Tag: Apple

Changes to launchctl kickstart in macOS 14.4

Kevin M. Cox March 7, 2024 No Comments

macOS Sonoma logo macOS 14.4 includes a change that has the potential to impact a number of MacAdmins.

For the past couple years, launchctl kickstart has been widely used in an attempt to fix stuck macOS processes.

This first use came to prominence in relation to softwareupdate but more recently has been used for mdmclient as well.

MDM vendor Addigy even released a free tool, MDM Watchdog that uses kickstart to attempt to automatically remediate these issues.

Read on for details on why this might not work going forward.

Continue reading →

Changes to Microsoft AutoUpdate deferral options

Kevin M. Cox February 25, 2024 1 Comment

Microsoft AutoUpdate 4 Microsoft began offering curated deferral channels for AutoUpdate a little over two years ago. These feeds allowed MacAdmins to delay updates to Office apps for a set number of days, without having to run a custom manifest server themselves.

Unfortunately these deferral channels have recently stopped working, leaving many MacAdmins scrambling to adjust.

Thankfully the community has engaged Microsoft and have pushed for a solution.

Read on for the details on why this happened and how to adjust your configuration.

Continue reading →

Granting Munki Full Disk Access

Kevin M. Cox February 24, 2024 No Comments

Munki Munki has been a staple management tool for many MacAdmins for a decade.

However in recent releases of macOS, Munki needs to be granted Privacy Preferences Policy Control permissions to access certain disk locations or update some apps.

Thankfully this has become very easy in the past year thanks to the MacAdmins community.

Read on for details and an example configuration profile.

Continue reading →

Retroactive Automated Device Enrollment in macOS Sonoma

Kevin M. Cox September 29, 2023 29 Comments

Apple released macOS 14 Sonoma this week, and on top of the numerous consumer facing features, there are also a number of interest to MacAdmins.

• What’s new for enterprise in macOS Sonoma

While there are many improvements to features like Declarative Device Management (DDM) and MDM, one of the most interesting to me only got a short mention with no details.

Automated Device Enrollment can be enforced after Setup Assistant.

This feature, which I’m calling Retroactive Automated Device Enrollment, was announced during WWDC and I extensively tested it during the beta cycles.

I think there is some amazing potential here. Read on for details…

Continue reading →

Keyboard Setup Assistant, YubiKeys and a Munki NoPkg

Kevin M. Cox June 21, 2023 No Comments

We are always looking for ways to reduce friction for end users. Our job in IT is to empower users to get their work done with as few technological distractions as possible.

Many times Apple makes this harder due to features or functionality in macOS. One such example is Keyboard Setup Assistant (KSA) which automatically launches anytime a new input device is detected.

While this is very helpful for consumers who have purchased a new peripheral; in a corporate setting it can be an annoyance multiplied thousands of times over.

YubiKeys present to macOS as keyboards and trigger KSA. When rolling them out we decided to use a Munki NoPkg to save our co-workers from having to dismiss this useless dialog.

Read on for the details…

Continue reading →

MunkiReport, Python 3 and PHP 8

Kevin M. Cox June 20, 2023 No Comments

MunkiReport 5.8 was released today and primarily includes compatibility with Python 3 and PHP 8.

Just like last year’s release of 5.7, this new version of MunkiReport requires admins to deploy a specific Python package to clients before updating.

It will also likely require a coordinated update on your web server to enable PHP 8.

Read on for the details…

Continue reading →

Uninstalling Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub with Munki

Kevin M. Cox May 7, 2023 1 Comment

A very annoying bug in the latest release of Workspace ONE Intelligent Hub caused us to uninstall it from our macOS fleet using Munki.

Last week VMware released version 23.04.0 and the users in our testing group were immediately bombarded with a confusing error dialog. These errors would appear repeatedly throughout the day and worst of all, steal focus every time.

We halted the rollout and immediately engaged VMware support who confirmed the issue isn’t isolated to our tenant. Multiple customers are experiencing the bug including others in the #workspaceone channel on the MacAdmins Slack.

However despite pulling 24.04 from Munki and making sure automatic updates were disabled in our WS1 console, the install count continued to climb. With no resolution in sight from VMware we decided to remove 24.04 from our fleet completely.

So much for Read-Only Friday! Read on for the details…

Continue reading →

Nudge deadlines in local timezones

Kevin M. Cox March 22, 2023 4 Comments

Nudge icon A frequent request for the open source tool Nudge is local timezone support. Nudge was coded to use UTC for configuring and enforcing the installation deadline for macOS updates.

This means that global companies have had to pick a single deadline for their entire fleet. Alternatively they could deploy multiple configurations for different regions. Neither option is ideal.

Bob Gendler set out to code a local timezone feature only to find out, to everyone’s surprise, that it already exists!

Read on for the details…

Continue reading →

DFU Blaster: An even easier method to put a MacBook into DFU mode

Kevin M. Cox February 22, 2023 6 Comments

DFU Blaster icon Only a month after my post An easier method to put a MacBook into DFU mode, Timothy Perfitt has one-uped himself.

Over the weekend Perfitt shared his latest app, DFU Blaster, on YouTube and Mastodon.

I’m happy to report that it is by far the easiest method yet to put an Apple Silicon Mac into DFU mode.

Read on for the details…

Continue reading →

Nudge signing certificate changed

Kevin M. Cox February 7, 2023 2 Comments

Nudge icon The signing certificate for the popular MacAdmins tool Nudge was changed tonight and action may be needed on your part.

Nudge version 1.1.11 was released but contains no code changes, only those related to the build process and the signing certificate.

This will require a configuration profile update if you are managing the login item for Nudge in the com.apple.servicemanagement payload.

Read on for the details.

Continue reading →