domains and registers any new applications it finds there. (This operation is analogous to “rebuilding the desktop” in earlier versions of Mac OS.)
Hope this helps....
Message was edited by: MarkDouma®

Filevault, and osx resetting default apps

Hi...
First off, I have a Mac book pro running OSX 10.5.1 and have filevault enabled (as it is a company computer, and is required) however I (and my collegues) are seeing that OSX appears to forget all about which apps to use for which type of files (ie. I use acrobat for PDFs, textmate for .txt, default browser is firefox, mail client is thunderbird etc etc.) but after a reboot all this is forgotten and I need to reassociate everything again.
Is there really no good fix for this? Or did someone forget to test the filevault app before launching it in leopard? I have been looking around the web and have found indications that it is filevault thats causing the problem, but nowhere does it say anything about a good solution for this.
I usually put the MBP into sleep mode, and then it doesn't forget the default apps, but once in a while a reboot is necessary (OSX do crash, quite often actually).
Solutions and recommendations are welcome.
Regards
Thomas

Turn off FileVault and see if the problem continues. If not, delete the filevault sparseimage. Once that's done, reset the LaunchServices database as described in http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20031215144430486 but with using this command:
*/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchS ervices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user*
which changed from what's posted WRT Tiger. The command is all one line, just copy and paste it. If all problems are gone, restart FileVault.

I am planning on recycling an old iMac and Powerbook. However, the display on the iMac is so messed up I can't read anything and the Powerbook is unusable (no power) so what do I do about erasing the hardrives for security?

I've been reading up on how to clean your hard drive so personal information can't be accessed, but if you can't get to your hard drive to clean it up, what are you supposed to do? My town is offering an electronics recycling and I was hoping to drop off my old iMac and Powerbook. I can turn the iMac on, but the display is really bad and almost unreadable. The Powerbook is completely dead. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Since both computers have operational problems, I'd suggest removing the hard drives from them. That way, you'll have possession of the drives and their data. Considering their age, I doubt that the recycling program will attempt to repair these computers for donation to needy parties, but if you thought so, you could buy a $15 adapter that would let you connect the bare drive to a USB port on your functioning computer. Once connected, you could erase the drives and reinstall them. You didn't indicate which iMac you have, but if it's a G3 model, this Macworld article has illustrated directions for hardware upgrades, which would show you how to remove the hard drive. If your iMac is a G3 (400 MHz or faster) with the additional VGA port concealed under the plastic door on the rear of its underside, you could connect a VGA display and attempt setting up video mirroring. Once done, you could wipe the drive, while using the connected display to navigate through the procedure. This would eliminate the need to open the bottom of the housing, to access the hard drive for removal. As for the PowerBook, you could post a topic in its specific Forum (depending on the model) and request directions for hard drive removal. Post back as to your preferred option, if you have any questions regarding it.

FileVault and Maintenance 3.5

I was going to run the Automator action "Maintenance 3.5" (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/maintenance.html) on Tiger, and here this little problem came into my mind. I heard some folks experienced some serious data loss because they tried to clear system cache by running the maintenance scripts with the FileVault turned on. This did scare me as the FileVault on my PowerBook is always on, and I don't want to run this thing until I make sure it is absolutely safe. Do I have to turn the FileVault off?
PowerBook G4 15" 1.67GHz Mac OS X (10.4.7) 1.5GB RAM, 80GB HD

You're most welcome. Glad to help!
PS: You may want to mark my post here as Solved as it solved your problem and may help others with the same problem that find your topic know the post that contains the answer. Click the Solved button in that post above.
Marking posts that are helpful or solve the problem as Helpful or Solved, respectively, helps others to find answers and awards points to those who take the time to respond. See "Why reward points?".
Marking a topic as Answered indicates the question is resolved, but only you, as the person who asked the question, can mark posts as Helpful or Solved. The "Answered" status neither awards points nor provides an indication to others of the posts that were either helpful or solved the problem.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

Question regarding filevault and a honeypot account

I am running osx lion. I would like to secure my machine, and that includes basics like good passwords and turning on a firmware password. But I would also like to encrypt the contents of the hard drive. Filevault to the rescue it would seem.
But I also have one more requirement.
Since a lot of my equipment was stolen last year I have installed prey on all of my new computers (www.preyproject.com). This allows me to track my machines and potentially get them recovered should they go missing. Prey is useless unless there is a user logged in and so I have created a honeypot account that is minimally protected (i.e. the password is the user name and the password hint explicitly tells you what the password is). This account has parental controls on it to limit the applications that can be run (only web browser, some games, and skype). The idea is that a dumb thief steals my computer, finds it easy to log into the honeypot account, and then uses that with their facebook or whatever because getting past the open firmware settings and the individual "real" account passwords is too hard.
That said, having this software is no guarantee that I will be able to recover my machine, so I want my data encrypted.
Here is my question:
Does the fact that I have to add this simple password for the honeypot account to use the computer (aka open a filevault drive) invalidate my filevault protection? I.e. will this simple password allow them to unencrypt the entire drive, even though I have other accounts with stronger passwords?

The guest account might be just good enough... I'll give it a try. Thanks. Prey seems to work pretty well for me but it has also been touchy in the past. I will have to check it carefully with the guest account to ensure it has the permissions needed to use the webcam and send email and such.
I'm still interested in knowing how filevault encryption works. Does it allow any of the passwords to unencrypt the whole drive, or does it require a unique password per account to unencrypt the data in that account?
Edit: Just saw the repy by Linc Davis
"If everything worked perfectly, the account would only have access to the files in its home folder. But is there an unknown exploit that enables a local user to gain elevated privileges? Such exploits have been found in the past, and may be found in the future."
That clears it up for me a bit. And it makes sense. I will see if I can make do with the guest account.
That said, I actually value the computer hardware - though not as much as the data. I already back the data up which is the first step. Preventing others from accessing it is my next priority, but there is nothing that is THAT critical. I can change all my passwords quickly (and I don't use anything like 1password). I have tax returns on the drive, but they are also password protected.
My primary goal is to keep the average and even slightly above average user from getting to my data (including yanking the drive and putting it into another machine or booting from a CD). As I said, I hope the guest account will be adequate for my honeypot needs.
Also @Linc,
I accidentally clicked on "Helpful" instead of "Answered" on your post. Post a reply and I will do it right this time. Thanks.
Message was edited by: Bernhard VonZastrow1

I restored my Macbook Pro and now I can't log in as Admin - it says there is an error with FileVault and I don't have access - plz help! thank you.

I had to restore my Macbook Pro from Time Capsule yesterday and now when I go to log in as my usual Admin, it says there is a FileVault error and my access is denied. I created another temporary Admin acct, but everything I had on my desktop, etc is "gone" I can look up the "drive' or wahtever it's called, but I can't access any of it. All I want to do is log back in as my usual self (the regular Admin) - plz help! Thanks. p.s. I"m (obviously) not that computer savvy!

Triple-click the line below to select it:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Directory Utility.app
Rght-click or control-click the highlighted text and select
Services ▹ Open
from the contextual menu.* The application Directory Utility will open.
In the Directory Utility window, click the lock icon and authenticate. Select the Directory Editor tool in the toolbar. Select Users from the Viewing menu in the toolbar, if not already selected. Select the affected user account in the list. On the right is a list of properties and values. Select the property "HomeDirectory" and delete it by clicking the minus-sign icon directly below the property list. There are two such icons in the window. You want the one on the right, not the one on the left.
CAUTION: Do not click the minus-sign icon on the left, below the user list.
Then click the Save button in the lower right corner of the window. Quit Directory Utility.
CAUTION: There is no "undo" in Directory Utility. If you make a mistake and delete something in the Directory Editor that should not have been deleted, restore your whole system from a backup and start over. I have no other help to offer in that case.
Try again to log in as the affected user. If you can log in, you should find a file in the home folder with the name of the user and the filename extension "sparseimage" or "sparsebundle". Double-click that file. A disk image should open. Copy your files from that disk image to restore them.
I strongly suggest that you deactivate legacy FileVault in the Security & Privacy preference pane, then log out and log back in. Consider activating FileVault 2 if you want that kind of security.
*If you don't see the contextual menu item, copy the selected text to the Clipboard (command-C). Open a TextEdit window and paste into it (command-V). Select the line you just pasted and continue as above.

New Airport extreme station and Powerbooks. No go

Got a new AE (802.11n) FW 7.1 and got 4 Macintel computers on it, that works. But then I got 2 Powerbooks that sometimes sees the network but when connected only stay connected for maximum 30 min. And then you cant connect for about one hour.
Powerbooks have 10.4.9 and 802.11g-cards.
The network uses WPA , channel 2, and all got public IP-adresses. The station also acts as a router and DHCP-server.
Its connected from the modem > HP switch > ethernet network > Airport station > computer.
Anyone?

Neptune2000,
If your system works great for you that's the way it
should be. I'm a KISS type person and I don't
understand the need for the extra hardware if you
don't need it. Or do you need it?
It appears that acke's system is all Apple no PC
based computers.
It's also a different evironment - European based.
Just curious.
What I meant "that's the setup I have" I meant this:
Verizon DSL Modem --> AEBSn --> (AEBSn extended) --> Powerbook G4, Apple TV, Toshiba notebook
I meant I do niot have the extra hardware, which seems only there to add complexity.

FileVault and Powerbook

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