instadmg running custom ard setp pkg kills screen sharing

[hkim823]

I run instadmg off a 10.6.3 server building 10.6.3 client images. The server is headless, so I need to use Screen Sharing (rather than Remote Management, I can’t get the server to use AD users to let them use vnc to log into the server via remote management service, but I can using screen sharing)

The issue I get into is when I run a custom apple remote desktop client (built from ard) during the custom pkg setup. It runs just fine, but it always kills my screen sharing service on the machine. I ssh in, turn it back on, and all is well again. But I have to do it everytime I’m building images.

I figure the instadmg script could at some point invoke a sudo sh -c “/bin/echo -n enabled > /private/etc/ScreenSharing.launchd” but I’m not sure where to put it so that it turns it back on exactly when that pkg is being called.

Any ideas?

[Allister Banks]

Hey there,

Please don’t run instadmg for 10.6 on with a production machine like a server, due to the inability to run everything inside of the chroot jail. If you are using a more recent build of instadmg, there is a chrooted installer daemon at work to solve certain installer issues, but there is still the possibility your ARD package is not targeting the image you’re hoping to create correctly. I have my own recovery stories of nearly hosing my own box with a rogue package, and while you should definitely run it on your best, I/O powerhouse lab machine, at least give your self the safety of putting it on a bootable partition you aren’t worried about. I’ll add this best practice warning to the docs. Thanks,

Allister

[larkost]

Ya, I am going to second the note of caution about running InstaDMG on a server (the same note of caution applies to SIU). It is very possible that something that you try to install is going to escape out and do things exactly like you are seeing here. In this case I would bet that it is the ARD installer that is doing exactly what you describe without regard to where it is run. You should probably file a bug with apple against ARD. I would myself but I don’t have a copy, so will not be able to validate it.

[hkim823]

Thanks for the notice on best practices when it comes to instadmg / chroot / building on a non production machine. Didn’t even think about it until you put it in those terms. I’ll see if I can use another machine to build from now on, but not having the convenience of DeployStudio with it’s package repository / NetBoot sets on the same box as instadmg does make it a little more of a pain to build now.

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