Posted on 11-14-2012 02:46 PM
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?
Posted on 11-14-2012 02:54 PM
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.
Posted on 11-14-2012 03:22 PM
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.
Posted on 11-15-2012 11:11 AM
@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.
Posted on 11-15-2012 11:50 AM
@uescdurandal Are you using PackageMaker?
Posted on 11-16-2012 01:53 PM
@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?
Posted on 11-16-2012 03:02 PM
@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
Posted on 04-17-2013 08:00 AM
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.
Posted on 04-17-2013 12:20 PM
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
Posted on 05-06-2013 11:16 AM
I was having the same issue with Skype 6.3.x in Self Service.
Thanks for tips and script.
Posted on 06-06-2013 08:56 AM
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 :(