BeTips.net

The FileTypes preferences panel has received a major overhaul for R4, though its functionality remains largely unchanged. One cool thing you can do with it, however, is to change the type of dozens, hundreds, or thousands of files all at once. Just select a group of files in the Tracker and drag the whole group onto the FileTypes panel. A special dialog will appear, from which you can select a new type. After selecting, pull down File | Save. Say yes to the confirmation dialog and all of those types will be changed at once.

Update: In BeOS 5, you can configure the GoTo menu much like you configure the Deskbar, with a nice GUI panel. In any file panel, pull down Favorites | Configure Favorites. The old tip still works, so it remains below.

Another tip explained how to add items to the GoTo menu in open/save panels. Now, how to get rid of them?
The GoTo menu items are stored as links in the folder ~/config/settings/Tracker/Go/. You can add or remove links inside this folder.

Click the digital clock in the Deskbar’s shelf to toggle between time and date displays. To hide the date/time entirely, right-click in a blank area in the shelf and select „Hide Time“ from the context menu. You can turn it back on in the same way.

Ever miss the feature of MacOS where holding down the Command Key and clicking on the Window Title brings up a menu of all the parent directories to the one you are viewing?
Fret no more – click and hold on the ‚# items‘ section of the Tracker window (lower left corner), and a menu with all of it’s parents appears magically under your pointer.
This even works with queries!

It is possible (though rare) for a badly implemented Replicant to make BeOS unbootable. If this happens to you, do this:

1. Put the BeOS Install CD in the drive and restart your machine*.
2. Wait for the Installer process to come all the way up, then press
   Control+Alt+Shift+T to bring up a Terminal window.

3. Type cd /boot/home/config/settings/Tracker
4. Type ls
5. You should see a file called tracker_shelf. Delete it by typing rm
   tracker_shelf

6. Type exit to close the Terminal. Remove the CD and reboot.

The problematic Replicant will have been removed from your desktop, enabling you to boot normally again. Note that this will remove all Replicants that were on your desktop.

*Franco Martinez (PalmaServ@topmich.com) adds the following:
BeOS 5 PE Users (who lack the CD) can remove bad replicants by doing the following;
1) Running a search for the (tracker_shelf) file, once found the file can be deleted right from the search results window.
2) Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to bring up TaskManager and kill the Tracker itself.
3) Once the Tracker is dead and your desktop disapears, press the „Restart the Desktop) button in TaskManager and your desktop will return WITHOUT any replicants.
No re-boot required.

The commercial mail client from Adamation, called Adam, uses a mail daemon to watch for your mail. BeMail also uses a mail daemon. The BeMail daemon will supersede the Adam daemon if you are running both, and you won’t be able to check multiple accounts or have different popups in the mailbox in the Deskbar.
To fix this problem, make sure you unclick the box for „Autolaunch mail_daemon“ in your email prefs panel. You may need to restart if you already have Adam installed. This currently applies to Adam 1.5.1 – it may change in the future.
Also, try these Adam plugins.

If you try to launch an application and are greeted with the message, „Not an executable,“ there are two possibilities. Either you’ve downloaded the wrong binary for your platform (e.g. you’re trying to run a PPC program on an Intel box), or you’re missing a system library.
To find out what libraries are required by an executable, open a Terminal and type:
strings EXENAME | grep lib
replacing EXENAME with the program name. This will spit back a list of required libraries. You can then search your system for the library filenames. Any that don’t turn up, you’ll have to download and install. This should clear things up. Otherwise, read the documentation carefully to see if it mentions any other required files. If not, write the program’s author and let him/her know.

HFS+, is not supported in BeOS. This means that if you intend to access Macintosh volumes from within BeOS, you should keep a standard Mac partition on your hard drive containing the files you plan to access from BeOS. Either that, or don’t use HFS+ at all.
Apple DID release HFS+ specifications as a Tech Note, but Be doesn’t put much energy into development on the PowerPC side these days…

original post by Anon, converted to new Websidelayout by shacker.

Be has reserved the /boot/beos/ directory (and its subdirectories) for its own applications, and strongly recommends against either putting other applications there or moving its contents around. If you want icons in that space for your own organizational reasons, drop symlinks into the directory, not actual applications.
While you’ll find that things will probably still work if you mess with this directory, don’t be surprised if changes you’ve made to this directory are overwritten the next time you install or upgrade the OS.
/boot/home/ and subdirectories are the recommended location for 3rd-party applications, though you’ll probabably want to create /boot/home/apps/

It’s not too hard to find the secret list of scrolling credits in R4.5’s About box (hint: mess around with key combinations and mouse clicks). But if you want to locate the hacked version of the credits, you’ll have to dig a little deeper (hint: think media). I know where it is, but I’m not telling…

The secret scrolling credits.

The „hacked“ super-secret scrolling credits.
If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can find the same data by opening the Tracker (/boot/beos/system/Tracker) in DiskProbe at block 0x776.