PSU Blast Image Config 2.6.5 review
DownloadPSU Blast Image Config (aka "BIC") is a complete software solution to quickly restore and configure a Macintosh back to a known state.
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PSU Blast Image Config (aka "BIC") is a complete software solution to quickly restore and configure a Macintosh back to a known state.
This tool is intended to automate the build process as much as possible. We use BIC here at PSU to do the initial install of the base OS and applications on all of our lab and kiosk Macs.
Here are some key features of "PSU Blast Image Config":
Configure and set the Open Firmware security, preventing unauthorized access via single (root) user mode or booting from external devices
Set the date and time
Restore a master disk image quickly to a Mac's internal hard disk
Configure the network settings on the restored disk (via ncutil):
IP Address : DHCP or Manual (Static)
Subnet Mask & Router
DNS Servers
Network Names (Computer and Local)
Change the startup disk to the restored disk
Extensible through pre- and post-restore scripts
Specify default and autorun settings via a preference file.
What's New:
FIXED: Now correctly supports Macs with dual on-board ethernet ports. NOTE: Only configures the network for the "Built-in Ethernet 1", port 1 on the case, and all other network interfaces are disabled (unless you enable the AirPort interface in the auto-run prefs - see below for more info on this new feature). Macs that have dual on-board ethernet includes the most recent Power Mac G5s with Dual 2.3 Ghz processors and the Mac Pro desktop. I've only tested this on the dual 2.3 Ghz G5, so please let me know if you see failures when BIC 2.6.5 and ncutil 3.1.1. Do not use ncutil 3.1.2 due to previously mentioned issues on the main BIC home page. Thanks to Y. Flammer for reporting this issue.
NEW: Under Mac OS X 10.4.7 or higher*, can now enable the AirPort network interface enabled by adding "ENABLE_AIRPORT=YES" to the auto-run preferences. *NOTE: This will ONLY work reliably when PSU BIC is running under Mac OS X 10.4.7, with ncutil version 3.1.1 installed, and the restored volume is ALSO at Mac OS X 10.4.7 or higher. There was a bug in Apple's 10.4.6 networking code that ncutil relies on for the network interface names, so ncutil inherited the bug, and thus PSU BIC as well, when running under 10.4.6. Use Mac OS X 10.4.7 and it should work for you - if not, pleasesend me a bug report with the run log file. As time permits, I'll add a dialog too that prompts for enabling the AirPort card or not, but until then, just specify it in the auto run preferences.
FIXED: Using new asr syntax of "restore" verb with 10.4.4 at later. Previously, when running PSU BIC 2.6b3 under Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.4.3 there would be an error during the restore process. Thanks to R. Booz for sending in the run log with this issue, and the Apple asr system engineer J. Kateley for reporting which version of Mac OS X 10.4 (10.4.4 and later!) started to include the 'restore' verb for asr.
FIXED: More robust blessing of the restored disk as a bootable device for Intel/EFI based Macs.
NEW: Logging the version of Mac OS X that is installed on the restored drive. This can be useful for debugging issues with ncutil 3 configuring network preferences on a volume that is at a different version than the version of Mac OS X that PSU BIC and ncutil 3 ran under.
FIXED: Updated some method names to prepare PSU BIC to be ready for compilation under REALbasic 2006 to create a Universal (PPC and Intel Native!) version of PSU BIC, which will be available very soon. This change should not affect anything for this version of BIC.
Requirements:
Mac OS X 10.2.2 and higher, including Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Must be logged in with an administrator account to run PSU Blast Image Config
If you desire Open Firmware security, the Macintosh computer to clone to must be capable of supporting it. Note that Open Firmware security settings are machine specific and not stored on the hard disk.
ncutil MUST be installed if you wish to be able to configure the network settings on the restored disk.
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