HodgeHi

I think now you may be beginning to understand the benefits of managing macs. Some of the things that can be troublesome on PCs can be relatively easy to manage in OS X. I actually prefer to configure the management settings in OS X more than i do in Group Policy. I hate Group Policy. Don't know if Windows server 2008 is the same. Hopefully it is a little easier to manage. But again on the plus side for GPO it is very thorough, but perhaps due to the fact that it needs to be.

Here's a quick guide. I tried to make it as simple as possible. If anyone spots any mistakes please let me know. Adding a plist to the managed preferences.pdf

I think he may have stumbled across us in the dark whilst trying to sway us back over to the light side

In WGM you click on the details tab. Then you click the + sign and then add the com.apple.desktop plist file. When you click the pencil button to edit you will then see the plist file in the editor. You should see three root keys. Once, Often and Always. If you click on the often key and then cmd+c it will copy then keys and then click on the Always key and then cmd+v. It will say something like do you want to move the keys. Click yes. This will then force it to be applied 'Always'. I will see if I can sort out a little guide. Give me a couple of mins.

Try this. Navigate to com.apple.desktop and add it to the managed prefs in WGM. I think the users still have the option but it doesn't do anything. Also use ARD to deploy your desktop image to the clients. The path you need to enter is /Library/Desktop Pictures/ Copy the same image into the same location on your client admin machine. Then apply the image using the system preference. Then when you do add the image plist to the manged prefs list in WGM it should pick up the new wallpaper and the users will not be allowed to change it if you set it to always. if you need to set it to always then just copy the root key in the often settings key and paste them into the always key. Hope this makes sense. If not let me know and i will see if I can knock up a guide.

Now, Silverlight on a mac is actually alright. Much better than flash anyway in my experience. But then I've only used it when using the ITV Player. What's everyone elses opinion of Silverlight Vs Flash? Is it a contender? and if so why isn't this allowed on the iPad/iPhone? is it a lack of a mobile version?

But then as Steve Jobs already pointed out in his letter. Due to flash not being able to support multi-touch input as well as it could then software that is to be used on multi-touch devices will need to be re-written anyway. So why go for some plug-in that is required by all when you could just opt to code for the most common platform which in theory when HTML 5 is standardised will be on every machine by default. No need for users to download anything else just to run the app/software you have created. From the looks of what is happening multi-touch devices are coming. But upon saying that though, has anyone used a Microsoft surface? I did see the small smart tables that ran their software. What is this made in? Is it flash? Is it multi-touch compatible?

I read that Apple are building a framework for Javascript to implement perhaps some of the features Flash has and Javascript doesn't. AppleInsider | Apple developing Flash alternative named Gianduia I am also happy to see someone who has mentioned the fact that They are looking past the lack of flash. Apple freely release the tools to create apps. How you deploy them I'm not too sure but again I think I read or it was mentioned during the iPhone OS 4.0 that you will be allowed to deploy your own apps internally. I think that there is enough skill and talent on here that could produce a iPhone/iPad-based app that would blow some of the educational games built in flash right out of the water. I don't understand why people are fixated on this non-flash thing. It's a pain to maintain. Has to be maintained due to it's crapness and on a mac its generally rubbish. But if HTML5 does take off it will be across Windows-based machines as well. MS has already mentioned it fully supports H.264 for streaming video.

Neither would I

What would be the general consensus if this was a Windows-based slate device perhaps like the one HP was going to release? Would everything be magically Ok even though it was identical apart from the OS?

Because most people moan about supporting netbooks/laptops already on their networks. You've only got to read through the forums about laptop trolleys etc. How does this suddenly change to being OK when something else comes along?

If you are going to clone mac partitions as well as the Windows ones you're definitely best to use DeployStudio. It does more than just image the partitions. It is especially important for the mac partitions as it will fix the byhost preferences (GUID/UUID of each machine) and also fix the LKDC realm (only on 10.5 +). This is important as when binding to the OD it will see each machine as the same if the LKDC is not changed. This is all automated using DeployStudio. you can also automate the AD and OD binding as part of the image and also deploy additional packages after the image to install applications. Also you can create workflows to cater for your individual needs. EG, if you find yourself imaging the Windows partition more and more you can create a workflow that re-images just the Windows partition, without touching the OS X side. Very handy. IIRC, You can also do the same with the OS X side as well. Its worth the investment in time. Also as an added bonus it can also PXE boot your windows-based machines. I have done it and it works quite well. They need to be using PXE 2.0 for this.

Hmm. Interesting thread. Some of the views are clearly expressed. However while I agree with eldergeek to some extent, sometimes we as the ICT support see these devices and new 'gadgets' before anyone else does. Occasionally you need to have an open-mind and perhaps a bit of vision of their possible potential. If you just dismiss stuff because you say 'we don't need those' then you may be closing the door on something positive before it's even been thought of. You also say that you don't want to support these devices in the short term. What if someone again goes behind your back and buys a load? My point of view. I can see potential in these devices. They go into standby and if they work like the iPhone would be up and usable at the press of a button. I wouldn't buy a whole school full. Probably more like a laptop trolley full and again have them as a bookable resource. I could see their usefulness out on School trips and stuff. Research on the go due to the long battery life. As has been mentioned batteries do depreciate over time. You would need to look after them. As from a management point of view. From what I have read they seem to be relatively easy to manage. If you run an exchange server, then possibly even more so. Deployment should be made vastly easier when OS 4.0 arrives allowing for deployment over Wifi. But would I buy them? probably not as they don't have built-in cameras. If these devices had built-in cameras then more than likely would have liked some. They could have been ace for our little ones to pop off down to our nature reserve and research their Mini-Beasts. In contrast to this management of PDAs was a nightmare. In my experience, not worth the effort. Once staff had let them die they then reset to default settings. The amount of time this happened. I think though now you can copy the configured devices into the flash memory. Also people mention about getting 2 netbooks for the price of one iPad. This makes me laugh. In the first breath they all moan about how much they hate supporting netbooks/laptops in the classroom. Overall it seems to me that the arguments against the iPads are more about Apple devices than new technology. Hence most of the hypocritical statements made with regards to some of the reasoning for not having new technology on Schools. Sometimes it is our job to find the reasons for new technology, otherwise we would all still be using NT4 and Windows 3.11. After all there was never a NEED for virtualised servers. PS. I don't mean to offend anyone. If I have done so then my apologies

As far as I know you can't enforce the sidebar using WGM. I tried once and tried always, and often but it never took affect. Unless you know how to do it. If so please tell as I would love to know

Any updates been applied to this particular machine that could cause admitMac to no longer work as expected? I'm not that familiar with AdmitMac so can't really help other than to say check the logs and check for compatibility issues with recent updates.

I know a few of the guys/gals on here have an implementation of StudyWiz currently running. Since they seem to be going under (all my contacts for the company no longer work) where do we go to next? We have only just begun to invest the time to build and develop our Studywiz. Currently we only have the pupils and staff in the system. Is it worth staying with the system and run it alone (possibly with no support) or just ditch it and find an alternative? It would be a shame to let it go though as i quite like it. It was reasonably priced and worked very well. It had great functionality and worked quickly. It also had the ability to run on mobile devices and such. I would very much like to see it realeased to the Open Source arena rather than just disappear. I think it would make a great addition to the Open Source market. The one thing I sure I read abhout though which I am concerned about. Apple discontinued their webobjects framework which is what StudyWiz is built on. Co-incidence? So what are the rest of the StudyWizzers going to do? Also what about the LEAs that bought into the system going to do? Hope you can shed some light on this for me. Thanks.

I tend to use the Dock instead. When doing stuff like this Stacks is quite a good solution. The only other way of doing this is to create a default template profile and use this for each user. Stacks also works better in 10.6.

Yeah You are right. When you add the home dir path in WGM to OD users as soon as you click save I think the server then runs the createhomedir command to create the users default profile. This is taken from the Server's copy of the default template. You can test this by creating a test user in the OD (If you have one) and then creating a simple text file inside the default template's documents folder. This should get copied to the new users home dir when being created. This would also be true if creating the home dirs manually from the default template.

You could have a look at this thread. In this thread is the script that i used. But there is also a script that DMcCoy created that uses ACLs. If you combine the 2 together or even just used DMcCoy's script and developed it, you may get what you need: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/mac/40314-os-x-home-dirs-not-working-properly.html

Sorry. First things first. Do you have an OS X Server? If so then if it is bound to the AD you can still list AD users. Now, once you list them all you need to create their Home dirs. I should imagine that if you mount the location of the home folders on the AD using the administrator username and password of the AD admin then you should be able to write to this location. You could then use the script to (or manually) copy the template into the user homes. You would need to test this though to make sure that it indeed would work. Once the home dirs are created you should then see the users logging in from the AD without a forced local home dir and utilise the template you copied. Hope this helps clarify what I meant. You can even list the AD users from the mac client using the DSCL command.

With regards to the Augmented records you could take a look at the attachment. I didn't realise that Mike Bombich had updated his AD -OD paper to 2.2. The script I knocked up myself. It can be found in the scripts section of this site. Although you will certainly find better methods. My script was a quick and dirty way to extract the list of users from the AD using the DSCL command to a txt file. Then listing these users into an array and creating the Home Dir for each of the users and then copying the template files into the users directory. The last part applies the permissions (POSIX) for the user to the folders and propagates them down the chain. I haven't gotten round to sorting out the ACLs on the permissions side yet. That's next on my list. If you just want a list of Home dirs with a defined template home dir this would do it. But as i say there are probably better methods. Hope this helps. Leveraging_AD_on_MOSXS_2.2.pdf

Create the home dirs on the server. I don't know where it gets the template from but from what you say the only other location is the server. I would rename the server default template and then copy your modified one into the location. Alternatively, you could script the process and create the user home dirs and then copy the template into each user folder. This is what i did.

Thanks guys. @ DanRhodes, Thanks for the heads up with this app. Will give it a shot as soon as i get some time. @ AngryITGuy, This is interesting. You mention the 'autorun.inf'. I have recently been dealing with this all over Staff memory Sticks. I have Endpoint configured to scan on access but it fails to pick them up or delete them. I am leaning more and more to the virus thing as we chat. But I won't rule out other things. IE our main server (DC) is running really slow which also has the endpoint admin console installed. I know, it's not probably recommended but we didn't have another server at the time In the 6 weeks I will be moving this across to a different server (along with the print queues )

Thanks guys for the help. Really appreciated. I don't think that it is a cable looping issue though. I experienced this at my last place. The reason i don't think it is this is because when i reset the switch the problem goes away. This is without messing with any cables. If it was a looped cable the issue would surely come back as soon as the switch brings the looped data points back online? The virus thing may have something to it though. I will take a look at the Endpoint console and see what comes up. "Does the broadcast storm happen at any particular time of the day or is it just random?" It is very random, which is why I am beginning to suspect a possible virus. Maybe brought in on a memory stick which only starts being activated once plugged in? Is this plausible?

I forgot to mention that this problem occurred over the weekend. The Teachers came in this morning around 7-ish and could not log on. But it is very intermittent. It hasn't happened for a while now. But it's re-occurring frequently again at the moment. Sometimes 2-3 time a day.