Skip to main content
Question

Problems Packaging MS Office 2011 SP1

  • April 14, 2011
  • 6 replies
  • 34 views
A
  • Anonymous

Has anyone tried to package up the recently released (2 or 3 days ago) Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Office 2011? I cannot get a working package created using standard Composer methods.

DETAILS

1) Using Casper Suite 8.0
2) Packaging against a clean 10.6.4 OS image with only the initial base MS Office 2011 installed
3) Downloaded Service Pack 1 .dmg from MS website – the .dmg contains an installer
4) Using Composer 8.0 – Normal Snapshot method

WHAT HAPPENS

After running Composer snapshot of pre-install environment, install of Service Pack 1 for MS Office 2011 proceeds normally. Post snapshot package creation runs normally, but when I review the list of difference files created by Composer, I find that each of the MS Office 2011 application files is grayed out in the /Applications folder, with the prohibitory sign over the app icon. The Contents files within the apps appear to be fine. Other difference files in the /Library folder appear fine.

I've never seen this happen before. I've tried applying the /Application folder permissions to everything inside, but no luck.

Thoughts, anyone?

Jeff Elliott
Tech Support Specialist
Hempfield School District
Landisville, PA

    6 replies

    M
    Forum|alt.badge.img+16
    • mark_sampers
    • Valued Contributor
    • April 14, 2011

    Jeff,

    Have you tried using the Preinstalled / Software option in Composer to build
    your package?

    -- Mark Sampers
    Technology Support Cluster Specialist
    Independent School District 196
    Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Public Schools
    3455 153rd Street West
    Rosemount, MN 55068
    651-423-7973

    J
    Forum|alt.badge.img+26
    • jhalvorson
    • Honored Contributor
    • April 14, 2011

    According to the documents from Microsoft and JAMF, you should be able to
    simply drag and drop the 'Office 2011 14.1.0 Update.mpkg' into casper admin.
    Both specifically talk about the 14.0.1 update, but in theory it should be
    the process for all future updates from MS.

    Have you tried that?

    I haven't had a chance to work on it yet.

    Jason

    M
    Forum|alt.badge.img+8
    • macboy
    • Contributor
    • April 14, 2011

    This worked for me. Worked great.

    T
    Forum|alt.badge.img+12
    • tomt
    • Valued Contributor
    • April 14, 2011

    I did exactly what Jason describes and it has worked perfectly.

    ------------------------------
    Tom Tubbiola
    Design IT

    A
    • Anonymous
    • April 14, 2011

    The reason it does this is because the update includes files within the applications, without changing all of them. Composer uses Mac OS X built-in frameworks to produce the icon you see, and as far as Mac OS X is concerned, those applications are invalid. This is because not all the pieces were changed in the update. Make sure you use New & Modified snapshots for updates, and I strongly recommend keeping track of file deletions as well. Or, better yet, just drag the mpkg as many others have suggested.

    I wrote a script that takes care of that stuff for those applications that use drag & drop installation (.app within a .dmg, usually). Basically, it deletes the entire application before the update is installed.

    It would be nice if Casper provided a clean, automatic way to do this. Treating bundles as atomic would be a great start, but there would have to be a way to override it.

    M
    Forum|alt.badge.img+20
    • Matt11
    • Valued Contributor
    • April 14, 2011

    I was unable to get SP1 to work in my Modular imaging method or doing a
    Composed image. My work around was doing an image capture of the Base
    Install of 2011 and than running the installation of SP1. Works perfectly
    and the standard installer works great for upgrades only.

    http://casperadmins.com

    --
    Matt Lee
    FNG Sr. IT Analyst / Desktop Architecture Team / Apple S.M.E / JAMF Casper
    Administrator
    Fox Networks Group
    matthew.lee at fox.com

    Need Help? Call the Help Desk at (310) 969-HELP (ext 24357) or online at
    http://itteam <http://itteam/>
    Help Desk Hours: Mon-Fri, 6AM-6PM PST

    Terms & ConditionsCookie settingsAccessibility statement