homeSync user template

[abax]

Hello,
I’m going to start by saying that homeSync with AD works perfectly here (using Leopard, 10.5.6). However, I’m trying to make new mobile users by default start with homeSync turned on (with the Documents and Library folders only being synchronized). Currently, a new mobile user starts with synchronization enabled at login/logout but no folders selected.

I tried putting my properly configured homeSync plist in these directories:
/System/Library/User Templates/English.lproj/Library/Preferences
/System/Library/User Templates/Non_localized/Library/Preferences
/Library/Preferences
/var/root/Library/Preferences

And I tried fiddling with these configurations, although we’re not using managed preferences, and I assume that’s why they didn’t do anything.
/System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/Resources/com.apple.homeSync.manifest/Content/Resources/com.apple.homeSync.manifest
/System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/Contents/Resources/com.apple.MCX.manifest/Contents/Resources/com.apple.MCX.manifest
/System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app/CinchDefaults.plist

None of these settings took when creating a new mobile user (by logging in with the user).

Since we’re currently using AD only, no golden triangle, I can’t use the managed profile feature. In my programming experience, I’ve learned thoroughly that one should never hard-code values, especially ones like this, so I imagine the default/template settings must be somewhere on the system. If necessary I could modify the AD schema to pass some value to the clients, but I have yet to learn of such a modification to make. I need something that we can do at most once per computer to get the users to synchronize by default.

If it is useful to know, the users are made mobile by default, and their home directories are on an AFP share, with the UNC path used for getting this information from AD.

I’ve tried to search this site thoroughly and spent hours googling, so please forgive me if I missed something.

Thanks you,
Andrew Baxter

[abax]

Okay, after working on this for a few more hours, I’ve come to a solution that seems to work. Created a new “English.lproj” by logging in as a new mobile user to get a fresh mobile user home directory. I copied that over to “/System/Library/User Templates/” (after backing up the original, of course). I then went through and pruned some junk from it. Next time I logged in, the new homeSync setting took.

All I can conclude is that there are multiple configs in there which are required to configure the homeSync, although I couldn’t find anything despite all my browsing.

Anyways, I saw a few sites which said that the User Template files aren’t taken for mobile users. I hope this can help a few other people who may have encountered this problem.

[abax]

Well… almost working.

I create a new user in AD, say “abaxter7”. I log in to this computer, and the Home Sync item appears for about half a second, then disappears. Subsequent logins keep it missing. However, if I delete the home directory (without deleting the user), the home directory is recreated on the next login and this time Home Sync is enabled.

Could the method OS X uses for populating the home directory change whether it is the initial creation vs a recreation?

I’m going to check to see if com.apple.homeSync.plist is even created on the first login.

[Author]

Posts