You have better to start with a fresh and clean Mac OS X installation. Although it should work with any kind of existing configuration, there may be some incompatibilities. We are going to install special programs and libraries, so if you have already installed and configured some third-party programs, there's always a small risk. The better way is to make a clean system install, follow this tutorial, and then install and configure your files and programs, as you would usually do. In that case, there's no way to get a broken configuration.

When you install your Macintosh, there's an optional package called X11 in the installation disks. X11 is a X-Window System. In other words, it's an alternative graphic environment to the Aqua user interface you know. You have to install it, since some of the software we are going to install will require X11 to be present. In addition, a lot of Typo3 tutorials comes in the SXW format, and are readable only through X11. SXW is the OpenOffice text document format. So, you should first install X11 with Mac OS X, and then OpenOffice, in order to read those tutorials. OpenOffice for the Macintosh platform can be found at the OpenOffice website (http://www.openoffice.org/).

Mac OS X comes with an additional CD called «Developer Tools». It provides additional programs, libraries and frameworks to develop native OS X applications. The softs we are going to install will need some of the Developer Tools resources, so you must install it before proceeding.

In every Unix based system, like Mac OS X, there's a user called «root». Root is the power user, who has access to every system option, and who has the rights to perform any operation. By default, that user is disabled on OS X. In order to perform a full server installation, we'll need to activate it. To do this, open NetInfo Manager, which can be found in /Applications/Utilities/.

In the «Security» menu, click «Enable Root User». You'll get a screen like this:

Enter a password, and click OK. That's it. Now we are ready to access all the core system features.

If you have sensitive material in your hard disk, you should consider to make a complete backup of your files before continuing. The operations we are going to do may crash your system or permanently erase your files if you make a mistake, so please keep yourself away from that kind of disagreement. You can use free softwares to make a complete backup of your documents. I would recommend CarbonCopyCloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html), which is free, powerful and easy to use.

Always copy and paste the commands and codes you'll find here, so you wont do any mistake which may result in a crash.

If you have any doubt about a command, remember you can always type «man» followed by the command in the terminal. It will output a complete manual of the function, with parameters and examples.

If you have any question about this tutorial, remember you can always send me an email (info@macmade.net), or find me on the Typo3 France Forums (http://www.typo3.fr/forum/). Please include a short description of the problem, with your machine's current configuration.