Blessing install data folder causes error and pkg install fails

[darshannnn]

Hi there,

We are testing on OSX 10.12.2 NBI created with AutoImagrNBI 1.3.4 with imagr.app 1.3.8.1, trying to install OSX 10.12.3.

The OSXInstall pkg fails to install and from install.log has error
'Could not set boot device properly: 0xe00002bc'
'Failed to bless OS X installer for startup: Command ... '

It seems the, '-setBoot' option on the, 'bless' command causes this.
If I run the pkg with the modified script removing the above option the package runs fine.

This however does not happen when we run the same package on the DeploymentStudio NBI. Is there a workaround or a fix for this?

Thanks

[gregneagle]

Sounds like you've come up with a workaround! There are at least four or five NBI-building tools, each building their nbis slightly differently. I don't have the time or energy to test every permutation/combination of tool, booted os and os-to-be-installed. If you have a combination that works -- use it.

[gregneagle]

It seems the, '-setBoot' option on the, 'bless' command causes this.
If I run the pkg with the modified script removing the above option the package runs fine.

I do wonder though: if you remove -setBoot, does the machine actually boot into the macOS installer upon reboot? It seems like it wouldn't -- that it would continue to boot from the current macOS startup disk.

[peterkelm]

I can confirm that the machine does boot the OS installer without the "-setBoot". darshannnn's workaround worked for me too.

From /var/log/install.log - without the workaround:

Mar  6 20:31:39 xxx installd[377]: ./postflight: Could not set boot device pr
operty: 0xe00002bc
Mar  6 20:31:39 xxx installd[377]: ./postflight: Failed to bless OS X install
er for startup: Command '['/usr/sbin/bless', '--setBoot', '--folder', '/Volumes/
Ohne Titel/macOS Install Data', '--bootefi', '/Volumes/Ohne Titel/macOS Install 
Data/boot.efi', '--label', 'OS X Installer', '--options', 'config="\\macOS Insta
ll Data\\com.apple.Boot"']' returned non-zero exit status 3

[gregneagle]

It's counter-intuitive that even if -setBoot is not specified the machine will boot into the macOS install environment on the next boot. Is there anything else I should know about the workflow: Like perhaps the target disk was erased first and then a createOSXinstallPkg was installed on the empty volume. If there are no other valid boot volumes, then I could see that even without -setBoot the machine might boot from the macOS install environment.

Certainly for past OS upgrades, the -setBoot was required when doing an "in-place" upgrade on a volume with an older version of OS X already installed.

I'm not inclined to make any changes yet to createOSXinstallPkg until I better understand this issue and its ramifications. I suspect removing -setBoot will break a lot of uses of a createOSXinstallPkg pkg.

[peterkelm]

In my test case the target disk was indeed blank and no other bootable volume connected to said machine.

Just for the record: The machine running createOSXinstallPkg is on 10.11.6 (15G1217), trying to automate a 10.12.3 OS install.

Absolutely agree that changes should be pushed out until the issue is fully understood.