Skype 6.0

[UESCDurandal]

Has anyone had any issues with deploying Skype 6.0? Copying into the Applications folder through ARD works fine, just not through Casper.

If a Mac has never had Skype before, it installs just fine. But when current users are upgraded the result has the app bounce on the Dock for a few seconds before closing. I've tried using Composer's pre-installed software feature, normal snapshot, new + modified snapshot, and have even dragged the App from the official Skype .dmg into Composer. pkg and dmg.

When building in Composer I delete the User folder so that I don't replace our user's data. The only thing that is written is the App in the Applications folder...

Any suggestions?

[bajones]

You might want to try a preflight script that does a "rm -r /Applications/Skype.app" in case any old files are interfering with the new App bundle.

[donmontalvo]

We use PKG/MPKG format that includes a preflight script that (1) checks system requirements - proceed, else exit, then (2) find/kill running process - in case it's running, (3) remove existing version - to prevent merges, and (4) install new version.

[UESCDurandal]

@donmontalvo - Is this a script that you run from the Scripts tab in the policy or do you bake it into the PKG? Would you mind providing the script itself? I'm still learning scripting and wouldn't want to mess up.

[donmontalvo]

@uescdurandal Are you using PackageMaker?

[UESCDurandal]

@donmontalvo - No, just Composer. I haven't used PackageMaker in many years. I tried using it yesterday but somehow I can't get it to work properly...

Can't I use the Composer's PKG and run a script beforehand that has parameters to determine which app to delete before continuing?

[donmontalvo]

@UESCDurandal We stopped using Composer because there is no simple way to add hardware/software checks into the installer. I suppose you can script things, but if PackageMaker 3.0.6 gives you dropdown menus, once you have the settings down, it's easy to repeat for other installer packages.

Apple doesn't do a good job of outlining these things (heck, I opened a RADAR asking for better documentation), I know their focus is on the command line tools, but it was easy to figure out and very reliable and repeatable.

Look for "Auxiliary Tools for Xcode - Late July 2012" on developer.apple.com. These tools used to be part of the Developer Tools which don't exist anymore.

PS, JAMF, hope this didn't come across as snarky, happy to help test any improvements to Composer so we can get easier-to-use dropdown menus for building logic into our packages. :)

Don

[pearlin]

I too had the same problem with trying to leverage updates to Skype 6.0+ and found that Skype.app in the applications folder does need to be deleted before rolling out the updated version. I accomplished this through policy: configure the policy for two package actions: uninstall the older version and install the updated version. I did this with two DMGs (both only contained Applications/Skype.app with no User info). Works like a charm.

[taugust04]

I use Composer to package up Skype into a .pkg. In Composer, I've added the very short preinstall script into the Skype.pkg:

killall Skype
rm -Rf $3/Applications/Skype.app

That makes sure the application is closed, and then is deleted, before the new Skype.app has been copied. I'm sure there are better, more elegant ways to do this, but this method has worked fine for me for simple drag and drop applications like Skype.

~Ted

[corbinmharris]

I was having the same issue with Skype 6.3.x in Self Service.

Thanks for tips and script.

[corbinmharris]

The issue is still exists with Skype 6.4.60.833

I forgot to include the script in the policy for patch day this week and it resulted in a lot of support tickets :(