Mavericks Netboot - System Image Utility: No Sources Found

[majedian21]

We are unable to recognize a mounted DMG in System Image Utility with the goal of creating a Mavericks Netboot Image.

Casper Suite 8.73

MBA Laptop A
11 inch, Mid 2013
OS: 10.9.1
Configured as a base netboot image, using the guide "Creating a NetBoot Image and Setting Up a NetBoot Server"
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=307
and the guide "Creating a Minimal Base OS Image"
https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=313

MBA Laptop B
11 inch, Mid 2013
OS: 10.9.1
Installed Casper Suite 8.73
Used Composer to "Build an OS Package" of Laptop A's OS via thunderbolt target disk mode
DMG Size: 6.52 GB
Mounted newly-created DMG, shown as 'Macintosh HD' (technically 'Macintosh HD 1' according to ```
df
``` command)
Installed Server app 3.0.2 from Mac App Store
Opened app: /System/Library/CoreServices/System Image Utility.app

Result: Drop down menu is grayed out with "No sources found" message.

I've tried this same process in a few variations, including:

• Building the OS package on a 10.8.4 laptop
• Renaming Laptop A's HD to 'Netboot HD'
• Mounting the 10.9.1 DMG and running SUI on a 10.8 OS with Server app 2.2.2 - although I know this probably shouldn't work anway
• Creating OS DMG from Disk Utility instead of Composer

Posts I've already referenced with no luck:
Mavericks NetBoot Creation Failing https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=9127
mavericks netboot image https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=8761

Why isn't the SIU recognizing the mounted DMG?

Thank you in advance!

[stevewood · Accepted solution]

Unless I'm mistaken, there is no need to use Composer to create a DMG first. The only thing I can think that Compose does is to clear some of the cruft from the drive before creating the DMG. However you can do that manually by deleting the contents out of /var/vm and the Caches folders from /Library and ~/Library.

If you TDM Laptop A to Laptop B, you should be able to use SIU on Laptop B to capture Laptop A's hard drive. You may need to rename Laptop A's drive, or Laptop B's drive, but it should work. This is the way I've always used SIU.

[majedian21]

@stevewood - Your suggestion to rename Laptop B's hard drive and then TDM Laptop A to Laptop B worked perfectly. I then opened SIU and immediately saw the mounted HD from Laptop A. Just to test, I changed Laptop B's HD name back to 'Macintosh HD' and it didn't work again. Netboot image successfully created - thank you!