[blake]

Ok interesting,
I will test not creating the home dir and see what happens. Now that it’s working properly I’m not likely to mess with the script too much. Having the home dir created with the script also allows me to specify the locale and one or two user preferences.

I’m only looking to add the server admin tools to the dock on os X server images which is what apple does by default.

[blake]

Hey Patrick,
That is in fact exactly what I’m doing..
I create the user in /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/users using a series of dscl commands. Then ditto over the home directory from the user template. This was leaving some iLife icons in the Dock for applications that are not installed. Running the UserAccountUpdater cleans up these big question mark icons from the dock. Leaving the creation of the home directory up to OS X would result in an incomplete set of files in the home directory.

I’m very close to accomplishing #1 & #2 at this point. Cleaning up the dock is all that I have left to do. I may use the tip you posted to get the Server Admin tools into the dock on my OS X server images. Unless apple has a standard process for that I can extract from them.

Blake

[blake]

I still don’t know what the arguments do for this command but it is cleaning up the dock as I needed..
sudo -u username /System/Library/CoreServices/UserAccountUpdater 0 0 0 0

Blake

[blake]

Thanks guys,
My goal is to not modify any of the system files provided by Apple or change any policies from their defaults. Theses images are created for software testing and any differences between the instaDMG created OS and an install made from the installer DVD are perceived as risky. I don’t want to customize the dock only match the same defaults that apple uses.

That said I have found some info yesterday..
This file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.dockfixup.plist appears to hold the data apple uses to cleanup the dock after setup. In my case it would remove the iLife apps from the dock that are not installed.

This script /System/Library/CoreServices/UserAccountUpdater looks like it’s the one that processes the dock fixup plist.

I’m going to do some testing to see If I can get this UserAccountUpdater to do what I need today. Any info on how it’s supposed to work is welcome.

Blake

[blake]

Turns out that I was wrong about the updater being the problem. That’s what happens when you change more that one thing at a time..

My current theory is that the -t option is causing the issue. I opened a bug on google code. http://code.google.com/p/instadmg/issues/detail?id=16
If I have some time I will try testing the -t option to determine if the problem always happens with -t or only when the temp dir is on a secondary disk.

Blake

[blake]

Looks like using the -t option and specifying a temp dir on a disk other than the root volume is causing the issue. I’m attempting to determine if the -t option alone is the issue or if this SU and the -t don’t like each other.

Anybody use the -t option to move the tmp directory to another volume successfully?

Blake

[blake]

We have IPv6 deployed internally and it generally works quite well. Moving to IPv6 for performance reasons is not recommended. If you are concerned about file sharing performance look at enabling jumbo frames and optimizing the storage system of your file servers.

I’m using IPv6 AFP to connect to a number of file servers (OS X & windows EZiP) without issue. Time machine even works quite well in this setup.

Blake

[blake]

Ok well I have a new build of this update and I’m setting up a clean 1.4b4 instaDMG setup with 10.5.0 and only this update to double check the setup. I have heard of a coworker who was successful using this .pgk with instaDMG. Time to eliminate some variables..

[blake]

What I’m seeing in the .pkg is a RunAtStartup script that seems to be moving a bunch of files from /System/InstallAtStartup/path/to/file to /path/to/file

And then doing this
touch “/System/InstallAtStartup/.InstallAtStartupRestartAgain”

Blake

[blake]

Here are the details for the CS4 deployment tools.
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/openoptions/cs/deployment_toolkit.html

Blake

[blake]

I can ask around but I’m fairly doubtful that Adobe is working on any .pkg based installers or repackagers. The only thing I have heard of is taking the CS installers and putting them in a .pkg. This pkg simply is a folder that starts the adobe unattended network installer. This was just a tech note or recommendation from support. This works for ARD installations but not instadmg..

Blake

[blake]

Here is an update on the info I have currently..

The InstaDMG variable I assume is passed to the installer command and is really only used during the package installation process.

Localizing the image itself involves the user account and some .plists that normally get configured by setup. The script I’m working replaces the user creation packages because I want to ditto over the localized user template. I’m also setting these variables..

/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences AppleLanguages “(ja, en, fr, de, es, it, nl, sv, nb, da, fi, pt, zh-Hans, zh-Hant, ko)”
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences AppleLocale “ja_JP”
/usr/bin/defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences Country “ja_JP”

Blake

[blake]

Unfortunately this is a long standing known bug with server admin.

http://www.lsa.umich.edu/lsait/admin/mac/netboot-disabled.asp
http://lists.apple.com/archives/macos-x-server/2006/Nov/msg00814.html

Please report the issue on bugreporter.apple.com so apple will consider fixing the issue. I have servers that operate for months with server admin in this state. It’s not an issue unless you need to change the settings.

Blake

[blake]

Internet speed tests and youtube use hosts that are closest to your local internet connection. If the endpoint of your wan connection is far away the latency will greatly effect the throughput.

If you ping the host on the far side of you wan connection what is the latency?

Check out IPnettunerx http://sustworks.com/site/prod_iptx_overview.html
I wouldn’t expect it to solve your problems but it is very helpful at measuring connections speeds. The documentation is also informative.

blake

[blake]

You will have to order the service parts. A few places offer apple service parts online. Just make sure they know exactly what part you need. We had some people who ordered the parts and where shipped the rails for the current Xserve.

Ordering directly from apple was more of a PIA than finding a VAR with intelligent tech’s who can get the correct part ordered for you.

blake

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