LaunchDaemon items at LoginWindow

[dead2sin]

I’m trying to get an application to run at the login window (eventually I’d like to open a Netrender Client for Cinema4D so we can use some idle time to for some renders).

At the moment, I’m trying to get TextEdit to open just as a proof of concept and then I’ll move on to the actual application. I’ve read quite a few article regarding it and have had no luck getting textedit to open at the login window.

I have the plist in /Library/LaunchDaemons and here is the item itself:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>Disabled</key>
	<true/>
	<key>KeepAlive</key>
	<true/>
	<key>Label</key>
	<string>edu.unversity.test</string>
	<key>ProgramArguments</key>
	<array>
		<string>/Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit</string>
	</array>
	<key>QueueDirectories</key>
	<array/>
	<key>RunAtLoad</key>
	<true/>
	<key>WatchPaths</key>
	<array/>
	<key>LimitLoadToSessionType</key>
	<array>
		<string>LoginWindow</string>
	</array>
</dict>
</plist>

I’ve used Lingon to create it and had little luck with that. I followed some directions that iHook uses to launch a GUI app at the login window, but that didn’t work either.

I’d greatly appreciate any help I could get. This issue has been kicking my butt the past few days.

Nate

[Greg Neagle]

As of Leopard, you can’t launch just any random app at the loginwindow. Background apps are OK, but anything that has a GUI must be specially written. iHook was specifically updated so it could show a GUI at the loginwindow. Apple also states that any app that shows a window at the loginwindow must NOT show a menubar.

Therefore you are limited to those applications that have been properly written to display at the loginwindow.

Some of the issues are described here:
http://developer.apple.com/SampleCode/PreLoginAgents/listing3.html

-Greg

[Author]

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