Hi All. Again, this is gonna be another one of those “I had to do something for a client and so I thought I’d share” blogs. Maybe I should start a new series on these 🙂
This one revolves around turning the Pro Tools 12 installation into something that can be deployed by your Mac deployment / patching solution of choice.
Please Note: These notes have been written on the assumption of using an iLok licensing management solution and so doesn’t deal with any licensing models outside of this.
Credit where credit is due (aka standing on the shoulders of giants)
Before I start, I have to confess I have pulled most of what I needed from work others have done for Pro Tools 11. Namely:
- Neil Martin of UEL (@neilmartin83 on Mac Admins Slack), who pointed me to the right areas to dig into.
- This post on the Munki-Dev list
- This script from Ricky Chilchott
- This post on JAMF Nation
The downloaded package
So, you’ve downloaded your Pro Tools 12 package from Avid and it looks little like this:
This is what you’ll need:
- The “Install Pro Tools 12.x.x.pkg” installer package
- The “Install Avid Codecs LE.pkg” installer package. Found in the “Codec Installers” directory.
- The “Install Avid HD Driver.pkg” installer package. Found in the “Driver Installers” directory.
- A copy of the iLok License Manager installer package (“License Support.pkg”), grabbed from here (yes it’s in a DMG, in a ZIP file).
These all need to be added as ‘postponed’ or ‘on reboot’ installations. Add all four to your deployment solution of choice.
Test deployment complete…but it still wants admin rights on first launch?
Yup…. that’ll be the Pro Tools app trying to:
- Add it’s “shoe” tool to the /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools directory
- Add a Launch Daemon to start it at boot
- Add new directories in to /Library/Application Support/Avid/Audio for Plugins
- Add new directories to /Users/Shared
It so happens that there’s already a script for Pro Tools 11 that does this. With a few tweaks (specifically lines 4, 6, 11, 12, 17, 20, and 21) this worked brilliantly for Pro Tools 12.
A copy of the updated script can be found on our GitHub here.
Bringing it all together
So now you have all five components needed to deploy Pro Tools 12. Let’s bring that all together.
The process would need to be as follows:
- Install “Install Pro Tools 12.x.x.pkg” at reboot.
- Install “License Support.pkg” at reboot.
- Install “Install Avid HD Driver.pkg” at reboot.
- Install “Install Avid Codecs LE.pkg” at reboot
- Run the script “ProTools12_Post-Install-Script.sh” at reboot.
For Casper:
This one is simple:
- Add all four packages as “install on boot drive after imaging” and the script as “At Reboot”.
- Set the priority for each package so that the main Pro tools installer runs first (e.g., ’10’ for “Install Pro Tools 12.x.x.pkg”, ’11’ for “License Support.pkg”, “Install Avid HD Driver.pkg” and “Install Avid Codecs LE.pkg”)
- Chuck all 5 items into your deployment config, or into the same policy.
- Test, then deploy as needed!
For Munki:
This one is also simple if you have had previous Munki administration experience:
- Add all four packages into your Munki repo.
- Use `pkginfo` or Munki Admin to add a post-install script to the “Install Pro Tools 12.x.x.pkg” pkginfo.
- Use the contents of the “ProTools12_Post-Install-Script.sh” script for this post-install script.
- Again, edit the `pkginfo` or use Munki Admin to add the three ‘non-Pro Tools’ installers (specifically “License Support.pkg”, “Install Avid HD Driver.pkg” and “Install Avid Codecs LE.pkg”) as “Updates for” the “Install Pro Tools 12.x.x.pkg”
- Add the Pro Tools 12 installer item into the relevant manifest for your department.
- Test, then deploy as needed!
Summary
Hopefully that’ll help out those who are fighting Pro Tools to deploy nicely! As always, if you have any questions, queries or comments, let us know below and I’ll try to respond to and delve into as many as I can.
The usual Disclaimer:
While the author has taken care to provide our readers with accurate information, please use your discretion before acting upon information based on the blog post. Amsys will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog.