MCX errors

[#1]

Dear Casper experts,

Something odd appears to have happened to our MCX preferences and its happened very suddenly.

Below is an excerpt from the console log:

1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Checking for Computer Level Managed Preferences from https://mac-jo.osx.ecu.edu.au:8443// ...
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Parsing MCX Data...
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Creating shadow account for ...
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Applying Managed Preferences...
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Error: Import of Managed Preference Setting "Screen Saver Idle Time" failed.
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Error: Import of Managed Preference Setting "Input Language Button" failed.
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Error: Import of Managed Preference Setting "Login Window Text" failed.
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Error: Import of Managed Preference Setting "Disable Guest Account" failed.
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Error: Import of Managed Preference Setting "Laptop Energy Saver Settings" failed.
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Error: Import of Managed Preference Setting "Login Window Title" failed.
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Error: Import of Managed Preference Setting "Desktop Energy Saver Settings" failed.
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Recompositing MCX settings for localhost...
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Deleting shadow account for ...
1/13/11 2:32:08 PM com.jamfsoftware.startupItem[60] Logging to https://mac-jo.osx.ecu.edu.au:8443// ...

All of the MCX preferences that have failed are system level enforced. All the user level enforced MCX are applying just fine.
I've never seen this error before and really don't know what to look for.

We've restarted the JSS service but this hasn't made any difference. Has anyone come across this error before?

We're using Casper 8.0 and deploying Mac OSX 10.6.5 to clients.

Cheers,

Ron.
**
Author : Ron Grunwald
Position : IT Customer Support Officer
Organisation: Edith Cowan University
Faculty : ITSC / ITSS
Location : Joondalup, Western Australia
Email : ron.grunwald at ecu.edu.au
Alt. Email : rongrw at yahoo.com.au
Telephone : 6304 3629
Mobile Ph. : 0439 016 746
**
"They who play with root will eventually kill tree !"

[CasperSally]

We started seeing this as well once upgrading to 8.0

It's only about 1/10 freshly imaged machines and reimaging usually fixes the issue.

Ron, did you ever get any answers/fixes on this?

Thanks, Amanda

[#3]

Hi Amanda,

I currently have an iMac on my desk where this is still happening even after a reimage. The problem seems to be local and there is a clear absence of (.plist) files in /Library/Managed Preferences.

Unfortunately I never received any suggestions or advice on what to look for, probably because this is such an obscure problem. Tomorrow I'm going to log a support request with JAMF support. Hopefully they have some ideas.

Cheers,
Ron.

[mfennelly]

Did you ever get a solution to this? I'm seeing similar behavior. Sometimes there are errors, sometimes not. But the MCX preferences are
clearly absent.

Maura

Maura Fennelly
Technology Department
Archbishop Mitty High School
mfennelly at mitty.com
408.324.4243

[tlarkin]

Are you using OD for MCX and Casper? I had to disable MCX in Casper because it was interfering with my MCX in OD.

[CasperSally]

The problem got better for us by adding a 25 second delay into our post imaging script - but we're still seeing it. We are now testing a 45 second delay. We don't use OD, but we do bind to AD.

[mfennelly]

We aren't doing MCX in OD for much. We have some mobile account stuff set
on the Faculty and Staff accounts. But everything on the computer level is
managed by Casper.

[Matt]

Did you ever figure this out?

I am all of the sudden having this same issue on a new iMac i5.

--
Matt Lee
FNG Sr. IT Analyst / Desktop Architecture Team / Apple S.M.E / JAMF Casper Administrator
Fox Networks Group
matthew.lee at fox.com<mailto:matthew.lee at fox.com>

Need Help? Call the Help Desk at (310) 969-HELP (ext 24357) or online at http://itteam<http://itteam/>
Help Desk Hours: Mon-Fri, 6AM-6PM PST

[CasperSally]

This issue went away with 8.1 for us (knock on wood). I did see it pop up once since when testing flash .pkg as part of image, but setting that to install post image seems to have corrected that.

[CasperSally]

Unfortunately the "Error: Import of Managed Preference Setting" problem has come back for us.

Anyone else still seeing it, or suggestions of what to try? It's not isolated to one image or a few model machines, it's random like it was before for us - like 1/10 machines imaged get it.

[Walter]

After having this problem today, my colleague and I called JAMF on the phone. We discovered that /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/computers/localhost.plist was truncated. It was only abouy 315 bytes long. This file on other systems was over 5K. We moved the file aside, rebooted the system, and OS X recreated it and it was correct. Casper started working again importing managed preferences.
--
Walter Rowe, System Hosting
Enterprise Systems / OISM
walter.rowe at nist.gov<mailto:walter.rowe at nist.gov>
301-975-2885

Ron GRUNWALD ron.grunwald at ecu.edu.au <mailto:casper%40list.jamfsoftware.com?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BCasper%5D%20MCX%20errors&In-Reply-To=%3CC96F79D6.4CCF%25ron.grunwald%40ecu.edu.au%3E> said on Wed Feb 2 05:15:02 PST 2011:

Hi Amanda,

I currently have an iMac on my desk where this is still happening even after a reimage. The problem seems to be local and there is a clear absence of (.plist) files in /Library/Managed Preferences.

Unfortunately I never received any suggestions or advice on what to look for, probably because this is such an obscure problem. Tomorrow I'm going to log a support request with JAMF support. Hopefully they have some ideas.

Cheers,
Ron.