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Multiple Users on Mac in AD Environment

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David

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Nov 17, 2009, 11:18:02 AM11/17/09
to
I'm a long time Mac user but never in a work environment with OS X.

This seems to be a problem that mac users don't understand and I'm
hoping for some help.

We have begun installing Macs in our PC/Thinclient Domain. We use
Astaro Proxy server which always has problems with Safari, so we use
Firefox.

Firefox works great, but you have to enter the Proxy into Firefox
preferences. Since I don't know who is going to log onto the machine
at any time my problem is two fold.

First I'd like Firefox to appear in the dock for each user and second
I'd like Firefox to have the correct settings for Proxy.

In the PC world, this is no problem, you set firefox in the default
user and have a Group Policy to specify the Proxy.

Anyway to do this?

Thanks
David

Alex Faaborg

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Nov 17, 2009, 11:24:06 AM11/17/09
to David, Markus Stange, dev-usability, Josh Aas
cc'ing some of our OS X people to see if they know.
-Alex

> _______________________________________________
> dev-usability mailing list
> dev-us...@lists.mozilla.org
> https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-usability

Rob Campbell

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Nov 17, 2009, 11:35:23 AM11/17/09
to Alex Faaborg, David, Markus Stange, dev-usability, Josh Aas
after some messy searching I found this:

http://www.lucidsystems.org/luciddocktools.html

Warning: I haven't tried it. An associated forum post described it as a wrapper to a terminal command to "defaults write com.apple.dock...".

For your proxy settings, you probably want a PAC file.

See: http://mikewest.org/2007/01/auto-configuring-proxy-settings-with-a-pac-file

Do some googling, you might find a better result.

Note that this isn't exactly usability-related. Maybe we need a dev-sysadmins. ;)

Good luck!

~ rob

On 2009-11-17, at 11:24, Alex Faaborg wrote:

> cc'ing some of our OS X people to see if they know.
> -Alex
>
>
> On Nov 17, 2009, at 8:18 AM, David wrote:
>

Markus Stange

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Nov 17, 2009, 11:38:15 AM11/17/09
to David
On 17.11.09 17:18, David wrote:
> Firefox works great, but you have to enter the Proxy into Firefox
> preferences.

In Firefox 3.5 you can choose "Use system proxy settings". Does that
solve your problem?

I don't understand the Dock problem. What does it have to do with Firefox?

Markus

Alex Faaborg

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Nov 17, 2009, 11:39:32 AM11/17/09
to Rob Campbell, David, Markus Stange, dev-usability, Josh Aas
> Note that this isn't exactly usability-related. Maybe we need a dev-
> sysadmins. ;)

I'm just happy to see any activity in this group :)

-Alex


On Nov 17, 2009, at 8:35 AM, Rob Campbell wrote:

> after some messy searching I found this:
>
> http://www.lucidsystems.org/luciddocktools.html
>
> Warning: I haven't tried it. An associated forum post described it
> as a wrapper to a terminal command to "defaults write
> com.apple.dock...".
>
> For your proxy settings, you probably want a PAC file.
>
> See: http://mikewest.org/2007/01/auto-configuring-proxy-settings-with-a-pac-file
>
> Do some googling, you might find a better result.
>
> Note that this isn't exactly usability-related. Maybe we need a dev-
> sysadmins. ;)
>
> Good luck!
>
> ~ rob
>
> On 2009-11-17, at 11:24, Alex Faaborg wrote:
>
>> cc'ing some of our OS X people to see if they know.
>> -Alex
>>
>>
>> On Nov 17, 2009, at 8:18 AM, David wrote:
>>

Rob Campbell

unread,
Nov 17, 2009, 11:47:28 AM11/17/09
to Alex Faaborg, David, Markus Stange, dev-usability, Josh Aas

On 2009-11-17, at 11:39, Alex Faaborg wrote:

>> Note that this isn't exactly usability-related. Maybe we need a dev-sysadmins. ;)


>
> I'm just happy to see any activity in this group :)

yeah, me too. :)

>
> -Alex
>
>
> On Nov 17, 2009, at 8:35 AM, Rob Campbell wrote:
>
>> after some messy searching I found this:
>>
>> http://www.lucidsystems.org/luciddocktools.html
>>
>> Warning: I haven't tried it. An associated forum post described it as a wrapper to a terminal command to "defaults write com.apple.dock...".
>>
>> For your proxy settings, you probably want a PAC file.
>>
>> See: http://mikewest.org/2007/01/auto-configuring-proxy-settings-with-a-pac-file
>>
>> Do some googling, you might find a better result.
>>

>> Note that this isn't exactly usability-related. Maybe we need a dev-sysadmins. ;)


>>
>> Good luck!
>>
>> ~ rob
>>
>> On 2009-11-17, at 11:24, Alex Faaborg wrote:
>>
>>> cc'ing some of our OS X people to see if they know.
>>> -Alex
>>>
>>>
>>> On Nov 17, 2009, at 8:18 AM, David wrote:
>>>

Neil Lee

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Nov 17, 2009, 11:50:40 AM11/17/09
to David, dev-us...@lists.mozilla.org
Le 17-11-09 à 11:18, David a écrit :

> We have begun installing Macs in our PC/Thinclient Domain. We use
> Astaro Proxy server which always has problems with Safari, so we use
> Firefox.
>
> Firefox works great, but you have to enter the Proxy into Firefox
> preferences. Since I don't know who is going to log onto the machine
> at any time my problem is two fold.
>
> First I'd like Firefox to appear in the dock for each user and second
> I'd like Firefox to have the correct settings for Proxy.

(note that it's been a LONG time since I've done this type of thing, but this has worked in the past for me)

You can set up a "default" user template (home folder) in Mac OS X that gets copied over whenever a new user is created - the system default files are located in /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj (assuming your default system language is English).

What you could do is -

1. create a new user
2. log in as this new user
3. install Firefox and set up the user profile as you like (change proxy info, .etc.0
4. Add Firefox to the dock
5. log out and log in as an admin
6. back up the old User Template/English.lproj folder
7. copy the Library folder from the user you created/edited into the /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj directory
8. make sure permissions are correct on that folder (root:wheel and 700).

This assumes you're provisioning your machines with brand new user profiles - if you need to convert existing profiles over to using a specific proxy/filrefox user profile things get a bit messier.

Hope this is useful!

Neil

David

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Nov 17, 2009, 2:26:20 PM11/17/09
to

Hey All Thanks for the great advice and the amazingly speedy response.

David

Alexander Limi

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Nov 17, 2009, 5:19:45 PM11/17/09
to Alex Faaborg, David, Markus Stange, dev-usability, Josh Aas
Related, do we ship with proxy detection set to "auto" as the default? When
I tested a Firefox install on my girlfriend's "locked down" corporate
computer, it installed fine, but didn't work until I manually went in and
set the proxy settings to "Auto".

(I didn't import settings from IE, so maybe we need a different default? I
assume most people do, so they get whatever proxy settings IE has)

--
Alexander Limi · Firefox User Experience · http://limi.net

2009/11/17 Alex Faaborg <faa...@mozilla.com>

> cc'ing some of our OS X people to see if they know.
> -Alex
>
>
>
> On Nov 17, 2009, at 8:18 AM, David wrote:
>

Markus Stange

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Nov 18, 2009, 4:42:38 AM11/18/09
to
On 17.11.09 23:19, Alexander Limi wrote:
> Related, do we ship with proxy detection set to "auto" as the default?

We don't, but we'd like to, see
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=500983

-Markus

Alexander Limi

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Nov 18, 2009, 5:16:28 PM11/18/09
to Markus Stange, dev-us...@lists.mozilla.org

How can we make sure that this fix makes it into 3.6? Should I just raise it
in one of our meetings, or is there a better way?

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