OS Upgrade as Standard User?

[musat]

We are having an issue with the upgrade on our student MacBooks. I've followed the technical paper on "Deploying OS X v10.7 or Later with the Casper Suite": dragged the Install app to Casper Admin, Cache the app, Install Cached. However, when the computer reboots it never starts the upgrade. It still boots to the current OS.

We ran into this issue back with Mavericks, and just skipped the process, telling our students that the only way to upgrade is to have the device reimaged. Staff devices upgraded fine. This was only an issue for student Macs. The two differences are: students are standard users (not admin) and student Macs have a firmware password set.

Now with El Capitan we are revisiting this process, since we would really like to make this upgrade available to everyone, and I am running into the same issue. I see the installer file in the JAMF Waiting Room folder, and it triggers my Smart Group for Macs with the package cached. However, when I run the policy to "Install Cached" the progress bar moves along and the computer reboots, but it boots right back to my original disk.

I've tried holding down Option while booting, and entering the firmware password, and see the "Mac OS X Installer" drive listed. However, when I select that drive it still boots to the original disk.

Where do I go next to figure out why this isn't installing?

[Josh_Smith]

I had the same issues when I followed that KB article. It is all working beautifully now using Greg Neagle's createOSXinstallPkg and Rich Trouton's First Boot Package Install.

I'm doing this with upgrades to 10.10 (haven't gotten to 10.11 yet!)

[dpertschi]

+1 for createOSXinstallPkg and First Boot Package Generator.

Now, @Josh.Smith , I'd love to hear how your getting a recon immediately post update/reboot so your computer record reflects properly.

[Josh_Smith]

I just added a payload free package to Rich's First Boot Package Generator that runs

jamf recon

The machine has already rebooted at that point so the OS reports corectly.

[rtrouton]

I'm handling the post-upgrade recon with this script:

https://github.com/rtrouton/rtrouton_scripts/tree/master/rtrouton_scripts/Casper_Scripts/post_os_upg...

I build a payload-free package, then have that set as the last package installed by my first boot package.

[musat]

Thanks for the tips. I'll look into getting this going, since I just tried on a staff Mac (staff are admins) and I get the same results. And there's no firmware password on this Mac either. Hopefully it will work using the CreateOSXInstallPkg.

[musat]

Also, so I have the flow correct, @rtrouton, to use your Post Upgrade script I could use Composer to create that payload-free package with this as the post-install script?

[Josh_Smith]

Just FYI we also have an EFI password in place as well and it is not an issue for the upgrade policy.

[stevewood]

@musat you say that even your staff machines are not upgrading? In your install policy, you do have the restart options selected to boot from OSX Installer, right? I've been using the method spelled out in the document for two rounds (10.8 to 10.9 and 10.9 to 10.10) and haven't really had any issues with it.

optional image ALT text

[musat]

Yep, that what I have set for the Restart Options. I definitely don't get why these two test Macs will not boot into the Install disk. However, it is probably a good idea to be using the Create OSX Install Pkg, so I will troubleshoot the booting issues more (if there still are any) once I get that complete.

[rtrouton]

@musat, you could use Composer to do that. I also have a tool designed to generate payload-free packages:

https://github.com/rtrouton/Payload-Free-Package-Creator

[musat]

Ok, I must be doing something wrong with the "First Boot Package Install" package. I have copied my three packages into the 00, 01, and 02 directories and deleted the other numbered folders. Then I added a line in my createOSXinstallPkg xml for <string>/Users/musat/createOSXinstallPkg/FirstBootPackageInstall.pkg</string> as the only entry in the <Packages> key. However, when the install runs I get an error at boot showing:

**Failed to open OS X Installer**
The path /System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.collection appears to be missing or damaged

I tried using the createOSXinstallPkg without the First Boot Package and it ran through correctly. Now I am trying it now just referencing those three pkg files in the createOSXinstall without using the First Boot package. Just wondering where I went wrong with the First Boot Package.

[musat]

I will say, that I saw the note at the bottom of the createOSXinstall related to distribution vs component packages and tried to run the productbuild against the FirstBoot package, and get the error: "Bundle-style package "FirstBootPackageInstall.pkg" is not supported." So I figured that I didn't need to run that against that package.

Ooh, but I didn't try running that against the three packages I put inside the FirstBoot package, and I just ran it and it converted the Payload-Free package for my post install script.

Now to try building and uploading it again.

[musat]

One more update: I converted the Payload Free package using productbuild and added that to the First Boot package, and still got the error message.
I then added my three packages directly into the createOSXinstall build (including the converted Payload Free package) and this OS install ran properly. Of course, it looks like only one of the three packages I bundled in ran successfully. But at least one did, so I know it took them
Anyway, it looks like the error you get for component packages is popping up for bundle-style packages for me.

On Edit: And, of course, you already knew this. when doing a search, I found your blob post that is newer than the one listed in the first reply. Just downloading this update now, but figured I'd post to let you know that I did find it.

For future reference, the First Boot Package Install Generator App can be found here: https://derflounder.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/first-boot-package-install-generator-app/

[musat]

Yay, success. Kind of. At least the upgrade succeeded with the new First Boot package.

Now to just figure out why my two packages that were a part of that failed to install, and why my post_os_upgrade script didn't seem to run. But at least they were there and tried.

[musat]

Figured I'd follow up with one last post. Everything is working great. I have modified the post OS upgrade script from @rtrouton to add a jamf policy -event osUpgrade line after the recon. This way I can tag some policies that need to be reinstalled after the upgrade. And that is working perfectly.

[rcastorani]

We followed the steps but for some reason the computer didn't restart automatically. Instead, a dialog box popped up saying the computer was scheduled to be restarted with an OK button. Fortunately a manual restart did in fact boot to the installer (after a mini-reboot in the middle) and the OS installed properly.

The policy has the exact same Restart Options as shown in the picture posted by @stevewood above.

Here is the policy log:

Executing Policy Upgrade to Mac OS Yosemite... [STEP 1 of 1] Verifying package integrity... Installing Yosemite Installer with Post Flight Script.pkg... Successfully installed Yosemite Installer with Post Flight Script.pkg. Blessing in-place OS upgrade directory... /OS X Install Data is not a directory

Any ideas?

[donparfet]

I have built on OSX 10.11 installer using createOSXinstallPkg and have tested it via a self service policy on a FileVault enabled system with no problems. On my second test upgrading from OSX 10.9, the installer completed and is supposed to reboot the machine after about 5 minutes, but reboot never happened. Also, on reboot the upgrade did not continue... (I experienced similar issues with OSX 10.10 installer) I have 'Restart Options' in the policy set to reboot after 5 minutes. Any suggestions how to get reboot to happen more consistently? (granted this is only my second test, but 50% success is less than optimal...)
I tested the policy again this time with 'Restart Options' turned off, and the installer worked correctly. It is almost like the 'Restart Options' set to reboot somehow does not allow the installer to 'bless' the upgrade app to be the next boot device.
Any suggestions on how to get reboot to take place apart from settings in the policy?