Silent install of Adobe Flash 11.8.800.168

[brussell]

Adobe appears to have changed something with this last updater. Previously, by packaging the "Install Adobe Flash Player.app" to a temp directory and then calling up the installer via Adobe's admin guide instructions: sudo ./Install Adobe Flash Player.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Flash Player Install Manager -install

First, the contents of MacOS has changed and is now /Install Adobe Flash Player rather than /Adobe Flash Player Install Manager -install
And now it does not install silently.
Does anyone know an updated command line from Adobe to force a silent install?

[dpertschi]

Not sure about that process, but I'm still yanking the Adobe Flash Player.pkg out of the Install Adobe Flash Player application bundle and deploying it as-is, quietly and successfully. 500 in just the last week, no complaints.

[mm2270]

By "silent" what exactly are you seeing, or not seeing? Keep in mind that when using Adobe's install method of targeting the .app with the -install flag, a user must be logged in for it to work - known issue. So in that respect its not truly "silent".
I happen to use the same method you've outlined, and we've been pushing 11.8.800.168. While we've seen some errors, they aren't related to a bad command or the installer not being silent.

What I do is modify the Install Flash Player.app slightly by adding the following lines to its Info.plist file

<key>NSUIElement</key>
<integer>1</integer>

This makes the "app" behave as a background application, so nothing pops up in the user's Dock or shows up on screen. You can try doing that. I use a defaults command like this to add it in:

defaults write /path/to/Install Adobe Flash Player.app/Contents/Info NSUIElement -int 1

[brussell]

I'll go back to the drawing board! Thank you both for your responses.

[stevewood]

I utilize the script that @nessts posted in this thread:

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=5713

Utilizing his Perl script, and adding the NSUIElement key that @mm2270 mentioned above, I can deploy with a user logged in and not get the dock icon. I typically deploy at login instead, just to make sure all browsers are closed.

I use Packages to do my packaging work, so I have the Packages project saved to a folder. When a new version of Flash comes out, I simply drop the Flash installer into a hidden directory path on the system, add the NSUIElement key, package it all up using the Packages project, and then add that package to Casper. It takes me 10 minutes, tops to have a new Flash deployment package ready. I change the package in a policy, flush history, and away we go.

[gregneagle]

Install autopkg from here: https://github.com/autopkg/autopkg/releases

Get the basic set of recipes:
autopkg repo-add https://github.com/autopkg/recipes

Make a clean pkg of the latest Flash installer:
autopkg run AdobeFlashPlayerRepackage.pkg

Done.

[mm2270]

I've been looking at and playing with autopkg over the last couple of days, and I'll admit that we may very well go this route for the next release. We won't change anything with our current .168 push, but once the next version drops, I think autopkg will do the honors. Its solid and painless to implement.

Just to add to @gregneagle's instructions above, you also need to either install Xcode's command line tools or the git binary to make it all work.

[gregneagle]

It's quite likely that by the time Flash Player 11.9 is released, we won't need any of this.

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer.html

[brussell]

I have edited the plist and tested a policy at logout and at login, and I still get the Flash installer to the foreground, with the progress bar, and it prompts me to check the checkbox "always update, notify, or never update". My method:
1. Copy the contents of the Adobe Flash Installer dmg to a hidden temp folder, and using Composer,package that. THe package has the edited info.plist as follows (which should make it a silent install)
added the key
<key>NSUIElement</key>
<string>1</string>
Once the package is deployed via a policy, a script is used to call up the installer which now resides in the hidden temp folder on the target machine
Any ideas of why I can't get a silent install? The install completes by the way after I follow the prompts

[mm2270]

@brussell, you've got it wrong, Take a look at what I posted, Its <integer>1</integer>, not <string>. That's why its not invisible.

You may also want to look at the autopkg method posted above by gregneagle. Lastly, there is a Composer manifest posted here on JN you can download and install into Composer to capture all the necessary files.
but, if you want to still use the -install method, just fix the entry in the plist.

[franton]

I just don't trust any of it. I snapshot package it instead. Seems to work ok.

[mm2270]

@franton, I'd encourage you to look at autopkg (maybe you already have, don't know). Even if you only use it for FlashPlayer and one or two other products it will pay for itself (especially considering its free :) )
You'll get much better results from it than using a Snapshot. Not to mention its like 20x faster than snapshotting. Seriously.

[franton]

Interesting ... will look when it's not 10pm on a friday night ;)

[RobertHammen]

I built the manifest here on JAMF Nation. I've used it at dozens of sites. It works fine. No need to snapshot or use autopkg.

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/viewProductFile.html?id=41&fid=662

I don't want to denigrate autopkg - it's wicked cool and I'd really love it if Composer would integrate with it/support it.

[donmontalvo]

I don't want to denigrate autopkg - it's wicked cool and I'd really love it if Composer would integrate with it/support it.

Rumor has it JAMF might inject Composer with a healthy dose of autopkg to keep it alive. Apparently it's been on life support and it's health has been deteriorating, so drastic measures are needed. It would be über awesome if this were all true...maybe we should get the JAMF engineers wasted and on video promising it'll happen? First round at JNUC is on me!!!