[dead2sin]

It looks to me like you are missing a ” somewhere in a command on your postflight. Make sure you have them all, otherwise it won’t know where it ends.

Some other things, you can remove sudo because it is already being run as root, I’d also re-add the int, but that is only because I like being sure of the value type being written to the file.

Nate

[dead2sin]

I would HIGHLY suggest using a retail disc. Using the Discs that came with the machine is not a good standard process. I only use them in the case of the Mac Mini with the network issue and other custom builds that are not covered by the latest point release.

Nate

[dead2sin]

I had this issue as well. In 10.6_vanilla.catalog, comment out “Installer Disc Builds” as follows:

[code]#Installer Disc Builds = 10A432, 10B504, 10C540, 10D573, 10F569[/code]

I know there is some functionality behind that change, but I’m not quite sure what it is. I’m sure Larkost might be willing to explain it 🙂

OR

What is your Installer Disc named? It needs to be “Mac OS X Install DVD.dmg”

Nate

[dead2sin]

1. I’d make a seperate package just for file vault so that way if you decide to not do it in the future, you can just remove it.

2. Are you using the following to enable SSH?

[code]/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c “Delete Disabled” $3/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist[/code]

If so, any local admin should be able to connect untill you’ve edited the sshd_config file. I edit mine as follows on the firstboot:

[code]echo KerberosAuthentication yes >> /etc/sshd_config
echo KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes >> /etc/sshd_config
echo AllowGroups DOMAIN\\admingroup admin >> /etc/sshd_config
[/code]
This makes it so you can log in to SSH using Kerberos (AD in this case) and only DOMAIN\admingroup or admin (this is a local group) can log in using ssh.

Hope that helps!

Nate

[dead2sin]

1. Generally speaking, the latest point release will add support for all models that came out before it was released. This is not true in the case of the Mac Mini (I believe it came out just before 10.6.4?) and as a result it has a special 10.6.4 version. For the Mac Mini, I imported the os isntall disc that came with it using importDisk.py and then made a special catalog with the special 10.6.4 combo update for the mac mini. This type of image was only used on Mac Mini and should NOT be used on any other model.

2. You don’t need a pay account, you can sign up for a free developer account and get xcode and PackageMaker without having to pay.

As far as Software goes, I would highly suggest baking in to the image all software that is standard across all departments. Typically this includes Office, Firefox, etc. When it comes to managing licenses per department, I’d highly suggest looking at munki. You can make custom manifests that install X software for a department, but not for others. It also manages Apple Software Updates and gives you the ability to install updates for pretty much any software on the image (Office, Firefox, Adobe Products, etc). I started using munki and I am quite pleased with it. It does patch management quite well and it is extremely flexible. I can’t post the link to munki because the forum keeps telling me it is spam. It is on google code. The website is code dot google dot com slash p slash munki

5. I’d suggest bash scripting if you are just starting out, although Python is very powerful if you are familiar with programming concepts.

6. Don’t do it!!! If need be, make a final cut pro image JUST for that department (I prefer to avoid this, but if it is for a bunch of computers, I don’t see why not). You also need to check licensing for FCP and make sure it is ok to put it on an image. Licensing can be sometimes be tricky with Apple’s Pro products. I’ve done Final Cut Pro on an image using InstaDMG and it worked out well (52 machines in a lab).

If you have issues with InstaDMG, we are more then happy to help you get it going. It is wonderful once completely set up and requires very little work besides updates here and there. It is the inverse of a Golden Master image the way I look at it. Golden Master might be faster to get together initially, but every time there is an update, it can be a bear to boot it up, make the changes, reboot to another partition, clean it up, capture it, etc. I think InstaDMG is the best way to go in 90% of all cases.

Nate

[dead2sin]

1. Reference disk is an updated Retail disc. For instance, there is a Retail 10.6.0 OS X Install DVD as well as 10.6.3. Both are retail discs (They should work on every mac hardware version that came out at the time 10.6.3 was released). This is what reference build refers to. Say down the road they release a 10.6.6 reference build, all current machines would be supported by it, but if a new hardware revision comes out the day after 10.6.6 is released, it is not supported by that reference build (It might have a special version of 10.6.6, as is the case with Mac Minis and 10.6.4).

2. It is pretty trivial for a lot of the free software. Firefox for instance, you can just download the latest version in .dmg format and put it in an InstaUp2Date catalog and InstaDMG will know that it needs to copy the .app to Applications. In general, if the software is a .app sitting on a .dmg, InstaDMG will copy it to /Applications/ on the image you are building. I personally use Composer and I will always pump it as the best packaging software out there at the moment (I REALLY like it!), but Package Maker works and Iceberg or Packages are also good for building packages.

3. I believe Apple will build an image for you and pre-image machines for you, but I have no experience with it and I can’t recall what their name for it is.

4. DeployStudio is the best way to deploy mac images at the moment (in my opinion). It can do many many different things (Bind to AD, OD, install packages at image time, install packages on first boot, etc) and it is extremely flexible.

5. You don’t need to know any real scripting to build images with InstaDMG. Learning how to script will make your images a lot better in my opinion (Via the use of payloadless packages for settings), but it is not necessary. I’m sure you’ve already read over it, but the sticky at the top of this forum has good links for videos and guides as far as building images goes. You shouldn’t have to tweak the InstaDMG scripts used because they are already setup for 99.9% of people that would want to build images. I personally get lost looking through instaUp2Date.py and instadmg.bash, but I’ve picked up quite a bit of bash scripting in my own journey to building Mac Images.

Hope that helps. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Also, hop on the OS X Server IRC channel (##osx-server on irc.freenode.net) if you need urgent help with anything (almost always someone on there).

Nate

*edit* Dang it Karl, you beat me 🙂

[dead2sin]

This is the only method that has worked reliably for me:

[url]http://www.osxdeployment.info/wiki/CS5_Repackaging_Guide[/url]

I repackage it using Composer and put Acrobat as part of the package. This works great in a lab environment where every machine gets all the CS5 products.

Nate

[dead2sin]

I have a solution for this. The Office installer is looking for a specific java file it seems and when it can’t find it, it fails. This is because the install is chrooted.

Now, I’m not sure what Larkost thinks about doing this and I’m not sure if it will break other stuff or not, but I found that by setting “DISABLE_CHROOT=true” in instadmg.bash, Office installed perfectly using the method that I use for 10.6. As far as I know, 10.6 images are built without having chroot jails, so I’m not certain if it really matters for 10.5.x builds or not.

I say try disabling chroot and give the build a shot. See if it all works well and test test test.

Nate

[dead2sin]

I just got a 10.5.8 box up and I’m building a test 10.5_vanilla image to make sure that much works. I’ll let you know if I figure anything out with O2k8.

[dead2sin]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Westin[/u][p]Does anyone have a solution for Office 2008 updates when it comes to Mac OS X 10.5?

dead2sin: have you found a solution to the problem?

-Westin[/p][/QUOTE]

Not yet. Back on 10.5.x, I myself repacked Office 2008 using Composer. I’ll have to play with it as I get time.

Nate

[dead2sin]

I updated the InstaDMG Guide with that warning in the Office 2008 section.

Nate

[dead2sin]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Allister[/u][p]Hey Brigandy,

Please feel free to give feedback on dead2sin’s guide, he’s been great about keeping it (and other topics) updated here:
[url]http://www.osxdeployment.info/wiki/Office_2008_Settings[/url]
I’ve made an account over there so I can join in on the ‘Talk’ page, but adding that footnote here as well is great. Personally, I just tried to use the above login script and think it put the first and $lastname variables in the wrong order, but I’ll test it and leave a comment over there. Thanks,

Allister[/p][/QUOTE]

That is expected 🙂 That login script is custom to my specific AD environment, but it can give you a good idea of how it could be done. Our AD does last, first, so I had to reverse it in the script for it to show up properly.

Nate

[dead2sin]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: Allister[/u][p]This isn’t working for me, but my testing with pushing preferences into User Template and other directories wasn’t done scientifically enough for me to track this down. I’ve used the Normal Snapshot method to successfully package a fully-updated Acrobat, but am still experimenting with what files to leave out/modify in the final image. I’ll report back, this has been quite the bug in my butt.

Allister[/p][/QUOTE]

Acrobat is the hugest PITA out of all the adobe products on OS X. It shares the same licensing database as CS4/CS5 products, but serializes in a totally different manner (On first run + it self heals). If you can give me an idea of exactly what you are wanting to accomplish, I might be able to offer some more specific help.

Nate

[dead2sin]

No worries 🙂 I think I’m good.

Btw, which version of InstaDMG you using? Latest SVN?

[dead2sin]

I can’t even get as far as you have 🙂 It keeps saying “Unable to get checksum for image: /path/to/Mac OS X Install DVD.dmg”

I guess I need to find my 10.5 disc and have the latest svn version import it using importDisk.py

I’ll get back to you once I get it straightened out 🙂

Nate

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