Calibration Preferences Help
 

Hello ppl :D

Can any1 pls tell me where I can find the preference for the display profile. I have looked in files like com.apple.desktop.plist, com.apple.finder.plist and many others and still can't find it. Where is this preference stored??

Monitor profiles are not preferences per se, they are ...well...um, profiles. You can find them in /Library/ColorSync/Profiles

I see, but how does the OS know which one to use, it must saved this somewhere

ByHost folder
 

I suspect it is in the ByHost sub-folder of ~/Library/Preferences. Probably the file named com.apple.windowserver.xxxxxxxx

But maybe it is under /Library/Preferences (the one at top level - not under your home folder)
- e.g. in the file called ".GlobalPreferences.plist" ?

Can some1 please help I can't find this pref anywhere, some1 must know where I can find this.

Do you mean System Profile: Displays: Color Tab? That's where you change the profile.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Armed with this knowledge, we can get a better idea of what it it that you're asking for and maybe we can offer better help.

looks like /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist gets frob'd when monitor resolution is changed

And, if it's relevant, the 'driver' for the monitor is in:

/System/Library/Displays/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-xxxx

And if you need to tinker with this (to change available resolutions etc) have a look at this hint.

This is what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm setting up a machine that will have an admin and a regular user account. The regular user will not be able to change the look of the machine (wallpaper, resolution, installed programs, etc...) a very limited account, he only needs to use the programs on the machine and nothing else. When I calibrate the monitor in this account (regular user) it creates the profile and is all good but as soon as I logout and log back in it goes back to the default profile. I have also taken away there access to the preferences under there home folder. I need to know what file is the one that tells the computer what display profile to use when u login. I hope this helps and u guys can help me solve this problem.

Thanx to all of u for all ur help :)

When you say you've taken away their access to their preferences folder, what do you mean? If you've denied them permission to their own preferences I think you'll run into some quite serious problems, not least (in terms of configuring your display) with this file:

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.xxxxxxxxxxxx.plist

I mean that they can't make changes to it, everything works fine no problems just this display profile thing :(. I took at look at the ByHost folder and I only have 2 com.apple.Classic.XXXXXXXXXXXXXX.plist files, no com.apple.windowserver.xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.plist :|. I found this file under the admin account ByHost folder.

I'm still interested in how you've done this as I presume you haven't used the Capabilities option of the Accounts prefpane. Could you specify in a little more detail?

I setup the machine the way that I wanted it to work and look, after I got it the way that I wanted, I
change the Permissions of the Preferences folder so the user can't write to it only read from it, so all the files stay the same, no changes. Yes I used the prefpane but the user can still do things to the machine that I don't want them to do.

I'm not convinced that this will work; i.e. I think (but am not sure) that some preference files are dynamically created. Therefore, blocking a user's ability to write to his or her own preference folder could be the cause of your problem.

Try setting up another user account (restricted via the Accounts setting, but not hampered by the 'can't write to their own prefs folder' option) and see whether that works as expected.

I know that that may be my problem, that is the reson that I need to know which is the file that holds the display profile info. I'm not going to change the Permissions on the Preference folder back, u see ones I know which is the file that tells the machine what display profile to use I can tried to edit it so it uses the one that I want, I don't know if this is posible but I wont know until I try.

If this user is a non-admin user, wouldn't it be a simpler process to allow the user into preferences (temporarily, so you, the admin, can change the settings to what you like) until all settings are good, then log out and back in as an admin user, then change the account capabilities to un-check 'Open All System Preferences' rather than the potential problems caused by changing permissions for all preferences. (I think that some preferences need write permissions, even without direct user access to the pref pane) but you can certainly prevent access to the prefs if you want to, through user capabilities.

Yes that would be a simpler process but u see ones I know how the display profile thing works I'm going to make and image out of it and installed it in other machines. I can't be doing this for all of them, plus the user needs to know how to calibrate the monitor with out my help.

But if you've blocked write access to their prefs folder they wont be able to do this anyway.

Yes, the display calibration is a user-controlled function (writes to the File). You have to allow pref access if the user wants any chance of doing a calibration. Looking around a little, there's not a single file that stores this information (display type, size, color and geometry, ColorSync profile), Perhaps there's a pro-level app that will provide you with profile management (Quark always seems to stick their fingers into display management issues)

Well if that is the case them I would have to change the way that I'm doing things but my question has not been answer yet, Where can I find the display profile preference?

On my machine, if I change the colour depth or refresh rate the file that changes is:

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.0003938c6b34.plist

With blocked write access to the prefs folder I suspect that this file was never created on your machine.

are u using an admin account? because in my other machine I haven't changed the Permissions of the Preference folder and the ByHost folder has no files in it.:confused:. i found that file in my admin account.

yes, hang on, I'll see which file changes in an ordinary user account.

OK, I just created a new user account (without admin privs) and it's the same file that gets created when you change the display setting, i.e.

~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.windowserver.xxxxxxxxxxxx.plist

I suspect that changing write permissions on your user account has screwed things up somewhat.

if that is the case y does it work? I would imagine the os would have given me and error msg. When I change the display profiles from the default to the one I made I see more that one file being updated and the the ByHost folder too but there is nothing in that folder for the regular user but I find the files u mention on the admin.

It doesn't work; i.e. the settings don't stick. As for why they change at the time without generating an error ... I don't know.

it doesn't work on my other machine where I'm making the image but on my machine it works with out does files u are talking about.:confused:

which versions of the OS do you have on both machines?

Hey I got it working, I changed the Permissions for the folder is all good now. Thanx to all for all the help.



I'm using os 10.2.6