Casper Imaging 8.5 - NilObjectException Error.

[taugust04]

Hi everyone.

Not sure how many others have early access to the Casper Suite 8.5 gold master (I'm testing it against open tickets/defects I have with JAMF Support), but I encountered a new issue today in Casper Imaging 8.5, and, I'm just trying to figure out if it has to do with my configurations/environment, or, an actual bug in the software.

I have contacted JAMF support about this...

I have a shell script that runs as a 'post-imaging' task. It launches three different policies once the imaging is complete and the computer reboots. During the imaging process, I'm getting the following error message when Casper Imaging goes to build the FirstRun Script at the end of the imaging process, where it goes to add my "postimage_desktops.sh" script to the First Run script:

"An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down."

This script hasn't changed in about two years, and worked in previous versions of Casper Imaging without the error message. In addition, I can fire off the script on the target machine using Casper Remote after it reboots and it works without any error messages.

Anyone else experiencing something similar?

Thanks,

-Ted

[jhbush · Accepted solution]

Ted, you're not supposed to talk about pre-release JAMF software on this public forum as noted in the email you recieved. That said JAMF is aware of the issue as I have submitted this as a bug as well. The issue should be resolved by the time that the official public release is announced.

[taugust04]

Thanks for your response. I received no such email or NDA when I was given this version - otherwise, I wouldn't have posted. However I do appreciate knowing I don't have to continue troubleshooting this.

[ramos1053]

This issue has popped up for me, running 8.51.. So it would appear it was not addressed from the earliest to the latest instance.

In our case it reliably crashes during installation of Adobe CS4.

[bentoms]

Hi Alan,

Do you have any scripts as part of your config? What happens when you remove them?

Also, what happens when you use imaging 8.43?

[matt4836]

I fixed this issue by checking "diskless" on the netboot server.

[powellbc]

I too have seen this issue, as soon as the imaging process starts. No scripts are being run. As a matter of fact, the only processes involved in my image job are applying a plain Jane Lion image and installing Office 2011.

I enabled the diskless option in Netboot and it did not fix it. Any other ideas? The image was created in Composer per the instructions in the documentation.

[Inamin]

make sure /Library/Netboot/NetBootClients0 is set to share over AFP. I turned this on and the error went away and disks now unmount as they should. Casper Imaging works fine now and does not error!

[AlanSmith]

Thank you, thank you!

This fix (Diskless & AFP share enabled) worked nicely for me after getting the NilObjectException Error

Once again the JamfNation comes to the fore!

[mikethompsett]

Sorry to say this is a JAMF bug and always has been from 8.x through to 9.3.x. But I think your find JAMF will blame it on Apple's NET-Install or something to that affect.

If anyone has found a fix/workaround I would love to know.

[smith_kyle]

I made sure all of by netboot users had filesharing enabled, as well as added access for the afpReadUsername and afpWriteUsername (created using the createDP.py for my JDS) to my NetBootClients0, and so far it's been fine with a handful of macs

[muribe]

I switched from NFS to HTTP which resolved the issue on my end.