Google Chrome management

[#1]

Has anyone been successful in managing Google Chrome in their Mac environments? My K-12 District would like to move to Chrome, but I am unable to import the com.google.Chrome.manifest file into the JSS Managed Preference pane.
Has anyone done this yet?

Best regards,
Christopher A. DeNoia

[#2]

Yes, it seems Google is still working on their Mac management piece. However per their Policy Management page (http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=187203)
the manifest file can be retrieved from inside the App's [/resource] directory.
I've also been unsuccessful in uploading this manifest into the JSS: "The selected file was not valid".
Am I doing something wrong??

Chris

[lance_ogletree]

If you pull out the com.google.Chrome.manifest from the Resources folder of the Chrome application, you'll get that error.
Apparently that file is bundle package that requires you to look within it to Contents/Resources/ to find the actual manifest.
If you grab that file, you can upload it properly into the JSS.

--
Lance Ogletree
JAMF Software
Systems Engineer
Mobile: (972) 342-5990
Direct: (972) 547-9566
lance.ogletree at jamfsoftware.com<mailto:lance.ogletree at jamfsoftware.com>


[#4]

Which version of JSS are you running Lance?

Adil

[#5]

"Christopher DeNoia" <cdenoia at pascack.k12.nj.us> writes: Has anyone been successful in managing Google Chrome in their Mac environments? My K-12 District would like to move to Chrome, but I am unable to import the com.google.Chrome.manifest file into the JSS Managed Preference pane. Has anyone done this yet?

I've been deploying the app via SelfService, but not any preferences for it. I was unsuccessful in finding any specific app preference files to manage.

Gene Anderson
Systems Analyst, ACTC, MCP, CCA
Pembina Hills Regional Division No.7
Phone: (780) 674-8535 ext 6860
email: ganderson at phrd.ab.ca

No one really listens to anyone else, and if you try it for a while you'll see why. - Mignon McLaughlin

[#6]

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=187945
Unfortunately for me uploading MCX did not work. I get "The selected file was not valid" (JSS 8.0)

Adil

[stevewood]

On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 2:42 PM, Lance Ogletree <Lance.Ogletree at jamfsoftware.com> wrote: If you pull out the com.google.Chrome.manifest from the Resources folder of the Chrome application, you'll get that error. Apparently that file is bundle package that requires you to look within it to Contents/Resources/ to find the actual manifest. If you grab that file, you can upload it properly into the JSS. -- Lance Ogletree JAMF Software Systems Engineer Mobile: (972) 342-5990 Direct: (972) 547-9566 lance.ogletree at jamfsoftware.com lanceo at mac.com(iChat)

I just tried exactly that, and the plist file is not selectable in the JSS. And I made sure to convert it just like the instructions on the JSS page
indicate. It's just grayed out. And I pulled the file out of the folder
like you said Lance.

Anyone else seeing this?

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

[talkingmoose]

The manifest file isn't a .plist. You don't need to convert it.
On 5/27/11 3:10 PM, "Steve Wood" <swood at integer.com> wrote:

Drag this file to your Desktop and import from there:

Google Chrome.app/Contents/Resources/com.google.Chrome.manifest/Contents/Resources
/com.google.Chrome.manifest

Note the two levels of "Contents/Resources/com.google.Chrome.manifest".

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

[stevewood]

That's exactly what I did Bill. Tried it again just now. When I go to the
On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 3:42 PM, Smith, William <William.Smith at merrillcorp.com> wrote:
JSS -> Management -> Managed Preferences -> Create Managed Preference and
try to Choose File, the com.google.Chrome.manifest file is grayed out in the
dialog.

Any other ideas why this is happening? I'm going to try from a different
machine to make sure I'm not smoking something here.

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

[stevewood]

Well, either the sun baked me while out on the boat today, or my machine's
On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 5:30 PM, Steve Wood <swood at integer.com> wrote:
playing tricks on me. Just tried it from a different machine and the
manifest imported with no problem.

Thanks guys!

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

[#11]

Hi Steve,
Yes I get the same results. When extracting the com.google.Chrome.manifest file from [Google Chrome/Contents/Resources/com.google.Chrome.manifest/Resources], I receive the same "Invalid" error everyone else is receiving.

Hi Lance,
Adil had a great question. Do you mind telling us what version of the JSS you're running? Perhaps we are on an older version.

Best regards,

Christopher A. DeNoia
Network Administrator
Pascack Valley Regional High School District
c/o Pascack Hills High School
225 W. Grand Ave.
Montvale, NJ 07645
Phone: (201) 358-7020 X2260
email: cdenoia at pascack.k12.nj.us http://www.pascack.k12.nj.us

[CasperSally]

It imported fine for me on 8.1
Curious if anyone is disabling Chrome cloud print somehow so users can't print to your printers from various personal machines?

[#13]

I've never tried.

[lance_ogletree]

8.1 of the JSS
path
Chrome/Contents/Resources/com.google.Chrome.manifest/Contents/Resources/com.google.Chrome.manifest

--
Lance Ogletree
JAMF Software
Systems Engineer
Mobile: (972) 342-5990
Direct: (972) 547-9566
lance.ogletree at jamfsoftware.com<mailto:lance.ogletree at jamfsoftware.com>

[daviddondero]

How do you edit the AuthNegotiateDelegateWhitelist in the manifest xml?
In other words not knowing xml as much as I would like, what is the proper way to add the websites you want whitelisted in the xml file?

[tkimpton]

Instead i use the Google Chrome Master Preferences. Easier to push out any changes :)

http://www.chromium.org/administrators/configuring-other-preferences

This is my master preferences. We have an iternal landing page of hppt://welcome which is set as default with user instructions and help

#!/bin/sh
  "homepage" : "http://welcome",
  "homepage_is_newtabpage" : false,
  "browser" : {
    "show_home_button" : true,
    "check_default_browser" : false
  },
  "bookmark_bar" : {
    "show_on_all_tabs" : true
  },
    "distribution" : {
    "import_bookmarks": false,
    "import_bookmarks_from_file": "/Library/Google/bookmarks_chrome.html",
    "skip_first_run_ui" : true,
    "show_welcome_page" : true,
    "import_search_engine" : false,
    "import_history" : false,
    "create_all_shortcuts" : true,
    "do_not_launch_chrome" : true,
    "make_chrome_default" : true
  },
    "sync_promo" : {
      "user_skipped": true
},
  "first_run_tabs" : [
    "http://welcome"
  ]
}

[daviddondero]

Thanks, but how would you use this to add sites you would like whitelisted?
What I am trying to do is have all our intranet sites not require the user to enter his credentials, so the kerberos ticket can pass to Google.

I tried the script below that should be executed at login but when I launched Chrome and went to out intranet site I got this message:
This webpage is not found
No webpage was found for the web address: http://intranet.XXXX.intra/
Error 6 (net::ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND): The file or directory could not be found.

Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash
cd /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/
if [ -f 'Google Chrome.bin' ];
then echo "Already Modified"
else sudo chmod u+wr ./ sudo mv 'Google Chrome' 'Google Chrome.bin' sudo echo "#!/bin/bash" > "Google Chrome" sudo echo 'exec /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome.bin --args --auth-server-whitelist="INTRANET.XXXX.NET, *INTRANET.XXXX.INTRA" --auth-negotiate-delegate-whitelist="INTRANET.XXXX.NET, *INTRANET.XXXX.INTRA" --auth-schemes="digest,ntlm,negotiate"' >> "Google Chrome" sudo chmod a+x 'Google Chrome' echo "NTLM Will now work in chrome"
fi

I now see that you can edit the com.google.Chrome.manifest file? My question is what exactly do you put for it to work? What is the proper way to write what you need to put in there?

Thanks!

[tkimpton]

I wouldn't recommend messing with the manifest as you most likely will break something. As far as i am aware (i had tried and stopped) it is not going to be possible to get NTLM pass through working on Mac OS.

I had the same problem here and users just have to authenticate for the intranet :(

[rmanly]

@tkimpton Is the Master Prefs file still working for you in up-to-date Chrome?

I had it working in 16 but mine doesn't work in 18... :(

[tkimpton]

Hi Ryan

Yes mines working fine except the importing of bookmarks. I am waiting for them to fix it.

Extensions will now work if an account has a @ symbol in it (mobile accounts). I had to badger Google for an absolute age to get them to fix it. Now it is awesome :)

Also i set the autoupdate built in feature and captured it using composer and it works. No more Chrome pushouts....Yeah! :)

Also seeing as Mozilla are screwing with external extensions, Google are doing things correctly with them.

I install some key chrome extensions by default :)

http://code.google.com/chrome/extensions/external_extensions.html

This is my /Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/External Extensions/external_extensions.json

{
  "cooalgmgbdimgojpmaakaalbimacogjf": {
    "external_crx": "/Library/Google/Chrome/Extensions/chromereload.crx",
    "external_version": "0.5"
  },
   "kakeidcebkaibpklhgjfnabfgojdabjb": {
    "external_crx": "/Library/Google/Chrome/Extensions/tinyurl.crx",
    "external_version": "0.3.1"
  },
   "cnbinanebodpllfkniimgnacmlgkfohh": {
    "external_crx": "/Library/Google/Chrome/Extensions/awesomescreenshotcapture.crx",
    "external_version": "3.3.4"
  }
}

[rmanly]

So I finally took the time to revisit this again today adding one entry at a time and testing.

I discovered that:

A) The file is now apparently supposed to be at '/Library/Google/Google Chrome Master Preferences'

B) spending 15 minutes pounding your fingers into Vim makes you feel like an idiot when it turns out there is one comma missing...

:P

Here is what I finished up with.

{
  "homepage" : "http://www.glenbrook225.org/south/Pages/default.aspx",
  "homepage_is_newtabpage" : false,
  "browser" : {
    "show_home_button" : true,
    "check_default_browser" : false
  },
  "bookmark_bar" : {
    "show_on_all_tabs" : false
  },
  "distribution" : {
    "show_welcome_page" : false,
    "skip_first_run_ui" : true,
    "import_history" : false,
    "import_bookmarks" : false,
    "import_home_page" : false,
    "import_search_engine" : false
  },
  "sync_promo" : {
    "user_skipped" : true
  },
  "first_run_tabs" : [
    "http://www.glenbrook225.org/south/Pages/default.aspx"
  ]
}

EDIT: I don't really know anything about JSON but it seems silly to me that screwing up one dictionary or list invalidates all the data...or is this just how Chrome parses it?

[rob_potvin]

Does anyone know how to block extensions? Kids at my school are abusing them

[rmanly]

@Rob I just tested this and uploading the manifest into Casper and then setting "ExtensionInstallBlacklist" to

<array>
  <string>*</string>
</array>

worked for me. :)

Relevant Link:
http://www.chromium.org/administrators/policy-list-3#ExtensionInstallBlacklist