OS imaging issues

[bentoms]

Yep another question from yours truly.

I'm having some issues installing 10.6 using the custom OS install options in Casper admin.

I've created 3 x OS dmg's, ( one from apple retail DVD, another from mac dev center & a third from a core i7 iMac DVD).

All dmg's have been uploaded to Casper admin & ticked the option that they are an os install without any issues.

I then boot the test macs into a netinstall image created with the latest netinstall creator & using a base iMac core i7 bootable os as the base.

The machines boot correctly, launch Casper imaging fine, erase the target HD fine.

What happens next is that Casper imaging seems to block copy the os dmg but not follow any further Casper install instructions.

The Casper imaging app just displays "installing package..." with a never ending blue & White progress bar...

Powering down & rebooting the mac takes you to the welcome video & setup assistant.

Our block copy dmg's & 10.5 dmg's from retail discs all behave correctly.

We're on 7.2, osx server 10.5.8, I've repaired permissions thru the jss setup utility too.

Anyone seen similar? Or shoud I call support asap?

Regards

Ben. Grey Communications Group Limited
Registered No. 1795794, Registered in England
Registered Office The Johnson Building, 77 Hatton Garden, London, EC1N 8JS
VAT Number GB 404 6245 78

[stevewood]

What I've seen is the lovely "NILObjectException" error during imaging. It
happens at the end of imaging when the First Run script is being built. A
restart of the machine brings me to the Welcome video and setup screens.

This was done using a Smart Config where I had a 10.6.2 image in the
Standard Config and then all of my apps in the Smart Config. I tried
compiling the configuration and with it un-compiled and received the same
error both times.

I'm sure it is with a package in the build train, but I don't have time
right now to rip apart the packages. So I've gone back to installing just
the OS image, then caching the applications during first run to install
after a restart.

BTW, I gave up using Casper to build the OS image using their new (as of ver
7) "Drop the image in" method. Instead I have continued to use InstaDMG to
build my images and they work great. I recently had luck getting the 10.6.2
combo updater to apply to my InstaDMG image, so I now do not need to push
that updater.

Steve Wood
Director of IT
swood at integer.com

The Integer Group | 1999 Bryan St. | Ste. 1700 | Dallas, TX 75201
T 214.758.6813 | F 214.758.6901 | C 940.312.2475

[#3]

I think we are having a very similar issue:

We are using Casper Imaging (everything 7.2) and a configuration with approx
15 .dmg's from 1MB up to 4GB in size (CS4 Premium), the OS is a DMG of a
fresh 10.5.8, created with composer.

When imaging from a restore partition or external firewire HD and we choose
not to cache packages from the autorun section of Casper Imaging only the OS
package gets installed. After block copying the OS the rest of the
configuration runs through in seconds, says it's installing but that does
not happen. The OS is working.

When choosing the "Cache packages for re-imaging" option in Casper Imaging
the packages are downloaded, cached and installed.

Best, Daniel

Daniel Wittich | IT Manager | Young & Rubicam Brands Germany | ://iteam
http://www.yrbrands.com

Young & Rubicam Brands Germany GmbH, Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main HRB 78543
Geschäftsführer: Volker Franz, Karen Breitenbücher

[bentoms]

Thanks Daniel.

The best I can guess is that the custom install instructions for some reason are NOT being applied in SOME circumstances.

I'm due on a very tight & unknown timeline as my wife's 39 weeks pregnant & things are moving hence the panic in my e-mails.

So to save time I've decided we boot these new macs, launch casper imaging.. through pre-stage we then install/download all apps.. on reboot the mac installs cs4.. then runs a script that triggers another policy that configures the mac ARD, ntp etc...

Seems to work well for this deployment.. so far.. but I'll need to revisit imaging soon..

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

[localhorst]

Hi Ben,

On 16 Mar 2010, at 20:54, Ben.Toms at grey.com wrote:

I also stumbled over the same issue yesterday. I reported it to JAMF and it is tracked as JAMF-0021161.

I also used the official 10.6 release from ADC (10A432) as well as a iMac 10,1 DVD and a 10.6 Retail DVD.

Regards,
Marko

--

Marko Jung
NSMS - Oxford University Computing Services
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/nsms