catalina

Using SBGrid with MacOS 10.15 and later

SBGrid software is largely compatible with macOS 10.15 Catalina and macOS 11 Big Sur. Initial activation of an installation requires a reboot after account activation. This is necessary to accomodate macOS filesystem controls in the / partition. This is only needed after the initial account activation.

The latest versions for the SBGrid Installation manager (GUI and CLI) will handle the creation of the required '/etc/synthetic.conf' file automatically. A reboot is required after the activation step, but no other action should be required. Previously, the step was a manual operaion.

For Activation instructions, see:
Command line : https://sbgrid.org/wiki/sbgrid-cli
Graphical : https://sbgrid.org/wiki/sbgrid-gui

Once the activation process is completed and the system has been rebooted, the manager can be used normally.

Notes on recent macOS changes :


** The steps outlined below are not typically required but are included for reference.**

Manual creation of the programs path

This process is not typically required with the latest versions of the SBGrid Installation manager, but we have provided the instructions here for reference.

The lastest MacOS provides the option to create links in the root partion via the /etc/synthetic.conf file. This file has the following format:

programs  /opt/sbgrid

Note that the whitespace MUST be a tab character. Spaces will not work. Here is a file for reference : synthetic.conf. Thanks to Ron Rock at University of Chicago for pointing this out.

You can download this file to the proper location on your machine with these two commands:

`` sudo /usr/bin/curl -k https://sbgrid.org/wiki/downloads/synthetic.conf -o /etc/synthetic.conf


Then you MUST REBOOT the computer for the changes to take effect.

You should then see this in your root partition (/) :
$ ls -l /programs

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 11 Jun 4 14:49 /programs -> /opt/sbgrid


From there, you can continue to install software with the installation manager, or use the [GUI](https://sbgrid.org/wiki/client_install).
They are not mutually exclusive.

### Disable SIP from Recovery mode

In rare cases, it may be desirable to disable Apple's System Integrity Protection. For reference, we have included the process to do that here. 

- Restart your Mac.
- Before macOS starts up, hold down Command-R and keep it held down until you see an Apple icon and a progress bar. Release. This boots you into Recovery.
- From the Utilities menu, select Terminal.
- At the prompt run the following and then press Return:
csrutil disable

- Terminal should display a message that SIP was disabled.
- From the  menu, select Restart.

### Remount root filesystem as read/write

If SIP is disabled, it is possible to remount the filesystem as read/write. This is not required to use SBGrid, but for reference we have included the instructions here.
sudo mount -uw /

### Re-enable SIP

- Restart your Mac.
- Before macOS starts up, hold down Command-R and keep it held down until you see an Apple icon and a progress bar. Release. This boots you into Recovery.
- From the Utilities menu, select Terminal.
- At the prompt, re-enbale SIP with :
csrutil enable

- Terminal should display a message that SIP was enabled.
- From the  menu, select Restart.

### How to stop nagging macOS update alerts

It is possible to turn off the nagging pop ups.

- Open System Preferences.
- Click on Software Update.
- Deselect Automatically keep my Mac up to date

## How to ignore macOS Catalina update on your mac
sudo softwareupdate --ignore "macOS Catalina"

You will see :
Ignored updates: ( "macOS Catalina" )

You can reverse this later by running :
sudo softwareupdate --reset-ignored