Netboot set creation failures using 10.6.8 image

[macninja]

I wanted to share with everyone a problem I have been seeing and would like to know if anyone else has encountered it.

I have had consistent failures when attempting to create a netboot set from the latest fully patched version of 10.6.8. After creating the netboot set and booting a computer to it the process would halt and the screen would display a "do not enter" sign (a circle with a diagonal line through it). According to Apple's error descriptions this means that the computer can not load the netboot image.

I made close to 20 attempts at creating a working netboot set from 10.6.8, each time testing different image creation methods (fully Apple workflow, Casper Netinstall Creator, a mix of the two, etc.) and each time I had the same problem. I tried creating netboot images from two different computers and neither worked. I should point out that I used the same hardware to create a 10.6.8 netboot set in December. I can only assume that some update released since December has caused this issue.

The problem was not with the Netboot server- I tried it on two different ones and did packet traces that showed that the boot process was working. I could also use older 10.6.8 netboot sets without a hitch.

After failing to create a new 10.6.8 netboot set I used my normal procedure (https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/article.html?id=63) to create a Lion netboot set and it worked perfectly.

Of course with the Lion netboot set I no longer require 10.6.8 netboot images but I was curious to see if I was the only one to run up against this problem.

[dpertschi]

Looks like a post I could have written...

Difference being that my client machines do not display that halt icon, but simply fail to netboot and revert to the local drive. I have a call in right now with our network guys to help me to do the packet tracing.

Tomorrow I'll follow that article with 10.7.3 and report back Monday.

Darrin

[dpertschi]

Moving forward with a 10.7.3 Netboot set built per JAMF KB's did indeed work the first time out of the gate. I was very excited.

However subsequent attempts have been unsuccessful. Looking carefully at server and client logs; I've got this...

SEVER LOG
2/21/12 6:49:25 AM bootpd[73976] BSDP INFORM [en1] 1,c8:2a:14:31:70:xx NetBoot005 arch=i386 sysid=iMac12,2
2/21/12 6:49:25 AM bootpd[73976] NetBoot: [1,c8:2a:14:31:70:xx] BSDP ACK[LIST] sent 10.xx.xx.131 pktsize 305
2/21/12 6:49:25 AM bootpd[73976] service time 0.000138 seconds
2/21/12 6:49:25 AM bootpd[73976] BSDP INFORM [en1] 1,c8:2a:14:31:70:xx NetBoot005 arch=i386 sysid=iMac12,2
2/21/12 6:49:25 AM bootpd[73976] replyfile /private/tftpboot/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/CasperNetBootSIU.nbi/i386/booter
2/21/12 6:49:25 AM bootpd[73976] NetBoot: [1,c8:2a:14:31:70:xx] BSDP ACK[SELECT] sent 10.xx.xx.131 pktsize 451

CLIENT LOG
2/21/12 6:49:37 AM com.apple.kextd[10] /Volumes/Netboot HD: unrecognized bootcaches.plist data; skipping.

Can anyone advise what this client log entry may suggest?

thanks,
Darrin

[TheSeans]

We are running into the same issue. It does seem to be something with the new 10.6.8 combo update.