Netboot Lion install via command line

[scottlnrd]

Since my company doesn’t advertise Netboot or Netinstall across our network (via Startup Disk prefs), I have been using Applescripts to kick off a netboot or netinstall using the below example.

[i]sudo bless –netboot –booter tftp://server.apple.edu/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/NetInstall.nbi/i386/booter –kernel tftp://server.apple.edu/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/NetInstall.nbi/i386/mach.macosx –options “rp=nfs:server.apple.edu:/private/tftpboot/NetBoot/NetBootSP0:NetInstall.nbi/NetInstall-Restore.dmg” [/i]

Recently I upgraded to Lion Server and created a standard Netinstall of OS X Lion. When I went to grab the file paths for my script, I noticed that the “–kernel” line path did not have “mach.macosx” in the i386 directory. So my question is, how do I specify the kernel for a Lion Netinstall via command line? Or is there another method I should be using now?

Thanks for any help that anyone can provide on this…

Scott

[jenjac]

You have to use the “kernelcache” file in the i386 folder in place of the mach.macosx file. You also have to replace the “–kernel” option with “–kernelcache”.

Here is the modified command:

[quote]sudo bless –netboot –booter tftp://server.apple.edu/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/NetInstall.nbi/i386/booter \
–kernelcache tftp://server.apple.edu/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/NetInstall.nbi/i386/kernelcache –options \ “rp=nfs:server.apple.edu:/private/tftpboot/NetBoot/NetBootSP0:NetInstall.nbi/NetInstall-Restore.dmg”[/quote]

This “–kernelcache” option is only available from the bless command in Lion. To boot a Snow Leopard client to the NetInstall set I had to first mount an image of a Lion installation, and then use the bless command from that image.

Here is the command for that:

[quote]sudo /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Lion/usr/sbin/bless \
–netboot –booter tftp://server.apple.edu/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/NetInstall.nbi/i386/booter \
–kernelcache tftp://server.apple.edu/NetBoot/NetBootSP0/NetInstall.nbi/i386/kernelcache –options \ “rp=nfs:server.apple.edu:/private/tftpboot/NetBoot/NetBootSP0:NetInstall.nbi/NetInstall-Restore.dmg”[/quote]

If anyone has any way to boot to a Lion NetInstall from Snow Leopard without mounting a Lion image for the new bless command, please tell me how you did it.

Thanks!

[scottlnrd]

Thanks jenjac! Worked like a charm.

[Author]

Posts