Detecting installed 32-bit applications on macOS Mojave

Over the past couple of OS releases, Apple has made it increasingly clear that 32-bit applications are on the way out. Starting with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, launching a 32-bit application for the first time will result in a message similar to this being displayed:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later

macOS Mojave 10.14.x

When the Learn More… button in the alert window is clicked, the following Apple KBase article opens in your default web browser:

32-bit app compatibility with macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later
https://support.apple.com/HT208436

To help identify if and where 32-bit applications have been installed, you can use /Applications/Utilities/System Information.app‘s list of installed software to identify which installed applications show up with the following status:

64-Bit (Intel): No

 

To assist with automating this task, a script is available which uses the /usr/sbin/system_profiler command line tool to detect all 32-bit apps installed in /Applications, /Library or /usr/local and output the list to a logfile stored in /var/log. For more details, please see below the jump.

Building macOS installer disk images for virtual machines with create_macos_vm_install_dmg

A while back, I wrote a couple of scripts which built installers for Mac virtual machines:

• create_os_x_vm_install_dmg
• create_macos_vm_install_dmg

However, Apple made some changes to the macOS installer starting in macOS Sierra 10.12.4 which broke the method I was using to build the installers. Recently though, I figured out that I could use Apple’s createinstallmedia tool to help me with building installers for Mac virtual machines again. After a substantial re-write, create_macos_vm_install_dmg is able to create bootable disk images for virtual machines running macOS Sierra, High Sierra and Mojave.

One change from the previous version of the create_macos_vm_install_dmg script is that the resulting installer no longer runs an automated installation. Instead, it will be necessary to follow the prompts to select the language and drive to install the OS onto. For more details, please see below the jump.

Unlock your FileVault-encrypted boot drive using Disk Utility on macOS Mojave

In the event that you need to unlock an unbootable FileVault-encrypted boot drive on macOS Mojave, it’s possible to do so using Disk Utility and the password to a FileVault-enabled account on the drive.

For more details, see below the jump.

Unlock or decrypt your FileVault-encrypted boot drive from the command line on macOS Mojave

As part of working with FileVault on macOS Mojave, it may be necessary to decrypt an encrypted boot drive in order to fix a problem. On Mojave all boot volumes will use Apple File System (APFS), so to unlock or decrypt an encrypted boot drive from the command line, you will need to do the following:

1. Identify the relevant encrypted APFS volume
2. Unlock the encrypted APFS volume
3. If needed, decrypt the encrypted APFS volume

For more details, see below the jump.