flat packages again

tlarkin
Honored Contributor

Everyone,

What is the case with flat packages and the instaDMG support in Casper Admin 7.x? I went to www.afp548.com to find some answers on it and I got people telling me they are using the newest version of instaDMG and are able to compile 10.5.8 and 10.6.3 and all the updates into a pristine image. This conflicts with what I have heard from other people. What are you all seeing with flat packages?

Thanks

Tom

7 REPLIES 7

golbiga
Contributor III
Contributor III

I know that when I tried compiling using a retail 10.6.3 DVD that it would fail. I spoke with support and I was told that they are looking into this. At this point I'm using composer to make an image of a non-booted system. I'm hoping this gets resolved soon.

Allen

talkingmoose
Moderator
Moderator

What specifically isn't working? Is this about Casper or InstaDMG?
On 5/6/10 10:41 AM, "Thomas Larkin" <tlarki at kckps.org> wrote:

I have a retail Mac OS X 10.6 Install DVD .dmg file loaded into Casper
(priority #1) as well as the MacOSXUpdCombo10.6.3.pkg update (priority #2).

My Macs are imaging without problems using the two files. I've also compiled
a Restore partition this way and I'm using it without problems.

--

William Smith
Technical Analyst
Merrill Communications LLC
(651) 632-1492

tlarkin
Honored Contributor

I am on 10.5.8 still and the newest packages that apple releases are called flat packages. Specifically Safari 4, QT 7, and Java 6 will not compile. I have them on my compiled configuration and everything goes through and installs, but those installs never actually get applied. I then test my image and it always needs about 12 software updates from Apple after being imaged, which I assume are all the flat packages.

Guys over at afp548.com tell me that they can get it to work with the newest version of instaDMG, so perhaps the version in Casper is the one that has the bugs?

Not applicable

on my compiled configuration and everything goes >through and installs,
but those installs never actually get applied. I then test my image and
it always needs about 12 >software updates from Apple after being
imaged, which I assume are all the flat packages.

Having the same issue here. I found this a while back but haven't tried
it yet.

http://www.joshie.com/journal/2010/1/14/os-x-installer-relocation-vs-ins
tadmg.html

- JD

Not applicable
Having the same issue here. I found this a while back but haven't tried

it yet.

http://www.joshie.com/journal/2010/1/14/os-x-installer-relocation-vs-in

stadmg.html

If you can use InstaDMG by itself there are new instructions and new
code on the repository.

http://code.google.com/p/instadmg/downloads/list
<http://code.google.com/p/instadmg/downloads/list>

I'm working on it now but I've been using the actual InstaDMG since the
beginning so I'm semi comfortable working with it. More comfortable with
that than with Casper at this point. : )

YMMV

- JD

tlarkin
Honored Contributor

hey everyone,

Well, after a bunch of hair pulling, reading, researching I ended up
just downloading the newest build of instaDMG (which was highly
recommended by several of you on this list) from the google projects
page. I guess I had no clue how easy it was to literally use the
product. I previously used an older version and did not like how it was
set up. I simply dropped my OS X 10.5.0 DMG (retail) into the base OS
folder and ran the insta up to date python script and it is going to
town. Seems all the flat packages are working even, as it just
installed QT 7 and the latest security update, though the final test
will be when I drop it into Casper Admin and create a compiled
configuration with it as my base.

On a side note, I think software update from the command line is
horribly broken. If I run software update form the command line it
downloads and checks all the updates but never installs them, even if I
use the -i switch in the command.

My work around for making the auto checker not run was simply in my
script take away the executable attribute of that app itself, then
reapply the execute attribute upon exiting the script. I did verify
this and it did in fact stop it from running. Though I am failing to
get the updates to apply via command line.

So hopefully the new instaDMG build I am building right now as we speak
fixes all my issues, and hopefully jamf can fix this in Casper Admin so
that flat packages install. Though to be honest, I think I may just use
instaDMG to build my vanilla OS images and then drop them in Casper
Admin to make compiled configurations.

Just FYI

Thanks

Tom

donmontalvo
Esteemed Contributor III

I know this kind of thing doesn't happen often, and JAMF is quick to fix these kinds of issues. That said, it's nice to not be tied exclusively to the JAMF tool set for imaging and packaging. So we can use InstaDMG for imaging and Iceberg for packages if we need to. :)

Don

--
https://donmontalvo.com