createUser overwrites users on local machine

[Anthony Reimer]

I’ve had this happen twice to me now and I am wondering what I might do to stop it. Here are the specs:

[i]10.5.8 client (not server) build machine (Mac mini Late 2009, server model)
Building a 10.5.8 image
instadmg.bash r318
latest version of createUser (1.0.3?)
no use of InstaUp2Date
[/i]
I was having some problems with core parts of the OS not installing properly (QuickTime 7, DVD Player) when using the 1.6b2 script and the -s option, so I downloaded the latest script (r318) and tried it (no -s or any other option). Disaster. Late in the build process, I noticed the terminal spitting out pages of “lsof: …UID 501” (sorry I don’t have the full line right now). It did eventually finish the build. Using file sharing in the Finder, I tried to access the newly-created disk image by authenticating as the admin user (501). I connected without problem, but I could not view the content of any of my non-public folders. I went back to the host machine and logged out of the admin account. When I was dropped in to the login screen (which uses the default list of users behaviour), the admin user was not in the list. A new user was the only one available in the list, one which corresponds to the second (non-admin) account I create in the build train using another createUser package. Rebooting changed nothing.

First question: can anyone remind me of the trick (that I heard at Macworld 2008 IT track) that would let me bring up the user/password dialogue text boxes so that I could try to type in my admin username and password?

Two, any suggestions on how to avoid this happening in the future? I have a fairly recent Time Machine backup, so I can rebuild from scratch if need be, but it is a tedious process, especially on a machine that technically is not supported to boot into 10.5.8. Thanks.

[nobrainer]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: jazzace[/u][p]I’ve had this happen twice to me now and I am wondering what I might do to stop it. Here are the specs:

[i]10.5.8 client (not server) build machine (Mac mini Late 2009, server model)
Building a 10.5.8 image
instadmg.bash r318
latest version of createUser (1.0.3?)
no use of InstaUp2Date
[/i]

First question: can anyone remind me of the trick (that I heard at Macworld 2008 IT track) that would let me bring up the user/password dialogue text boxes so that I could try to type in my admin username and password?
[/p][/QUOTE]

If you go to system preferences –> Accounts –> Login Options –> Authenticate via the Padlock –> Change Display login window as Name and password

[Anthony Reimer]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: nobrainer[/u][p]
If you go to system preferences –> Accounts –> Login Options –> Authenticate via the Padlock –> Change Display login window as Name and password
[/p][/QUOTE]

If I could actually login with any account, this would work, but I can’t. The tip involved a series of keystrokes that you could invoke at the login screen when presented with the list.

[foilpan]

login via single user mode, mount the drive r/w, run [code]launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist[/code] to get directory service going, then change the user’s password with passwd or dscl.

[tbjorklund]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: jazzace[/u][p]
If I could actually login with any account, this would work, but I can’t. The tip involved a series of keystrokes that you could invoke at the login screen when presented with the list.[/p][/QUOTE]

Press the down arrow so any user is highlighted and then press option+enter. That should give you a login prompt.

[Anthony Reimer]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: tbjorklund[/u]

Press the down arrow so any user is highlighted and then press option+enter. That should give you a login prompt.[/QUOTE]

That was exactly what I was looking for! Thanks. I’ll poke around the Board to figure out how to fix the login list (just because I’d like to know).

Anyone have a similar experience with createUser installing on the build volume?

[Anthony Reimer]

Just a brief follow-up for those interested. After getting logged in, I used Workgroup Manager to determine that createUser had changed the ID of my admin account from 501 to 502 (which explains why I couldn’t access files remotely due to permissions issues, even though I could authenticate) — I had let it auto select the ID for that account, so it “created” a new account with 502, but since the short name was identical to 501, it only saw it as one account. Then, my workflow creates a second account with a fixed ID of 502, which, as you now see, caused all sorts of fun and frolic. Using Workgroup Manager on the local machine, I returned the ID of my original admin account to 501 and all was well again.

[Author]

Posts