Help with AutoDMG and Recovery HD

[daniel_kaminski]

Hi everyone. Today was my first attempt to create an image with AutoDMG, but it never created a Recovery HD. Here is what I did and perhaps I missed a step as I am not completely clear what the workflow should be:

1. I downloaded the latest El Capitan installer and added it to AutoDMG and created the .dmg
2. Uploaded the dmg to Casper Admin and created a Standard config for it, then added the dmg to the config.
3. Within the config I set up the management account we use and left 'Partitions' empty.
4. NetBooted a computer, ran imaging to completion.

After everything was said and done, I logged in and did diskutil list to see there was no Recovery Partition. Option boot, same thing: No Recovery HD. Some things I am unclear on are:

Was my Casper Configuration improperly configured?

Is there something specific I need to do when creating the image with AutoDMG to have it lay down the Recovery HD?

If the computer I am building on via AutoDMG didn't have a Recovery HD, would that affect the base created by AutoDMG?

Any help is appreciated while I learn. I've tried to search for the answer, but nothing I read up on hit the mark.

[davidacland]

The process sounds right to me although I don't think I've specifically looked in 10.11 for the recovery partition.

Was the OS image set to priority 1 in Casper Admin? Thats the only other thing I can think of right now.

[daniel_kaminski]

The Priority was set 1. I did not have the checkbox that it required a restart, not sure if that matters.

[davidacland]

It shouldn't need that enabled.

I just checked on github, its not listed as a bug. Could be worth testing with 10.10 as a comparison.

[daniel_kaminski]

I thought maybe something went wrong with creating the dmg so I mounted it and did diskutil list. The Recovery Partition is present in the dmg. Terminal shows:

I'm going to try imaging one more time and see if I get a different result before trying a 10.10 image via AutoDMG.

If anyone has any other ideas, please let me know. TY.

[daniel_kaminski]

While this is imaging, I have another question: At what point does the dmg created with AutoDMG re-parition the hard drive to lay down the Recovery HD? The question popped into my head while I was looking at what Casper Imaging is actually doing:

[techhelprhs]

What happens if you hold down command + R on boot?

Recovery Partition

Best,

-Chris

[daniel_kaminski]

@techhelprhs command + R starts Internet Recovery.

[mpermann]

@Kaminski that screen shot is showing Casper Imaging 9.61. I'm not sure that Mac OS 10.11.2 is going to work with that older version of Casper Imaging. I'm using Casper Imaging 9.81 on a 10.10.5 NBI laying down Mac OS 10.11.2 and it is working properly for me. I'm able to get into the Recovery Partition without issues. You might want to check with your TAM regarding compatibility with that version of Mac OS. Also, if you are NetBooting and running Casper Imaging from an NBI, the version of the Mac OS on the NBI can make a difference as to whether you will be able to successfully image.

[CorpTech]

There was an update to AutoDMG last week so I would look into trying that new version. I'm running everything on Casper 9.81 and have had no issues since.

[daniel_kaminski · Accepted solution]

Hey all. Thanks again for anyone that chimed in. I just wanted to post an update.

I went to 9.82 today and updated the Casper version on your NetBoot ti 9.82 as well. Afterwards I imaged a computer and the Recovery Partition was present. So upgrading the JSS to 9.82 and upgrading the Casper version on NetBoot did the trick.

Thanks again.

[jrepasky]

Ran into this in my environment. Casper 9.81
When I did a diskutil list it was showing a 3rd partition but it was not named, just and empty/blank partition.
It had the same size as the recovery partition in the AutoDMG OS I had created.

On a whim I did a diskutil mount /dev/disk0s3 and it showed up as /Volumes/Recovery HD/
I then umounted the partion and then once again did a diskutil list and it showed up properly this time with the name Recovery HD.
I booted to Recovery mode and it worked properly.