Download and edit Packages

[rlowry]

I have a package I've built that isn't quite working the way I expected it to. I can't figure out how to download the dmg and edit it again in composer or something else. I can see it in Jamf Admin, but not sure how to edit it. For example, if I wanted to delete a file its adding/installing.

Thanks.

[tdclark]

If you're in Jamf Admin you should be able to click the Info button on the Package and then Reveal in Finder. If you created it in Composer, it should probably also still be listed in your sidebar for you to edit.

[rlowry]

"Reveal in Finder" is greyed out. What if I am using another computer?

[mm2270]

Did you create the package yourself or is this something from a while ago or created by someone else? If you built it, do you have the original pkg or dmg on your system somewhere that you can just grab? If so, that would be the easiest way. From there you can pull it into Composer and convert it into a Source in the application. That last step doesn't always work reliably, but it does most of the time. It just depends on how complex the package is. You mentioned it's a DMG, so those are pretty simple and it should work to convert it.

If you don't have access to the original DMG, then you have a couple of other options. I assume this is a cloud distribution point. If so, your options are a little more limited. You would probably need to create a policy that just caches the package to yours or a test Mac, and then run the policy and grab it from the /Library/Application Support/JAMF/Waiting Room/ directory afterward. You can't see into that directory in the Finder due to the permissions applied to it, so you will have to use Terminal to copy it or move it to your Desktop so you can access it again. Then I would probably delete it from the Waiting Room directory just to be sure it doesn't get installed by some other policy.

If this isn't a cloud distribution point, but instead a regular SMB type file share, then when you open Jamf Admin it should mount the share and you can navigate to it in the Finder, into the "Packages" folder where it would be. However, the same method as above would work as well, by caching the package to a machine you have access to.

I was going to say one other way is to use curl, but I'm realizing that might be hard, maybe even impossible in the case of a Jamf cloud distribution point. I actually don't know the specific URLs for those. Someone might know of a way, but I'm assuming they are secured in a way that only devices checking in with the correct certificates can access the cloud urls to get packages. I'm not entirely sure. My experience with Jamf cloud distros is unfortunately limited to the Beta testing instances.

[rlowry]

thanks for the advice, I'll give the caching a shot.
This is a jamf cloud distribution.
I don't think I have a copy of the original dmg. The computer it was created on was probably imaged a few times.
Our Jamf Jumpstart instructor told us the best way to create a new package is to do so on a completely fresh machine so that there is little to no contamination during the snapshot. This makes perfect sense to me, but we've also been testing our DEP installs and wiping out test machines.
I'll try to recover and we'll save the original files moving forward.

[rlowry]

@mm2270 It worked pretty easy to cache and collect the file. Pardon my ignorance, how do I "pull it into Composer and convert it into a Source in the application"?
Within composer I don't see any option to Import or open; do you suggest I take a new Normal Snapshot and run it? Or am I missing something?

Thanks!

[Look]

You can get packages out of the distro.
Open JAMF Admin - This will mount the distro
Navigate to /Volumes and you should be able to see the distro mounted.
Navigate to the PKG / DMG you after, it should be in /Volumes/YOUR_DISTRO/Packages
Drag it from there to the lower part of the side bar of Composer
Click Convert to Source this will recreate it as editable PKG in the top part of the sidebar.

Edit: Just realised this is probably an on prem only solution..

[mm2270]

You open Composer and pull the package into the sidebar of the application, not the main panel. Then, in the main panel of the application it will show the package information and a button called "Convert to Source" Click that button and Composer will do it's best to convert it back into a Composer source. You'll need to locate the source when it's done, unless it's the only thing in Composer in which case it will be obvious. I believe it does the conversion by creating a temp disk image and installing the package into that, and capturing the results. Or something along those lines.
So don't do a regular capture for this. Follow the steps I outlined above instead and it should work.

[mm2270]

@Look I mentioned the same thing, but that doesn't work in the case of a cloud distribution point. It would actually be nice if the Jamf Pro console had a "Download" button for packages in the same way it does with Configuration Profiles. Seems inconsistent that you can download Profiles and Scripts from a cloud distro, but not Packages.

[rlowry]

Thanks! This worked great. Appreciate the help and quick responses.