How to investigate an app that crashes when starting up, using log entries. Includes detailed instructions for one of the simplest adventures in the log, and a summary of code signature errors.
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When an app can only run for a moment, it might seem hard to work out why it crashes. Here are useful clues from the crash log and elsewhere to help you get the app running properly.
Customising apps is a joy of the past. Bundled apps can’t even have custom icons. Third-party apps can have custom icons, but anything further will break their signature.
Causes include code signature errors, app translocation, damaged documents, and corrupted or incompatible preference file.
Certificate revocation checks in macOS could be misused in surveillance. How could you prevent that without putting your Mac at risk?
Does Big Sur require you to sign your own apps or other code using a proper Apple-issued signature? What about notarization and quarantine? Your questions answered.
You try to open an app on your M1 Mac, only to see an alert telling your that you don’t have permission to open it. Only that isn’t the reason.
Final in series. Examines how the hardened runtime controls access to protected private data and services, and how some use private entitlements.
Second in the series. Considers in detail what the hardened environment offers the user, and how notarized apps can opt out of its protection.
If you were to strip unwanted code from a Universal App, would it still pass Big Sur’s strict security checks?
The Eclectic Light Company 