Mac Frequently Asked Questions
Topics Covered: Classic Support | Leopard Support | Installation | Upgrades | Licensing | Data Source Names | General Connection Issues | DB2 Connection Issues| Oracle Connection Issues | FileMaker | Omnis | Excel | Parallels |
See Also: Technical FAQs Support Services FAQ
Classic Support
Are you currently building new drivers for Mac OS 9?
| Our support for Mac OS 9/Classic is being phased out due to its EOL status with Apple, and its inherent inability to support some features inherent to our drivers. Durrently, no release 6.x components exist for this platform, and none are planned. |
Leopard Support
Are your Release 5.2 Leopard-compatible builds compatible with PPC and/or Intel?
| Our Release 5.x components are not, and will not be, available in Universal nor Intel binary builds, and thus cannot be used by Intel-native client applications. They can only be used with PPC-native or Rosetta-launched Universal builds on Intel Macs. Upgrade to OpenLink 6.x to obtain Intel compatibility. |
Are your Express Edition drivers compatible with Mac Intel client systems?
| Yes. Our Express Edition drivers support Intel and Universal applications that run on any Intel Mac where an Intel-based port of the JVM is available. |
Installation
What causes this error?: There were errors installing the software.
| Did you drag the installer .mpkg from the mounted .dmg and onto your hard disk? There are a number of limitations in the Mac OS X Installer.app. Therefore, we do not recommend this practice. Please mount the downloaded .dmg, and simply double-click the .mpkg contained within. |
Upgrades
Can I install a 6.x Multi-Tier client on the same machine as an existing 5.x client?
| Yes. |
Licensing
What is the source of "no valid license found" errors?
This error message has 3 predominate causes:
|
What causes this error?: Your license is not valid on a 4 processors architecture
| Your machine has 4 cores. It is probably a dual-processor, with dual-core processors. OpenLink licenses by the core, so you need to obtain a larger license. |
Data Source Names
Why can't I save System DSNs on my Mac OS X client?
| Take the following action:
1. Open a Terminal.app session. 2. cd into the /Library/ODBC directory. 3. Run this command: ls 4. Check permissions on the odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini files. For example: -rw-rw-r-- 1 nobody nobody 489 May 27 2005 odbc.ini -rw-rw-r-- 1 nobody nobody 944 Dec 21 08:50 odbcinst.ini 5. Ensure that odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini are owned by the Administrator-privileged user who first installed ODBC. 6. Ensure that odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini are owned by the admin group. The following syntax can be used to make changes to the user and group ownership of the odbc files: sudo chown user:group /Library/ODBC/odbc*.ini |
General Connection Issues
My application wouldn't connect, because it's looking for a preferences file. What do I do?
| The application's ODBCINI setting should target your System-level odbc.ini.
Locate the problem dependency in the applicaiton's native configuration file.
For example:
ODBCINI=/private/var/root/Library/Preferences/ODBC.preference Change the variable to read: ODBCINI=/Library/ODBC/odbc.ini You may need to reboot to make this all take effect, depending on how that client application is written. |
DB2 Connection Issues
Do your Express Edition drivers connect to DB2 hosted on iSeries?
| Experience suggests that our existing Single-Tier Express Edition Driver for Mac OS X may be used successfully against some iSeries-hosted DB2 instances.
This is not the case in all situations.
Use of our Lite Edition ODBC Driver for JDBC Data Sources with the JT400 package is more likely to succeed due to differences in the way DB2 on AS/400 communicates vs DB2 on Windows/Linux.
We generally have success in using our current Express Edition against AS/400, but there are some environments where this does not work, and thus the JT400 package is necessary.
If you would like to test with the JT400 package, do the following: 1. Obtain JT400.zip. 2. Unzip JT400.zip. 3. Locate the jt400.jar in the lib subdirectory. 4. Put this jar file into your Mac's /Library/Java/Extensions/ directory. 5. Download and install our Lite Edition ODBC Driver for JDBC Data Sources. 6. Configure an OpenLink DSN. 7. Pass the following Driver Classname in your DSN: com.ibm.as400.access.AS400JDBCDriver8. Build the JDBC URL using the following syntax: The following example URL specifies a connection to the database on system mysystem.helloworld.com with mylibrary as the default schema. The connection will use the system naming convention and return full error messages: jdbc:as400://mysystem.helloworld.com/mylibrary;naming=system;errors=fullfile:///Users/OpenLink/Desktop/JT400-JTopen/jtopen 6_0_javadoc/com/ibm/as400/access/doc-files/JDBCProperties.html errors=full prompt=false metadata source=0 |
Oracle Connection Issues
Why can't I use your Univeral Lite drivers to connect my Mac Intel-native applications to Oracle?
| The OpenLink "Lite" Edition Driver for Oracle relies upon Oracle-supplied OCI Libraries, which have not been delivered for Intel-based Macs. You can only use Express Edition drivers on an Intel-based Mac, if your client application is PPC-native or is Universal and set to "Open in Rosetta" Intel-native applications. By default, Universal applications running normally will launch the Intel-native portion of the Universal driver, which will then try to load an Intel-native OCI library -- which is not available at the time of writing. |
FileMaker
Can I use your drivers to query FileMaker on a Mac?
| Currently, most users find that their best path to ODBC connectivity to FileMaker is use of the OpenLink ODBC Driver for JDBC Data Sources (a.k.a.
"ODBC-JDBC Bridge) in conjunction with the JDBC Driver for FileMaker.
This later product is an OEM'ed multi-tier client for the DataDirect SequeLink product. This is a suboptimal solution. Refer to the following documentation to review problems associated with use of the DataDirect driver: http://forums.datadirect.com/ddforums/thread.jspa?threadID=511&tstart=0 Problem: DECIMALS are returned as java.lang. Double and BLOBS are returned as VARCHAR java.lang.String. To proceed with the connection described above, take the following action: 1. Obtain the JDBC Client Driver for FileMaker Pro (sljc.jar). This driver is included in the xDBC Plug-In installer. 2. Move the FileMaker-supplied SequeLink client driver into the /Library/Java/Extensions/ directory, or create an appropriate soft-link from there. This has the same effect as setting the CLASSPATH. 3. Install the xDBC Plug-In on your target FileMaker instance, and ensure that sharing via JDBC is enabled. Consult FileMaker support and documentation for explicit instructions. 4. Open a Terminal.app instance. 5. Use the java -version command to obtain your JRE version. For example: java -version 6. Use the java command to obtain your SeqeLink driver version. For example: java com.ddtek.jdbc.sequelink.SequeLinkDriver [DataDirect][SequeLink} JDBC Driver]Driver Version: 5.4.0034 7. Install OpenLink's Single-Tier ODBC Driver for JDBC Data Sources on the client machine. 8. You will receive a 14-day evaluation license for the ODBC-JDBC Bridge when you download the product. Place this license file (jdbc_lt.lic) in the /Library/Application Support/OpenLink bin directory. 9. Launch the OpenLink ODBC Administrator. 10.
Ensure that you have the Classname for the FMPro JDBC Client Driver.
The JDBC Classname is found in the `FileMaker ODBC and JDBC Developer's Guide`.
At the time of writing, it is: 11. Ensure that you have a functioning JDBC URL that connects to FileMaker via SequeLink. The URL syntax is also discussed in the `FileMaker ODBC and JDBC Developer's Guide,` but it's basic form is provided here for your convenience: 12. Pass the Classname and URL in the appropriate fields of the DSN. 13. Test your DSN. Notes:
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Why do FMP7 imports return errors saying I need FMP 5.5 or later?
| Consult FileMaker support for assistance with this error. |
Is it possible to establish a Perl connection to FMP 6 on the same Mac OS X host?
| Yes.
The architecture would look something like this:
Perl on Mac >> iODBC Driver Manager >> OpenLink Multi-Tier Generic Client ODBC Driver ... TCP/IP connection to Windows ... >> OpenLink Multi-Tier Request Broker & ODBC Bridge Agent >> MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components) Driver Manager >> FileMaker Pro ODBC Driver ... TCP/IP connection to Mac ... >> FileMaker Pro |
Why doesn't FMP9 see pre-existing User DSNs that I used with FMP 7, 8 & 8.5?
| You may be encountering issues with older versions of the iODBC frameworks.
Run these commands in a Terminal.app session:
sudo find / -name .*odbc*.ini -ls sudo find / -name *odbc*.ini -ls The odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini files should not start with a period (.), and they should be found only in /Library/ODBC/ or /Users/*/Library/ODBC. If you encounter misnamed or misplaced files, run these commands: rm ~/.odbcinst.ini rm ~/Library/ODBC/odbc.ini mv ~/.odbc.ini ~/Library/ODBC/odbc.ini |
Why can't FileMaker Pro Advance 9.1 see or use functional User DSNs?
| Users report that reinstallation of |
Why does FileMaker produce "Server Handle" errors when used with Express drivers?
| FileMaker can not connect to OpenLink's Express Edition drivers using the CFM library due to compatibility issues with the JVM. This is an architectural dependency that cannot be changed. Consider use of Multi-Tier or Single-Tier (Lite Edition) drivers.. |
How can I use FileMaker to perform calculations and updaete remote data without an update?
| Contact FileMaker support for guidance in this area. |
Why can't I populare LONGTEXT fields with more than 128 characters?
| This is not an ODBC or Data Access Driver issue. Consult FileMaker support for additional guidance. |
Omnis
Why does Omnis crash when used with your drivers?
| This error occurs due to sub-optimal library linkage in Omnis Studio. Omnis library linkage is not dynamic. Even thought it is compatible with newer versions of the iODBC driver manager frameworks, it is hard-linked to one, specific version. OpenLink will introduce a driver enhancement to workaround this limitation. In the interim, OpenLink Product Support can assist you with the creation of soft links that will resolve the immediate problem. |
Excel
Why does Excel produce "Unable to allocate server handle" errors?
| Are you running Excel on an Intel-based Mac along with our ODBC Driver for JDBC Data Sources or our Express Edition drivers? Our JDBC-related drivers cannot be used by PPC-native applications (such as MS Excel/Query 2004) on Intel Macs, due to limitations in Apple's JVM.
The PPC-native application will load the PPC-native segment of the iODBC Driver Manager, and in turn, the PPC-native segment of the ODBC driver -- but there is no PPC-native segment of the JVM. It only installs with Intel-native binaries on Intel-based Macs. Contact OpenLink Product Support to review your options. |
Why doesn't MS Excel/Query for Mac OS X list all the tables in the target data source?
| MS Excel/QUERY issue the SQLTables() ODBC API call. This API call takes the following arguments: TABLE, VIEW, SYNONYM, etc. MS Excel/Query only ask for TABLEs. Therefore, our ODBC driver leaves out the VIEWs and other table types. We will introduce an enhancement into our driver to work around this issue. In the interim, you can manually create any query you like. This limitation only affects the graphical query builder. |
Parallels
What IP address do I pass in DSNs, if Multi-Tier server components run on a Windows instance on Parallels.
| The Data Source Name should use the IP address of the Windows instance. The Windows instance will get its own IP address -- distinct from the Mac's IP address -- via DHCP, hardcoding, etc. |
iODBCNet
Is AugSoft's
| AugSoft's "iODBCNet" installation can cause significant problems with the iODBC infrastructure on the Mac.
They create files in locations they should not, change settings they should not touch, and over-write libraries with outdated versions of the same.
If you are not actively using the iODBCNet components at this time, consider removal.
If you require use of |
Diagnostics
How do I trace on Mac OS X clients?
| 1.
Launch OpenLink ODBC Administrator.app.
2.
Click the Tracing tab.
3.
Tick the radio-buttons for "All the time" and "All users." 4.
Designate a target file, e.g., ~/Desktop/17481.iodbc.$p.$t.log.
The $p and $t tokens will be replaced by the client application Process ID and a Timestamp, so that logs don't over-write each other. |
How can I list all the OpenLink Multi-Tier client drivers on my Mac OS X client?
| Run the following command:
sudo find /{Users/*/Library,Library}/ODBC \( -name oplodbc.so -o -name "*lt.so" \) -exec ls -l {} \; -exec strings {} \; | grep "Compiled\|Version 0\|oplodbc\|lt.so\|05\.0[012]" |
How can I display the internal version (build numbers, etc.) of the iODBC components on Mac OS X?
| Use the `iODBC Test.command` (/Applications/iODBC/) to test a DSN.
When it launches, you'll see the iODBC version.
You will also receive a list of DSNs available for use.
Enter a connect string of the following form --
DSN=[;UID=[;PWD=]] -- e.g., -- DSN=OpenLink;UID=sa;PWD=admin Upon successful connection, you'll see the driver name and version printed above the SQL> prompt. |
How can I return hardware, memory, and CPU information on a Mac?
| Run this command: system_profiler SPHardwareDataType |
How can I return system version and kernel version information on a Mac?
| Run this command: system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType |
Errors
Not a Mach-O MH_BUNDLE file type
| This error could occur if you have a combination of Universal and PowerPC software on the Mac OS X host.
Resolution would consist of removal of all OpenLink components and re-installation with guidance from OpenLink Product Support.
The file command can be used to verify whether or not builds are Universal or PPC based.
For example:file sql st_lt.so sql_st_lt.so: Mach-O bundle ppc |
Software Removal
How do I uninstall Multi-Tier client software on Mac OS X?
| Use the following sequence to perform a clean uninstall of the latest Release 6.1 build of the Multi-Tier Generic Client ODBC Driver.
1. Double-click the Uninstall.command script (/Applications/OpenLink/Universal Data Access Drivers (* Tier Edition)/). If the script is not present, skip ahead to #3. 2. Answer the questions posed by the script. Please note that you must answer with the mixed-case, full-word answers. Anything other than `Yes`, `All`, or `Quit`, will be interpreted as `No`, including `y`, `Y`, and `yes`. 3. Verify that all of the following directories (including contents) have been removed --
You can copy and paste the following command into Terminal.app to remove them -- sudo rm -rf /Applications/iODBC "/Library/Application Support/iodbc" "/Library/Application Support/openlink" /Library/Frameworks/iODBC* /Library/ODBC/OpenLink* /Library/Receipts/iODBC* /Library/Receipts/Opl* /Library/Receipts/UDA* |