Downgrade ARD Client 3.8.4 to 3.8.2

stephanpeterson
Contributor

I'm trying to determine if it's possible to downgrade the ARD client from version 3.8.4 to 3.8.2. I've not had any luck finding a way to do it thus far. I suspect that version 3.8.4 is causing a performance issue and I'd like to downgrade a few systems to 3.8.2 to help test that theory.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

kpowerbook
New Contributor II

I have managed to successfully downgrade. Package a 3.8.2 version of the client in the /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ folder in Composer and deploy with a restart afterwards. The version will revert to 3.8.2, but automatically gets updated if a software update occurs so keep that in mind.

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6

kpowerbook
New Contributor II

I have managed to successfully downgrade. Package a 3.8.2 version of the client in the /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ folder in Composer and deploy with a restart afterwards. The version will revert to 3.8.2, but automatically gets updated if a software update occurs so keep that in mind.

stephanpeterson
Contributor

Thank you! I'm going to try replacing the 3.8.4 bits with 3.8.2 bits and see if that works.

stephanpeterson
Contributor

Replacing the files in /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ with those from a 3.8.2 setup do work. However, while I can properly control a 3.8.2 machine I can't use ARD Admin to copy files or install pkgs to a machine that has been downgraded in this manner. I wonder if anyone else has observed this.

stephanpeterson
Contributor

Turns out I missed a permission on the actual ARDAgent - /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ARDAgent

It needs to run setuid. I added that and then stopped and then restarted the ARDAgent and all's well now.

jean-claude92
New Contributor

Dear Sir and Mrs,
I'm a newcomer in apple word and forget the few I learned in the past about ix shell commands

I'd like changing files like you in /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/ , I'd like changing ARD client release from 3.9 to 3.8.5 that seem working very much better.

I don't know hot to do it only with finder file manager, even if the source computer is in target thunderbolt mode, even reading "rights" in "read info" of a file or the last directory and putting "everybody R/W" (graphically),

Can you explain how doing it and what did you do exactly with setuid.

Kind regards

kpowerbook
New Contributor II

Jean Claude,

The method described above was effective through 10.10 Yosemite. Starting with 10.11 El Capitan a service called "System Integrity Protection" has disabled users (even root) from manipulating files in certain folders (in this case, the System Folder). So without going through a bunch of hoops to un-protect your system, the method I came up with is no longer effective.

Apple article on System Integrity Protection