Imaging Macbook 6,1's

[#1]

Greetings all.

I've got sixty white, unibody Macbooks that will be going out shortly and I've found myself stumped over slight... personality issues with them.

Regardless of how I prep the image, the result is the same: the Macbook installs the base OS and hangs, refusing to move on to the next stage.

As so far, I've run a 10.6 Retail DMG that works on other systems as well as creating an install DMG of the media shipped with the unit (thinking that the installed base of 10.6.1 vs. the 10.6.0 retail might be suspect). I've set up configurations with and without the combined 10.6.2 update, app packages, etc...

No matter what I try, I watch the install pipe from the server and then fall flat; no further activity.

So, has anyone successfully deployed these late '09 White plastic unibody Macbooks using JSS/Casper Imaging? If so, could you describe your workflow? I'm probably just missing something apparent...

As it stands, I'll probably wind up pulling them into inventory and configuring them via policy until I get something worked out.

Thanks,

t
--
Thom Burrell

[tlarkin]

Someone in some department just bought three of these all white unibody Macbooks and I just used my 10.5.8 image and they worked. I do not know if they were revision 6.1 though. They are also out of my hands, but I could look them up in Casper and find out.

Can you take a look at your imaging logs? What do you see?

[jarednichols]

Been deploying 10.6 retail and 10.6.2 combo to these without issue

[RobertHammen]

Keep this Apple Support article bookmarked, as it tells you the OS version numbers that shipped with each Intel-based Mac:
On Mar 16, 2010, at 10:46 AM, Thom wrote:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1159?locale=_

As you'll see, the MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009) Oct 2009 shipped with build 10A2047 of Mac OS X 10.6. Retail 10.6 DVD is build 10A432. I'm not sure if you're installing and then trying to boot from that install before applying 10.6.2, but I'm skeptical that will work reliably (since the retail DVD is an older build lacking the specific drivers that the MacBook (13-inch, Late 2009) requires). Whether you can image 10.6 and then apply the 10.6.2 Combo updater before starting up from the volume (i.e. chain the install and then the updates) is probably a JAMF question.

Here's hoping that 10.6.3 introduces a new retail DVD, and has all of the drivers for new/upcoming Mac Pro's/MBP's already included in it (yeah right)...

[bentoms]

Which version of Casper imaging are you using & are you using a netinstall created image per chance??

Regards,

Ben.

[#6]

I just read your previous post (OS Imaging Issues) and nearly yelled, "ah ha!" as I'm running into precisely the same issue -- but only with the late '09 Macbooks. I've tested on several revisions of iMacs and MBPs without the same issue.

To answer your question, 7.2 (although I was having the same luck with 7.1) -- and I just built a new Netinstall image with 3.1 today.

Before leaving this afternoon, I built a test install on one of them and tomorrow I'm going to see how it pushes across. Not a final solution, as I really want a modular approach for all the builds -- but these bloody Macbooks are killing me... Retail 10.6.0 chained with the combined 10.6.2 update won't work nor does a build with their own install media. I just get the exact same thing as you.

Interesting.

[bentoms]

Thanks Thom.

Kind of happy it's not just me having this issue.

We too want a modular imaging process as currently we build DMG's off hardware.

I might have 1 more days testing with this before I have to revert to the old methods.

I'll let you know.

Regards,

Ben.