[blog] Optimize your Mac for a gig

therealgps · January 20, 2022, 10:55pm

Yes, I did see this, it’s a great guide for users of the newest MacOS, with lots of useful tips. My MacBook is still on High Sierra because the drums were suffering from distortion, missed hits and pile-ups under Mojave, driving our drummer crazy. After that, MacOS became 64-bit only and I have a critical app (Nord Modular G2 Editor) that won’t run in that environment.

My solution is mostly script-based and relies on disabling SIP in Recovery Mode, so that you’re not prevented from disabling system processes. I’ve modified the code quite a bit since I posted it on github a couple years ago, with more things disabled and also now I run it entirely in recovery mode’s Terminal, instead of having to disable SIP (note that I’m still using High Sierra, so I don’t know if that still works on newer OSes).

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/gopsmith/f216d8f41ea3b7d36d50a302e0a641dd

disable.sh

#!/bin/bash

# NOTE: This script must be run from Terminal within RECOVERY MODE. This version is for macOS High Sierra.
#   There is no need to disable SIP (via csrutil), because recovery mode is not constrained by SIP.
# WARNING: It might enable things that you may not like. Please double check the services in the TODISABLE vars.
#
# For OSes newer than High Sierra, see comments in the original gist author's Catalina version, at 
#   https://gist.github.com/pwnsdx/1217727ca57de2dd2a372afdd7a0fc21
#   (see the "Note about Big Sur" at the top, and there are comments about Monterey further down).
#

This file has been truncated. show original

enable.sh

#!/bin/bash

# NOTE: This script must be run from Terminal within RECOVERY MODE. This version is for macOS High Sierra.
#   There is no need to disable SIP (via csrutil), because recovery mode is not constrained by SIP.
# WARNING: It might enable things that you may not like. Please double check the services in the TOENABLE vars.
#
# For OSes newer than High Sierra, see comments in the original gist author's Catalina version, at 
#   https://gist.github.com/pwnsdx/1217727ca57de2dd2a372afdd7a0fc21
#   (see the "Note about Big Sur" at the top, and there are comments about Monterey further down).
#

This file has been truncated. show original

I’ve saved the disable.sh and enable.sh scripts in my user bin directory, and I run them like this:

cd /Volumes/Macintosh \HD/Users/<username>/bin
./disable.sh

Aside from running the script, I also do a few manual steps that coincide with the article you mentioned: 1) disable BlueTooth, WiFi, and Notifications; 2) tell Spotlight not to index /Volumes/Macintosh HD; 3) disable App Store’s automatic check for updates; 4) remove some login items; 5) quit some other apps that still run automatically, like SnagIt, OneDrive, Karabiner.