InstaDMG 1.6b2

[larkost]

I just checked in what I consider to be an important change in InstaDMG: by default now I am unloading the standard launchdaemon entry for the “installd” service, and bringing up a version that is chroot jailed into the target volume. While I am offering a switch to turn this off (-s), I don’t think that anyone should as it prevents one class of problems that has been annoying me: distribution scripts that look to the host volume rather than the target volume. This has been a thorn in my side ever since they started putting out iLife Support Updates (9.0.4 arrived on SU this week after I filed a bug on it). Even on 10.5 when the rest of the installer was chrooted this escaped.

Oddly I had an idea that led me to this during an unrelated conversation at Macworld Conference. I had hoped that doing what I did would have solved more problems, but at least the iLife Support Update class problem seems to be solved. And I just ran two consecutive InstaDMG runs: one with -s and one without. The one using the new trick happens has the latest version of iLifeMediaBrowser.framework (2.1.5) and the one with it disabled has the version that comes with 10.6.2 (2.1.3). I have it in my head to do a checksumming tool to detect changes like this, but have not had the time to create it, and right now I really wish I had it so that I could see what other hidden problems this fixes.

I also have posted a 1.6b2 .zip file on the development site, as I think that this is a great version for people to be using. I would post a link to it but the forums always think that I am posting spam when I put in linke… *sigh*

[Anthony Reimer]

I gave this version a go and encountered a new error (for me). Here’s what came up in Terminal:
[code] Encasing installd daemon in a chroot jail
cp: /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.installd.plist: No such file or directory
launchctl: Couldn’t stat(“/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.installd.plist”): No such file or directory
nothing found to unload
###### Unable to unload system installd daemon ######[/code]
I got this error right after the 10.5.0 DVD install (or recognition of the cached image). It recognizes the failure and aborts, but not without trying to remount the LaunchDaemon it didn’t find. If I use the -s option, it works as expected.

Am I missing something (e.g., does 1.6 only run on Snow Leopard?)?

[larkost]

Ya, I spent some of the weekend working out the changes for 10.5… actually more of the weekend was preping a computer as a test computer so that I could do that. So now I have a dedicated test computer for 10.5/10.6, and maybe even 10.4 testing. So I plan on tweaking this to try and handle the 10.5. It should have no negative affect at this point, but does not help anything.

[dead2sin]

I am going to be updating our images in the next week, so I’ll be giving 1.6b2 a workout 🙂 I’ll report back how it goes for me. I’ve been having issues with some installers, so I have high hopes that the new chroot method you are using will allow them to install.

Thanks again for all your work!

Nate

[larkost]

Note that there is really only one thing that is getting chrooted in 10.6, even with the latest version: the part that runs the JavaScript in distribution scripts. So anything where the problem is with installer scripts (postflight, preflight, etc) is still a problem in 10.6 (but pretty well solved with 10.5). So this will fix problems with the iLife Support Updates (which had not been fixed in 10.5 before this), but will not solve problems with things like Cisco’s VPN installer (old example, I don’t know if it is still a problem).

[dead2sin]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: larkost[/u][p]Note that there is really only one thing that is getting chrooted in 10.6, even with the latest version: the part that runs the JavaScript in distribution scripts. So anything where the problem is with installer scripts (postflight, preflight, etc) is still a problem in 10.6 (but pretty well solved with 10.5). So this will fix problems with the iLife Support Updates (which had not been fixed in 10.5 before this), but will not solve problems with things like Cisco’s VPN installer (old example, I don’t know if it is still a problem).[/p][/QUOTE]

Ah, alright, good to know. I had been having problems with the Security Updates as well as iLife support and I can report that both work flawlessly on 1.6b2. I have always had issues packaging iLife 09 with updates, so I will give that a shot as well with the new version.

Nate

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