I work for a university where we have a computer lab of iMac's. With Snow Leopard I was able to create a default profile for users when they log into the machine by copying a custom profile to the System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj. I have tried copying from root and using sudo in terminal but when I log into a newly created profile I do not have any of the custom settings. This used to work in Snow Leopard. Does this no longer work in Lion?
I was able to create the default profile for users by copying the custom profile to /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/
I only copied the Library and Desktop folder with the following commands (as root):
cp -R /Users/default_user/Library /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/
cp -R /Users/default_user/Desktop /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/
I'm actually trying to do this too. Were you able to follow davide.k's directions to get things to work?
Here is what I got to work.
1. Enable Root User in Directory Utility Under Settting >> Users.
2. Login as Root User.
3. Unhide Library folders using the terminal comand.
root chflags nohidden "/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/"
root chflags nohidden /Users/<Username>/Library
4. Go to both folders using the Finder Go Command. Copy and past the folder you want into the default profile. Now visible in /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/.
5. After copying the Library folder make sure to delete the items in the Keychain folder so the new user does not get a prompted on logon.
I only needed to copy the Library folder as I don't have anything on the desktop or any default documents to populate. This will save me alot time configuring the WorkGroup Manger to get the results I want.
I am new to Mac and Unix and each time I try to use these commands I get an error trying to get to User Template it returns No such file or directory. I assume it is because of the space but I am not sure. Can anyone help me get past this so I can try and transfer my profile to the default profile?
Yes this work. I have tried this in the past but for whatever reason it is working now. Maybe I wasn't unhidding properly. Anyways, thanks for the tip!
For me the unhide comands arent working, im gettign -sh: root: command not found
I found the folder in system/library but cant find it in the user profile.
I have changed the username to look at the profile I am targeting.
I'm very new to this so its quite possible im doing something simple wrong.
Any help is much apreciated
Thanks
Are you logged into the the Root User while running the commands? You can actually log in as root if you enable the user and change the log in option "Display login windows as:" to "Name and password". You do not need to put root into the command line because it should already be there when you login as it. Sorry I should have not have posted the root portion I just copied and pasted.
chflags nohidden "/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/"
chflags nohidden /Users/<Username>/Library
Hope that helps!
Running 10.8.2. I can't find the folder System/Library/User Template ?
Default profile in Lion
