Setting up menu items

[chrisb]

As the subject suggests, I am looking for ways to remove the Bluetooth and Time Machine icons from the menu bar for all user accounts in an InstaDMG build.

I tried to edit the com.apple.systemuiserver and created a package that dropped the edited plist into the user template, but that doesn’t seem to have worked.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Greg Neagle]

Local MCX is your friend here.

[Allister Banks]

I’m wondering how to do this programmatically as it’s often useful to remove the airport status icon from menubars.
I’d also love to find out if my understanding is incorrect and local MCX doesn’t apply to all local users. Or is the trick to set the management of the particular preference to “apply once”? Sorry, I will do my due diligence instead of just believing my recollection from the U of U Mac Managers podcast on the topic, but this is the impression I’m under in the meantime.

Thanks,
Allister Banks POINT http://www.pointconsultants.com  646.502.4708 368 Broadway Ste. 303 New York, New York 10013

[Goldberg]

defaults delete com.apple.systemuiserver menuExtras
“/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/AirPort.menu”

killall SystemUIServer

[Greg Neagle]

[quote]I’m wondering how to do this programmatically as it’s often useful to remove the airport status icon from menubars.
[/quote]

Looks like “Goldberg” has answered that one – his solution will work for the current user.

[quote]I’d also love to find out if my understanding is incorrect and local MCX doesn’t apply to all local users. Or is the trick to set the management of the particular preference to “apply once”?[/quote]

Local MCX is typically deployed at the computergroup or computer level, and therefore applies to all users of the machine, unless there is MCX data in a specific user’s record that overrides this.

Managing it “always” or “once” is up to you.

[chrisb]

the local MCX did not correctly work in my InstaDMG image.

However I am now building an image with goldberg’s script along with a modified version of that script to change the background.

Simply put, when a new user is created an icon appears on their desktop, once this icon is executed it calls upon 6 .command files that each execute different scripts. This is how we will be executing the .commands to reconfigure/reset the menu bar and the desktop background for each user.

[Allister Banks]

Hearing about somebody else finding a use for .command is kind of like therapy, I punted with that recently on a Tiger machine to prod the cups daemon back to life.

LaunchD is the future(and the LaunchD future is now – I, for one, welcome our LaunchD overlords), and I’m sure it’ll work in the case of this and the sidebar prefs you’re hoping to manage.

LocalMCX is a only as difficult to wrap your brain around as MCX itself IMHO, and I don’t have the practical need to have tried it or figured it out just yet, but can you use OD? All these things are easier and GUI-tastic with Apple’s supported, recommended tools.

The WatchPaths flavor of LaunchDaemon is what I think you want to use to activate your ‘defaults delete’ script. I’m not as fluent as others who would chime in with a more complete script for you to crib notes from, but past posts to AFP forums and MacTech and Peachpit and Apress and MacEnterprise and ACN and the usual suspect mailing lists are all there as resources.

[Patrick Fergus]

The Bluetooth menu extra is added dynamically based on whether the hardware supports Bluetooth unless blacklisted via a ByHost preference–look at ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.systemuiserver.STRING.plist. You’ll also need to handle a loginhook or some other way of handling ByHost prefs.

The Time Machine menu probably should be able to be handled by com.apple.systemuiserver.plist .

Both of the above would have to go in /System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj. Alternately, you could alternately just move the actual menu extras themselves:

Macintosh HD:System:Library:CoreServices:Menu Extras:Bluetooth.menu
Macintosh HD:System:Library:CoreServices:Menu Extras:TimeMachine.menu

However, local MCX would be more elegant than either of these.

– Patrick

[knowmad]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Allister[/u][p]…
LocalMCX is a only as difficult to wrap your brain around as MCX itself IMHO, and I don’t have the practical need to have tried it or figured it out just yet, but can you use OD? All these things are easier and GUI-tastic with Apple’s supported, recommended tools….[/p][/QUOTE]

The answer: YES.

ok fine, more details.

The answer is yes, you can use the gui built into the Server Tools to create/tweak/research/import/export/corrupt/destroy/rebuild your MCX settings.
1) its easy to do
2) crutch though it may be, it actually does not reduce your ability to control the nitty gritty so… use it
3) if you read the posts at [url]http://managingosx.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/yet-again-with-the-local-mcx/[/url] (not just that one) you can see how to use both the command line and the GUI, as well as some good instructions on using it to good effect, correctly setting it, how to handle exceptions, and explanations on some wierd settings.

MCX actually makes life easier because it reduces the things people can easy muck up on their own.
The bluetooth and time machine menu bar extras can both be turned on and off easily from the GUI or command line using mcx.
The time machine dock item is …. harder to get rid of.
good luck and ask every question you can come up with, if your struggling with it, so is someone else.

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