Pre-installing extensions via Group Policy is not working (Mac)

[Luis Fernando Montoya Gómez]

Hello everyone,

I'm using a macOS Sierra Version 10.12.5 and I have set the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy in this file chromium/src/out/Default/org.chromium.Chromium.manifest/Contents/Resources/org.chromium.Chromium.manifest but when I run chromium the extension is not there

I have defined the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy like this: 

...
<dict>

<key>pfm_description</key>

<string></string>

<key>pfm_name</key>

<string>ExtensionInstallForcelist</string>

<key>pfm_subkeys</key>

<array>

<dict>

<key>pfm_type</key>

<string>string</string>

</dict>

</array>

<key>pfm_targets</key>

<array>

              <string>gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx</string>

</array>

<key>pfm_title</key>

<string></string>

<key>pfm_type</key>

<string>array</string>

</dict>
...

Also I tried to run the chromium as it is described here https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/mac_build_instructions.md#Run-Chromium but I got this: "zsh: no such file or directory: out/Default/chrome" So I have to do it like this: "open out/Default/Chromium.app"

Any idea what can i do for getting the extension installed? 

Thank you.

PD: I guarantee I have followed each step from this guide to the letter. https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/mac_build_instructions.md

[Owen Min]

Hi Luis,

org.chromium.Chromium.manifest is the definition of Chrome policies. To set up the policy value, you actually need a .plist file that is located in /Library/Managed Preferences or /Library/Preferences. The second one is not mandatory. The name of plist files are:

com.google.Chrome.plist for Chrome

com.google.Chrome.canary.plist for Chrome canary

org.chromium.Chromium.plist for Chromium

Here is an example of the plist file:

<?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>ExtensionInstallForcelist</key>

<array>

<string>gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp;https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx</string>

</array>

</dict>

</plist>

The plist file can be created manually, via command 'defaults write', via Workgroup Manager or any other 3rd-party tools that can modify Preferences/Managed Preferences.

To debug the policies, you can open Chrome and go to chrome://policy. From there, you can always check whether a policy is loaded by Chrome or not.

Also, when build and run Chromium on Mac, you need to run open out/Default/Chromium.app on terminal because it's a .app file. I believe the guide is out of date here.

[Luis Fernando Montoya Gómez]

Hi Owen,

Thank you so much for your help.

After following what you mentioned the extension is not there yet https://www.screencast.com/t/QOSDyghyQ

Any idea?

Thank you!

[Owen Min]

Hi Luis,

ExtensionInstallForcelist only works when the policy level is Mandatory. In other word, the plist file must be put into Managed Preferences. Otherwise, the policy will be ignored.

Owen