Image to use for giving away machines.

[msardes]

Whats the best way to build a deployable image that prompts the user for account creation on first boot ala Apple. It must me non managed as well. This should basically be an image that is deployed that performs like a new machine.

[aburrow]

One option might be to start a new machine up using targeted disk mode, then using disk utility take an image.

You could then use that as an untouched image to restore when needed.

[CasperSally]

Because we didn't want the JAMF binary on the machines we donate, JAMF wasn't able to help us with this (at least last time I asked 2 years ago). I put a ticket in with Apple and they helped me set up an environment with an old mac server that we use solely to image computers we're giving away. If interested I can send you what Apple sent me (I ran into one or 2 issues along the way so it may be a bit convoluted), and it restores Snow Leopard.

I like that it's a separate environment in some respects because whatever updates/upgrades I do with JAMF don't touch that process at all. We've been using the same setup now untouched for 2+ years.

[rtrouton]

You could use InstaDMG to build a vanilla OS-only image:

http://code.google.com/p/instadmg/

Once built, you could deploy that image to whatever machines needed it.

[CasperSally]

Forgot to mention the info I have also includes a secure 7 pass swipe of the drive which was a requirement for us, but it causes the process to take hours (overnight).

[Kevin]

RE:"Because we didn't want the JAMF binary on the machines we donate, JAMF wasn't able to help us with this…"
You could use the JAMF tools for imaging, then run a final script to remove the JAMF framework (jamf removeFramework) as a final step.