Deploystudio - new macbooks

[KRIECCO]

With the new macbooks 2017 I really have problems imaging them with deploy studio. I have worked with deploystudio for years, and normally I have had no issues with updating images etc.

I have made a new NBI of the new macbook and put into the SP0 folder, as always, but when booting up is start showing the globus icon, but after some while it show the "no access" icon

The most strange thing is that if I maybe try 20-30 times It can suddenly works once, where it can boot up. But if restarting and trying a new netboot it fails again and I can try several times again where I maybe get lucky some when

If trying to netboot older macbooks it works everytime, so the new nbi boot image is working, since it can work on older models

I have tried to launch in verbose mode, where is comes with
ERROR!!! load prelinked kernel with status 0x000000000012
Error loading kernal cache (0x12)

I don´t know what I can try more as this problem seems to be working once every now and then

[KRIECCO]

Just got a new belking ethernet adapter, first time I tryed to netboot - and deploystudio did load!. So I thought that finally found the reason.
But then do a normal restart with trying to netboot again, with the same new adapter, and it fails again and again and again....

this is simply crazy

[jdye]

@rossoneris I've noticed Belkin Ethernet Adapters having trouble connecting to DeployStudio as well. They work fine otherwise, so there's no indication of why they'd fail for DS.

Very strange.

[ooshnoo]

This is not a DeployStudio issue per se. I had the same issue netbooting, and Apple support told me that only a combination of Apple's USB-C to USB adatper connected to an Apple USB to Ethernet adapter will work for MacBooks.

MacBook Pro's support netbooting from straight USB-C to Ethernet dongles, but not MacBooks.

[KRIECCO]

It is only macbook pro I have - did forget to mention it

But I agree, it does not make sense this problem, as it is so random the error, so in case of image error or software related error it would newer work and not some times

So there is no really fix for this ? - have not tryed yet the combination with USB-C to USB - and then use the old USB ethernet adapters, but as you say this should only work for macbook

[maurits]

You better check slack, the #deploystudio channel. Working with the 2017 macbook pro is challenging.
-You need to find ethernetadapters that support netbooting (the apple usb works, but is 100Mbit, some third party works too)
-you need to make a netboot set for the macbook (either from deploystudio assistant installed on this macbook), or try 10.12.6. The 10.12.6 release is supposed to be universal, but i read reports that the iMac 2017 fails to netboot.
-you need to deploy the 10.12.6 (or macbook 2017 specific macOS version, see point above)

And caspar imaging has the same challenges.

Tip: you do realize that you should consider new workflows (DEP/ or manual enroll) for future macOS versions? For High Sierra apple noted that NetRestore (and thus DeployStudio) is ONLY supported for in place OS replacements. Updates to 10.13 need to install a EFI update, which cannot be done (yet?) with imaging.
Start here for the official statement from apple #imagingisdead #notyet

[nigelg]

@maurits Thanks for linking that official statement - hadn't read that. Do you think MacOS versions means upgrades from 10.13 to 10.14 or from 10.13.1 to 10.13.2 (as regards monolithic imaging)?

EDIT

Think I have answered this myself - according to this article anyway https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201260. Apple use "version" to relate to 10.13.1 and 10.13.2 etc etc. So I read that as you can build a monolithic image and restore it to an APFS Apple Mac but as soon as a new version is released, you need to upgrade all your Macs while connected to the internet, using the MacOS installer. Then you can create a new monolithic image using that version and put that on to your Macs using Netrestore.