Using jamfHelper Full Screen

[kcranford]

I am wanting to use jamfHelper in full screen mode to basically lock out the computer while it is installing all of the base software right after enrollment. I can keep the message up while installing software by using an ampersand:

jamfHelper & installer

But what I would like is for this to be able to change the message for each installer so you can see progress. This is what I can't seem to figure out. The jamfHelper just sits there until I remote into the computer and kill it manually. Has anyone done this before and got it to work? This is what I have and don't know where to go from here.

#!/bin/sh
/path/to/jamfHelper -windowType fs -heading "Computer Config" -description "Installing iMovie" & jamf policy -event InstalliMovie

But once iMovie is done installing I don't know how to stop jamfHelper and move on.

[sdagley]

@kcranford You need to have your script spawn jamfHelper, save the PID assigned to the jamfHelper process, do your install, then kill the jamfHelper process that was spawned. Something like this:

/path/to/jamfHelper arguments to jamfHelper... &
jamfHelperPID=$!

# Do your install here

/bin/kill "$jamfHelperPID"

[kacey3]

I've been adding the "&" to the end of my JAMF Helper command, but have not seen any indication that the script is continuing after the FS JAMF Helper screen is displayed. I'm not sure why that's happening since by all rights, the script should continue beyond the ampersand.

[kcranford]

@sdagley That is exactly what I needed. Worked perfectly, thank you.

[mm2270]

You should look into using DEPNotify, as it's designed exactly for the purpose of notifying what's happening after enrollment, and it has a full screen option to prevent any tampering with the device while that's happening.

[sdagley]

@kcranford I should know better than to try and respond to a post right before I have to join a meeting. @mm2270's suggestion about using DEPNotify rather than rolling your own script for doing your initial configuration is a much better approach. Jamf's DEPNotify-Starter script is an excellent starting point. Despite DEP being part of their names, neither of the tools requires you be using the DEP/ADE in your environment, although that would also be highly recommended. If you aren't using DEP/ADE you can still build an enrollment workflow using DEPNotify/DEPNotify-Starter, and that will make adopting it easier.

[WellsJtech]

Another option is running multiple calls to jamfHelper for each install process. Then just add this at the end of the script when you want jamfHelper to quit. It will quit them all.

killAll jamfHelper

[efil4xiN]

@talkingmoose Created a script and Video