iMovie w/ Network Accounts

Question

Level 1

1 points

iMovie w/ Network Accounts

Server : XServer Running 10.6.8 hosting Worgroup Manager for user management

Clients : 2010 MacBooks running 10.6.8

Software : iMovie 11

I work for a school district and teachers are starting to want their students to create iMovie projects. All students log in with network only accounts (local accounts are not created). Obviously I am not going to strore the iMovie footage on the network for the students to work off of. Instead iMovie Events.localized needs to be created on the local hard drive. That would not be very time consuming but creating individual folders for student events and setting file permissions for those folders is what is problematic. I do not want other users to see a students work since they will be sharing the iMovie Events folder.

The research I have done is suggesting a login hook. So here is what I have attempted with no success.

1) I create a script that looks like this :

#!/bin/bash

mkdir /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized/$1

chown -R $1 /Volumes/Macintsoh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized/$1

chmod 700 /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized/$1

I name is imovie.sh

2) I place it in a folder on the local drive at :

/Volumes/Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/LOSD

3) I then go into terminal, as suggested by Apple support article HT2420 and run the following command:

sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /Library/Application\ Support/LOSD/imovie.sh

4) From workgroup manager I set the computer group to allow login hooks :

Workgroup Manager > Computer Group > Preferences > Login > Scripts, Select "Always", Check "Also execute the client computer's LoginHook script"

5)I log out and log in as a student

Results :

iMovie Events folder is not created

If I attempt to run the script while logged in as admin it will create the iMove Events folder but not the user's sub folder and in the terminal window it acts as though I have not entered an argument for chown. By that I mean it says:

usage : chown [-fhv] [-R [-H | -L | -P owner [:group] file ...

At least that is what I think that means. I am fairly new to scripting. So if anyone can help me out I would appreciate it, as will the teachers and students.

Thank you

Xserve, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 802.1x wireless Aruba

Posted on Nov 10, 2011 9:55 AM

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Answer 1

cirillo.k Author

Level 1

1 points

Nov 15, 2011 11:57 AM in response to cirillo.k

I understand my mistake now.

mkdir /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized/$1

does not create the iMovie Events.localized directory.

I had to create that first before attempting to run the script. Like I said, I am new at this.

Just in case anyone cares, here is how I deployed this to hundreds of student machines :

1) I created a package that placed the script into a specified location on the local HD (I use composer)

2) Using ARD I deployed that package to all the systems, so now the script exists on each system

3) Using ARD I then ran the following UNIX commands :

mkdir /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized (Now I have my iMovie Events Folder)

chmod 777 /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized (Giving everyone permissions seemed to be the only way I could get iMovie to give access to the student's folder)

defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /path/to/script (Now the loginhook has been set)

Once I got this figured out, the deployment process took less than a minute to complete.

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Answer 2

rak_lad

Level 1

0 points

Apr 9, 2013 1:39 PM in response to cirillo.k

Hi

I just started to work for school district and I have same problem. I read your information and it will help me if you can answer me.

In you script I copy paste here. $1 need to be replace with username or go with your information.

mkdir /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized/$1

chown -R $1 /Volumes/Macintsoh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized/$1

chmod 700 /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/iMovie\ Events.localized/$1

Thanks

Rakesh Lad

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Answer 3

th2010

Level 1

0 points

May 16, 2013 12:47 AM in response to rak_lad

yes.

The dollar sign means the first argument. If you have a second then you have to take $2.

@crilio: Could you tell me some experiences with your workaround? i'm from Germany (sorry for the bad English..) and i have a 20 Client Network here. Same problem here.. Imovie does not support importing video files using a Network Home Account. Thats horrorible....

Your problem.. Was it the same and had you fixed it?

thanks for answer.

Thorsten

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Answer 4

cirillo.k Author

Level 1

1 points

May 23, 2013 12:50 PM in response to th2010

Sorry for the late reply on this. We ended up just using local, managed accounts, which kind of defetes the purpose of having individual network accounts for the students but doing it with network accounts just caused too many problems. So now students just have to remember which computer they were using and in some cases we created multiple local, managed accounts for students who use the same computer. Hope that explanation helps.

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Answer 5

cmenoche

Level 1

9 points

Jan 13, 2014 1:34 PM in response to cirillo.k

cirillo.k mentioned:

"We ended up just using local, managed accounts, which kind of defetes the purpose of having individual network accounts for the students but doing it with network accounts just caused too many problems. So now students just have to remember which computer they were using and in some cases we created multiple local, managed accounts for students who use the same computer. Hope that explanation helps."

Agreed. Have been deeling with this. It was a chaotic fall semester in the lab due to this

limitation. Multi-user/multi-lab situations are still very much a standard working environtment in

education.

Hopefully Apple will reconsider this for future versions (soon). Most of the time Apple has been

the one who solves problems, and problems that are specific to certain markets (including

education for many years). At the moment, students in my class learned that

iMovie would not work for them in their labs at their current and future schools.

cpm

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Answer 6

Dec 5, 2014 7:25 AM in response to cmenoche

This issue has raised it ugly head again with Mavericks and iMovie 10.0.5. Rather than nipping out to obtain a PHD in coding OS X, there is a simpler option.

Create a user locally so "everybody" has access to the "local users" library files.
Hold the "Alt" key down on the keyboard while starting up iMovie from the doc.
Then the "Open library" dialogue appears choose new.
Browse to the Local User Library file usually iMac/Macintosh HD/Users/TempUser/Movies/
Click save

iMove will now open and save the movies locally, which should prevent clogging up the traffic over the network and also give the students a quick tutorial in file directories!

Hope this was helpful for a quick fix solution in those stressful classroom scenarios!

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