But which post is the right answer?

@davidacland we need a like button. The solution for us is to not deploy unless/until they fix their broken installer, so it can be deployed without touching the Macs.

I guess Roxio must have bigger problems on their plate at the moment with their business disappearing down the plug hole. I'm surprised their not using a Vise installer!

@davidacland word finally got to the VP of development, I guess we'll see if these issues are acknowledged/resolved.

They do seem to be following the path Quark took after the product lost market share, became marginally useful, and profits started to slide...merge, merge, merge, and watch your capable staff be slowly replaced with cheaper, less capable staff...gotta protect that cash cow...

BREAKING NEWS:
After a bit more testing we found (yet) another application being installed in the non-admin user's home directory:
external image link

I wish I was good at blogging, you can't make this $#!+ up...

I'm just going to leave this here...

Roxio Community - Enterprise Deployment (Or Lack Thereof)
http://forums.support.roxio.com/topic/108206-enterprise-deployment-or-lack-thereof/

external image link

@tnielsen yea we're trying to convince the group they don't need it. :(

=)

12.1 is out...yawwnnn....

I haven't had a chance to create a Composer manifest for Toast 12.1 but here is an image of what we found needs to be packaged.

external image link

The developer is helping us, but to set expectation, they don't have enough resources to put into making their proper PKG installer more enterprise friendly. No surprises there, seems to be the trend now-a-days.

Their PKG is flat, and can be pushed to a logged off computer; since the madness only starts once Toast 12.1 is launched.

So DMG format package is required to deploy using JSS, else create a flat PKG and loop the user level stuff.

On a bright note, after many emails, the developer has agreed to collaborate with us, so we can leverage any "defaults" commands that may exist. For example, disabling auto updates checking:

$ defaults read /Users/johndoe/Library/Preferences/com.roxio.Toast.plist SUEnableAutomaticChecks 0

With a little effort, we can push their Toast 12.1 flat PKG, along with the license key, and defaults commands.

Will post back if/when we get further along.

HTH,
Don

I can not attribute any of the following to any current/past/future Roxio engineer, but let's just say thank you very much for helping get this sorted out over a weekend.

The work was done on his computer. I connected remotely to share my knowledge and at the end we have a working deployment process that removes 11 and installs 12 and hits the Dock icons along the way.

Requirements:
- Toast 12 Titanium (version 12.1; won't work with 12.0)
- Test computer running 10.9.x (that's what we used)
- JSS 9.6x (that's what we used)

Create a removal script and upload to JSS:

#!/bin/sh

/bin/rm -Rfd /Applications/Toast 11 Titanium;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Library/Application Support/Roxio;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Library/Preferences/com.roxio.Toast.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Documents/Roxio Converted Items;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Documents/TiVo Recordings;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Application Support/BeLight Software;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Application Support/Disc Cover 3 RE;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Application Support/DiskCatalogMaker;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Application Support/Mac2TiVo;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Application Support/Roxio;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Application Support/Spin Doctor X;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.belightsoft.DiskCover3.re.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.belightsoft.GetBackup2.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.mac.fujisoft.DiskCatalogMaker.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.roxio.Mac2Tivo.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.roxio.spindoctorx.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.roxio.Toast.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.roxio.videoplayer.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/com.tivo.desktop.plist;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Preferences/Roxio.dat;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Saved Application State/com.belightsoft.DiskCover3.re.savedState;

/bin/rm -Rfd /Users/*/Library/Services/ToastIt.service;

/bin/rm -Rfd /System/Library/Extensions/RoxioBluRaySupport.kext;

/bin/rm -Rfd /System/Library/Extensions/CDSDAudioCaptureSupport.kext

Take snapshot (sorry not a fan of Composer manifests; plus you can learn more by going through the motions):

1. Log in as root


2. Take BEFORE snapshot


3. Install Toast 12 Titanium


4. Launch Toast 12 Titanium


5. Go thorugh the motions to license/suppress (EULA, serial number, let it install Service, ignore stupid kext error, do not register, etc.)


6. Quit/relaunch Toast 12 Titanium to be sure settings stuck


7. Launch DiskCatalogMaker and Live Screen Capture if those matter at all (didn't to us)


8. Reboot and launch the apps again to be sure


9. Take AFTER snapshot and let it compare


10. Clean up the snapshot so it looks like the below image


11. Save as DMG and answer YES when asked if you want to populate user directories with the stuff in root's home directory


12. Upload DMG to JSS

Snapshot should look like this:

optional image ALT text

Upload Toast 11 Titanium Dock icon...and upload Toast 12 Titanium Dock icon. Yes they can both exist in JSS.

Create policy:

• Run the above script BEFORE to remove Toast 11 Titanium


• Remove old Dock icon, add new Dock icon


• Install Toast 12 TItanium and fill existing users / fill user template


• Have it update inventory


• No reboot necessary; no logout necessary


• We chose to make this a Self Service item for users to invoke


• Set Self Service item to run once per computer but don't provide a trigger


• For compliance reasons, obviously, narrow scope based on entitlement


• Test on a test Mac of course.


• Test on another Mac of course.


• Test on yet another Mac because why not.

User goes to Self Service, is warned to exit Toast, then Toast 11 is removed, and Toast 12 is installed, old Dock icon is removed, new Dock icon is added, and inventory is updated.

Last step: contact Roxio and point to this thread if only to shame and publicly lambast them for profiting off your sweat.

HTH,
Don

This is where @gregneagle chimes in to say he has a better/easier/holier way to do this. Actually he probably won't post that here, but on IRC. :)

And people wonder why bad installers make me so angry.

Wait...did @johncwelch just post to not one but TWO of my threads?! :)

I can die in peace now. :D

The storm cleared, we should be OK until Toast 13 is released.

My install method for Toast is the following. I install:
1) Toast 12.0 installer pkg
2) Toast 12.1 update pkg
3) A registration pkg that installs a plist to /L/P/com.roxio.Toast.plist, which contains:

<?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>R2D2</key>

    <data>

        __REDACTED__

    </data>

    <key>R2D212</key>

    <data>

        __REDACTED__

    </data>

    <key>Rox</key>

    <data>

        __REDACTED__

    </data>

    <key>SUEnableAutomaticChecks</key>

    <false/>

    <key>SULastSonicUpdate</key>

    <data>

    __REDACTED__

    </data>

    <key>last setup assistant run version</key>

    <integer>303071232</integer>

</dict>

</plist>

Some of the data keys may only be needed for the Blu-Ray burning plugin, which we also have as part of our license. The non-data keys are self-explanatory.

I deploy a plist because in the environment for which Toast gets deployed, I'm ok with requiring a logout or a reboot if necessary for the preferences to become cached. This plist works as another any-user default, but if a user already has some of the same keys set in their own com.roxio.Toast prefs domain, then those would need to be either removed so that those in /L/P/com.roxio.Toast take precedence, or to instead have a login script-like mechanism to set the appropriate keys in the user's domain.

That's all to say that you might prefer a different mechanism for setting the preferences for on a user-level, but that that's all the licensing bits are - standard OS X preferences that obey the patterns we see for Apple's own application-level preferences.

Well it looks like Toast 14 is out. I don't see a Trial download link. I wonder if they listened to all the feedback they got on how this needs to be easily deployable/manageable to enterprise users.

Does anyone have the direct download link to 14.1? Product page doesn't seem to.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Just been presented with 5 standalone licenses! Is there any point in me trying to get these converted to a volume lic? Have they actually improved anything or is it still just as bad regardless of license type?

Did you find a direct download to 14.1?

Toast 14.1