MacOS Ventura (Prestage Enrollment): Viscosity Login Items disappear after restart

[k0_bgf]

Hi,

on our Mac that were enrolled through prestage enrollment the login items for the Viscosity client disappear every time after restart.

On user-enrolled Macs this problem doesn't occur. Does anyone have an idea what could be a fix for this? Thanks.

[dlondon]

How and when is the viscosity client being installed for both cases (user enrolled and autoenrolled)?

[k0_bgf]

the viscosity client is being installed through Self Service manually after enrollment in both cases 

Google Drive stays in the login items

[steve_summers]

@k0_bgf does the Viscosity client actually get removed from the device or does the icon simply get removed from the dock or desktop?  On one of your devices where this is happening, if you open the Applications folder, is the client there? 

[k0_bgf]

the client app works perfectly fine! It's just that those who have prestage-enrolled Macs have to open viscosity manually after restart. It's just not starting automatically, it's not in the login items and the icon in the top bar is missing. thanks!

[steve_summers]

@k0_bgf just wanted to run something by you.  In the Pre-Stage setup, there is an option to install packages during setup.  Could there be an entry there for Viscosity VPN and maybe the version is different than what is in Self Service?  That might be worth investigating.  

[k0_bgf]

thanks, that might be a hint! I will check that!

[wildfrog]

@k0_bgf How did you create the Viscosity installer you're pushing to Self Service? Are you using just the DMG installer? Or did you follow the mass deployment instructions that SparkLabs provides? It's been a while, but when creating the pkg using their instructions you should be able to adjust settings (such as automatically launch on login), licensing, etc.

[k0_bgf]

yes, I'm just using a script that downloads the latest DMG installer and it works fine with the Macs that are enrolled through user initiated enrollment. Thanks!

[wildfrog]

That's interesting. While I think you're best overall result will be using the mass deployment instructions to create a pkg with licensing & settings embedded, it is very odd that the behavior seems different depending on enrollment method. Is this behavior limited to just Ventura?

[k0_bgf]

I can't say for sure but apparently we didn't have that problem on Monterrey. It's strange because the package is being installed by the same user (hidden jamf local admin account). 

[wildfrog]

So let's back up a bit.

Some of your fleet is enrolled via user-initiated and others are via UAMDM, correct?

Whether user-initiated enrollment or via a prestage, Viscosity is not being installed at enrollment time, correct?

You are using a policy to call a script to install Viscosity via Self Service, correct? That could be a difference since I do know a pkg run from SS will run as root. I'm not sure if that's true for the various pieces of a script.

Maybe as a test, try using Installomator as a script-based install workflow and see if the behavior follows.

[k0_bgf]

Whether user-initiated enrollment or via a prestage, Viscosity is not being installed at enrollment time, correct?

 Correct, the user clicks on "install" in Self Service in both cases!

You are using a policy to call a script to install Viscosity via Self Service, correct?

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actually it's a script packed as pkg.