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Create a customized 10.3 'Rescue CD/DVD'
Authored by: johnsawyercjs on Aug 19, '04 05:16:46AM

I tried this, using my 10.3 installer CD, and the apps I added to

Mac OS X Install Disk 1/Applications/Utilities

...didn't show up under the OS X installer's File menu, which is where the other apps that are in Applications/Utilities show up. Maybe this hint works for the DVD version of the OS 10.3 installer? Or maybe I'm having trouble understanding what you mean by "in addition to the usual utilities, (for instance) the Terminal will appear in the list of commands you can execute if you added it before". Can you clarify?



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Create a customized 10.3 'Rescue CD/DVD'
Authored by: Superboy on Sep 25, '04 09:47:56AM

To add them to your installer menu, ctrl-click on /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Upgrade\ Disc/Applications/Utilities/Installer.app and add the apps your want to that plist as well as the Applications folder

--Superboy



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Create a customized 10.3 'Rescue CD/DVD'
Authored by: merch on Sep 29, '04 02:51:20PM

Superboy, thank you so much for this last step to the process. That was really blocking me. It still took me a minute to figure out which plist to edit. Control-click Installer.app, choose Show Package Contents. Go to Contents:Resources and edit the InstallerMenuAdditions.plist with new <dict></dict> sections for each new app. Also copy the actual app files into the applications:utilities folder that holds the installer.app.

I've had limited success with what apps will work. How would you get to have an active network connection (this works for me using BootCD - I wonder if something could be added to this disk to make that work since BootCD takes forever to boot)? Also how can you access files on the HD?

Thanks



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Create a customized 10.3 'Rescue CD/DVD'
Authored by: johnsawyercjs on Nov 19, '06 01:48:56PM
Thanks, merch, for further clarification, without which I don't think this hint will work. However, even further clarification is necessary: when you add the <dict> entries to the InstallerMenuAdditions.plist file, you need to specify the path to the "app inside the app"--follow the format and path of the other entries in that plist file. Specifying just the name of the app as visible on its Finder icon won't work--it won't launch.

I'm surprised enough that the person who posted this hint left out the step of modifying the InstallerMenuAdditions.plist file, so that I wonder if the disc he was modifying needed to have its Installer.app plist file modified. Maybe different installer discs have different requirements here? I can't see how though--as far as I can tell, if you don't modify the Installer app's InstallerMenuAdditions.plist file to list the apps you want to launch, they won't show up under the OS X Installer's File menu.

You may also have to delete something from your disk image of the Installer disc, to get enough free space to add the apps you want. Try deleting one of the packages at System/Installation/Packages, since you won't be using the disc as an installer disc.

Diskwarrior appears to be one of the exceptions that won't work using this hint. I tried it, following merch's clarification; at Diskwarrior.app/Contents/MacOS, the only likely items are "Diskwarrior", which launches Terminal, which then launches Diskwarrior, and there's DiskWarriorStarter.app, but it doesn't do anything when you try to launch it; neither path would allow Diskwarrior to launch from the Installer's File menu--the Installer app just relaunched.

It seems most of this hint describes the author's extra steps he found necessary to make a copy of his possibly damaged installer DVD--I've never had this problem. The installer CDs and DVDs aren't copy-protected. I think most people won't have to follow his disc copying steps. The steps he describes, however, are useful if you do have to copy a problematic disc.

A utility that's supposed to be able to make bootable CDs and DVDs is Clone X 2, from www.tri-edre.fr. However, I don't know what the limitations might be on using such a disc as a utility disc.

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Create a customized 10.3 'Rescue CD/DVD'
Authored by: johnsawyercjs on Nov 19, '06 03:10:39PM

Sorry--that should read "the OS X Installer's 'Installer' menu", not its File menu--the Installer menu is where you find the utilities for the OS 10.2 and 10.3 installers. In the OS 10.4 Installer, there's a separate Utilities menu.

I took yet another look at this hint, and for a moment I thought I had the confusion figured out. I missed the hint author's note, "I believe this procedure should work also with a Panther Install CD". Since OS 10.4 wasn't released at the time, he can only have been referring to OS 10.2, though he doesn't say. So I took a look at an OS 10.2 installer CD, and found it doesn't contain an InstallerMenuAdditions.plist file. So, I made a disc image of my 10.2 Installer disc, copied Diskwarrior into its Applications/Utilities folder, burned it, then started up from that disc. Diskwarrior didn't appear under the Installer menu.

Conclusion: it's a mystery how this hint author did what he says. I notice nobody commenting here says they tried this hint with an OS 10.2 Installer CD except me--daybrother comments only that he was able to copy his Panther Installer CD, but says nothing about trying to add utilities to it, and merch tried a 10.3 Installer disc, with the added steps of modifying the InstallerMenuAdditions.plist file, and had limited success--some apps wouldn't work--but from that I imply some did work for him. So unless the hint author has some bizarre variation on the OS 10.2 installer, his success will remain a mystery.



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