Imaging a Mac Mini aluminum

[talkingmoose]

At JAMF Support's request, I am posting this question here.

Has anyone attempted imaging one of the new Mac Mini aluminum machines
using Casper 7.31?

The 10.6.3 rev of the Mac Mini aluminum (10D2235) is newer than the 10.6.3
combo update from Apple (10D578) and therefore I added a .dmg of the Mac
Mini's installer DVD to Casper Admin.

1) Using the DVD .dmg itself as part of the Mac Mini's package
configuration, the OS install is passed over in a few seconds without
attempting to install and imaging continues with the next package.

2) If I create a Custom OS Install based on the DVD from the Mac Mini and
add that to my configuration I receive:

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

3) If I attempt to image the machine using my Retail 10.6.3 DVD .dmg and
then update with 10.6.4, I receive this in the log file:

Error: The OS Installer failed because of an XML parsing error it the
installer application. It was installed, but packages with underscores in
the name have been deployed incorrectly.

Has anyone been able to image a Mac Mini using Casper Imaging 7.31 and any
Mac OS X Install DVD .dmg file?

My next attempt will be to create a Mac OS X 10.6.4 .dmg and try using
that.

--

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

[golbiga]

I was able to do all of this by creating the image via InstaDMG. The only thing is, you need to do everything from the Mini, including compiling it in Casper Admin after you are done.

The mini also has it's own 10.6.4 update http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1054 so if you use InstaDMG you have to add that installer to the 10.6 catalog file. Once 10.6.5 comes out it should have all the drivers needed for the Mini (hopefully).

Thanks
Allen

[talkingmoose]

InstaDMG is my next plan of attack. Thanks for the warning about the
On 9/20/10 3:49 PM, "GolbigA at mskcc.org" <GolbigA at mskcc.org> wrote:
10.6.4 update that's specific to the Mac Mini.

What makes this issue really frustrating is that I only have two of these
machines... in India. And I and my Casper server are here in Saint Paul.
The latency is sluggish and remote controlling is tedious.

So far, no one's had luck just dropping the Mac OS X Install DVD .dmg into
Casper Admin?

--

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

[bentoms]

Create a netboot from the mac mini, then try step 1

Ben Toms
IT Support Analyst GREY Group
The Johnson Building, 77 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8JS
T: +44 (0) 20-3037-3819 Main: +44 (0) 20 3037 3000 | IT Helpdesk: +44 (0) 20 3037 3883

[ImAMacGuy]

There's a custom 10.6.4 update for the new mini's. The 2nd post in this
<http://www.afp548.com/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=27508> thread has
the direct link to the update and also talks about imaging them.

John Wojda

Lead System Engineer, CTS

3333 Beverly Rd. B2-338B

Hoffman Estates, IL 60179

Phone: (847)286-7855

SMS / Text Page: 2245873298

Team Lead: Chris Sta Ana

[rogerlee_teco]

I had the same issue with a Netboot image created directly on the mini with the "An exception of class NilObjectException was not handled. The application must shut down." and was able to resolve only after deleting the record from the JSS and retrying.

RL

[talkingmoose]

That's what I did from the start. The NetBoot image works fine. Using the
On 9/21/10 4:27 AM, "Ben.Toms at grey.com" <Ben.Toms at grey.com> wrote:
Mac Mini DVD .dmg in Casper does not.

My plan right now is to use InstaDMG to create the OS package.

--

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

[ImAMacGuy]

I used instaDMG to create mine, went through w/o issues. Though with
the current rev of instaDMG (368) I have a bit of a problem where it
wont find the base install dmg file it created. I think it's a bug in
the script, I posted to their forums to see if anybody else had trouble
with it - no responses yet.

John Wojda
Lead System Engineer, CTS
3333 Beverly Rd. B2-338B
Hoffman Estates, IL 60179
Phone: (847)286-7855
SMS / Text Page: 2245873298
Team Lead: Chris Sta Ana

[talkingmoose]

In the instadmg.bash file I found this:
On 9/21/10 10:50 AM, "Wojda, John" <John.Wojda at searshc.com> wrote:

ALLOWED_INSTALLER_DISK_NAMES=("Mac OS X Install Disc 1.dmg" "Mac OS X
Install DVD.dmg")

I used the second name and the script finally found the .dmg file.

--

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