Package Big Sur installer with Composer issue

glpi-ios
Contributor III

Hello,

I downloaded and got the Big Sur installer which is 12.21 GB.
When I try to package it with Composer, the pkg is only 15.6MB and damaged.

I tried with Composer versions 10.25.1 and 10.26 beta.

Do you have the same problem ?

Thank you for your help

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

glpi-ios
Contributor III

Ok, sorry. I have the answer :

Signed system volume
macOS Big Sur introduces a cryptographically signed system volume to protect against malicious tampering, which replaces the separate system volume introduced in macOS 10.15.
For IT admins, this new volume makes for a very large macOS Installer file that native macOS tools or Jamf Composer can’t build as a .pkg file, which is the most common method to deliver macOS applications. If you have Jamf or are using Jamf Composer to package the macOS Big Sur Installer to deliver via a policy, choose the option to “Create as DMG” instead of a .pkg file. macOS Big Sur’s signed system volume (SSV) raises protection of key system files beyond the reach of all current malware and should withstand the most determined attacker from altering them after the OS has booted. It also guards against inadvertent corruption and guarantees system integrity.

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47 REPLIES 47

nsbickhart
Contributor

@NOVELLUS I ended up packaging as a .dmg and using a policy to cache and then a policy to install. With the help of smart groups, when the installer is in the applications directory, the install will show up in self service for the user to initiate at their leisure.

The package is 12GB. I'm wondering how that will go if mass deployed. We have users on and off network (mainly off) due to the pandemic. Wondering if they'll have any issues if their on a mi-fi or DSL other than taking forever to cache or failing.

Anonymous
Not applicable

Hi @nsbickhart , the PKG-File won't be smaller than a dmg-file, but it is easier to deploy it. That's my opinion. We deploy Big Sur (and other versions of MacOS) only inside our network enviroment, so there is no need to deploy it via DSL. Exept that, deploy by DSL would be no problem, because, our employees do have most a line from 50 MBit up to 100 MBit and more. Deploying at WAN won't be a problem anyway, too. We only have 60 clients to run and most of them are running on Big Sur, so the amount of clients to be updated to Big Sur is small.

swapple
Contributor III

Seems obvious now that I am typing it but the MegaPKGr.zsh of Big Sur did not work on my Catalina machine and did when ran on the Big Sur machine.

Musicmaker
Contributor

@MLBZ521 I made a DMG with the Big Sur installer. As you said; normally it should just drop the contents into the folder directory matching what you configure in Composer. It does drop the file in Applications but it's only 'zero bytes'. Unless the DMG is around 12,3GB.

arnoldtaw
New Contributor III

What if we use the full installer from Apple, which gives you a .pkg file?

Mr Macintosh has full database of all macOS Big Sur Beta and Final installers here > https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-big-sur-full-installer-database-download-directly-from-apple/

sdagley
Esteemed Contributor II

What @arnoldtaw said. Don't re-build a .pkg to deploy Install macOS Big Sur.app that Apple is already creating for you. Just find the appropriate version of InstallAssistant.pkg on https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-big-sur-full-installer-database-download-directly-from-apple/.

Mark_Lamont
New Contributor II

This script pulls it down directly and you can choose the version. then just upload to jamf and use as you want.

david_yenzer
Contributor II

Thanks for this post. Composer package .pkg file was failing with stated error message. Simply altered to create as a .dmg file and it worked fine. This was for a SecureTest testing software that is "universal".