Pre-LoginWindow Agent and macOS Sequoia

Question

Created Dec ’24

Replies 2

Boosts 0

Participants 2

I previously had an application running at the login window prior to macOS Sequoia. It's a simple program specific to the needs of my company that did it's job. As you've probably guessed, with the move to Sequoia, it no longer works. Having developed this application, I'm fairly familiar with how all this works, so...is there something that changed with the loginwindow context in macOS Sequoia that affected this (and I obviously missed)?

I've gone through DTS tickets previously and will again if necessary, but I'm hoping someone can just point out a linker option or build setting that is new with Sequoia.

Thanks!

Answered by DTS Engineer in 818516022

I previously had an application running at the login window prior to macOS Sequoia. It's a simple program specific to the needs of my company that did it's job. As you've probably guessed, with the move to Sequoia, it no longer works.

Since you've worked with DTS on this before, I'll quote the start of the Caveats section of the data you received:

"The authorization plug-in API is quite brittle. Plug-ins regularly encounter compatibility issues in new releases of macOS. The biggest concern here is new major releases but even minor releases can cause problems. It’s vital that you test your authorization plug-in on pre-release systems as they are seeded."

Unfortunately, it sounds like that's exactly what you're experiencing.

....is there something that changed with the loginwindow context in macOS Sequoia that affected this (and I obviously missed)?

Almost certainly, but I'm not aware of any specific change that's caused a general failure.

I've gone through DTS tickets previously and will again if necessary, but I'm hoping someone can just point out a linker option or build setting that is new with Sequoia.

You can file a TSI if there is something sensitive you're concerned about or if there are large file you want to share, but DTS has actually tried to move most of our support work to the developer forums.

SO, what's actually going on? Crashing, failing to launch, display issues?

__
Kevin Elliott
DTS Engineer, CoreOS/Hardware

Boost

Answer 1

DTS Engineer OP

Apple

Dec ’24

Recommended

I previously had an application running at the login window prior to macOS Sequoia. It's a simple program specific to the needs of my company that did it's job. As you've probably guessed, with the move to Sequoia, it no longer works.

Since you've worked with DTS on this before, I'll quote the start of the Caveats section of the data you received:

"The authorization plug-in API is quite brittle. Plug-ins regularly encounter compatibility issues in new releases of macOS. The biggest concern here is new major releases but even minor releases can cause problems. It’s vital that you test your authorization plug-in on pre-release systems as they are seeded."

Unfortunately, it sounds like that's exactly what you're experiencing.

....is there something that changed with the loginwindow context in macOS Sequoia that affected this (and I obviously missed)?

Almost certainly, but I'm not aware of any specific change that's caused a general failure.

I've gone through DTS tickets previously and will again if necessary, but I'm hoping someone can just point out a linker option or build setting that is new with Sequoia.

You can file a TSI if there is something sensitive you're concerned about or if there are large file you want to share, but DTS has actually tried to move most of our support work to the developer forums.

SO, what's actually going on? Crashing, failing to launch, display issues?

__
Kevin Elliott
DTS Engineer, CoreOS/Hardware

0

Answer 2

jrippy OP

Jul ’25

Finally getting back around to this. By all appearances, the app fails to launch. However, it does show briefly after a user logs in but before the desktop appears. This seems to indicate it is launching in the loginwindow context, but it is "behind" other layers and not being brought to the front.

0