Links for The Past, Present and Future of Munki

Here are the URLs for many of the things I talk about in my MacAD.uk presentation on Tuesday, May 23 in Brighton, UK.

Munki: https://github.com/munki/munki

Radmind: https://radmind.org

Munki-Dev Google Group: https://groups.google.com/g/munki-dev
Munki-Discuss Google Group: https://groups.google.com/g/munki-discuss

Munki Client Cert Authentication: https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Using-Munki-With-SSL-Client-Certificates

Munki Web Request Middleware: https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Middleware

Munki Authorized Restarts: https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Authorized-Restarts

MunkiAdmin: https://github.com/hjuutilainen/munkiadmin

MunkiServer: https://github.com/munkiserver/munkiserver
MunkiReport: https://github.com/munkireport/munkireport-php
Sal: https://github.com/salopensource/sal

Simian: https://github.com/googlearchive/simian

AutoPkg: https://github.com/autopkg/autopkg

Staging macOS Insstallers: https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Staging-macOS-Installers

Munki Default Installs: https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Default-Installs

Mac Admins Open Source: https://macadmins.io

Signed and Notarized builds of Munki: https://github.com/macadmins/munki-builds/releases

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Links for The Past, Present and Future of Munki

Munki and Ventura notes

TL;DR: 

It looks like Munki is going to need a signed binary and an MDM-delivered PPPC/TCC config profile to continue working properly on macOS Ventura. 

Details 

Last week was Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference 2022. Among others things announced and introduced was macOS Ventura, or macOS 13. 

As is not unusual for macOS releases, this release contains changes that may affect the functionality of Munki (and other similar tools). 

Continue reading “Munki and Ventura notes”
Munki and Ventura notes

Reaction to “Recognition, Retirement, and Remembrance”

Mac admins: if you haven’t already, read Anthony’s article here:

https://maclabs.jazzace.ca/2021/07/18/recognition-retirement-remembrance.html

His well-written, well-researched thoughts inspired some thoughts of my own.

It occurs to me that many of the “first” generation of Mac admins came from no-traditional backgrounds. This makes a bit of sense, since the Mac appealed to a new set of computer users.

My college degree was in Theater. I know many Mac admins who were (or are) musicians. Many many Mac admins come from Liberal Arts backgrounds or no college at all.

It’s far more common for “newer” Mac admins to come from more “traditional” backgrounds: they’ve studied computer science or software development.

Anecdotally, it seems to me that many of us who’ve come to this from non-traditional backgrounds are here for the long haul. One might speculate as to the reasons, but the fact remains that some of use have been doing this for _decades_.

It’s fantastic that we’re getting more people with deeper technical experience into the field — it’s what’s needed for the field to become more professional. Concepts like DevOps and Configuration Management and Version Control come from CompSci/Software development.

But: it also seems to me that admins coming from CompSci/software development backgrounds are far less likely to stay in the field long term. They are far more likely to move on to other things (bigger and better?!)

This, then, possibly presents another challenge for the community. Yes, we are starting to see a generational change, but we’re going to see faster “churn” overall.

We’re going to see new admins contribute exciting new things, but we’re also going to see those admins not stick around as long to shepherd what they’ve contributed.

Just as Anthony doesn’t really have any answers on how the community should deal with the generational change, I also don’t (yet at least) have any real suggestions on how the community should adapt to faster “churn”.

I do hope, however, that the community will take this opportunity to start talking about the changes and what can be done.

Reaction to “Recognition, Retirement, and Remembrance”

Munki 5.1.2 Official Release

https://github.com/munki/munki/releases/tag/v5.1.2

This is the official release of Munki 5.1.2: an update to the Munki tools.
There are two changes in this release from version 5.1.1: 

• Code signing has been removed from files in the embedded Python framework; the existing code signing was broken because of the process making the framework relocatable. 

• When importing a Big Sur installer, the pkginfo will reflect the 35.5GB required space for upgrading from macOS Sierra or later. (See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211238): https://github.com/munki/munki/commit/0714196b87e35b2862723a66bc5a95e736d8449b


The main focus for the Munki 5.1.x releases is compatibility with macOS Big Sur, but there are other changes.

See release notes for Munki 5.1 (https://github.com/munki/munki/releases/tag/v5.1.0) and 5.1.1 (https://github.com/munki/munki/releases/tag/v5.1.1) for more details on those changes.


See https://github.com/munki/munki/wiki/Munki-5-Information for information on the changes in Munki 5.

Munki 5.1.2 Official Release

This One Goes to 11: macOS version comparisons and Munki

In my Wednesday session for MacSysAdmin 2020 Online – “This One Goes to 11” – (http://macsysadmin.se/program/program.html) I talk about the implications of macOS Big Sur’s version numbering.

I didn’t talk in too much detail about how that might affect Munki admins specifically, and I’ll remedy that here.

Continue reading “This One Goes to 11: macOS version comparisons and Munki”
This One Goes to 11: macOS version comparisons and Munki