Taking a gamble here on what might sound like a silly question, but I figure its worth it :-)
Can a netboot set be used for a wide arrange of machines, or do we need 1 for each type of hardware we have? We have a couple of netboot sets that we created with our 2012 13" MacBook Air and 2011 13" MacBook Pro but we can't get some of our older machines on the network to boot into Casper with these, like 2009/10 Imacs 2009 Pro Tower.
Thx, Tom
Best answer by Chris_Hafner
This is a long discussed topic that has a few different answers. One way or another it's NOT a silly question. So here's my short answer which will soon be followed up by many longer ones from several in the community. To answer your question directly, those units should boot off a 10.8.5 netboot set. Though you may have to delete the Networkinterfaces.plist and preferences.plist from /Library/Preferences/System Configuration... but I can't remember off the top of my head (Those are the files that deal with your network interfaces... really important since en0 on a MBPro is ethernet and en0 on a MBAir is wireless). I'm actually about to test that now.
1) There are times when it's possible to have a single universal image depending on timing. For example, apple just released the 10.8.5 combo update. This build works on all of Apples current range of units capable of running 10.8.x However, prior to the 10.8.5 combo update certain new MacBook Air's and the newer iMac's had a 'forked' OS, or a unique OS for that particular flavor of 10.8.4. This was done to provide new drivers for those units. The following combo update brought everything back into one OS. This will work unit the next release of significantly new hardware and the process will repeat. However, you're environment will determine how often you need a forked OS. For example, you could have units requiring 10.6.8 or older to boot. In which case NO version of 10.8 will work. For this reason I run two NBI's, one for units that can run 10.8 and one for older units (that we no longer support).
--NOTE, I was actually using the pre-release of 10.8.5 on my NBI's so I could avoid the forking issues with the latest MBAir's . It's good to be a registered developer.
2) There are plenty of folks who say... Don't bother. Go ahead and use the "slim imaging" approach where you never actually replace the OS that's on the unit. You merely upgrade via policies, even if you still use Casper Imaging. You could also boot from USB/TB/FW drives as well... though the original problem will still arise.
So, long story short; It depends on your machine base and Apple's release schedule.
P.S> Feel free to get technical here.
+27This is a long discussed topic that has a few different answers. One way or another it's NOT a silly question. So here's my short answer which will soon be followed up by many longer ones from several in the community. To answer your question directly, those units should boot off a 10.8.5 netboot set. Though you may have to delete the Networkinterfaces.plist and preferences.plist from /Library/Preferences/System Configuration... but I can't remember off the top of my head (Those are the files that deal with your network interfaces... really important since en0 on a MBPro is ethernet and en0 on a MBAir is wireless). I'm actually about to test that now.
1) There are times when it's possible to have a single universal image depending on timing. For example, apple just released the 10.8.5 combo update. This build works on all of Apples current range of units capable of running 10.8.x However, prior to the 10.8.5 combo update certain new MacBook Air's and the newer iMac's had a 'forked' OS, or a unique OS for that particular flavor of 10.8.4. This was done to provide new drivers for those units. The following combo update brought everything back into one OS. This will work unit the next release of significantly new hardware and the process will repeat. However, you're environment will determine how often you need a forked OS. For example, you could have units requiring 10.6.8 or older to boot. In which case NO version of 10.8 will work. For this reason I run two NBI's, one for units that can run 10.8 and one for older units (that we no longer support).
--NOTE, I was actually using the pre-release of 10.8.5 on my NBI's so I could avoid the forking issues with the latest MBAir's . It's good to be a registered developer.
2) There are plenty of folks who say... Don't bother. Go ahead and use the "slim imaging" approach where you never actually replace the OS that's on the unit. You merely upgrade via policies, even if you still use Casper Imaging. You could also boot from USB/TB/FW drives as well... though the original problem will still arise.
So, long story short; It depends on your machine base and Apple's release schedule.
P.S> Feel free to get technical here.
@nessts We are using a 2010 Pro Tower Server to run Netboot services
@chris thx very much for your detailed answer, I'll get a 10.8.5 set together, delete the plists and give that a shot
See you Guys at JUNC next month?
+27I wish I could make it. I spent the money on CJA (Which was spectacular, Thanks Dusty!) instead.
Chris I got my new 10.8.5 netboot image running today, no dice booting my 2009 Pro Towers. I just get a stop symbol (circle with had through it). Guess I'll have to get a Netboot set ready on Monday that runs 10.6.8.
+35Once you're selected the 10.8.5 NetBoot, press CMD+V & see if they boot.
Also, this 10.8.5 was from the app store right?
Ben that brings me to another topic with this which I have worked around.
When I hold the option key down to choose my boot drive, only the local HDD and recovery partitions are options to use. So what I do on these is set the startup disk for the Netboot set, then when I reboot I get the "stop" symbol. I never even really get the chance to "select the 10.8.5 NetBoot". 10.8.5 was the combo updater. I created my base OS with 10.8.4 then applied the combo updater to it.
+35Ok.
As soon as they reboot press CMD+V
That should boot into verbose mode & give you a clue what the issue maybe.
OK Ben, thx for the verbose tip. " This version of OS X is not supported on this platform."
Looks like I'm working on creating a new netboot set with an older OS today.
Best, Tom
+27That's a weird one... last I checked those units supported booting from the 10.8.5 combo. Are there any firmware updates that have not been applied to them?
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