Tag: sierra

Categories
Mac

Check macOS installer build

My new 15″ MacBook Pro is coming this week, and due to multiple reports of units shipping with SIP (System Integrity Protection) disabled I wanted to play it safe and immediately wipe the new machine with a clean install of macOS from a thumbdrive. The question was, however: is the build of macOS currently on the Mac App Store the most recent one that supports the new MBPs (10.12.1 build 16B2657)?

Screenshot of Terminal showing the commands to run

Finding out is not that easy, actually. First you’ll want to download macOS from the Mac App Store, then open the terminal and launch a few commands to mount the nested DMGs you donwloaded with the installer, and then check a plist file:

hdiutil attach /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
hdiutil attach /Volumes/OS\ X\ Install\ ESD/BaseSystem.dmg
cat /Volumes/OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist

Just make sure paths are correct.

Attaching the DMGs might take a while, as they need to be verified first. You can skip the verification process by putting -noverify between attach and the file path.

You should get something like this:

<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF–8”?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList–1.0.dtd”>
<plist version=“1.0”>
<dict>
 <key>ProductBuildVersion</key>
 <string>16B2657</string>
 <key>ProductCopyright</key>
 <string>1983–2016 Apple Inc.</string>
 <key>ProductName</key>
 <string>Mac OS X</string>
 <key>ProductUserVisibleVersion</key>
 <string>10.12.1</string>
 <key>ProductVersion</key>
 <string>10.12.1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

You can clearly see that ProductVersion is 10.12.1 and ProductBuildVersion is 16B2657.

Categories
Mac

Foscam Safari plugin and macOS Sierra, High Sierra and Mojave

foscam-logoI’ve had two Foscam security cameras (model FI9805W) for a few years, and I’ve been able to view their image and adjust their settings with no problems using the official plugin in Safari, which worked fine on Sierra too.
However, I recently purchased a third camera (model FI9828P V2), and its plugin didn’t work with macOS Sierra.

Thankfully, I stumbled upon a post in the Foscam forums that provided a working version of the plugin. I took the liberty of uploading to my blog as well, you can download it from here (here you can find an older version).

UPDATE for macOS High Sierra

The plugin still works with macOS High Sierra, but I found a newer version that works with more cameras, including the FI9851P V3 which I recently purchased.

UPDATE for Safari 12 and macOS Mojave

Foscam has published a new, different kind of plugin that works with Safari 12 and macOS Mojave. Newer firmwares for newer cameras link to this plugin (my FI9900EP does, for example) when trying to access their web UI from Safari. Their SSL certificate is broken but other than that the plugin installs and works just fine. Again, I’m mirroring the installer here for posterity.

Alternative solution for Safari 12 and macOS Mojave

Foscam’s VMS app works fine, is a native Mac app and seems to have most of the features the web UI had (for example PTZ controls on my FI9828P V2 seem to be missing/not functional, I’ll have to investigate further on that).

  1. Install the app
  2. Launch it
  3. Login as admin with no password
  4. Add your cameras
  5. Enjoy!

I took the liberty to mirror the app here on my blog, in case it should no longer be available from Foscam in the future.