Mac for a Linux Nerd

Coming from the world of Linux, Mac is a little different. The below steps are what I do in order to setup a Mac M1 Ultra for use as a Unix server.

Base Install

A few notes on the base installation:

1. Use wired networking.
2. No Apple ID is needed.
3. On first login, update to Sonoma.
4. Change the computer name.
5. Enable remote access(SSHD).

Once remote access is enabled, go to Privacy and enable full disk access for SSHD:

Setup Bash

Open a terminal window and change our default shell to Bash

chsh -s /bin/bash

Create a .bash_profile file:

# Get the aliases and functions
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
    . ~/.bashrc
fi

And then create your .bashrc file:

export PS1="\[\e]0;\u@\h: \w\a\]${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ "  
 
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/bin:/Users/mmealman/bin:$PATH"
  
alias ls='ls --color=always'

Install and Enable Brew

We’ll want a decent CLI package manager and Homebrew gives us this. Open a terminal window

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Python 3.11

After Brew is setup, install an updated version of Python:

brew install python@3.11

And add aliases for it to your .bashrc

echo '
alias python=python3.11
alias pip=pip3.11
' >> ~/.bashrc

Miniconda

Then we’ll want to install Miniconda as per https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/miniconda

brew install --cask miniconda

conda init "$(basename "${SHELL}")"

GPU Memory Limit

To up the GPU memory limit, run the below:

sudo /usr/sbin/sysctl iogpu.wired_limit_mb=115200

To make this permanent, add the below to /etc/sysctl.conf

# change default CPU/GPU RAM split
iogpu.wired_limit_mb=115200

To verify this setting on reboot:

sudo /usr/sbin/sysctl -a | grep iogpu.wired_limit_mb

Samba(Optional)

NFS support isn’t great on Mac on the command line, but Samba works well. Here’s an example of adding //fall/AI to /Users/mmealman/fall/AI

mkdir -p /Users/mmealman/fall/AI
mount -t smbfs //mmealman@fall/AI /Users/mmealman/fall/AI