Below, for your convenience, I've attached a Mac Help document that must be buggy. If anyone could give me pointers on what's wrong, I'd greatly appreciate it.
When I follow these directions, I end up with a directory that Server Settings sees and can enable and set as the default. However, all attempts to boot from it from a client fail.
In contrast, if I follow the directions using Network Utility to create an image from the CD-ROMs, I am able to boot from that. In fact, if I have both setup in the same server directory, enable both, and make the one above the default, booting via "N" (which should grab the default) actually grabs the one built with Network Utility (even though the other is set as the default).
In looking at the two .nbi folders in detail, I noticed only three differences:
1 The working directory has Booter and the Image file locked; the non-working directory did not.
2 The working directory's image file is right at 2GB; the non-working directory's image file is the size of the contents, 1.7GB.
3 The working directory's image file has no partitions; the non-working directory's image file has 3: Apple_partition_map of 32KB, Apple_HFS of 1.7GB, and Apple_Free of 5KB.
Anyone know how to use Disk Copy to produce an image of a startup disk without those extra partitions?
When I try to use Disk Copy to resize the image, it gives me a range from 1.7GB to over 2 TB... and as a result, the drag-bar is useless... leaving you with the up arrow which steps by KB, meaning a very long time to get to 2GB. Anyone know a way around that? Can I type in a size anywhere?
I did try locking the two files... that may have been what got the client to see the other image rather than ignore it... but it just hung with blank gray screen, unable to boot from it.
Anyway, there must be something wrong with the instructions below... if anyone could clue me in, it would be fantastic.
=== Start Mac Help File
Creating a Mac OS X NetBoot Image From an Existing System
If you already have a client computer set up to suit your users, you can use Disk Copy to create a NetBoot image that is based on that client's configuration.
You need an external FireWire hard disk or a second partition on the client's hard disk where you can create the image. You cannot create the image on a volume over the network.
1 Make sure there is a second volume available on the client where you can create the image.
You can use an external disk drive or any partition available on the client other than the startup volume.
2 Open Disk Copy on the client and choose File > New > New Image From Folder Or Volume.
Choose the client startup volume as the source of the image and click Image.
3 In the Image Volume panel, type an image name, choose the external disk or second partition as the destination, choose read/write from the Image Format drop-down list, and click Save.
4 After the image is created, open the Terminal application and type:
kextcache -l -n -m /Volumes/volume/mach.macosx.mkext /System/Library/Extensions
where volume is the partition where you created the image.
5 On the server, create a new folder in /Library/NetBoot/NetBootSPx named image.nbi, where image is the name of your new image. [ and where 'x' is a number 0-3; 0 works ]
6 Copy the image.dmg and mach.macosx.mkext files that you created on the client into the new folder /Library/NetBoot/NetBootSPx/image.nbi.
7 Double-click the .dmg file to mount the image.
8 Open the Terminal application on the server and enter these commands:
cd /Library/NetBoot/NetBootSPx/image.nbi
cp /Volumes/image/usr/standalone/ppc/bootx.bootinfo booter
cp /Volumes/image/mach_kernel mach.macosx
9 Set up the image property list file.
Open the Property List Editor, choose New from the File menu, then click the New Root button.
Click the disclosure triangle next to the Root entry and click the New Child button to add the first property. To modify a property, double-click in a column or click the triangles to select a value from a pop-up list. After you create the first property, click the New Sibling button to add another.
Add all of these properties, classes, and values:
* BootFile, String, booter
* Index, Number, <a unique image index of your choice>
* IsDefault, Boolean, Yes or No
* IsEnabled, Boolean, No
* IsInstall, Boolean, No
* Name, String, <image name, same as name of .nbi folder and .dmg file>
* RootPath, String, <name of image file, including ".dmg" extension>
* Type, String, NFS
Save the file with the name NBImageInfo.plist in the image folder /Library/NetBoot/NetBootSPx/image.nbi.
Instead of creating the file yourself, you can copy an existing NBImageInfo.plist file from another image (.nbi) folder and modify it using the Property List Editor.
10 Enable the image using Server Settings.
=== End of Mac Help file
Top
