Anyone else out there using Final Cut Studio in a volume licensing environment (e.g., Education)? It should be easy to add Apple's stuff to an InstaDMG build, but this is a multi-disc install and it's not obvious to me what I need to do to add it. Do I need to bundle it up in an mpkg or can I simply put the packages in a subfolder with a particular name so that the master installer can find it or something else?

Right now InstaDMG is not going to be able to handle that. I do have a couple of ideas about handling that in the future (you reminded me to create a ideas page on the development site, and put it there). Unfortunately for you I don't need that at the moment because my multimedia image will use Radmind to put Final Cut Studio on the image, but eventually I want to move that into InstaDMG as well (it is not a priority since I only have 20 multimedia computers vs 500 of the other types).

I originally tried to put the seperate disk packages in, but it didn't work properly as I suspected. I ended up just repackaging with composer. It surprisingly didn't take long at all. I installed, ran updates and packaged. It seems to be working great so far. It did take InstaDMG a long to create the image. It ended up being about 50 GB since fcp is huge. I just left it over night and all was good when I came in the next morning. Good luck

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~Steve

Based on just a quick look it seems like the Final Cut distribution refers to other discs using a URL x-disc://

If the reference for these packages was corrected then I guess you could have ALL of Final Cut install from one location.

I'll check it out with my InstaDMG build and see...

Mosen, did you get any chance to play around with this anymore? What were your results? I'm just about to build a multimedia lab image with both Final Cut Studio and Adobe CS3 installed. Just trying to decide whether I should create a build train for this, or just put the base image on a machine, install CS3 and Final Cut, and then just create a master image..

Curious to hear if others have found this worthwhile.

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ACSA, ACTC and Hardware Certs

Right now, I think I have come up with a solution that I am testing, but thus far it seems to work.

Rather than hand-rolling a package for FCS and Logic Studio for my multimedia machines using InstallEase/Composer/PackageMaker, I have created disk images of the install disks and thrown them in the BaseOS folder. I've added a routine that installs from the disk images on to my InstaDMG disk image.

Because the licensing might vary between single & volume depending on where they are deployed (lab or single computer), I am going to hand-roll a package for each licensing situation, that can be applied as needed either post-imaging for a single license or as part of the workflow for a lab.

I've been successful in installing the software and getting a non-booted disk image. It just takes forever, definitely an overnight proposition.

I am testing the licensing packages and can keep the forum posted if anyone is interested in the results.

I am definitely interested. I've had to use a hybrid approach (core with InstaDMG, then layer on manual installs of FCStudio, CS4 and package-resistant installs), so anything that moves that core image further ahead would be great! Thanks.

Anthony

FWIW, I created a single installer from the complete disc set which comes in at a monstrous 48 GB but it does install just fine. There isn't that much to it, just a matter of substituting the x-disc:// stuff with the path to a local common Packages folder in two files, FinalCutStudio.dist in FinalCutStudio.mpkg and AudioContentForSoundtrackPro.dist in AudioContentForSoundtrackPro.mpkg. I created a DMG of the whole thing to allow for a network install but it would be just as simple to store the entire Packages folder inside the FinalCutStudio.mpkg package and repointing the appropriate paths in the .dist files to it. I'll probably try that route and do a package deploy as part of a DeployStudio workflow... 48 GB for a full install ought to be a fun exercise

Pepijn.

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Pepijn Bruienne - ACHDS 10.4, ACTC 10.5, ACDT, ACPT

Pepijn, your reply was very helpful. I did indeed try to include that monster package in my InstaDMG workflow, but it failed. I was able to get around the need to enter the serial number on install by packaging the "Final Cut Studio System ID" file that the installer leaves at /Library/Application Support/ProApps/. However, the Final Cut Pro installer only allows installation on the boot volume. So while I could use some of the packages (virtually all of the other apps worked but not the support files), the key one (FCPro) cannot be used that way. Nevertheless, it does seem to work as a standalone installer (with the changes Pepijn suggested), so I could either repackage or leave it out of my InstaDMG workflow entirely and simply push it out after the fact.

Thanks for everyone's help.

Anthony

I put Final Cut Studio 3 in an Image which I made with deploy studio. But when I image a machine it's asking me for the license number again. How can I fix this?

Yes I do have multiuser license!

First off: don't resurrect old threads. There was no activity on this one for a year. Start a new thread. This is common courtesy on all message boards, mailing lists, etc. If you need to reference an old thread link to it (but you don't seem to need that in this case). You are wasting people's time in re-reading the rest of the thread when it really has no bearing on your question. If you feel your question needs context, then take the time to write it out.

And if I remember right from the last time I imaged with FCS with a volume license then you just need to do the registration on one computer, and capture the one file it writes out while doing so. PackageMaker (as well as other tools) will help you capture this file very easily. Then you just make a package with this one file, and put it in your InstaDMG setup and you are good to go.

Be aware of this though.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2170684