Upgrading from 10.4.11 to 10.5.8?

[tatiang]

If I want to upgrade several computers to Leopard, is it best to do this
manually with the install DVD, or is there a way to use Composer/Casper
Imaging to do this upgrade? Would I snapshot the new OS (new & modified) or
create an OS package?
Tatian

---

Tatian Greenleaf
Associate Director of Technology
Saint Mark's School
(415) 472-8000 x1014

[tatiang]

And a follow-up question... if I did reformat and re-image the machines
completely, what is the best way to restore the user account(s)? Do I just
copy the /Users/<username> folder to an external HD, create the new user on
the re-imaged machine, and then replace the /Users/<username folder with the
backed up copy? Are there any permissions problems with doing this?
Thanks,
Tatian

---

Tatian Greenleaf
Associate Director of Technology
Saint Mark's School
(415) 472-8000 x1014

[stevewood]

I can tell you the way I do upgrades like that, and it is to backup the user
folder to an external hard drive, perform the upgrade, then push the data
back. So basically:

1. Login as an admin, open Terminal and use the following to push the user
   folder to the external drive:

   rsync -aEv /Users/<username> /Volumes/ExternalHD

2. Then use Casper to wipe the drive and lay down the 10.5.8 image and all
   apps.

3. Login to the machine as the user, then logout.

4. Login to the machine as admin, open Terminal, then do the following:

   cd /Users/<username> rm -rf * rm -rf .* rsync -aEv /Volumes/ExternalHD/<username> ./ cd .. chown -R <username>:staff <username>

5. Logout and log back in as the user to verify all of their stuff is
   there.

You can do the move of the user data via scripts if you want, but I just
like doing it myself to make sure it is done right.

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

[tlarkin]

You could write a script that would copy all the data from the users folder to another volume then you would wipe reload and run another script to copy it back. If you are going to manage accounts and data locally though, I highly recommend you look at keeping the OS on one partition and the user accounts and data on another.

---

Thomas Larkin
TIS Department
KCKPS USD500
tlarki at kckps.org
blackberry: 913-449-7589
office: 913-627-0351

[#5]

I'll second what Thomas Larkin said about having a separate partition.

I think your best bet is to copy the /Users directory off*, re-image the machine, and copy it back. Then, when you create an account in System Preferences, it seems to me that it checks and sees that a home folder already exists for the user and asks if you would like to use it. If you do, (IIRC,) it sets the permissions for you and you are good to go.

Another option, which takes time and space, is to make an image of the machine before wiping it out, re-imaging it, mounting the image you made earlier, and running the migration assistant to restore all your users.

* As for copying the data off, I do believe you want to be careful with permissions. ditto is probably the tool of choice. http://www.bombich.com/mactips/image.html discusses some commands for making large backups.

Cheers,
Clinton Blackmore

[tatiang]

This worked like a charm. For anyone following along, I had to add a slash
after the username in the rsync command in step 4 below to get this to work
properly (i.e. rsync -aEv /Volumes/ExternalHD/<username>/ ./).
I can see the appeal of using partitions... I think that will be my next
project.

Tatian

---

Tatian Greenleaf
Associate Director of Technology
Saint Mark's School
(415) 472-8000 x1014

[tlarkin]

Separate partitions with symbolic links from /Users to your secondary partition is pretty sweet. You could script it out too so the user data is never touched when imaging and then reapply ownership and permissions post imaging to your data partition.

I think there is discussion of this very method on the mailing list archives from like a year ago or so.