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JAMF Corrupting Dock mobileconfig ???

  • June 5, 2023
  • 13 replies
  • 77 views
J
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I'm sending out a System level Dock mobileconfig (which I've been doing for years now) to our computer labs, and it has always worked well.  Until recently...

When I upload my mobileconfig file created by dock-master, I get a dock full of question marks.

If I check the dock plist in the Managed Preferences folder, all of my Application locations have had '/System' added to the front of their strings.

i.e.: 

This:

<dict>
<key>file-data</key>
<dict>
<key>_CFURLString</key>
<string>/Applications/Google Chrome.app</string>
<key>_CFURLStringType</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
</dict>

 

Turns into this:

<dict>
<key>file-data</key>
<dict>
<key>_CFURLString</key>
<string>/System/Applications/Google Chrome.app</string>
<key>_CFURLStringType</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
</dict>

 

Why on Earth would either JAMF or macOS think all of my Applications are in /System???

This substitution makes no sense.

    ThomM

    13 replies

    ThomM
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    • ThomM
    • Jamf Heroes
    • June 5, 2023

    Yeah, seeing this on some newly deployed lab Macs here too. Awesome sauce.

    We heard you like space.
    J
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    • jmcmahon1
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • June 5, 2023

    Yeah, seeing this on some newly deployed lab Macs here too. Awesome sauce.


    I certainly think this is a bug in JAMF as it is happening on macOS 12.6.3, 13.0, and 13.4 machines.

    ThomM
    ThomM
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    • ThomM
    • Jamf Heroes
    • June 5, 2023

    hrm.... just downloaded the config profile in question and opened it in iMazing Profile Editor, and it seems the change is in there.  Looks like this is on Jamf's side of things.  Time to put in a ticket about it.

    We heard you like space.
    J
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    • jmcmahon1
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • June 5, 2023

    hrm.... just downloaded the config profile in question and opened it in iMazing Profile Editor, and it seems the change is in there.  Looks like this is on Jamf's side of things.  Time to put in a ticket about it.


    Already did. :-)

    CS0966773

    ThomM
    ThomM
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    • ThomM
    • Jamf Heroes
    • June 5, 2023

    Already did. :-)

    CS0966773


    Me too. CS0966850.

    We heard you like space.
    J
    J
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    • jmcmahon1
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • June 8, 2023

    They escalated me to 2nd tier support who told me they are aware of the solution and to get around it, don't use mobileconfigs for the Dock, use Dockutil.  I don't want to use Dockutil, but without an ETA of when they can fix this, I might be forced to.

    ThomM
    J
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    • jmcmahon1
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • June 12, 2023

    Found a cheeseball workaround to this debacle.  Use TOO MANY slashes on purpose in your mobileconfig file.

    For example, instead of using this string:

    <string>/Applications/Google Chrome.app</string>

    Use this string:

    <string>//Applications/Google Chrome.app</string>

    Notice the extra leading slash?  It's enough to fool the faulty logic in JAMF and prevent the adding of /System to the string.

     

    ThomM
    S
    L
    D
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    • daz
    • New Contributor
    • June 13, 2023

    Already did. :-)

    CS0966773


    Me to CS0970820

    J
    J
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    • jmcmahon1
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • June 14, 2023

    Me to CS0970820


    Check my cheesy work around below.

    S
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    • SGill
    • Valued Contributor
    • June 20, 2023

    Seeing this with our deployments now too - seems to have started with jamf 10.46.1 - didn't see it with 10.45

    J
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    • jmcmahon1
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • June 20, 2023

    Seeing this with our deployments now too - seems to have started with jamf 10.46.1 - didn't see it with 10.45


    Do the silly workaround I discovered above and you'll be back in business until JAMF figures out what they broke. :-)

    ThomM
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    • ThomM
    • Jamf Heroes
    • June 21, 2023

    Found a cheeseball workaround to this debacle.  Use TOO MANY slashes on purpose in your mobileconfig file.

    For example, instead of using this string:

    <string>/Applications/Google Chrome.app</string>

    Use this string:

    <string>//Applications/Google Chrome.app</string>

    Notice the extra leading slash?  It's enough to fool the faulty logic in JAMF and prevent the adding of /System to the string.

     


    Wow, that's wild.  My workaround is manually configuring the Dock as I need it on one client, then uploading that com.apple.dock.plist as a custom settings payload. Which is actually how we *used* to manage the Docks in our labs ages ago until something (I forget if it was Jamf or Apple) broke it and we had to move to uploading a Dock mobileconfig built in iMazing Profile Editor.

    We heard you like space.
    S
    J
    Forum|alt.badge.img+4
    • jmcmahon1
    • Author
    • Contributor
    • June 21, 2023

    Wow, that's wild.  My workaround is manually configuring the Dock as I need it on one client, then uploading that com.apple.dock.plist as a custom settings payload. Which is actually how we *used* to manage the Docks in our labs ages ago until something (I forget if it was Jamf or Apple) broke it and we had to move to uploading a Dock mobileconfig built in iMazing Profile Editor.


    Yeah, I used to move Dock PLISTs between machines too, back in the day.  I wrapped them in a package and delivered the PKG through JAMF.

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