LoginWindow Text

I have inconsistent success using the managed preference for LoginWindowText. I deleted the managed preference from Casper and wrote a script that uses "defaults write" to apply the setting, added it as a policy, and that seems to work every time.

Walter
--
Walter Rowe, System Hosting
Enterprise Systems / OISM
walter.rowe at nist.gov<mailto:walter.rowe at nist.gov>
301-975-2885

Our login window text is too long for that field. So I ended up modifying DefaultDesktop.jpg in /System/Library/CoreServices to have the text embedded into the image. Works great :)

Only problem is that Lion's login window doesn't actually have a background image anymore (or at least one that I can find)

j
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Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Client Services
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

Lion does not use the DefaultDesktop.jpg located in /System/Library/CoreServices.
This is the new location:
/System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/Resources/NSTexturedFullScreenBackgroundColor.png
If you want to change the image, make sure your new image has the same name. "NSTexturedFullScreenBackgroundColor.png" Root should be the owner of the file with read/write access. wheel should be the group with read only access and everyone should have read only access.Also, make sure to use an image that is the same resolution as your screen size and make sure the image resolution is set to 72 pixels/inch.

I am still looking for the Apple Logo Tiff

Craig Cohen
HCS Technology Group

/System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Versions/C/Resources/NSTexturedFullScreenBackgroundColor.png

problem with this new way of doing things is that it wants to tile the image. so make it real big, my 1900x1200 image seems to scale down and fit nicely on the 15"MBP 1440x900 screen

but I have heard that if the picture is too small it does weird tiling things, I have not seen it personally though.

--
Todd Ness
Technology Consultant/Non-Windows Services
Americas Regional Delivery Engineering
HP Enterprise Services

Excellent. Figured it was there somewhere.

Many thanks

j
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Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Client Services
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

It is an NSString. What is the limit on length? Our LoginWindowText is 828 bytes.
--
Walter Rowe, System Hosting
Enterprise Systems / OISM
walter.rowe at nist.gov<mailto:walter.rowe at nist.gov>
301-975-2885

For what it is worth, here is my loginwindow.plist file and we display a decent amount of text and it works

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>AdminHostInfo</key> <string>HostName</string> <key>AdminMayDisableMCX</key> <false/> <key>DisableConsoleAccess</key> <true/> <key>EnableExternalAccounts</key> <false/> <key>HideAdminUsers</key> <true/> <key>HideLocalUsers</key> <false/> <key>HideMobileAccounts</key> <false/> <key>IncludeNetworkUser</key> <false/> <key>LoginwindowText</key> <string>All staff, student and other users of the KCKPS network and Internet access must read and agree to the policies found below. Print out the appropriate form, fill it out and send it to the appropriate authority as indicated below. You can download and read the AUP from this link: http://www.kckps.org/tis/policies/

Logging in to a KCK comptuer implies you agree to the AUP.</string> <key>RestartDisabled</key> <false/> <key>RetriesUntilHint</key> <integer>0</integer> <key>SHOWFULLNAME</key> <true/> <key>SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED</key> <true/> <key>ShutDownDisabled</key> <false/> <key>com.apple.login.mcx.DisableAutoLoginClient</key> <true/> <key>mcx_UseLoginWindowText</key> <true/> </dict> </plist>

We tested this on an air and no scaling took place, it just gave the bottom left corner of the picture.

Disappointing since we are running a script to change the background of the login randomly through our latest work. Scripting it to change the size of the picture as well to match the monitor is boring. Most of our users have at least two monitors and if these are different sizes, way more than boring, it's going to look ugly!

I haven't decided what I'm going to do yet, but I think it is going to be a case of matching the picture to the resolution of the main display and putting up with whatever it looks like on the others!

Sigh!

Sean

Depending on your needs, it looks like PolicyBanner is now built into 10.7:

http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=lion-policy-banner

Thanks,
Rich

This. Is. Killer.

Thanks

j
---
Jared F. Nichols
Desktop Engineer, Client Services
Information Services Department
MIT Lincoln Laboratory
244 Wood Street
Lexington, Massachusetts 02420
781.981.5436

The official KB article is at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4788
On Jul 21, 2011, at 1:17 PM, Trouton, Rich wrote:

Just got done setting this up for Lion machines, pretty slick. If you have screen burn-in concerns, read Patrick Fergus' comments to the afp548 article above...