Flash 14 Deploying to Clients

[rgerman]

I just downloaded the Adobe Distribution license for Flash. I went to the download link provided by Adobe and downloaded install_flash_player_14_osx_pkg.dmg which says it is the version for System Administrators. There is another version... not labeled as for System Administrators... I downloaded it also... not sure which one I need to use.

In a nutshell, I want to push out the Flash Update and turn on the silent auto-update feature on the Mac Clients. I know there are many views on turning on Auto-Update... I am not as concerned as other... It's my decision and I am totally fine with Flash auto updating in my environment. If it were a Java Update, I would feel differently.

Does anyone have a working "set procedure" to deploy the latest Flash with Casper and deploy via Self Service?

Thanks,
Ray

[chris_kemp]

I use the one labeled for System Administrators - that has the plain .pkg file that can be easily pushed. Not sure about the auto-update feature offhand, if that's on or off by default.

[markkenny · Accepted solution]

Script it. Mr "Rtrouton" is a very clever man...

https://github.com/rtrouton/rtrouton_scripts/tree/master/rtrouton_scripts/install_latest_adobe_flash_player

[#4]

+1 for Rich's Flash script. Create an extension attribute that reads the current Flash Player version:

FlashPluginVersion=`/usr/bin/defaults read /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/Info CFBundleVersion`
echo "<result> $FlashPluginVersion </result>"

Then create a smart group where the Flash Player version is not the current version; then a policy that runs that Flash script whenever works best - I used to run at startup, login & logout, but now run at recurring with a completion message asking the user to restart Safari and/or Firefox.

The next time Flash is updated, change the value in your smart group, then flush the logs for that policy.

[Chris_Hafner]

Either way works beautifully depending on your needs. We've run both methods without any hiccups. It just depends on how automated you want it.

[thuluyang]

I think there is no way to auto-update flash, I did some research weeks ago.
The solution I am using is download the full .pkg from Adobe and deploy it to the users which has flash installed(Scope to the machine has Flash version lower than 14). and there is a extension attribute for identify the flash version. I attached it here:
#!/bin/sh

#
# script by emily k @volusion 2014-06-10
# to detect version of flash installed on OS X
#

if [ -f "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version.plist" ] ; then VERSION=$( defaults read "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Flash Player.plugin/Contents/version.plist" CFBundleVersion )
else VERSION="Not installed."
fi

echo "<result>$VERSION</result>"

[kirkd]

I just wanted to pop in to say that the solution marked in this thread has made my life a whole lot easier. In the past I would use composer to capture Flash installs which quickly became a pain. Rtrouton thanks for the awesome script.

[g1za]

Being a bit shy of the experience needed to sort this.

How would i go about installing the script using JSS?

[Johnny_Kim]

@g1za

-Upload the script VIA Casper Admin.

-Create a policy, under "General" type in a display name, set the "Trigger" to run either at login, or recurring check-in, etc and execution frequency to "once".

-Under, "Scripts" select the script you just uploaded.

Under "Scope", Select who you want to scope to.

[jgwatson]

I just followed your steps @Johhny.Kim but I am getting the following errors...any ideas?

Executing Policy Update Flash Script - Testing...
Running script Update Flash...
Script exit code: 0
Script result: /dev/disk1 Apple_partition_scheme /dev/disk1s1 Apple_partition_map /dev/disk1s2 Apple_HFS /private/tmp/flashplayer.d88B
installer: Error trying to locate volume at "disk1" unmounted.
"disk1" ejected.
Running Recon...
Retrieving inventory preferences from https://jss.sfhigh.net:8443/...
Locating accounts...
Searching path: /Applications
Locating package receipts...
Locating printers...
Gathering application usage information...

[Nix4Life]

autopkg+munki+jenkins ....at the office and at home

LS

[g1za]

my error was:

/usr/sbin/jamf is version 8.6
Executing Policy Update Flash Player Auto...
Mounting afp://sc-srv-sc01-mac.sc.internal/CasperShare to /Volumes/CasperShare...
Running script install_latest_adobe_flash_player_payload_free.sh...
Script exit code: 2
Script result: /private/tmp/install_latest_adobe_flash_player_payload_free.sh: line 5: syntax error near unexpected token `newline'
/private/tmp/install_latest_adobe_flash_player_payload_free.sh: line 5: `<!DOCTYPE html>'
Unmounting file server...

[rtrouton]

@g1za,

It appears you may be using the wrong version of the script. The install_latest_adobe_flash_player_payload_free.sh script is intended to be used when building a payload-free package. That script references $3, which means two different things when Casper is running the script as opposed to when the script is being run as part of a package installation by the installer tool.

When Casper is running the script:

$3 = username

When OS X's installer tool is running the script as part of an installer package:

$3 = the target volume for the installer package

I recommend using install_latest_adobe_flash_player.sh instead, which is available from here:

https://github.com/rtrouton/rtrouton_scripts/blob/master/rtrouton_scripts/install_latest_adobe_flash...

[g1za]

Ahhhh thank you!

I'll try that.