createUser 1.0.2

[akinspe]

I have posted another updated version of my createUser package. There are three enhancements:

1. The ability to specify the home folder location (besides /Users/X). It will accept raw paths as well as some substitution patterns.
2. The ability to hide the user from the loginwindow
3. This time it actually works!

Sorry for those who tried 1.0.1 and had trouble. This is what happens when you get no sleep from a newborn.

Check it out and feel free to comment further.

[url=https://www.afp548.com/filemgmt/visit.php?lid=76]https://www.afp548.com/filemgmt/visit.php?lid=76[/url]

For the unaware: createUser is a package that creates a user on either a 10.4 or 10.5 system. It has many configurable options to accommodate a variety of deployment situations. Most properties can be configured or retain sane defaults. Using the included shadowHash generator you can create a package that does not have the password inside of it. It can be deployed either using InstaDMG or to an existing machine via ARD.

[thisgarryhas2rs]

I’m trying it right now. In the logs it didn’t have any errors about “failed to run postflight”. Once the image is done and I’ve loaded it on a test machine I’ll let you know if I run into any errors. Thanks for the quick update!

[knowmad]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: akinspe[/u][p]

Sorry for those who tried 1.0.1 and had trouble. This is what happens when you get no sleep from a newborn.

[/p][/QUOTE]

CONGRATULATIONS!

there goes your productivity.

[jeffrey.c]

Great package akinspe!

I’d like to know if this is normal or if I am having some kind of problem:

createuser only works for me if I am building the image on the same OS as the target image. In examining the postflight script, it seems as if you provisioned for this with the HOST_SW_VERS and TARGET_SW_VERS vars.

But I still have trouble.

Running instadmg from 10.5.2, attempting to build a 10.4.11 image – I get this in log:

installer: Installing createUser…..
installer:
installer: Configuring Installation
installer: Validating package
installer: Writing files
installer: Writing package receipt
installer: Finishing Installation…..
installer: Running createUser Installer script
installer: The install failed (The following install step failed: run postflight script for createUser. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.)

With identical instadmg deployment, running from 10.4.11, I get this in log:

installer: Package name is createUser
installer: Installing onto volume mounted at /.
installer: Preparing for installation…..
installer: Preparing the Disk…..
installer: Preparing Target Volume
#
installer: Preparing createUser…..
installer: Installing createUser…..
installer:
installer: Configuring Installation
installer: Writing files
installer: Writing package receipt
installer: Finishing Installation…..
installer: Running createUser Installer script
##
installer: Finishing Installation
#
installer:
#
installer: The software was successfully installed…..
installer: The install was successful.

[Patrick Fergus]

I think the requirement that you have to be running the same OS you’re building is intrinsic to InstaDMG, since InstaDMG is running installer from the boot volume and Apple only QA’ed the OS install packages against the version of installer on the install disc.

– Patrick

[akinspe]

It’s not only intrinsic to InstaDMG, but because of the significant differences in local directory services between Tiger and Leopard it just won’t work. The Tiger branch has to call nicl to do its dirty work and that command is, of course, gone on leopard.

What’s disappointing is I know of no way to send more descriptive error messages through installer to tell the user WHY it failed. I actually have quite detailed error messages, but you never see them in the instaDMG log because I know of no way to pass that through. Anyone with ideas? All echo statements seem to go to the abyss.

[jeffrey.c]

Did I miss any of this in the documentation?

If so, I feel like a real idiot.

If not, it may be a good idea to add it.

As far as your problem with better logging for your package – I’m stumped on that too.

Any solutions I can think of drastically kill the simplicity of instadmg.

I will keep thinking though.

[Author]

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