How to read Mac serial number ?
KarlD
that's stored in firmware on the motherboard? I suppose only newer Mac
models have such a permanent unique ID number that cannot be changed
and I've heard it's to be used primarily for warranty purposes with
AppleCare. I remember older Mac's used to have a serial number stored
on the hard disk but it could easily be changed by reformatting the
hard drive.
Is there a system call in Mac OS X that can pass this serial number to
application software?
Thanks in advance,
/Karl
Ernie Klein
"KarlD" <k_d...@hotmail.com> wrote:
What model Mac? What OS?
For recent Macs running OS X, just use the Apple Menu -> About This Mac.
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Chris McDonald
>In article <1124410169.5...@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
> "KarlD" <k_d...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>What model Mac? What OS?
>For recent Macs running OS X, just use the Apple Menu -> About This Mac.
Karl asked about *from software*;
so he (we) wish to know how the "About This Mac" panel does it.
--
Chris.
Neill Massello
Leonard Blaisdell
Chris McDonald <ch...@csse.uwa.edu.au> wrote:
"Apple Menu -> About This Mac -> More Info" does it for me on 10.3.9.
leo
Xavier Llobet
> Is there a system call in Mac OS X that can pass this serial number to
> application software?
$ system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep Serial
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_xavier
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Gregory Weston
> Does anyone know how to read, through software, the Apple Serial Number
> that's stored in firmware on the motherboard? I suppose only newer Mac
> models have such a permanent unique ID number that cannot be changed
> and I've heard it's to be used primarily for warranty purposes with
> AppleCare.
Your supposition is incorrect in that no Mac shipped to date has a
"unique ID number that cannot be changed."
Macs have shipped with a software accessible serial number since
mid-1998. The serial number has been stored in several locations, some
of which were trivially destructible, and all of which could be
eliminated without specific intent.
> I remember older Mac's used to have a serial number stored
> on the hard disk but it could easily be changed by reformatting the
> hard drive.
> Is there a system call in Mac OS X that can pass this serial number to
> application software?
I believe at the moment it's somewhere in OpenFirmware or someplace
similar. Google in the comp.sys.mac.programmer hierarchy for code.
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clvrmnky
comprehension.
KarlD
Thanks for pointing me to the system_profiler utility. That was exactly
what I was looking for. I'm going to try it out later on my Mac mini.
I found a nice example of calling the system_profiler from a C program
at:
http://developer.apple.com/samplecode/ProfileSystem/listing1.html
Look in the main.c code.
Next step will be to figure out what Mac systems this will work on.
It says that the OS requirement at run-time for this C code
is 10.3.8 or greater.
/Karl
KarlD
> of which were trivially destructible, and all of which could be
> eliminated without specific intent
That's what I meant. Models that are relatively new have the
serial number stored in non-volative firmware/ROM that cannot
be changed by user or application software in any way. Although
I don't know what year and models Apple started storing it in firmware.
This is similar to Sun systems which have always had a 'hostid'
burnt into a PROM on the motherboard. Although there you could
always order a new PROM from Sun with whatever number you
wanted to have burn into it, don't know if Apple will allow you to do
that. Such ID numbers can be misused by application software
developer who may introduce a node lock on software they ship.
/Karl
Greg Buchner
Leonard Blaisdell <l...@greatbasin.com> wrote:
> "Apple Menu -> About This Mac -> More Info" does it for me on 10.3.9.
"Apple Menu" -> "About This Mac" and click on the OS X version number
twice gets me serial numbers on both my Pismo and my G4/Digital Audio...
Greg B.
PS. First click gets the OS X Build Number...
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nospam
KarlD <k_d...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > The serial number has been stored in several locations, some
> > of which were trivially destructible, and all of which could be
> > eliminated without specific intent
>
> That's what I meant. Models that are relatively new have the
> serial number stored in non-volative firmware/ROM that cannot
> be changed by user or application software in any way.
as explained, it is rather easy to change or remove, and often
unintentionally. what do you plan to do if no serial number is
returned?
Gregory Weston
> > The serial number has been stored in several locations, some
> > of which were trivially destructible, and all of which could be
> > eliminated without specific intent
>
> That's what I meant. Models that are relatively new have the
> serial number stored in non-volative firmware/ROM that cannot
> be changed by user or application software in any way.
What you meant is not what I said nor what is correct, then. I said that
the serial number _can_ be changed or erased. On some models it's
trivial. On all models that I can think of it can happen as a
side-effect of some other action (i.e. "without specific intent").
There are ways to get it from software - obviously - but it's really not
reliable. I don't know or care what you are planning on using it for,
but I will warn you that it's entirely possible for it to change or
disappear from one retrieval attempt to the next. So whatever your need
for it, keep that in mind.
G