Packaging macOS Monterey

[AJPinto]

Has anyone tried their hand at packaging macOS Monterey yet? Packaging as DMG does not appear to be working as it did with Big Sur. The DMG is less than 20mb, and looks to just contain a wrapper that fetches Monterey when clicked on the new device.

Appstore distribution works fine, but my organization prefers a bit more version control. 

[YanW]

I haven't tried it myself, but can you download specific version with "softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 11.6.1" then install it?

[AJPinto]

The idea is to be able to house and deploy a "known working version" with known hashing blah blah blah. If we were to use fetch full installer you are at the mercy of what apple choses to publish and get no notification on when/if they update the package for something. Not saying they would, but our security is paranoid.

Also deploying that command via script we could not have an inventory update run when it completes to know the installer is present. If you deploy the dmg when the "install" finishes you can have a 2nd payload that runs an inventory update. With this script this is not as reliable. 

[ljcacioppo]

DownloadFullInstaller is working well for me to get a pkg I can upload into Jamf Pro
https://github.com/scriptingosx/DownloadFullInstaller

[sdagley]

@AJPinto Why package the Install macOS Monterey app when Apple already does it for you? Apple's InstallAssistant.pkg for Monterey 12.0.1 can be downloaded from https://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/39/60/002-23774-A_KNETE2LDIN/4ll6ahj3st7jhqfzzjt1bjp1nhwl4...

And for those not aware of it, the Mr. Macintosh site has a database of the download links for the full installers for Big Sur, and Monterey. As well as the IPSW files that can be used with Apple Configurator 2 to do a full DFU Restore of an M1 Mac in under 10 minutes (although Monterey's Erase All Content and Settings makes a nice alternative to the DFU method) 

[ckruter]

Have you tried packaging it with the MegaPKG script from William Smith? I know Composer has a fit with anything over 7GB in size. I used it to package Big Sur for caching purposes in the past. 

[nsbickhart]

@AJPinto  I ran software update --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 12.0.1

after it downloaded in my /applications directory, I opened up Jamf Composer, drug it in, and built as a dmg and then uploaded with Jamf admin.  I'm using a cache policy/install policy/and then a script for users to upgrade through self service.  It's all working fine for me.

[AJPinto]

The app installs fine however its just a wrapper, when you click it the app has to download Monterey. So basically the cryptographic volume is not coming with it like it did with Big Sur.

[konfio]

I cannot execute any command :(, sorry you will have the command you use in the MDM.

[matt_wiese]

trying this exact method but with the pkg I downloaded from mrmacintosh

care to share your Self Service script @nsbickhart?

[matt_wiese]

just following up on my last comment here for posterity - 

this script works perfectly for Monterey and I expect to use it with little-to-no modification for all future, major OS releases,

[BookMac]

i there. This Blog: https://www.jamf.com/blog/reinstall-a-clean-macos-with-one-button/ was helpful for us!