[rickey939]

Okay, so I just figured out that NetInfo Manager was replaced by "Directory Utility" in Leopard....so that is where you can enable the root user if you want.

However, I used to be able to kill off user accounts through NetInfo Manager that were corrupted and didn't show up in "Accounts" of System Preferences. I need to do the same thing in Leopard, but don't see where I can do that in Directory Utility. Any idea how I can permanently kill off a user account so it frees up that short name and can be used again by the system within Leopard?

[Art Vandelay]

Directory Utility is just the new version of Directory Access. It just happens to also have the ability to enable the root user like the old NetInfo Manager.

If you want to work with the local Open Directory, you can use the Leopard version of Workgroup Manager. You can probably also use another LDAP editor too.

You can also tweak accounts visible in the Accounts pref pane by right-clicking them and going into Advanced Options. Remember to unlock the pref pane first.

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay 

Directory Utility is just the new version of Directory Access. It just happens to also have the ability to enable the root user like the old NetInfo Manager.

If you want to work with the local Open Directory, you can use the Leopard version of Workgroup Manager. You can probably also use another LDAP editor too.

You can also tweak accounts visible in the Accounts pref pane by right-clicking them and going into Advanced Options. Remember to unlock the pref pane first.

Are you aware of another LDAP editor by chance?

[Art Vandelay]

Workgroup Manager is the best since it's designed to work with Apple's LDAP schema. Another one that I've used in the past is here.

Edit:
I just tried LDAP Browser/Editor and it wouldn't connect to the local LDAP server. There is probably a special port or configuration change that needs to be made. Workgroup Manager (for Leopard) connects successfully to localhost.

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay 

Workgroup Manager is the best since it's designed to work with Apple's LDAP schema. Another one that I've used in the past is here.

Edit:
I just tried LDAP Browser/Editor and it wouldn't connect to the local LDAP server. There is probably a special port or configuration change that needs to be made. Workgroup Manager (for Leopard) connects successfully to localhost.

Thank you very much.

[Big Mac]

So is NetInfo Manager dead in Leopard, and if so, what is its replacement?

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by Big Mac 

So is NetInfo Manager dead in Leopard, and if so, what is its replacement?

Netinfo was completely killed off in Leopard. It doesn't exist anymore. Apple now uses Open Directory instead.

Netinfo Manager was replaced by several things: Directory Utility, Workgroup Manager (as I understand it this is part of Leopard Server), and an Advanced Configuration pane accessible through Accounts, in System Preferences (control-click or right click on the account, and choose "Advanced Options," where you can set the user ID, Group ID, Short Name, login shell, etc).

To anyone else: Will Workgroup Manager run on Mac OS X client and affect the local machine's settings, or do you still have to have OS X Server?

[OAW]

The only thing I needed NetInfo Manager for was to create a "hosts" file in OS X. I'm using my PowerBook on a Windows Network but of course, I'm not on the domain. There are some web servers I need to access but I don't get the benefit of a DNS server to do name resolution. So I configured a machine name with an IP address in NetInfo. So the million dollar question I have is ....

How do I do this in Leopard?

OAW

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by Person Man 

To anyone else: Will Workgroup Manager run on Mac OS X client and affect the local machine's settings, or do you still have to have OS X Server?

You do not need OS X Server, it will run and work locally.

[Big Mac]

This looks nice a pretty nice tutorial on the subject (or at least most of it):

Computerworld - User accounts and file sharing in Leopard: What's new

[Laurence]

Originally Posted by OAW 

The only thing I needed NetInfo Manager for was to create a "hosts" file in OS X. I'm using my PowerBook on a Windows Network but of course, I'm not on the domain. There are some web servers I need to access but I don't get the benefit of a DNS server to do name resolution. So I configured a machine name with an IP address in NetInfo. So the million dollar question I have is ....

How do I do this in Leopard?

OAW

There may be a better way to do this in Leopard, but I just edited the hosts file just like you'd do on any other OS... its at /etc/hosts

You can use vi or pico to edit it from the command line or just use a text editor from the Finder. (Go->Go to folder... and type in /etc to see the file in the Finder)

[goMac]

Originally Posted by rickey939 

You do not need OS X Server, it will run and work locally.

Oh REALLY? This is nifty.

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by goMac 

Oh REALLY? This is nifty.

Indeed, try it out....worked perfectly for what I needed to get done.

[OAW]

Originally Posted by Laurence 

There may be a better way to do this in Leopard, but I just edited the hosts file just like you'd do on any other OS... its at /etc/hosts

You can use vi or pico to edit it from the command line or just use a text editor from the Finder. (Go->Go to folder... and type in /etc to see the file in the Finder)

Thanks for the tip! I took a look at this file on my machine and did not see the entries I previously made with NetInfo manager. So it doesn't appear that it was just a GUI for configuring this particular file. Having said that, this is how I do it in Windows so I imagine it will work just the same in OS X.

OAW

[Big Mac]

Yeah, NetInfo did not store Hosts in /etc/hosts. I imagine there's probably a preferred Leopard place for a hosts file, but I haven't read anything on the subject yet.