newbie question for composer

[bertrandzmirov]

Hi

i'm pretty new in Composer (i only use composer). I try to create pkg with finder setup. I creat the pkg with no problem but the name of my account is captured. If i deploy with ard, my account appear to the remote computer. Ho i can set the pkg to use the user that is all ready login ?

Thanks for your help

[chris_kemp]

If you have a user that is present on all machines, then you should log in as that user & set up Finder, then build the .pkg under that account. The user account that I would do that with would be the same one that logs into Casper to manage the machine.

If you upload the .pkg with Casper Admin, you can check Info -> Options for the .pkg and select "Fill Existing Users" - that will propagate the file to all existing user accounts on the machine.

Otherwise...I'm not 100% sure of this, but I'd try moving the Finder.plist file in Composer (after capture but before building) from /Users/<me> to /Users/Shared, then use Fill Existing Users to propagate it.

I see that you "...only use Composer" - I can't say how (or even if?) you would be able to do this with ARD...

[mm2270]

The "Fill Existing Users" and "Fill User Template" options only work when a package is created in the .dmg format, not .pkg, and even then, only when deployed out of Casper Suite, not something like ARD.

If you were looking to create a pkg format installer that can be used in ARD to populate a logged in users' account, ther are ways to do it, but you need to create a postflight or postinstall script in Composer to handle getting the logged in user's account name (and possibly the home directory path if needed) and then move the files into the proper places under the account.

Do some searches around here on JAMFNation for threads on how to do this. It can definitely be done. Several of us already build packages like this for some installs.

[hkim]

Composer was designed to be used with JSS in mind, with the FUT and FEU ideas.

Outside of that, you have to create custom scripts to do this, and put them in as postflight scripts. Or for User Template, you could move it to System/Library/User Template/English.lproj and new users will see the new preferences. If it's Finder preferences, maybe consider also looking into managing these through MCX.

This isn't so much a Composer thing, as it's user preference management.

[chris_kemp]

mm2270 - thanks, you're correct about .dmg vs .pkg. My mistake - I haven't built .pkgs in quite awhile anyway (I use mainly .dmgs), and I didn't even think about it.