Flash Player Installation

[stevewood]

Okay, I thought I had a solution that was working for installing Flash
Player on machines, but it seems I was wrong. The solution was to do the
install at either Startup or Login. I figured that way all browsers would
be closed and the installation would be successful. Guess I was wrong.

Here's what I have done:

1. Download Flash Player from Adobe's site and drop the .pkg file into Casper Admin.
2. Create a policy with trigger to run at startup (also tried at lgoin) and to run Once per Computer.
3. Scope to all computers.

The policy reports (View Status) that it is successful on a machine, yet if
I go to that machine and try to go to a Flash enabled site (Hulu for
example), I get the "Plug In Missing" icon. This is true in Firefox or
Safari.

If I then use Casper Remote to push the install to the same machine,
shutting down all browsers first, the plug in installs just fine.

So, how are you doing it? Is anyone else seeing this behavior?

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475
Sent from Dallas, TX, United States

[dderusha]

On Jan 20, 2010, at 2:27 PM, Steve Wood wrote: Okay, I thought I had a solution that was working for installing Flash Player on machines, but it seems I was wrong. The solution was to do the install at either Startup or Login. I figured that way all browsers would be closed and the installation would be successful. Guess I was wrong. Here's what I have done: 4VIOhrtfsHlKPR23qMHv

Steve-

we took a before and after with composer. then we placed it on self service.
It's been working well, no complaints.

Dan

[abenedict]

Steve,
I have mine set as a logout policy and it has been working for me. I did
have an issue before with it, it would error out during the install. I
deleted the package and downloaded it again and that seemed to fix the
issue. Also, I usually use http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ to
test my installation, although Hulu should work, what I like about adobe's
is that it will display the version number you have installed so you can
verify that you have the current and not an older version.

:)

--
Alan Benedict
?
Macintosh Technician
The Integer Group
O: 515-247-2738
C: 515-770-8234
http://www.integer.com

[Bukira]

I install all my updates as a logout policy that way no programs are
running plus its less intrusive for the user, and easier to add a reboot
in, i also lock the screen with a custom LockScreen which informs the
user that updates are being applied

as for Flash, i just dropped the pkg into Casper Admin and away she
went without a hitch

Criss

Criss Myers
Senior Customer Support Analyst (Mac Services)
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5
LIS Business Support Team
Library 301
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
Ex 5054
01772 895054

[abenedict]

Criss, just curious how you are implementing a lock screen when updates are
being applied. Exactly the type of thing I've been trying to do.

Alan

--
Alan Benedict
?
Macintosh Technician
The Integer Group
O: 515-247-2738
C: 515-770-8234
http://www.integer.com

[#6]

Ditto!

[ernstcs]

Although I have been using the application from leopard it does appear to still work on Snow Leopard. I’m noticing on Snow Leopard a copy of the below mentioned app with a specific Leopard name.

Go to /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/AppleVNCServer.bundle/Contents/Support/ Make a copy of the LockScreen.app to a location you prefer your custom stuff to be, for example /private/var/UWEC/ I actually store a bunch of things in here and use multiple lockscreens for different things so I have a subfolder structure for each instance I need a different custom graphic. For Example: /private/var/UWEC/LockScreens/Adobe/ for my Adobe installs/patching Go into the LockScreen.app and replace the Lock.jpg file in /Contents/Resources/ with your custom graphic. The file name must remain the same and a black background if you want it to match Make a package of your LockScreen.app * Then deploy the package so it’s always there to use or install and uninstall it with your policies

Then to make a long story short you need to run some commands to activate and kill it. Here are the commands using the path from my example location.

To Lock: /private/var/UWEC/LockScreens/Adobe/LockScreen.app/Contents/MacOS/LockScreen &

To Unlock: /usr/bin/killall LockScreen

I normally just do a reboot when I’m done patching and that will kill it, too. =)

NOTE: If you lock yourself out you need to either reboot the box or make sure you can SSH into it for the killall command. =)

NOTE: Do not use the jamf binary method either, it will create users and try to login with them etc. That should strictly be for FirstRun installs as it was intended.

Our Adobe patching process (which could be used for any install really) usually involves three policies (and I may have explained this before), but a short explanation...if possible. I’m sure I could consolidate this better, but it works for me.

The main policy does:

calls an initialization before script which triggers our second policy to install my lock screen package and activates the lock screen via run command. The script then goes on to sleep for 60 seconds, and then triggers the third policy to do the actual installation of the software we want. then the rest of the main policy can do what ever else you want. We use it to perform a recon and then reboot the box, but you could do a run command to kill lock screen if you don’t want to reboot for some reason. You can also have it do a delete of the LockScreen.app you installed so that if you ever updated it you don’t run into issues...or just to be clean. =)

Hopefully this is as clear as mud. I’m sure it’s not future proof as that CoreService bundle may change.

Craig E

[ernstcs]

P.S. No need to make your own copy of the application if you’re fine with the big ugly not explaining anything to the user padlock, just call their LockScreen in the location it resides. =)

[ernstcs]

PSS - a user must already be logged in for this to work

Craig Ernst
UW-Eau Claire
(715) 836-3639

Sent from my iPhone

[abenedict]

Wow, that easy... You don't know how much I am going to use this. Thanks for
taking the time to let everyone know!

Alan
--
Alan Benedict
?
Macintosh Technician
The Integer Group
O: 515-247-2738
C: 515-770-8234
http://www.integer.com

[Bukira]

For those who asked me, Craig has replied,

the downside of living on the other side of the ocean, i always get to
the conversations after the event :-)

Thats exactly as i do it

Criss

Criss Myers
Senior Customer Support Analyst (Mac Services)
Apple Certified Technical Coordinator v10.5
LIS Business Support Team
Library 301
University of Central Lancashire
Preston PR1 2HE
Ex 5054
01772 895054