Setup Assistant Auto-Advance

[Nathaniel Strauss]

If possible I'd like MDS to be able to auto-advance through setup assistant screens at first boot.

Getting a Mac to a fresh installed OS is great, but getting it automatically enrolled in MDM with MDS would be even better. And then you can even have a snazzy blog post title like "MDM with MDS: Zero Touch Without All the Touching".

I'm not familiar with Arduino limitations. My idea is to check at boot or when plugged in if setup assistant is running. The automaton could run a short command like...

if pgrep setupassistant; then press enter fi

Didn't check exact setup assistant process name, but you get the point. If setup assistant is happening then auto-advance through. Since MDM allows us to skip DEP screens the number of auto-advance clicks would need to be configurable as well. If say we skip location services then that would require one less click.

In a perfect world this would happen as a seamless workflow including what's already possible in MDS without having to replug or reconfigure between steps.

Boot > hold down option > boot to recovery > Imagr > macOS install > boot to setup assistant > MDS auto-advances through setup assistant

This being as hands off as possible is the goal. I would love to be able to boot, plug in the automaton, and come back to a MDM enrolled Mac.

[timothy perfitt]

I think this is now possible with 1.4 and later. Booting to the recovery can be automated, then the automaton listens on the serial port. In the UI during setup, ssh can be turned on. Then you can send a command to the arduino on serial ("dep") that will run through the DEP screens. Please try and add comments or close if works as you want.