Adobe Flash Player 11.6.602.167

@mm270, thanks for posting the detailed steps you're using to deploy Flash Player. They are thorough and easy to follow. I have a question about the policy you are using to install the software. Is the policy set to the every15 trigger or a login trigger or some other trigger? I know when you manually run the Flash Player installer it will complain if a browser is opened, so I didn't know if by deploying it this way it would avoid that issue and install correctly even if a browser window was opened. I'm new to Casper so be gentle. ;-) Thanks.

@mpermann - ours is set to Once per computer and on the every15 trigger. We do see some errors in the logs, but interestingly enough really very few that I have seen related to a Mac sitting at the login screen. Our errors are due to some Macs being in locations where a firewall may be stopping them from hitting our CasperShare over http for example. So it does need some babysitting, but the point of our policy is to get all Macs up to a version of FlashPlayer where we can allow the auto update process to then take over. So eventually the errors become less and less frequent and therefore needs less monitoring.
YMMV on whether the above would work OK. You could always use a login trigger for this to be sure its only running on Macs where someone has logged in. The thing I don't like about login triggered policies is that many Mac users don't log off their Macs for weeks at a time, and we don't have any policies in place that would force users to log off.

@mm2270, thanks for your reply. I did some testing using the every15 trigger and it seemed to run ok even with a browser open when the policy ran. The software was installed successfully and Adobe's Flash checker site shows the latest version on the computers. I tried the same steps using the 10.3.183.61 but it didn't install silently. Do you know if it's possible to install that version silently? I've still got some old 10.5.8 systems that need updating. Thanks for you help!

@mpermann, I haven't packaged up 11.3 in the manner I outlined, so I really don't know. I only started this process with 11.5 and up. I'm pretty sure 11.3.300 or thereabouts was when the auto update process was introduced, so for any Macs already on that version I just push out a mms.cfg file with auto update on (to be sure) and let the auto update process do its work.
Since it looks like you're looking to install it from the get-go and not just enable auto update, I'm not sure if I can help with that. its possible the added NSUIElement key in the Info.plist helps prevent it from complaining about open browsers?

In case anyone is having issues with auto update and wants to test it, I found this command that forces auto update to run.

/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager -update plugin

Avast ye @nortonpc...I don't suppose Adobe's sons of a biscuit eater Flash Player developers gave us a way to run this silently...they should all be keelhauled!

In case anyone is having issues with auto update and wants to test it, I found this command that forces auto update to run.

/Applications/Utilities/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager -update plugin

Good command to know, thanks for posting.

Don

FYI I just noticed on testing that adding the .pkg buried in this release and deploying it didn't seem to work, but installing on a build-box then using Composer w/ Pre-Installed Software did - deploying it that way.

The find-version page is your friend (for Safari and FF anyway):

http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/find-version-flash-player.html

Great find on that auto-update command. I'd enjoy 5 minutes with some of these devs..

@nortonpc thanks for that.

If only Adobe would add in flash to the AUSST channel updates and include a method to point to the internal AUSST server then we wouldn't have to deal with the Bain of Flash all the time.

Jody, Karl.... How about it?

Don

Avast ye @nortonpc...I don't suppose Adobe's sons of a biscuit eater Flash Player developers gave us a way to run this silently...they should all be keelhauled!

I was thinking the same thing, however my experimentation has determined that the major updates require admin intervention anyways. If the update is not run for 30 days then it will silently run.

I ended up packaging the 11.6 update and blasting it out because users were complaining about a popup requiring admin creds to run. Has anyone else seen this behavior from the auto update.

-Pat

This is probably bad form given the opinions of the adobe flashplayer updates recently.

I copied this script from somewhere, modified it a little and have a weekly policy scoped to machines that updates flash using this script. While this hasn't broken yet, I've been watching it to make sure that I don't run into any unexpected issues. I think the only time I have had to update it was to fix a screen-scraping issue when adobe changed the page.

I've always had the intention to have it notify me when an update is available and then have to manually approve it. I haven't ever done so. It would be smart to have the script point to an internally verified .dmg rather than pull direct from adobe. Use it with caution. Improve it. Hopefully it makes someone's life easier.

#!/bin/sh
# Script to download and install Flash Player.
# Only works on Intel systems.



dmgfile="flash.dmg"
volname="Flash"
logfile="/Library/Logs/FlashUpdateScript.log"

url='http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/11.1.102.64/install_flash_player_osx.dmg'

# Are we running on Intel?
if [ '`/usr/bin/uname -p`'="i386" -o '`/usr/bin/uname -p`'="x86_64" ]; then
    # Get the latest version of Flash Player available from Adobe's About Flash page.
    #latestver=`/usr/bin/curl -s http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ | /usr/bin/grep -A2 "Macintosh - OS X" | /usr/bin/grep -A1 "Safari" | /usr/bin/sed -e 's/<[^>][^>]*>//g' -e '/^ *$/d' | /usr/bin/tail -n 1 | /usr/bin/awk '{print $1}' |tr -d "
"`
    latestver=`/usr/bin/curl -s http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ | /usr/bin/grep -A4 "Macintosh" | /usr/bin/grep -A1 "Safari" | /usr/bin/sed -e 's/<[^>][^>]*>//g' -e '/^ *$/d' |  /usr/bin/tail -n 1 | /usr/bin/awk '{print $1}' |tr -d "
"`
    echo "Latest Version is: $latestver"
    # Get the version number of the currently-installed Flash Player, if any.
    if [ -e "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin" ]; then
        currentinstalledver=`/usr/bin/defaults read /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version CFBundleShortVersionString`
        echo "Current installed version is: $currentinstalledver"
        if [ ${latestver} = ${currentinstalledver} ]; then
            echo "Flash Player is current. Exiting"
            exit 0
        fi
    else
        currentinstalledver="none"
        echo "Flash is not installed"
    fi

    url=""
    url1="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/"
    url2="/install_flash_player_osx.dmg"

    #Build URL
    #url=`echo "http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/pdc/`$latestver`/install_flash_player_osx.dmg"`
    url=`echo "${url1}${latestver}${url2}"`
    echo "Latest version of the URL is: $url"

    # Compare the two versions, if they are different or Flash is not present then download and install the new version.
    if [ "${currentinstalledver}" != "${latestver}" ]; then
        /bin/echo "`date`: Current Flash version: ${currentinstalledver}" >> ${logfile}
        /bin/echo "`date`: Available Flash version: ${latestver}" >> ${logfile}
        /bin/echo "`date`: Downloading newer version." >> ${logfile}
        /usr/bin/curl -s -o /tmp/flash.dmg ${url}
        /bin/echo "`date`: Mounting installer disk image." >> ${logfile}
        /usr/bin/hdiutil attach /tmp/flash.dmg -nobrowse -quiet
        /bin/echo "`date`: Installing..." >> ${logfile}
        /usr/sbin/installer -pkg /Volumes/Flash Player/Install Adobe Flash Player.app/Contents/Resources/Adobe Flash Player.pkg -target / > /dev/null
        /bin/sleep 10
        /bin/echo "`date`: Unmounting installer disk image." >> ${logfile}
        /usr/bin/hdiutil detach $(/bin/df | /usr/bin/grep ${volname} | awk '{print $1}') -quiet
        /bin/sleep 10
        /bin/echo "`date`: Deleting disk image." >> ${logfile}
        /bin/rm /tmp/${dmgfile}

        #double check to see if the new version got updated
        newlyinstalledver=`/usr/bin/defaults read /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version CFBundleShortVersionString`
        if [ "${latestver}" = "${newlyinstalledver}" ]; then
            /bin/echo "`date`: SUCCESS: Flash has been updated to version ${newlyinstalledver}" >> ${logfile}
        /Library/Application Support/JAMF/bin/jamfHelper.app/Contents/MacOS/jamfHelper -windowType hud -title "Flash Player Updated" -description "Flash Player has been updated. Please restart your browsers." &
        else
            /bin/echo "`date`: ERROR: Flash update unsuccessful, version remains at ${currentinstalledver}." >> ${logfile}
            /bin/echo "--" >> ${logfile}
            exit 1
        fi

    # If Flash is up to date already, just log it and exit.       
    else
        /bin/echo "`date`: Flash is already up to date, running ${currentinstalledver}." >> ${logfile}
        /bin/echo "--" >> ${logfile}
    fi  
else
    /bin/echo "`date`: ERROR: This script is for Intel Macs only." >> ${logfile}
fi

exit 0

I have been using Todd's (@nessts) method mentioned in this link:

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=5713#respond

I use the Perl script as a post flight script in a package. The package drops the Install Adobe Flash Player.app into a hidden folder and then calls the Perl script.

I have this in a policy that is set to run Every15. As an after script I have a script that uses cocoaDialog to pop up a bubble that indicates that Flash has been installed, and that they need to restart any open web browsers.

I used this to deploy 11.6.602.167 and only had one or two issues with it, and those were installs that never finished. Killing the install PID finished the installation.

sorry, late to the game here folks. new phone on wednesday night and haven't seen any of this. SO......
Geez, Adobe updates abound? I will surely leverage your install scripts above, @mm2270.

@donmontalvo: If I ever need to have a user logged in to do something, ala install ColorEyes (you can see me gripe about it occasionally), I create a package that installs a temp user, kcpassword file for that user, and a launch daemon to do whatever it is I *originally* needed to get done, and reboot the Mac (then clean itself up after, and remove kcpassword and autologin user), and then reboot again. I'd add it into my policy as an ```
ConsoleUser=who | grep console
if [ "$ConsoleUser" == "" ]; then
do this script I mentioned above to do the thing that REAL installers should be doing anyway
else
do actual work
```

I THINK that's all Casper is really doing with its post-imaging auto login user, launchdaemon with kcpassword, etc., anyway.

WAY safer than trying to use osascript to simulate a login. If you want, I can share these fun-filled scripts I use to "auto" deploy ColorEyes "unattended." (PS - With any luck CE is going away and we are going with BasICColor... *happy dance*)