Browse network when booted from usb

[mattiasvdm]

Hi guys,

At my company we are starting to roll out 10.8. Right now we're on 10.6. We use .dmg images which we store on a network share.
When booting from 10.6 USB it is possible to connect to this network share via Disk utility. When you choose the source image you can see all your network devices in the sidebar.
When booting from 10.8 USB the sidebar only shows the local Disks and Applications. On top of the window is a dropdown menu called "Mac OS X Base System". When I open the menu and choose "Computer" I can see the local disks and my network. But when I click the Network nothing happens.
The workaround for this problem is to use your 10.6 USB. But I think it should work with the 10.8 USB or the recovery HD.

Does anyone recongnize this problem?

Thanks

 

[switon]

RE: Finder Preferences...

Hi mattiasvdm,

The following solutions allow connections to network shares using the Finder and not Disk Utility. Rereading your post, I'm not sure I understand what you are intending to do. It sounds like you are mounting a .dmg over the network by opening it in Disk Utility? If your problem is to find the network shared images in the first place, then the following instructions will help you to mount the shared disks. This solution may also help if you are using "Open Disk Image..." in Disk Utility.app. Sorry if this is unhelpful.

There are a couple possible problems and solutions, the first one to suspect is that the 10.6 and 10.8 have different preferences set for the Finder. The solution is to set the appropriate preferences:

1. Open a Finder window.
2. Open the Finder's Preferences pane.
3. Under the Sidebar button, check all of the items under "SHARED" and "DEVICES" (and any others you wish to have).

This may or may not solve your problem, depending upon how the network share is being shared.

Let's say that the share is by AFP but does not show up through Bonjour, then you can connect to the share using the "Connect to Server..." command under the "Go" pull-down menu of the Finder. Let's assume that the network share is on a machine called "network.server.local", and the shared disk is named "networkdisk01", then

1. Open a Finder window.
2. Pull down the "Go" menu and select "Connect to Server...".
3. In the "Server Address:" entry, enter:
afp://network.server.local/networkdisk01
4. Click the "Connect" button, and the network disk will be mounted.

Notice that the "Connect to Server..." pane saves a list of Favorite Servers, so the next time you wish to mount the same disk you won't have to type in its name.

If your network shares are served by other means, say SMB or NFS, then appropriate substitutions in the above instructions will mount them.

Of course, the permissions on the shared disks must be properly setup to allow you access to the disk. And this is the last problem that you may have to address. On the server that serves the network shares, you must make certain that your account has the appropriate access (read/write/full) to the shared disk.

Good luck,
Switon

 

[mattiasvdm]

Thanks for your reply but as the topic title says: Browse network when booted from USB.
When you boot from your install USB (or install disc or Recovery HD) there is no finder. Therefore you cannot connect to any share or change the sidebar settings. That's the problem. Somehow when using the 10.6 install USB all the bonjour devices are visible but at 10.8 there's not.

Hi mattiasvdm,

The following solutions allow connections to network shares using the Finder and not Disk Utility.

 

[switon]

How about using the Terminal "mount" command then...

Hi,

Yes, I was worried that I didn't fully understand what you were doing. (You can, since I do this myself, boot a full Mac OS system from a USB drive complete with Finder, but that is not what you are doing.)

Do you have access to a Terminal window when you boot off of the USB drive? If so, then why not use the commandline "mount" command to mount the network shares? You can mount afp, smb, nfs, hfs, fat, and so forth, shares. Indeed, Finder is doing little more than executing the appropriate "mount" command anyway.

Switon

P.S. Is this just to get everyone switched over to 10.8, or will you always be booting off of a USB 10.8?

 

[switon]

RE: Software Update service of Mac OS X Server...

If you just wish to upgrade everyone to 10.8, then why not use the Software Update service in Mac OS X Server ($20). This service will automatically download the updates that you approve and store them locally, and all of your other Mac computers will then update from your local copies. One download, one copy, and you manage exactly what software your Mac computers have.

...just another thought...

Switon

 

[mattiasvdm]

I do not like to just update our old 10.6 image to 10.8. For me an OSX upgrade is a chance to leave old configurations and start clean. So we took a clean install and build one new image for the entire company (small company, about 70 macs). If there is a major update we just create a new image with carbon copy cloner. This takes about 7 minutes. Installing it on any new hardware also takes about 7 minutes. This might seem a bit "old fashion" but it's quick and simple.
I keep our machines up to date with ARD. Because this can be used for Apple software updates as well as third party software updates.

Terminal is available when booting from USB. I'll give it a shot.

 

[mwhities]

Casper would be ideal here.

 

[mattiasvdm]

Well,

Terminal doesn't seem to do the trick also. And even if it did it's faster and easier to just use the 10.6 install USB.

I still think it strange that it's not possible to browse the network when booting from the 10.8 install USB.

Thanks anyway guys.