this whole flat package deal?

[tlarkin]

So I use instaDMG built into the Casper 7 suite and create compiled images of apps + pristine installs of my OS. I am compiling 10.5.8. Since apple released these flat packages the newer updates, like Java 6, will not compile properly. Anyone have any work around for this? I don’t have SUS set up in my environment so I have to package up and run updates via the Casper Suite, which works but is annoying.

Any tips, or pointers? There are about 12 updates that use this new flat package stuff and I cannot compile them into my master image.

[knowmad]

ok,… the usual basic questions need to be answered:
What OS are you using to build your image (the box that is running InstaDMG script)?
This is probably something you have heard before, but…. it really works better if everything is using the same major OS number ie, 10.5 builds 10.5.1-8 machines while 10.6 builds 10.6.1-3, etc…
the reason i ask is that I have not had any issues at all with flat packages form apple (though growl is still annoying me).

[tlarkin]

10.5.8 compiled. Certain new updates that are only in flat packages like safari 4 and java 6 will not install in my compiled image. I am using the instaDMG support in the Casper Suite to make this disk image. This is a bug, according to people at Apple, that involves flat packages not being able to be installed on a compiled image via instaDMG. Everything across my enterprise in 10.5.8, all servers and all clients.

[foilpan]

have you tried building an image via just the instadmg script and not using casper’s workflow? i’ve never had any major problem that way.

[tlarkin]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: foilpan[/u][p]have you tried building an image via just the instadmg script and not using casper’s workflow? i’ve never had any major problem that way.[/p][/QUOTE]

No I haven’t but when I posted on the Casper mailing list an Apple engineer told me this was a bug with Apple. I also have an open Enterprise support ticket on this with Apple as well, and they confirmed the bug.

So let me get this straight. You can compile an up-to-date OS image by using a retail disk image + combo updaters and Apple updates for everything and it works fine for you?

[foilpan]

“compile” is the casper term, and i’m not entirely sure how their process differs.

but, yes, i’ve built 10.5.8 and 10.6.3 images including all recent updates with instadmg. just use the most recent version, build on the same major OS version as mentioned above, and it should work.

[tlarkin]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: foilpan[/u][p]”compile” is the casper term, and i’m not entirely sure how their process differs.

but, yes, i’ve built 10.5.8 and 10.6.3 images including all recent updates with instadmg. just use the most recent version, build on the same major OS version as mentioned above, and it should work.[/p][/QUOTE]

All I got is a 10.5.0 retail DVD which I use plus the 10.5.8 combo updater. Like I said, every package installs just fine except for the newest ones which are flat packages. Let me take a look at instaDMG but I found the documentation a bit lacking last time, and I don’t want any user’s created in my image either. I do all of that post image script.

Thanks for your help.

[tlarkin]

Update:

So, I downloaded the newest instaDMG build off the Google projects site and am building a new vanilla OS. I got my 10.5.0 DMG that I already created in the base OS folder and am running the instaup2date python script now.

Does it matter that I am using an existing disk image of my 10.5.0 retail DVD, or do I need to allow instaDMG to create it?

#EDIT

So far so good, seems to be running but is very slow. I just tossed my retail image of 10.5.0 in the base OS folder and ran the python update script. Seems to be working as far as I can tell.

[tlarkin]

Well, as of 10 minutes ago I had finally gotten around to having enough time to test out my new OS build. This is what I did:

1) download newest version of InstaDMG
2) Used a 10.5.4 Drop-in DVD
3) Ran the python scripts to create image of the Drop-in DVD
4) Ran the instaup2date python script
5) compiled a 10.5.8 pristine disk image

Now, I didn’t want to have to repack all my extra packages I wanted in Casper into InstaDMG. Since in Casper these were all in DMG format. So I dropped my 10.5.8 base into Casper Admin v7.2 and created a smart configuration. That smart configuration consisted of all the apps I wanted standard in my base OS image, plus the pristine 10.5.8 image created by InstaDMG. Then I compiled them into one flat image.

I created an asr script that would block copy the image I created to the client and then created Smart configurations based off the parent configuration of the asr script. This allows me to add building and location specific packages and scripts, and allows me to keep one master image for every Mac in my enterprise (just under 8,000 mac clients).

Everything worked out great, except it seems Java 6 update did not install for some odd reason. No idea why it didn’t install, but only missing 1 update is not that bad, as I can push that out via policy later on.

Just thought I’d give this thread an update in case anyone else every searched the forums for a similar solution.

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