Apps imaged to Root Drive

[swright_mm]

I updated my apps in Casper admin and now after imaging the system, Firefox; chrome, and casper suite shows up in the Root drive rather than in the applications folder. Is there any clue as to why it's doing that now? How can I set it to go back to the Applications folder during the imaging process?

[bentoms]

@swright.mm Did you download the Apps & then drag the DMG's into Casper Admin, without repackaging?

[mm2270]

How were the packages built? Do you still have the Composer Sources available to look at (if they were built in Composer)? If so, what directory are they in there? What format were the packages built to? DMG or PKG?

Right now, you haven't mentioned much of any of this, so its kind of impossible to know why this would be happening.

[GaToRAiD]

I agree with @bentoms on this one, it look like you drug the casper app install into the dmg and not installed them and package them up with composer.

[bentoms]

I vaguely remember @tlarkin saying something about JNUC that could be done to Expand / to /Applications/, but can't remember what.

[tlarkin]

I vaguely remember @tlarkin saying something about JNUC that could be done to Expand / to /Applications/, but can't remember what.

You can set the target drive path in the general payload of a policy. By default it payloads to the root (/) path. You could input any path to install in there, such as:

/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Applications

However, the packages should have the file path in them. I would look at the package contents if they are PKG files and look at their payload path to ensure they are set to go to /Applications. Apps like Firefox and Chrome are just app bundles you download from the Internet. They don't come in a PKG and they don't payload anywhere (you have to drag and drop them).

Modifying the Target Drive in the general pane of a policy is more of a work around in my eyes, rather than looking at the actual problem. If you investigate your packages, do they contain the proper file paths?

[bentoms]

Top tip! Thanks @tlarkin

@swright.mm we're waiting on your reply. :)

[swright_mm]

yes I downloaded the packages as a dmg already from online and then dragged them to admin without using composer. I thought I only use composer if I needed to convert them to a DMG or a pkg.

[tlarkin]

Hi @swright.mm

Thanks for posting more information. Given off of what you have just posted, I think the problem is that they are just app bundles dragged into Casper Admin and uploaded as bundles. Which means by default they will install in the root path. If you create a DMG or a PKG, they will payload to a file path, like /Applications for example.

If you just drop an app bundle in, the Casper Framework and default policy settings will deploy software at the root of the boot volume. So, this is why you are seeing this behavior. If you repackage them as a PKG you gain a few benefits.

• Can be reused in many tools (ARD, Casper Remote, or other third party tools)
• Ability to specify payload path in the PKG
• Ability to set proper permissions

So, you would need to repackage them to get them where you want, and with the proper file permissions.

I hope this helps answer your question.

EDIT

Just to clarify a few points. You still need to install it into /Applications and have Composer capture that path. Wrapping it up in a PKG simply allows you to payload those app bundles in specific folder paths. Composer also has a pre-installed option where you can drop Firefox into your /Applications folder and Composer will package it up based on where you have it installed and configured. Just make sure you test everything before sending it out to production.

Thanks,
Tom