Netbeans install

Found this video for installing netbeans for use with c++. Why is it so complicated. Because people don't want you to make programs! They want all the glory! Here's what I make of the rundown of the install:

1. Cygwin (please make your website easier to use!)
1. click install > setup-x86.exe
2. Run it
3. Download from any mirror
4. Packages
1. gcc-core - GNU compiler collection
2. gcc-g++ - GNU compiler collection
3. gdb - GNU debugger
4. make - the GNU version of the make utility
5. install
2. JAVA Development Kit JDK
1. Download JDK
3. Netbeans
1. just install the full package (you never know when you're going to need it all)
2. Load up Netbeans
3. make a new C++ app
4. tools > Options > C++
1. If you don't have anything in these boxes, click restore to defaults

Done

installing iLife through Apple Remote Desktop Task Server

So, I need to install iLife '09 through ARD Task Server on 17 machines. When install the iLife '09.mpkg file from my machine straight to one machine it works fine. If I give it the option to use the task server it comes up with:
Completed but failed on 1 package ""

In console on that machine I found this line:

17/12/2013 16:03:26.476 com.apple.RemoteDesktop.agent: iLife09.mpkg/Contents/Installers/iPhoto.mpkg/Contents/Installers/iPhotoContent.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz: (Empty error message)

I tried renaming the mpkg file so as not to have the '09 but did not effect it.

I'm now trying it from the command line. The plan is to just send some commands to the machine to mount the server share, and run the installer:

mkdir /Volumes/YourTMPFolder

mount -t afp afp://admin:yourPassword@your.server.here/YourShare /Volumes/YourTMPFolder

installer -package /Volumes//Volumes/YourTMPFolder/iLife09.mpkg -target /
umount /Volumes/YourTMPFolder

Works perfectly!

Installing Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch on OS X using ARD Apple Remote Desktop error

It's a long story, but I'll cut it short. Anyhow, I have 12 x Wacom Bamboo Pen and Touch model number CTH-470 and they need installing on all Mac Computers. No problem, except the installer looks like an .app file. If you view the package contents you find a couple of pkg files. The most important is the "Install Bamboo.pkg".

Running this installer locally installs the tablet minus the dock (I don't think it's important). So, next thing is to try via Apple Remote Desktop (ARD). This ends up coming up with an error:

"Install Bamboo.pkg" could not be installed. Error message: "running package scripts..."

Well, just like the last time I tried to install Wacom tablets through ARD, turns out this error message isn't really an error message. After a reboot the tablet works like a dream on the computer.

Hope this helps someone.

enabling and installing pureftpd on Mac OS X 10.7

So, my computer is also acting as a web development server. As such, I'd like to access the files from anywhere so I decided I'd like something like FTP setup. But reading the forums FTP is a big no-no. Which is probably why Apple switched it off for OS X 10.7.

So, what are the alternatives:
PureFTPd

But how to install? Well, it needs to be compiled and then installed. Found the process here on an Apple Forum 3rd one down. He states:

find /usr/local -type f -name 'pure-*' | tar -czf pure-ftpd_backup.tgz -T -

curl -O 'http://download.pureftpd.org/pub/pure-ftpd/releases/pure-ftpd-1.0.32.tar.gz'

tar xzf pure-ftpd-1.0.32.tar.gz

cd pure-ftpd-1.0.32

./configure --with-everything --with-tls --with-certfile=/etc/pure-ftpd/ssl/pure-ftpd.pem --sysconfdir=/etc/pure-ftpd/ --with-sysquotas --mandir /usr/local/man --with-pam --with-virtualchroot  --with-peruserlimits --with-ldap --with-rfc2640

make

sudo make install-strip

cd ..

rm -r pure-ftpd-1.0.32.tar.gz pure-ftpd-1.0.32

After this you can install PureFTPd Manager which should provide you with a GUI, although it states it works for OS X 10.6. Apparently works for 10.7.

Seems to work alright, although I'll have to read up about changing ports and setting up sftp stuff

deploying Flash Player on OS X using Apple Remote Desktop

So, all computer suites now have outdated flash players. To deploy I found it VERY difficult to find the official solution. Adobe tend to want each computer to be installed by a user:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/enterprise_deployment.html


But of course students log in and do not have permission to install! Luckily someone found a quick solution here. Turns out the flash installer (.app!!!) comes with a pkg file. Solved. (haven't tried it yet!!)

Just tried it on OS X 10.6 and worked perfectly!!

Don't know why this isn't documented very much.

Basically:

1. download flash player
2. right click on the install flash player.app file and select "Show package contents"
3. go to Contents > Resources > Adobe Flash Player.pkg
4. copy this and use Apple Remote Desktop to deploy!

Cheers


The latest news is that you're best off applying for the latest distribution, which involves filling out a small form, confirming your email address, and then waiting for approval. Takes about 1 hour. Here's a link:

http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/players/flash-player-distribution.html

They then send you a link to the installer (pkg file) Yay!

No Drives were found - installing Windows 7

So, just trying to fix a friends computer. There's just one SATA HD inside, and he wants it nice and fresh, so I just started the windows 7 install disk and, after booting off the disk and getting to the "Disk Selection" stage it came up with the information:

No drives were found, Click Load Driver to install a Mass Storage Driver

Ridiculous I thought. I had a quick look in BIOS and found it not listed in the HD's. I later found out that it was originally RAIDed with another (which broke) so I turned off RAID from BIOS so that it treated it as a normal HD again. It now appeared in the HD list in BIOS.

But still the same error in the Windows installer! So, now BIOS can see it, what is the problem. Well, I finally found this forum which suggested looking at this Microsoft Help Page, particularly Method 8.

1. Insert the DVD into the DVD drive.
2. On the disk selection screen, press SHIFT+F10. A Command Prompt window opens.
3. Type diskpart, and then press ENTER to open the diskpart tool.
4. Type list disk, and then press ENTER. A list of available hard disks is displayed.
5. Type sel disk number, and then press ENTER. number is the number of the hard disk that you want to clean. The hard disk is now selected.
6. Type det disk, and then press ENTER. A list of partitions on the hard disk is displayed. Use this information to verify that the correct disk is selected.
7. Make sure that the disk does not contain required data, type clean all, and then press ENTER to clean the disk. All the partitions and all the data on the disk is permanently removed.
8. Type exit, and then press ENTER to close the diskpart tool.
9. Close the Command Prompt window.
10. Click the Refresh button to update the disk selection screen. This step lists the disk.
11. Run Windows Setup to perform a clean installation of Windows.

Firstly I couldn't believe the fact that you still need to use a Command Prompt for such a simple thing as cleaning a Hard Drive. Mac OS users have had a "Disk Utility" on the install disk since OS X came out, which was 2002, maybe even "Drive Setup" which came out in 1995! 12 years on and Microsoft still uses a command line utilities on it's install disk for disk formatting!

Not only that, but SHIFT+F10?! Why not a button which says "Command Prompt"! Have they ever heard of of the word "Intuitive".

And now I've just got to step 7, typed "clean all" and it looks like it's frozen. No user feedback to say what is happening!

Microsoft, can you please design things, it'd make everyones jobs and home life much better. Instead you seem to have just patched things together. I guess at least you seem to have created a large job market for computer technicians, but you seem to make their lives pretty hard too.

After waiting 25 mins on a none-changing screen, it's finally popped up saying "Disk Part succeeded in cleaning the disk". A little long for a simple clean. It now appears in the list. But now another error!

Windows cannot be installed to this disk. This computers hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the computers BIOS menu.

So, after restarting the machine, it seemed to accept the disk.

It's now installing, I need a coffee.

installing Trains and Zeppelin Mod for Minecraft

So, my son would like to play this "Trains and Zeppelin Mod" for minecraft. Talk about complicated! I've got a mac which adds a little more complication. Anyway, here's how to do it:

1. go to terminal and type:
1. cp ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/bin/minecraft_backup1.jar
1. this creates a backup of your .jar file
2. mkdir ~/temp
1. this makes a folder in your home folder called temp
3. cd ~/temp
1. this moves you into this folder
4. jar xf ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar
1. this unzips the .jar file into the temp folder
2. download:


1. Modloader -> download file here
2. ModloaderMp -> download file here
3. Minecraft Forge API -> download file here
4. Trains and Zeppelin Mod -> download file here
3. unzip these zip files (double click on them)
4. copy, in the order downloaded, all the contents of these zip files to the ~/temp/ folder on your home drive
1. a dialogue box will appear saying something along the lines of:
1. do you want to overwrite this file
2. tick the "apply to all" box and click "replace"


5. finally, go back to "Terminal" and type:
1. jar uf ~/Library/Application\ Support/minecraft/bin/minecraft.jar ./
1. this zips the temp folder up into the .jar file in the right location

When the game is now loaded, it will tell you down the bottom left that there are 4 mods, and it should all work.

I had a bit of trouble before, but I've found I did things a little different then suggested. Heres some things I did different:

1. I loaded the game up after just installing the Modloader, ModloaderMp and Minecraft Forge API without the Trains mod installed.
1. I then went through the process again, and added the Trains and Zeppelin Mod
2. I didn't delete the META-INF folder in the .jar file
3. I couldn't find the trainconfig.cfg file.
1. turns out it is automatically made when minecraft is started.
2. doesn't look like this file works on Mac OS X 10.6.8?!
3. None of the Keys work!!!!!!

Hope it helps.

One note I'd like to make is:

• Why is this such a long winded process. The way I would like to add Mods is to:
• double click a file which loads and says it's installed!

But, I ask myself, why don't I do this. Well I guess I expect too much.

Creating a bootable OS X 10.7 install disk

As i was looking into imaging some new iMacs, I came across this article on how to create a mac bootable 10.7 disk. Simple procedure really:

1. go into recovery mode (command + R)
2. plug in external drive
3. reinstall mac os x
4. select external drive to install on
5. after it has finished downloading, and has gone to a black screen, unplug external hard drive.
6. the file InstallESD.dmg will be on the external. This is what you want.
7. load up disk utility and restore this image on a volume
8. done

What to do if your windows computer is running ridiculously slow (only applies to Microsoft Windows)

So, I get a lot of people coming to me with Windows PC's and laptops which are running ridiculously slow. As I'm fixing one this very moment, I thought I'd document what I have found to be the easiest ways to get them running to their original speed (when they were first purchased).

I will run through it in a chronological order.

1. First things first, you need to be able to get the system to a 'usable' state, meaning you can click on stuff and something happens, and also you can install stuff. Here's how I do it in worst case scenarios:
1. Boot up into safe mode (continuously press F8 when the computer is booting up)
2. Enable the "Windows Installer" in safe mode.
1. Heres a link to an article where I describe how to do this.
3. A part from safe mode, you can always:
1. open the task manager and end processes of anything which is taking up the CPU, but this is a little frustrating.
2. delete startup items in the Start > Programs > Startup menu.
3. Go to  Start > Run -> msconfig and click "disable startups" described here
4. If you're still having problems, run hijackthis
1. It's a very good program and helps you delete entries in Windows linked with Malicious Programs. Here's the home page
2. When you run it you can make a text file. Paste this text file on the home page and it'll analyse it and tell you which things you'll want to remove.
3. Tick the right boxes and bingo.
2. Install and run a free anti-virus.
1. At the moment the top runners for free anti-virus are AVG and AntiVir
2. I have found that  in the past a lot of anti-virus programs are the things that actually slow your machine down. This is one of the reasons AVG and AntiVir have such good ratings.
3. Install and run a free anti-malware application
1. At the moment the top runner is MalwareBytes
4. Install and run TuneUp Utilities 30 day free trial, currently on version 2012.
1. You get a free 30 day trial, but I've found you really only need a 1 hour trial to fix all the problems. Luckily it doesn't "unfix" the problems once it has expired.
2. The main part to run is "one-click-maintanance"
1. It runs through your system and tells you how many things it can 'fix'.
2. Click the fix button
3. Keep running this program until it does not fix anything anymore.

If these basic steps aren't going to fix it, you're best option is to re-install Windows a-fresh and make a nice new start. Possibly consider installing the operating system it came with to begin with? Or even think about another operating system (i.e. not windows). Ubuntu, OS X?

At the end of the day, your computer will at best run at the speed it was running when you first bought it. If you upgrade the operating system you will notice a slow down.

Also, programs which run at startup are going to slow your machine down. I only have 3 running on my startup; DropBox, Carbonite and MAMP. I suggest you really think about how you want to use your computer. It's all about compromise. 

Any suggestions are welcome, especially if it's easier than this list of 'things to do'.

MacBook Pro Trackpad "not working properly" in Windows XP

Whenever I reimage MacBook Pro's with Windows XP I always have the same problem with the trackpad.

When you boot up, the trackpad does not function. Logging in and going to device manager you see that there is an exclamation mark over the trackpad. It simply says something like:

This device is not working properly. Error 16

Uninstalling, reinstalling, disabling, enabling does not fix it.

I reinstalled Bootcamp 3.0 drivers which did not help.

I found this forum quite interesting. Seems to mention about uninstalling some Windows Apple things in "Add/Remove Programs". But I didn't try this.

I next updated to Bootcamp 3.1 drivers and rebooted. Worked a treat!


.............
Update - 24/09/2012

Well, just reimaged a macbook pro and the same problem occurred. Installed Bootcamp 3.1 and it didn't work!

Finally had a look at the forum mentioned above and the solution they gave worked. More specifically:

1. go to Device Manager and update the driver for the trackpad.
2. click "No, not this time" for internet update.
3. Click, "install from a list or specific location".
4. click, "Don't search, I will choose a driver to install"
5. Choose the generic driver.
6. Click finish

The trackpad starts to work but no multitouch facilities. This is the point you install/reinstall bootcamp 3 and 3.1.

After this it works a treat.

Adobe CS 5 updates for Deployment through ARD - Adobe Application Manager

So, I want to update Camera RAW on all the apple macs. How do I do this as the installer is a stupid .app file and not a nice PKG file. Well, you use the "Adobe Application Manager" of course!

So I just downloaded version 2.1. Interestingly their installer for it is also an .app file!!

Well, I can't believe it but it is unbelievably easy to make a pkg file. My only thought is why they need to give you the application to do it. Can't they host it on their site?

Anyway, I took some screenshots, although it is very self-explanitory:

A little note:
I came back to this recently and found Adobe Application Manager had trouble loading up. I later found the correct Application Manager to load up is in Directory:

/Library/Application\ Support/Adobe/OOBE/PDApp/core/Adobe\ Application\ Manager.app, which might not be very obvious!!

Windows Installer Service under safe mode

Well, it's always been a great problem not being able to install things under safe mode. I think they're paranoid of viruses installing with no antivirus running. But I always need to install little 'fix it' programs to get the comptuer up and running.

Anyway, I looked into it and found a microsoft article (right down the bottom) on how to enable the Windows Installer Service, but it doesn't work in Safe Mode.

To get it running in Safe Mode, I found this good article

Basically, in the command line in safe mode (networked) type this:

REG ADD "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot\Network\MSIServer" /VE /T REG_SZ /F /D "Service"

net start msiserver 

Installing Canon LiDE 60 scanner on OS X 10.6.6

I recently updated one of the PC's to an iMac, yay, but forgot to think about the scanner attached. It was a Canon LiDE 60 scanner. The mac had OS X 10.6.6. Tried "Image Capture" at the off chance it'd pick it up straight away and alas it did not.

I did a quick search on the internet and found this bit of info. It says you have to install two things, a driver and something else (didn't pay too much attention). A lot of people agreed with it.

I went to Canons website, found the downloads section for the scanner here and downloaded all the OS X stuff. I was a little annoyed that it does not have a description of any of the downloads. I would like to know what they actually are.

After I downloaded it I started off trying the driver called "deldrvosx1510efg.dmg". Looked good to begin with but then asked if I was sure I wanted to uninstall the Canon LiDE 60 scanner! After saying yes (didn't think it would do any harm) it crashed.

I next tried the "lide60osx11131en.dmg" which contained the "ScanGear CS 11.1 Eng_Installer.pkg" file. It was quick and painless and wanted a reboot. After the reboot I loaded up Image Capture and it worked a treat!

So, to conclude, you basically just need to install the ScanGear CS pkg file.

Done.

Deploying Canon EOS 230M stuff on Mac OS X using Iceberg

So we have some lovely HD SL Cameras from Canon. Some sort of EOS model. Very nice. It comes with some software which you need to use these cameras with OS X. Unfortunately Canon neglected to use Apples standard package installer concept and made there own (or bought one it). So I've now got to find a way to put this software on all the machines.

There are two simple ways:

1. would be to simply copy these applications to other computers.
2. Would be to utilise the "Record" facility in the Application "Package Maker" which would hopefully record the files and scripts that the Canon install program performed. (Can't find a copy of Package Maker though!)

Having tried number 1. it looks like it's worked alright. So next is to make a pkg file which puts these apps in the Applications folder. I shall refer to a previous post here how I made a pkg file which installed "fix everything please" and sendlogon.

So, here's how I did it:

1. I used a free Application called Iceberg
2. Made a new project and created a nice little folder for the project
3. Entered the standard details for the Settings

1. I put Admin Authorisation so there would be some control
4. Skipped through the other sections to get to the Files section

1. I made /Applications the Default Destination
2. In Applications I right clicked and selected "Add Files..."
3. I selected the folder which was in my Applications folder on the computer (I'd installed it earlier)
4. I noticed that it didn't show the folders inside the "Canon Utilities". I was just about to click the "Add files..." option again but I did see an option to "Expand All". I clicked it and what do you know, it updated the folder to have all the subfolders it should have had!
5. Next I clicked "Build" and it was done.

Just doing testing at the moment...

Yep, works like a dream!

New Web Filter - Bloxx and sendLogon deployment on OS X

So we've now got a new web filtering system which needs testing on the Macs and then deploying. The new system is currently running alongside the old, the later of which will slowly be phased out.

The new system does come with one small bonus for the Apple Macs as it works alongside a program called "sendLogon" which sends the credentials of the user to the server and automatically authenticating them to use the internet. This sendLogon was downloaded here, and comes with instructions:

Running sendLogon automatically on Mac OSX
You need to take the following steps:

1) Download the Send Logon program from http://www.bloxx.com/downloads/sendLogon_osx_10.4.universal.tar.gz to the desktop.
2) Browse to ‘Applications->Utilities’ and run the ‘Terminal’ application.
3) Type ‘cd ~/Desktop’.
4) Type 'tar zxvf sendLogon_osx_10.4.universal.tar.gz'.
5) Type ‘sudo cp sendLogon /usr/bin’ and enter your password when prompted.
6) Type ‘sudo nano /usr/bin/login.sh’.
7) Enter the following lines:

#!/bin/tcsh

/usr/bin/sendLogon 3898 $1

8) When finished, press ctrl-o followed by return, to save the file.
9) Press ctrl-x to exit.
10) Run the following commands to set the correct permissions on the utility and login script:

sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/login.sh
sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/sendLogon

11) Run the following command:

sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /usr/bin/login.sh

The sendLogon utility should now run for every user that logs on.

This all worked splendidly. Our server address is XXX.XXX.XXX.21. The proxy settings are XXX.XXX.XXX.23 port 8080 though. Just need to remember that the computer has to be in the list of this filter system as using the sendLogon program (took me 20 mins before I remembered this!).

To deploy this the idea is to create a pkg file which copies the two files login.sh and sendLogon to /usr/bin and also sends the command for the LoginHook.

Note that all the Macs I will run this on do not have any login scripts which run from the computer and hence it doesn't matter if you overwrite the login.sh file. For those who do have login scripts then they will need to append to this file, which isn't too hard.

I will use the Iceberg App to create the pkg file and run it through the task server to deploy to all computer suites and staff machines.

We did have a choice whether to control the LoginHook from the Xserver or just have the clients controled locally. We chose the later as ICT Services do not control the Xserver, which is just used for the one Directorate.

I shall note in a later post how I created the pkg file.

Bootpicker rebooting back into OS X i.e. not Windows

I have many computer suites which are set up as "Dual Boot". I install bootpicker through ARD and set the plist file settings through ARD also. I had a little trouble with some MacBook Pro's I set up in this way. It all appeared to work, what with the bootpicker screen coming up. But upon clicking "Windows" it rebooted the machine straight back into OS X.

This takes quite some time to realise if your busy multitasking, as you think: Oh, whoops, forgot to click Windows, better click it!

So I thought I'd best look into it. After a minute I figured out that all you need to do was a PRAM reset. i.e. hold down "cmd + alt + p + r" for at least one beep (maybe up to three)

After doing this it all worked beautifully. I guess there must be some setting in the PRAM which needs refreshing?

Installing Wacom Intuos 4 drivers through Apple Remote Desktop

A student brought in his Wacom Intuos 4 graphics tablet which I promptly installed on one of the computers, using the provided CD. They do all have Bamboo drivers, but it is slightly different for Intuos 4. I promptly found the .pkg file on the disk, which is in the "Program Files" folder on the CD.

I put this in Apple Remote Desktop for install and tested it on another mac. It came up with an error:
Error message: "Running Package Scripts..."

the "..." assumes that this might just be the extra little bits at the end of the installation. On looking on the computer it appeared to have installed the preference pane so I was pretty happy. Not sure what these extra "scripts" are but they might be for just removing files and such, hopefully nothing too important.

I later ran the install through the task server, to install on all in the computer suite. I expected the error which actually came up as:
Completed but failed on one package: "Install Wacom Tablet"

Anyway, I shall have a proper look later to see if it's worked as expected.

Making a pkg file to distribute through ARD Task Server

After making my little "Fix Everything Please" Automator Application I wanted to distribute it to all the machines, and the easiest way of doing this is using the much unused Task Server I have set up through Apple Remote Desktop. I have done this process before, but not documented it very well. What's worse is that I cannot find the newest "PackageMaker" application since re-imaging my machine, only the one which comes with Remote Desktop, which was originally for OS X 10.4! Apparently you can download it with the newest iPhone SDK which comes with XCode.

So, after some looking I found a well reviewed Package Maker app called Iceburg. Downloaded it, installed it and rebooted. Apparently it's a lot simpler then PackageMaker and I'd made the package in about 3 minutes. This is how I did it:

1. Make a "New Project"
2. Fill in the "Settings" section:



Settings section of Iceburg Package Maker

1. I put Admin Authorisation so there would be some control
3. Fill in the Files section at the bottom:
1. I clicked on Applications and pressed the "Set" button to set this as the Directory it was going



Files section of Iceburg Package Maker

2. I right clicked on the Applications folder and chose "Add Files..." and chose "Fix Everything Please.app" (I made sure the permissions were right in Finder before I did this)
4. Clicked "Build and Run" in the top menus

Worked a charm. I had a little trouble getting the permissions right. At first it would make it "Read Write" for "Everyone". I changed the permissions and then re-added it to Iceburg and it seemed to work.

Installing Maya 2008 on Mac OS X 10.6 or later

On my first day back and at 9:00 I had to put 20 iMacs on Active Directory and install Maya 2008, all because I had no idea their would be anyone using the computer suite. Active Directory was the easy thing, but I had problems when it came to installing Maya 2008.

I had two mpkg files on the server (taken from the install dvd's) one for Maya 2008 and one for SP1 (which turns out to be the full maya with sp1). Upon trying to install either it would say it was done and prompt for installation of Rosetta (although it turns out this is only if you need to run the serial authorisation program and do vector renders later). I looked in the Application/Autodesk/Maya 2008 folder only to find FCheck and a folder!

I did a few searches on the internet and found this very helpful blog post. It turns out the main Maya install pkg file only installs on 10.4 or 10.5 operating systems and no others! Not sure if this is standard procedure as it does say that it works on 10.4 or later. So just change the InstallationCheck file located in:

/Maya2008SP1.mpkg/Resources/Maya_core2008.pkg/Resources/InstallationCheck

To get there using the finder you need to right click on the pkg file and select "Show Package Contents"

So, basically change the section which says;

10.4|10.5|

and add
|10.6|

For some reason he's also added an * which is probably a 'wildcard' which I don't think is needed, but I haven't tested my hypothesis.

This worked just fine (although not with the original installer without SP1). I sent this to the task server to be installed which worked until the server crashed!

Imaging OS X 10.6.6 on OS X server 10.4.11

I have over 100 Macs which need reimaging this summer. To make it nice and simple they will all have 10.6.6 installed. Unfortunately I only have a 10.4.11 server (PPC) which I don't think will be upgraded before summer ends! At the moment I have 9 brand new 27" iMacs which don't like the current version of Deploy Studio RC20.

The reason I only have RC20 installed it that this was the last version to support OS X 10.4.11. Now, I also have 9 24" new'ish iMacs which do work with Deploy Studio RC20, and some relatively new Mac Pro's which definitely work with Deploy Studio RC20. So it is still worth perhaps using it for the 90 or so Macs and resort to other techniques to reimage the 9 which don't work. Of course over time I will need a new system but to have a really good new system we'll need time.

So the plan is to carry on using deploy studio for 90% of the Macs, and resort to something else for the last 10%. Alternatives are:

• Carbon Copy Cloner
• SuperDuper
• The install disk
• the install disk on a removable hard drive
• A bootable 10.6.6 on a removable hard drive

Well, I've looked up CCC and can't find any reference to it having some bootable interface. It simply copies a hard drive to another, which to be fair could be bootable, so I might do this.

I'm currently trying the easiest of these which is to use the install disk. I've managed to find the command line for mounting an AFP share. So I've open terminal from the booted up install disk and typed:

mkdir /Volumes/tmp
mount -t afp afp://username:password@server.somewhere.ac.uk/Images/ /Volumes/tmp/

The image that was taken from the 10.6.6 27" iMac was either done in DeployStudio helper or Disk Utility. When trying to restore this image to a drive in Disk Utility it has come up with an error message:

Restore Failure Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned/scanned for restore

I did a quick search and came up with this. I do now remember that to restore off a network share using disk utility it does need to be scanned for restore. Put the image in Disk Utility and go to: Image > Scan for Restore. This takes a long time on the old Apple Server G4, but not so long on the new 27" iMacs!

It should be ready for restore now...

Restored 70GB compressed in 1 hour 45 over the old network, which isn't too bad. I don't think it'll be able to do multiple machines very efficiently though.

The next process is to try and create or use an old netboot image to netboot the slightly older machines. So it only gets easier from this moment onwards.