CheckPoint VPN-1 SecureClient on Snow Leopard

It turns out that the CheckPoint VPN-1 SecureClient for Leopard (OSX 10.5) doesn't work on Snow Leopard (OSX 10.6) due to differences between the two versions in the kernel and the way kextload works.Harald has a blog entry detailing how to fix the Leopard package so it installs on Snow Leopard and then fix the installed files so they properly run as well.  He alludes to a method to fix the package itself so you can install it on multiple Macs without manually making those changes.

I took it upon myself to modify the package and am providing it here.  Feel free to use it at your own risk.  You can verify the authenticity of the file by running the following command to get its checksum:

cksum SecureClient-VPN-1.zip


You should get the following output:


3505974925 22321216 SecureClient-VPN-1.zip

Boot Camp x64 is Unsupported on this Computer Model

Apple says that only certain models of Mac are x64 compatible when using Bootcamp 3.0 that comes with Snow Leopard and possibly Leopard.  Imagine my surprise when my 17" MacBook Pro wasn't one of them.  I'd hoped their flagship portable would be on the list.  I got the somewhat curt error message "Boot Camp x64 is Unsupported on this Computer Model" and the Bootcamp installer refused to continue.  The solution turned out to be simple.  I located the bootcamp64.msi file on the Snow Leopard disc and ran it in Vista compatibility mode.  Everything installed just fine.  So there, Apple!

OSX and /etc/resolv.conf

I recently went back to a Mac laptop and encountered an interesting issue.  I needed to make some changes to /etc/resolv.conf to reflect a modified search path and since /etc/resolv.conf is a symlink to /private/etc/resolv.conf I edited the latter file.  All was well until I connected to a different network.  Now my /private/etc/resolv.conf file, which clearly states that it's an auto-generated file, wasn't updated resulting in the "host" command (among other things) breaking.  After posting on Apple's forums I ended up answering my own question.

/private/etc/resolv.conf is itself a symlink to /var/run/resolv.conf which is the file that is auto-generated.  I ended up discovering that after looking at the /private/etc/resolv.conf file in my oldest Time Machine backup.  That'll learn me.