Netinstall images not showing up when holding down option key at startup

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Netinstall images not showing up when holding down option key at startup

Hi,
I have setup two Netinstall images on my 10.5.5 server. On the clients I can see the two images via the 'Startup Disk' tab in System Preferences. But the images are not showing up when holding down the option key at startup. As I am getting ready to deploy to two labs of new iMacs, I would like to be able to get the Option key at Startup method to work as per the documentation.
Any ideas why these images are not showing up as they should?

Xserve, Mac OS X (10.5.3)

Posted on Dec 5, 2008 4:03 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 14, 2008 2:12 PM in response to xccobrien

I am having this problem on a 10.5.5 NetBoot server too. I can NetBoot clients by selecting a network volume in System Preferences > Startup Disk, but I can not see the network volumes when option-booting. I am having problems NetBooting while holding down the N-key too. The funny thing is that it works on new Intel iMacs, but not on Mac Pro1.1 (even with the latest firmware updates). NetBooting the Mac Pro works fine when selecting a NetBoot volume in System Preferences > Startup Disk.

Does anybody have a solution? Is this a problem with Leopard Server 10.5.5?

I am running DeployStudio Server v1.0rc9, and the NetInstall set is made with DeployStudio Assistant.

Everything looks right with my bootpd.plist and log file.

Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): server starting
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): re-reading /etc/bootptab
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): Loaded 0 entries from bootptab (0 bad)
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): server name server.example.com
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): interface en0: ip 158.36.32.190 mask 255.255.255.192
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): bsdpd: re-reading configuration
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): bsdpd: shadow file size will be set to 48 megabytes
Dec 14 22:08:37 xserve bootpd(6722): bsdpd: age time 00:15:00
Dec 14 22:08:39 xserve bootpd(6722): BSDP INFORM (en0) 1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e NetBoot001 arch=i386 sysid=MacPro1,1
Dec 14 22:08:39 xserve bootpd(6722): NetBoot: (1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e) BSDP ACK(LIST) sent 158.36.32.161 pktsize 310
Dec 14 22:08:39 xserve bootpd(6722): service time 0.000667 seconds
Dec 14 22:08:52 xserve bootpd(6722): BSDP INFORM (en0) 1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e NetBoot001 arch=i386 sysid=MacPro1,1
Dec 14 22:08:52 xserve bootpd(6722): NetBoot: (1,0:17:f2:2:d5:9e) BSDP ACK(LIST) sent 158.36.32.161 pktsize 310
Dec 14 22:08:52 xserve bootpd(6722): service time 0.000622 seconds

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Answer 2

Dec 16, 2008 4:45 PM in response to xccobrien

Talked to IT which handles the network, and I asked them about "PortFast", "Spanning Tree Protocol", "Etherchanneling", and "Trunking", which Mike Bombich mentions in his Troubleshooting the NetBoot process article.

Initial Connectivity Delay can kill Netboot functionality -- a Netbooting client really needs to have immediate network connectivity.

The Macs that can NetBoot when holding down the N-key are connected to a switch that has PortFast enabled, and the ones that can not, seems to be connected to a switch which has a pretty long connectivity delay. PortFast is most likely not enabled on that switch.

The NetInstall volume does still not show up when holding down the option key at startup, but I finally think I found the reason why some of our Macs can't NetBoot when holding down the N-key.

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