Lion Imaging

I had a some emails conversations with Apple on topic 1... - as a bit of background I contacted them after running through some troubleshooting with Jamf and coming up empty, when I netboot a 10.7 image and deploy lion with installESD via casper - it only lays down the recovery partition, when I TARGET boot the machine and lay down the same workflow with casper and installesd - I get the full OS. In addition if I try to Netboot the 10.7 image and try to lay down a 10.6.8 OS workflow the machine won't boot (it's caught in DYLD Write loop), but if I lay down the same workflow using a 10.6.x netboot the machine boots fine...

Taking a look at the email, here's what I think the workflow is currently like:

1. Make a NetBoot disk.
2. Boot from that network disk.
3. Open Casper Imaging.

4. Install a Lion InstallESD.dmg.

   If that's what's going on then the apparent Recovery HD is to be expected. If you boot from an InstallESD image it is what you get before you kick off the install. Is there a payload that is being delivered other than the InstallESD.dmg?

I'm supposed to have a follow up call with them Friday sometime, as this didn't really address my problems - but does provide some insight as to why some people are having problems with the installESD...

As far as laying down printer stuff, you can just setup them in casper then push them out either via policy or workflow? I did about 300 of them last year that way and it greatly reduced the support calls we were receiving for them.

John Wojda
Lead System Engineer, DEI & Mobility
3333 Beverly Rd.  B2-338B
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
Phone:  (847)286-7855
Page:  (224)532.3447
Team Lead DEI: Matt Beiriger
Team Lead Mobility: Chris Sta Ana
                   Mac Tip/Tricks/Self Service & Support

"Any time you choose to be inflexible in your approach to an unpredictable project you are already building failure into your plan"

Ben

I've just built the OS within Casper Admin. I've added the java installer and the printer drivers we use (downloaded from Apple) and my firstboot.pkg. Until InstaDMG can create the Recovery HD I'm going this route.

If you want the java applet activated for all users, http://derflounder.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/activate-java-web-plug-ins-setting-in-10-7-from-the-command-line/ (I'll be adding this to my firstboot script).

Thanks
Allen

Sorry. Please explain what you mean by: I've just built the OS within Casper Admin.

Regards,

Ben.

Sorry, so I tell Casper Admin that InstallESD is an OS X install media. I then create a config that consists of the InstallESD, 10.7.1, iTunes 10.4.1, Remote Desktop Update, Java, Printer drivers and my firstboot script. I just compile that and it will create a compiled configuration that also includes the Recovery partition.

Thanks
Allen

To save a step, you can re-download Lion from the App Store and it will contain 10.7.1 in it..

John Wojda
Lead System Engineer, DEI & Mobility
3333 Beverly Rd.  B2-338B
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
Phone:  (847)286-7855
Page:  (224)532.3447
Team Lead DEI: Matt Beiriger
Team Lead Mobility: Chris Sta Ana
                   Mac Tip/Tricks/Self Service & Support

"Any time you choose to be inflexible in your approach to an unpredictable project you are already building failure into your plan"

Ah. Gotcha (just remembering the discussion about these steps on the list).

So installing from a NetBoot is not working still? Compiling on a Lion OS is the way to go?

Regards,

Ben.

Yep my dload from yesterday is 10.7.1

Regards,

Ben.

I have a 10.7.1 machine
I connect this as target mode to a other 10.7 with Casper composer
Then I create an OS from this target disk and addthis to Casper admin

Be sure not to check install on root
Cheers

Carmelo Lopez Portilla

ITS EMBL Heidelberg
Tel. +49 (0) 6221 387 8444
Fax +49 (0) 6221 387 8517
email: lopez at embl.de

Right now the only Lion systems allowed are the MacBook Airs, so no access to that download. But I will definitely redownload the retail installer so I can skip the 10.7.1 updater.

Thanks
Allen

Right.

So far then it's a DMG of a booted/compiled OS.

All I think I've missed is manually downloading the printer drivers.

Hmmm... I wonder what triggers the driver software download & if it can be scripted...

Regards,

Ben.

I just grab them from support.apple.com. I was thinking about making a pkg in iceberg that contains all of them in one pkg and have a postflight script that installs them in order.

Once InstaDMG supports the recovery partition, I'll be going back to that method because it's much faster to compile the image, etc.

Allen

Thanks John.

Re printers: I've always installed all printer drivers in 10.6. Handy for home users a well as when you have a random mass of printers.

Regards,

Ben.

Hi John,

Did you manage to get an update on  this?

Hi all,

Just to add when installing the InstallESD.dmg using Casper from a 10.7 NetBoot it seems to lay down 10.7 on an erased volume, but it's non-bootable.

The mac I tested with did have a 10.6 partition, tommorrow I'll try again.

Anyone else have this working?

NetBoot OS: 10.6.8 or 10.7.1
JSS: 8.2.2
Lion: 10.7.1

Regards,

Ben.

Hi Guys,

So installing the InstallESD.dmg from a 10.6 netboot gives the error: "Installation failed. The installer reported: installer: Error - Command line installs of Mac OS X are not supported on systems older than 10.7."

Installing from 10.7 NetBoot seemed to work fine, but then rebooted to recovery partition.

So all in all seems similar to what others have experienced.

For now i'm creating the BaseOS's using InstaDMG.

My only issue right now with InstaDMG is that it will not apply the Recovery HD. I created a BaseOS within Casper Admin the other day (unchecked management), only the OS, updates, Java and printers. After it was done compiling, I grabbed the dmg from my CasperShare. That base image is essentially what I would get from InstaUp2Date, but it has the Recovery HD. So now I have a 10.7.1 Base and a 10.7.1 MacBook Air Base.

Allen

Hi Guys,

So installing the InstallESD.dmg from a 10.6 netboot gives the error: "Installation failed. The installer reported: installer: Error - Command line installs of Mac OS X are not supported on systems older than 10.7."

Installing from 10.7 NetBoot seemed to work fine, but then rebooted to recovery partition.

So all in all seems similar to what others have experienced.

For now i'm creating the BaseOS's using InstaDMG.

thanks.. 

My base OS image is to really only have the OS.. i'll install the rest as part of the config.

I'm testing the InstaDMG route now, doesn't compiling create a dmg that's effectively "installed" on the hardware you've compiled it on? So if it's a mac pro will a compiled config have 2 x ethernet?

It's a never booted image, so I would assume not. I just checked the image and only thing in SystemConfiguration is CaptiveNetworkSupport and com.apple.Boot.plist, which I believe are defaults on a new system. Just checked an InstaDMG image and it has the same files.

Allen

was a new MacPro last week, using InstaDMG and I've never seen 2 x ethernet
on a machine that doesn't' have it. Nor have I had issues with laptops
using the same image for desktop or laptop. Oh, and I do a compile also so
that I have one image to ASR over to the machine during imaging.

I checked the Lion image I created last week, and it didn't create 2 x
Ethernet on the iMac I installed it on.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475

thanks guys.

I did have the issue once.. which lead me down a different imaging path.. but looks like with it's working fine through instaDMG.. thanks!

They were supposed to call me Friday morning, they didn't.

I just shot a note out to them about 15min ago asking for a status
update.

John Wojda

Lead System Engineer, DEI & Mobility

3333 Beverly Rd. B2-338B

Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

Phone: (847)286-7855

Page: (224)532.3447

Team Lead DEI: Matt Beiriger
<mailto:mbeirig at searshc.com;jwojda at searshc.com?subject=John%20Wojda%20Fe
edback&body=I%20am%20contacting%20you%20regarding%20John%20Wojda.>

Team Lead Mobility: Chris
<mailto:cstaana at searshc.com;jwojda at searshc.com?subject=John%20Wojda%20Fe
edback&body=I%20am%20contacting%20you%20regarding%20John%20Wojda.> Sta
Ana

Mac Tip/Tricks/Self Service & Support
<http://bit.ly/gMa7TB>

"Any time you choose to be inflexible in your approach to an
unpredictable project you are already building failure into your plan"