Cannot login to hidden admin account after Yosemite upgrade

[bgreeno]

I'm having an issue on some Macs that have a hidden admin user with the user folder located in "/var". The root user is enabled, but there are no other local users or mobile AD users on the computer. I'm currently testing upgrading these computers from Mavericks to Yosemite.

After upgrading, the Mac boots and starts the welcome process as though it does not have a user account created. The hidden account is still present and the user folder is still located in "/var", but it prompts to create a new admin user. After I create the new admin user I can then logout of the new user and login to my hidden admin user.

This does not appear to be a problem on our staff/faculty computers because there is a mobile account created. The mobile AD user account is seen, therefore, I am not prompted to create a new user account after upgrading to Yosemite.

Has anyone else encountered this issue or have any ideas on how to prevent having to create a temp local user account after upgrading to Yosemite?

[davidacland]

This used to be controlled by the presence of a /var/db/.AppleSetupDone file telling OS X not to re-run the setup assistant. I've seen some inconsistencies recently but it could be adding that to your workflow.

[bgreeno]

@davidacland I thought about that, but I'm not sure how to add that after the computer restarts and begins the Yosemite installation process. I'm thinking that Yosemite removes this file during installation and I don't know if there is a way to add it after Yosemite has installed, but before the setup assistant begins.

It also may be worth noting that I'm initiating the Yosemite installation through Self Service. Thanks for the help!

[davidacland]

To customise the Yosemite installer you can use createosxinstallpkg (https://github.com/munki/createOSXinstallPkg) and include a custom package with first boot package creator (https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/first-boot-package-install-generator-app/). This workflow installs OS X normally, then runs the custom package.