New Mac Laptops 10.5.5 Build 9F2112

[benfeea1]

I went to the local Apple store today to check out the 10.5.5 build number on the new Laptops.
It looks like the new Mac Laptops are running a different or interim build of 10.5.5.
The current version is 10.5.5 Build 9F33.
The new Mac laptops use 10.5.5 build 9F2112.

Any thoughts on how to handle this in InstaDMG until 10.5.6?

[larkost]

This is a perennial problem, and InstaDMG unfortunately in not able to get around it. I have repeatedly requested that builds like this have a pkg in them that would be the difference between the last build and the new one, but that is not how they are structured.

So you are left with two choices:

1) hack the installer that comes with the new hardware slightly and then use the new installer disk as your base disk (watch out for bundled software that you might not have licenses for on everything else)

The major problem with this route is that the new build is not guaranteed to work on any other hardware than what is shipped with. Most of the time it does, but the gotchas can be hard to catch, and really bad.

2) make a separate build for the new hardware until the next update comes along and fixes this for you.

[benfeea1]

Yeah, I was planning on a separate build until 10.5.6.

[Patrick Fergus]

One more comment for larkost’s succinct take on the issue. If you do choose #1, I’d be wary of that install disc image successfully installing on anything but the hardware it came with. Sometimes Apple puts a hardware check in the install disc so you don’t take that new machined Aluminum install disc and install Leopard on everything you can get your hands on.

But this could be a benefit–you could argue to the powers that be that you need an [i]extra[/i] new MacBook (Pro) to build your images for the new machine. And then somehow that machine becomes yours :D.

YMMV, depending on [i]your[/i] management.

– Patrick

[knowmad]

on patrick’s point of the hardware check:
I have made a few builds off of hardware specific install discs, so far I have had no issues. Something about the way InstaDMG works simply does not trip that check.
at least not for me, at least not so far….. I will be doing a new one for the new powerbooks this afternoon, keep ya posted if you care.

[Patrick Fergus]

I was unclear.

If you’re using a Mac Pro as your computer to make InstaDMG builds, you [i]might[/i] not be able to successfully get an install disk image from a hardware-specific disk to install while running InstaDMG. Apple may prevent hardware other than the hardware that shipped with the disc to actually use that disc. For example, years ago one might have tried to install a disc from a different revision of iMac in order to get the a “free” update to OS 9 or that OEM copy of Otto Matic (or Cro-Mag Rally, or Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4) on a different computer. The disc may just flat refuse to install when running on hardware it did not ship on.

However, the final ASR image probably would work on previous hardware, maybe. I wouldn’t use an ASR image created by a run of InstaDMG using a Base Install from a hardware-specific disc on anything else than the hardware that requires it–Apple likely does [i]not[/i] QA machine-specific releases to run on earlier hardware. In extreme cases, this is the result:

“Using NetBoot, Netinstall, ASR images with a MacBook Pro (2.4/2.2GHz) or iMac (Mid 2007)”
[url]http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24849[/url]

– Patrick

[ewhite]

I have an external drive that I use as a “booter” for imaging and troubleshooting. The drive uses Apple Partition Map to make it “Universal” and has Mac OS X 10.5.5 installed (using this technique: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2595).

Weird thing is, the new MacBook Pro can’t boot off of this drive! If I connect the drive and specify the “booter” as the startup disk, the computer goes into a loop trying to startup (black screen/gray screen/black screen/gray screen/…/…)

This is the first time this has happened to me with new hardware. I’m assuming it’ll work once 10.5.6 comes out — but just wanted to find out if anyone else is having this problem?

[mattzago]

The macbook pro’s appear to be the 9F2114 build. I’d say people have two choices:

1) Split your builds until 10.5.6 etc comes out. So you have your build that worked with everything pre-late-2008 macbook/macbook pro. And you have specific builds using the restore discs from macbooks and macbook pros. Building instadmg images isn’t too traumatic so this approach should get us through the crunch if you just ordered a bunch of new machines.

2) Live on the edge using a build from the aluminum mb/mbps restore dvds, and possible have a surprise when things don’t work on unsupported machines.

The first option seems the best to me. A bit more work in exchange for being bleeding edge.

[chilcote]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: ewhite[/u][p]I have an external drive that I use as a “booter” for imaging and troubleshooting. The drive uses Apple Partition Map to make it “Universal” and has Mac OS X 10.5.5 installed (using this technique: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2595).[/QUOTE]

Your 10.5.5 disk likely does not have the required drivers for the updated hardware included with the new MacBook Pros. First thing I tried was to NetBoot the MacBook Pro off our existing Netboot server, to no avail. Had to create a new NetInstall-NetRestore set on the new machine.

I did not have luck using InstaDMG with the new install disk images. The second install disc is now called Applications Install Disc, and contains an installer distribution package for the optional installs. InstaDMG just skipped that disk image. I tried putting it in my BaseUpdates in place of a numbered folder, but no go. Haven’t mucked around with it since that first try.

Creating a modular disk image manually worked like a charm, and the asr image seems to work just fine with older MacBook Pros. The new fluorescent icon is there for the Energy Saver prefs, and the Trackpad and Keyboard prefs are broken out individually. The Trackpad options that are not relevant on the older hardware are just grayed out. Haven’t tried it on a Mac Pro yet.

However, while it seems to work I’m going to use two images until 10.5.6 comes out. Both restorable images are identical besides the hardware-specific files included with the later build, so there’s no real need to have one image to rule them all for this short time.

–joe

[knowmad]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: chilcote[/u][p]
I did not have luck using InstaDMG with the new install disk images. The second install disc is now called Applications Install Disc, and contains an installer distribution package for the optional installs. InstaDMG just skipped that disk image. I tried putting it in my BaseUpdates in place of a numbered folder, but no go. Haven’t mucked around with it since that first try.
–joe[/p][/QUOTE]

WAY way back in the early days of instadmg (about a year, maybe a wee bit more than that) I (and others) found that if you had a two disk install set you could get instadmg to use/find the second disk by simply mounting it before you started.
I am trying this in the next fifteen minutes.
knowmad

[larkost]

No need to pre-mount. If you place a dmg of the second disk in the folder with the appropriately named first one, it will be mounted. None of the fancy mounting that other dmg’s get treated with, but it will still be mounted. Somewhere out there I would like to also appropriately unmount it, but that would require a language change (probably), as the looping we do gets a bit silly in bash.

[chilcote]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: knowmad[/u]WAY way back in the early days of instadmg (about a year, maybe a wee bit more than that) I (and others) found that if you had a two disk install set you could get instadmg to use/find the second disk by simply mounting it before you started.
I am trying this in the next fifteen minutes.
knowmad[/p][/QUOTE]

Sorry, I mistyped. InstaDMG did not skip the dmg, it mounted it but didn’t use the installers inside. For instance, if I run the install from DVD disc 1 it no longer prompts to insert disc 2.

I imagine it will be a matter of yanking all the pkg installers out of the Applications Install Disc disk image and putting them in BaseUpdates before the SU updates appear.

Time permitting, I’ll try it again today.

–joe

[chilcote]

Better yet I just let InstaDMG mount the second disk image and added a one liner after the initial system installer code and before the part where it saves off a cached version:

[code]installer -pkg “/Volumes/Applications Install Disc/Install Bundled Software.mpkg” -target “$CURRENT_IMAGE_MOUNT” -verbose[/code]

Incidentally, I ran this build on a MacBookPro4,1 (Early 2008), using the installer disk images from the Late 2008 MacBook Pro, and so far don’t have any problems.

–joe

[Patrick Gallagher]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: chilcote[/u][p]Better yet I just let InstaDMG mount the second disk image and added a one liner after the initial system installer code and before the part where it saves off a cached version:

[code]installer -pkg “/Volumes/Applications Install Disc/Install Bundled Software.mpkg” -target “$CURRENT_IMAGE_MOUNT” -verbose[/code]

Incidentally, I ran this build on a MacBookPro4,1 (Early 2008), using the installer disk images from the Late 2008 MacBook Pro, and so far don’t have any problems.

–joe[/p][/QUOTE]

How would (could?) you get the 2nd disc to use an InstallerChoices.xml file?

[dagger2b]

[quote]How would (could?) you get the 2nd disc to use an InstallerChoices.xml file?[/quote]

Couldn’t you copy the package to the BaseUpdates folder and install with an InstallerChoices.xml file from there?

[Author]

Posts