For reasons that I don't need to get into here, I need my machine to restart every weekday morning at a specified time.

iBeezz worked great, but the author is a flake/thief, and never sends out serial numbers even though he has been paid, nor doesn't respond to emails (unfortunately, I'm not the only one this has happened to).

Mac Restart X seems to work, but is a bit sloppy, and you have to leave it open and reduced in the dock–I'd like a better solution.

I tried using Energy Saver preference panel, but it doesn't work.

Any other programs out there?

>>I tried using Energy Saver preference panel, but it doesn't work.

Do you have apps that are preventing shutdown?

Cron is how mac os x runs timed events. Cronnix is a GUI for configuring cron. "shutdown -r now" should restart your machine from the command line.

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Yeah I use Energy Saver every night on my Cube Jukebox at OWC - works like a top.

I'd bet a monthly/weekly/daily cron is running when you try it. Go for either before midnight or like 7 in the morning.

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Good Luck!
Jamie Dresser
Other World Computing

I'll give you guys the details of what I'm doing, and maybe that will help. I was shielding everyone from this because it's kind of riggy, but this is what has been working:

G5 Dual 2.3
VXA-2 10-tape Autoloader FW800

Dantz (EMC) Retrospect
Indigo home automation software with appropriate hardware modules.

So basically the story is that the VXA Autoloader is LOUD and can't be running all day. It is usually set up in a server room or away from your workspace, but that can't work in this case, so it is at my desk. Did I mention how LOUD it is?

After contacting both Exabyte and EMC/Dantz about my situation, they suggested that I set it up as follows:

-VXA Autoloader powers up via Indigo timed event
-Allow 10 minutes to initialize, sort tapes, etc.
-G5 restarts to establish FW800 communication. (This was done because the VXA Autoloader, although FW800, is actually a SCSI device with a FW board, and isn't always able to communicate effectively without a restart).
-Allow 10 minutes for machine to load all startup apps and become 'Live'.
Retrospect runs its backup script and then sends email notifying Indigo that the backup has completed successfully.
-Indigo shuts down VXA Autoloader.

As to Jamie's point, the backup is scheduled around 3am, when I won't be using the machine. Before midnight or after 7am won't work.

Not sure why Energy Saver doesn't work for you. I have my G5 wake itself up at 2:00am, run SuperDuper to backup my internal drives, then put itself back to sleep. I actually have SuperDuper put the machine to sleep when it's done, but just in case I forget to turn on the external drives (thus making SuperDuper fail) I have Energy Saver put the machine to sleep after two hours.

I need it to restart, or shut down and then start, not sleep. That was the first thing I tried, but it just didn't work.

iBeeZz works great for me, enables you to perform multiple events of the following:

Startup
Restart
Wake up
Shut down
Sleep

FYI, I'm using version 2.4.1 on 10.3.9 so I can't speak to how the latest version (2.5.3) might work on Tiger.

[www.ibeezz.com]

YoYo,

I agree, iBeezz fits the bill, but the author is either mentally-challenged or a thief. I registered and paid for it because it worked, but he never sent a serial number. I emailed him at least a half a dozen times to various emaill addys, but never a response. If you do a search for iBeez online, when the software is reviewed, I'm not the only one that this has happened to. I have a dispute filed with PayPal as we speak.

I would like to continue using it, but without a serial number, it won't work.

Bummer. (BTW, I included the info on iBeeZz functionality because a lot of other people may not know how neat a program it is; you obviously have already used it.)

I hope the app's author gets his act together business-wise. When I bought iBeeZz a couple of years ago he was a student and had suspended all support for the app. I took a chance and bought it anyway, and did receive the serial number in less than 24 hours.

Now that he's updated the program and his web site, it's particularly disappointing that he's not following through on fulfilling purchases. Good luck, and let us know if he finally comes through.

P.S. You might want to go to www.versiontracker.com and post your experiences there. I've noticed a lot of software creators monitor that site for negative feedback; that might get the author's attention.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/2007 11:05AM by Yoyodyne ArtWorks.

YYD,

I just did that– MacUpdate as well.

Just a thought...perhaps you could create an Applescript to restart the machine, save the Applescript as an application and then have iCal launch that app at a prescribed time?

(I use an iCal-launched Applescript to mount my backup drive, then I run Retrospect and Chronosync, and when Chronosync finishes it runs another Applescript to unmount the drive. Very handy.)

I thought of that, but my iCal would be filled with that event everyday–not pretty.

Another option is Keyboard Maestro 2 for $20. You can program it to restart at any time of day, any day of the week.

Global Macro Group>New Macro:

Actions:
New Action>System Control>Restart

Triggers:
New Trigger:>Time

Plus you get a nice little macro program. I've been using it for quite a while, not as powerful as Quickeys, but stable and cheap. You can download the free demo here:

[www.keyboardmaestro.com]

I'll give it a look. Thanks.

If it's the cron jobs that are affecting this then you can always try editing the times they run,
go to
"/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.periodic-daily.plist"
"/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.periodic-monthly.plist"
"/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.periodic-weekly.plist"

open the individual plist files, open "root", open "StartCalendarInterval", and change the time it is set to run.
for instance, my daily is set to run at 3:15 every morning
the monthly at 5:30 on the first day of the month
and the weekly at 3:15 on the sixth day of the week (I'm assuming this is Friday morning.

all time settings are 24 hour settings (Military time), so if you instead want to set the cron to run at say 3:15 in the afternoon, then you would change the time setting as follows



try changing the times to see if you find a time that works for you.

Hope this helps.

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The Taoist Zhuangzi said, "Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone".
The sociologist, and historian, Adam Ferguson described the phenomenon of spontaneous order in society as the "result of human action, but not the execution of any human design".

Wow Monster, I will give that a try, thanks.

Monster, what program do I use to edit them?

Property List Editor will open them the Apple way, you have it if you have installed the developer tools, [developer.apple.com]
Or you can open them in a text editor and edit the hours and minutes also, you can see below where to find them for editing.

I also might mention that you should make a copy of these files before editing, just in case.

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The Taoist Zhuangzi said, "Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone".
The sociologist, and historian, Adam Ferguson described the phenomenon of spontaneous order in society as the "result of human action, but not the execution of any human design".

Cool. Mine opened up in SubEthaEdit at first, and so I saw those values. I'll give it a shot.

cool, let us know if it works out.

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The Taoist Zhuangzi said, "Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone".
The sociologist, and historian, Adam Ferguson described the phenomenon of spontaneous order in society as the "result of human action, but not the execution of any human design".