For obvious reasons this has been disabled right-off-the-bat by Apple. Impact is that for recording the screen for future reference (legitimate presentations to be shared internally) such as a WebEx / web conference session the video will not have sound. While some Web conference vendors do support recording, it may not be applicable in most cases and hence here are few steps (while not necessarily super-intuitive for QuickTime, but easy for paid programs like Camtasia) to enable System Audio for such recordings.

From my tests, the sound quality on the exported .mov from QuickTime screen recording wasn’t as great as Camtasia .mp4 export, but it was reasonably good enough to get your job done. However, neither of them were equal to the native System Audio.

Simpler Route for Camtasia (if you’re having issues installing system audio)

• In the Camtasia Record Dialog, Click the ? icon near “Need System Audio”
• During or After Install, the Security & Privacy dialog will open ; if it doesn’t Open It after installation (System Preferences –> Security & Privacy) ; Click Allow
• In the Camtasia Record Dialog, Click “System Audio” to record sound from Mac

A slightly more involved route for Quick Time Screen Recording
The gist of it is that you will need to download and install IShowU to capture system audio, and then create an Aggregate Device (from Audio MIDI Setup) to include your BuiltIn Mic + IShowU and use this with QuickTimePlayer Screen Recording.

• Install IShowU and follow steps on their website. (Remember to follow the steps in System Preferences –> Security & Privacy)
• Open Audio MIDI Setup and create an Aggregated Device to include IShowU Audio Capture and BuiltIn Microphone
• Open Audio MIDI Setup and create a Multi-Output Device to include Built-In Output and IShowU Audio Capture
• Open up the QuickTimePlayer –> New Screen Recording and select the Aggregate Device that you created.
• Record the screen w/ audio and save it.

A very good explanation on YouTube for you to follow from Michael Kinney is embedded below.

I Did NOT have this problem when my Synergy Server was on Windows. When I switched my Synergy Server to my Red Hat Linux box, I noticed my Back/Forward mouse buttons didn’t work.

After searching around for a bit, adding the following lines to your synergy.conf file fixed this.

$ sudo vi /etc/synergy.conf

section: options
  mousebutton(6) = keystroke(WWWBack)
  mousebutton(7) = keystroke(WWWForward)
  mousebutton(4) = ;
  mousebutton(5) = ;
end

So with my current setup (sk-win7 <-> sk-redhat <-> sk-ubuntu) with sk-redhat being my Synergy Server, my /etc/synergy.conf looks like:

section: screens
  sk-redhat:
  sk-win7:
  sk-ubuntu:
end

section: aliases
  sk-win7:
  10.4.1.1
end

section: links
  sk-redhat:
    left = sk-win7
    right = sk-ubuntu
  sk-win7:
    right = sk-redhat
  sk-ubuntu:
    left = sk-redhat
end

section: options
  mousebutton(6) = keystroke(WWWBack)
  mousebutton(7) = keystroke(WWWForward)
  mousebutton(4) = ;
  mousebutton(5) = ;
end

After adding this section, I was able to get my mouse back/forward buttons to work on all of my boxes.

I can’t say Ubuntu 11.10 is the best thing just yet since things are still not simple enough, but I just love the Price for what it can do! Moreover, Ubuntu works perfectly on my 3 year old desktop while Red Hat 6 wouldn’t even recognize the display. For development, I still prefer Linux and therefore went with Ubuntu on my backup Dev Box.

So, here’s another list of must have apps and things to do after getting Ubuntu 11.10.

I hope you have already modified your /etc/hosts file.

What’s already there

Terminal, Firefox, LibreOffice

Some must-haves (for me and developers like me) that just work without the fancy Ubuntu Software Center DAK crap

Java JDK, Eclipse, Perforce, FileZilla

Get Updates and Upgrade

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Install SSH

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Install Gnome-Shell

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell
#sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback ### while messing with No Machine NX

Install Shutter

sudo apt-get install shutter

Install Adobe PDF Reader

sudo apt-get install acroread

Install ccsm – CompizConfig Settings Manager

sudo apt-get install ccsm

Install VLC

sudo apt-get install vlc

Install Skype

sudo apt-get install skype

I don’t remember how I installed these, but they were not straight forward.

google-chrome, Adobe Flash Plugin

Currently, NoMachine NX will not work with Ubuntu 11.10 – it’s a known issue and several people have posted workarounds, which didn’t seem to work for me. Anyway, it’s not officially supported due to Unity 3D enhancements.

Things to enable
Open SSH (installing should start sshd)
Remote Destkop Sharing – Enable this

AutoHotkey is a really nifty mouse and keyboard macro program that lets you automate your usual “repetitive” boiler plate tasks and play them back with a key-stroke.

I constantly had to type the username/password to login to my work application and found AutoHotkey could easily do it for me.
Here’s an example of a simple macro (Ctrl+Alt+A) that’ll fill up my login form and submit.

^!a::
Send admin{Tab}password{Enter}
return

Here’s a demo of the tool and if you’re impressed Download AutoHotkey!

I’m slowly switching to Google Chrome because it provides more real estate (particularly when I use my 13″ laptop). Another reason is the crappy McAfee icon that just can’t be removed from the Firefox Toolbar and takes one whole row. One thing I would love is if they have Firefox like Search options. Here’s a list of some must have extensions.

• XMarks Bookmarks & Password sync
• AdBlock Plus
• GMail Checker
• Chrome to Phone only if you own an Android phone
• Google Voice

And if you’re a developer

• IE Tab simulate IE behavior
• Firebug for javascript debugging (mostly used with FireFox)

I was trying to delete a .zip file and wasn’t able to delete it because Google Desktop was holding on to it. I found from computerhope.com a cool tool Unlocker that can unlock these locks held by other programs. It also tells you what programs are holding these locks.

It does it’s job well, but silently installs Bing Toolbar whether you choose to or not. Gosh! Microsoft has the money to spend to promote Bing!