Home Forums OS X Server and Client Discussion Updates help disabling SoftwareUpdate for network accounts

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  • #372251
    theevilaunt
    Participant

    We have student lab situation with iMacs running 10.5.2 doing network logins authenticated by Active Directory, home directories hosted on a Windows 2003 server (don’t ask),and MCX client management on an Xserve running 10.4.11.

    We’ve also set up a software update server on a Leopard Xserve, and pointed client software updates to that server.

    But what we *really* want to do is turn off automatic checking for software updates for all student accounts WITHOUT having each student go into software update preference pane and do it him/herself. (We’ll do that if we have to, but I’m thinking there is a better way.) Students are getting the software update dialog without asking for it when the weekly “check-for-updates timer” goes off. Kinda disruptive for elementary school-aged kids…

    I was hoping this could be done with client management, but haven’t been able to get it to work. I’ve been told that changing the software update preference pane changes 3 files, all in user/library/preferences, viz.:

    (1) com.apple.scheduler.plist
    (2) com.apple.systempreferences.plist
    3) ByHost/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate..plist

    Anyone know how to do what I want? Or have some ideas on what to try? The main objective is that the software update dialog happens only when an administrator asks for it. No spontaneous checking for updates by network accounts.

    Thanks.

    #372273
    Patrick Fergus
    Participant

    I don’t have a 10.4 server to look at–hopefully 10.4 server and 10.5 server act roughly the same:

    ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.scheduler.MACADDRESS.plist

    This is a painful set of embedded dicts–if you have MCX client management in 10.4, disable management on a Leopard machine and pull this plist into the details tab of the Preferences section of WGM. Apple simply sets the date to the future (the year 4001). If the MCX management in 10.4 server isn’t flexible enough to handle the ByHost pref, you could use a loginhook to write it out once you determine the right command to set it.

    ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.MACADDRESS.plist
    Keys:
    AgreedToLicenseAgreement -bool false
    AutomaticDownload -bool false
    LaunchAppInBackground -bool false

    – Patrick

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