Home › Forums › Software › InstaDMG › Odd issues from CreateUser with non-standard home folder

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  • September 29, 2008 at 8:49 pm #374287
    jdyck
    Participant

    Hey, I’m seeing some strange behavior from my CreateUser created admin user…

    In the config file I set the home folder for this user to /var/admin. Generally everything seems to work, except with the following oddities:

    • System Log shows the following messages:
    l[code]oginwindow CFPreferences: user home directory at /Usrs/admin is unavailable. user domains will be volatile.
    AppleVNCServer CFPreferences: user home directory at /Users/admin is unavailable. User domains will be volatile.
    lsregister CFPreferences: user home directory at /Users/admin is unavailable. User domains will be volatile.[/code]

    • Everytime I login I get another set of Documents / Downloads stack icons on the Dock, so after 3 logins I have 3 of each (total of 6 icons).

    • If I SSH into the computer as admin, I sometimes get a message about a missing home folder.

    I’m a bit of a perfectionist with my master images so this is starting to bother me. So based on that I’m wondering if anyone else has seen these kind of side effects, or if perhaps there is a better place or way to hide admin home folders that doesn’t have these side effects?

    September 29, 2008 at 9:03 pm #374288
    Greg Neagle
    Participant

    What is the output of `dscl . -read /Users/admin`

    It sounds like the OS still thinks the home directory is under /Users. I’m also concerned about the reference to “/Usrs/admin”, unless that’s a typo on your part.

    September 29, 2008 at 9:09 pm #374289
    jdyck
    Participant

    Sorry, the Usrs is a type on my part. The output of the dscl command is:
    [code]dsAttrTypeNative:naprivs: -1073741569
    AppleMetaNodeLocation: /Local/Default
    AuthenticationAuthority: ;ShadowHash; ;Kerberosv5;;admin@LKDC:SHA1.8501CD6A29E774A1BA743C963C593BB02F792006;LKDC:SHA1.8501CD6A29E774A1BA743C963C593BB02F792006;
    GeneratedUID: E8AEED89-A325-48BA-973B-F69D17310CE0
    NFSHomeDirectory: /var/admin
    Password: ********
    Picture:
    /Library/User Pictures/Nature/Zen.tif
    PrimaryGroupID: 20
    RealName: Administrator
    RecordName: admin
    RecordType: dsRecTypeStandard:Users
    UniqueID: 499
    UserShell: /bin/bash[/code]
    If I login and look at the home folder it is coming from /var/admin, so it’s like certain parts of the OS may have /Users hardcoded or something?

    September 30, 2008 at 3:49 pm #374295
    Greg Neagle
    Participant

    I’ve moved the home dir of the admin user on my images into /var for years without issues. There’s nothing in the OS that’s hard-coded to expect user homes in /Users, if there was, network home directories wouldn’t work, and neither would external users.

    -Greg

    October 2, 2008 at 5:39 pm #374329
    knowmad
    Participant

    I have my admin account in /var/admin though when I install it I tell it the full path of /private/var/admin just to be safe.
    never had an issue…. except that I screwed up the permissions on that folder several time before I got them right.
    when I get a chance I will put up the exact command I am using.

    October 23, 2008 at 7:21 pm #374535
    jdyck
    Participant

    Just figured this out while troubleshooting something else… At some point in my testing the AD admin created an Active Directory account with the short name “admin” which is intermittently conflicting with my local admin account. D’oh!

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