gakushaburu
Level 1 (10 points)
Desktops

Q: Only local users display in login list

I have recently installed El Capitan on an iMac and am having problems with network users login settings. The server is running Mavericks with OS X Server 3

 

The first problem is the login screen. If set to list it shows only users created locally on the iMac. It doesn't even have the "other" option.  If I change to display username and password I can login to network accounts without any problem but this method is not what I want.

 

File Vault is not turned on. The settings are almost all default. This was a clean install and other than binding to the server and allowing network user login I made no changes before my first attempt.

 

Since then I've created other local users and made changes to the login options for testing but nothing else.

 

Profile Manager on the server is set to display "other" and a list of network users (I've changed those settings a couple of times for testing but nothing changes).

 

It may be unrelated but I've found that other changes in Profile Manager seem to have no effect. Eg I have made one of the network users a mobile account but it doesn't get set as mobile on the iMac.

 

Can anyone give me guidance on where to look next?

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Oct 4, 2016 5:09 AM

by gakushaburu,Solvedanswer
gakushaburu gakushaburu
Level 1 (10 points)
Desktops
A:

Thank you both.

 

I finally got to the bottom of it.

 

I deleted the profiles, removed settings from Profile Manager, turned it off and then started from scratch. Maybe I did things in a different order this time but I realised that device settings were overriding user settings. I'd only set up a login windows payload for the user group not for the device. As the configuration is saved in /Library/Preferences rather than ~/Library/Preferences I suppose this is logical (and with hindsight obvious). Setting up the payload in the device settings solved the problem.

 

Sorry dwbrecovery, for some reason I can't mark any of your posts as helpful.

Posted on Oct 8, 2016 6:49 PM

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Q: Only local users display in login list

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  • by Daniel Ebeck,

    Daniel Ebeck Daniel Ebeck Oct 4, 2016 6:51 AM in response to gakushaburu
    Level 4 (1,739 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 4, 2016 6:51 AM in response to gakushaburu

    Is there any reason that you are using Server3?

  • by gakushaburu,

    gakushaburu gakushaburu Oct 5, 2016 3:31 AM in response to Daniel Ebeck
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 5, 2016 3:31 AM in response to Daniel Ebeck

    Good question.

     

    In fact I meant to check exactly which minor version before posting and forgot. It is 3.2.2 which I believe is the latest version which supports Mavericks.

  • by Peter Borbonus,

    Peter Borbonus Peter Borbonus Oct 5, 2016 7:24 AM in response to gakushaburu
    Level 2 (165 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 5, 2016 7:24 AM in response to gakushaburu

    Hi!

    Did you activate OpenDirectory (=OD) (Master)?

    At the Client-Macs: Did you bind your clients to the OD?

    You can do this in Preferences/User and Groups/LoginOptions/Networkaccount-Server

     

    Also you have to activate FileSharing on the server!

    You also have active a DNS with a local domain to get OD working fine (don't use .local!).

    Your clients have to use the local server as their DNS.

    If your server also offers DHCP, disable all other DHCP-Servers in your local network.

     

    Greetings,

    Peter.

  • by gakushaburu,

    gakushaburu gakushaburu Oct 6, 2016 7:10 PM in response to Peter Borbonus
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 6, 2016 7:10 PM in response to Peter Borbonus


    Thank you for the comments Peter.

     

    As I mentioned in the original post, network users can login, the problem is that the only way of login them in is to have a username and password login screen because "Other" doesn't appear in the list of users. Without OD being set up, DNS giving the server a valid FQDN and the client bound to OD, I don't think the login would be possible so I am confident that part is set up correctly.

     

    I'm a little surprised about the comment on File Sharing affecting this but will check the setting when I get back on the network. The clients are accessing services but at this stage I have not attempted to access any folders on the server so had not considered file sharing would be relevant. The users will have local home directories.

  • by Peter Borbonus,

    Peter Borbonus Peter Borbonus Oct 6, 2016 9:08 PM in response to gakushaburu
    Level 2 (165 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 6, 2016 9:08 PM in response to gakushaburu

    Okay, now I understand your question.

    I think Filesharing is only necessary if your server is hosting the homedirectories.

    Did you try to enable root on your clients? Maybe you will get "others" then.

     

    Good luck,

    Peter.

  • by dwbrecovery,

    dwbrecovery dwbrecovery Oct 7, 2016 12:48 AM in response to gakushaburu
    Level 3 (662 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 7, 2016 12:48 AM in response to gakushaburu

    Hi,

    Try this Terminal command on a client machine to enable the Other option in the login screen: 

    sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED -bool TRUE

     

    hth,

    cheers, dwbrecovery

  • by gakushaburu,

    gakushaburu gakushaburu Oct 7, 2016 9:33 PM in response to dwbrecovery
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 7, 2016 9:33 PM in response to dwbrecovery

    Thanks dwbrecovery.

     

    Unfortunately adding that key seems to have no effect but it did give me the opportunity to check the plist file and I've done some testing on that. I've deleted the file several times during my testing. Each time the file is recreated with default content "other" appears on the login screen. But as far as I can tell, any changes to the file make it disappear.

     

    Logging out seems to result in a "LastLoginPanic" key being added to the file after which only local users display. A reboot usually corrects this.

     

    Using "Other" to log in as a network user allows me to log in and adds "MCXLaunchOnUserLogout" to the the preference with the network user under it. Once that happens the "Other" item in the login list disappears and the network user isn't available by name either.

     

    The SHOWOTHERUSERS_MANAGED key does not change that. I've tried it as written and also using camel case as other keys seem to be written that way.

     

    By the way, do you know where this plist is cached? If I delete it from the command line and reboot it seems to be recreated with the same contents. To get it to recreate with default settings I am having to boot from an external drive and remove the file.

  • by gakushaburu,

    gakushaburu gakushaburu Oct 7, 2016 9:53 PM in response to gakushaburu
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 7, 2016 9:53 PM in response to gakushaburu

    I've realised that there must be something other than com.apple.loginwindow.plist controlling the login window. I just enabled Guest to see if it would have any impact on anything else. It didn't but Guest does correctly display in the login window. Nothing gets added to the plist file for that change though.

  • by Peter Borbonus,Helpful

    Peter Borbonus Peter Borbonus Oct 8, 2016 6:43 PM in response to gakushaburu
    Level 2 (165 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 8, 2016 6:43 PM in response to gakushaburu

    Are you using Profilmanager? - If so, control your settings for the clients there.

     

    Did you try to start your clients to boot in savemode (reboot and press shift until Apple Logo appears) to clear all caches? (Maybe the server too?)

    Terminal for that:

    sudo nvram boot-args="-x"

    After this: reboot!

     

    normal mode again:

    sudo nvram boot-args=""

    After this: reboot!

  • by dwbrecovery,

    dwbrecovery dwbrecovery Oct 7, 2016 10:33 PM in response to gakushaburu
    Level 3 (662 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 7, 2016 10:33 PM in response to gakushaburu

    Hi,

    - Considering the version of  Server.app used, are you using Workgroup Manager to adjust Preferences for Login?

    - Is there a profile installed on the client?

    Either or both may be affecting the loginwindow plist. 

    I've used the suggested key on a client without profiles and Workgroup Manager and it is persistent across logins.

     

    cheers, dwbrecovery

  • by Peter Borbonus,

    Peter Borbonus Peter Borbonus Oct 7, 2016 10:37 PM in response to dwbrecovery
    Level 2 (165 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 7, 2016 10:37 PM in response to dwbrecovery

    Same idea... :-)

  • by dwbrecovery,

    dwbrecovery dwbrecovery Oct 7, 2016 10:54 PM in response to Peter Borbonus
    Level 3 (662 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 7, 2016 10:54 PM in response to Peter Borbonus

    Yep!

  • by gakushaburu,

    gakushaburu gakushaburu Oct 8, 2016 3:07 AM in response to dwbrecovery
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 8, 2016 3:07 AM in response to dwbrecovery

    Peter Borbonus wrote:

     

    Are you using Profilmanager? - If so, control your settings for the clients there.

    Yes, but as I mentioned in my original post, for some reason the settings are having no effect on the client

    Peter Borbonus wrote:

     

    Did you try to start your clients to boot in savemode (reboot and press shift until Apple Logo appears) to clear all caches?

    Yes. I've tried but the results are the same.

    dwbrecovery wrote:

     

    - Considering the version of  Server.app used, are you using Workgroup Manager to adjust Preferences for Login?

    No, I don't use Workgroup Manager and haven't installed it (I believe it isn't in Mavericks by default)

    dwbrecovery wrote:

     

    - Is there a profile installed on the client?

    No, this was a clean install of El Capitan. Other than creating a local user in addition to the admin account to check that it would display in the login window list, there are no local profiles. I've not started restoring anything from backup of the old system as I wanted to get this working properly first.

  • by Peter Borbonus,Helpful

    Peter Borbonus Peter Borbonus Oct 8, 2016 6:43 PM in response to gakushaburu
    Level 2 (165 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Oct 8, 2016 6:43 PM in response to gakushaburu

    Try to disable Profilmanager just to see whether the problem persists.

    You tried to enable root at the client?

     

    You can also try to create a network user with homedirectory hostet by the server (turn on FileSharing then).

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