Just received this yesterday. MacBook Air
Has a 60 gb solid state internal drive.
Uses a proprietary ribbon cable for internal connection.
There is no cd/dvd drive and only one external usb connection.
Has anyone imaged one of these yet? If so how did you do it?
Seeking advice.
Anyone know of an adapter from the drive to say an IDE or SATA connector?
An idea, and only an idea I hasten to add, in order to image would be to use a powered USB hub to make one port to two, boot from a CD (having bought a suitable drive …) and either image to an external HDD or over a USB -> Ethernet connection.
Untested, unproven and just thinking out loud hoping it might help.
Please let us know the final solution - I'm sure that is the first of many that we will see !
I was going to suggest Target Disk mode, but just noted that you said no firewire. Wow. I hope that azrael's suggestion works, and I think we all definitely are looking forward to hearing the solution.
Another thing to be wary of, is that I believe that the diskarbitrationd.plist file cant be turned off in Leopard.
Greetings,
You can just kill diskarbitrationd, I think ….
-David
To do this, store a backup copy of diskarbitrationd.plist under the root directory and then delete the original. In Terminal Type
sudo cp diskarbitrationd.plist /
Type cd / . Type ls and confirm that the copy is there.
Go back to cd /etc/mach_init.d and ls.
Remove the original file from the mach-int.d directory by typing
sudo rm diskarbitrationd.plist.
Restart
You can restore disk arbitration when your done by going to cd / and typing
sudo cp diskarbitrationd.plist /etc/mach_init.d.
You can leave the copy in root for the next time, as it will have no effect on your system if it is left in that directory.
I use CLIX to automate this. A great OS X command line tool
Just found this
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The MacBook Air also can start itself remotely from its installer disc served elsewhere on the network, which makes it possible to conduct system software upgrades or file system repairs without an optical drive. Starting in this way isn't anywhere as quick as starting from a local drive, but it isat least possible.
When you install the Remote Disc sharing software on another Mac or PC, it installs a new program in your Utilities folder, "Remote Install Mac OS X." This software leverages the NetBoot system from Mac OS X Server. When started, it guides you through the steps to start the MacBook Air from its software DVD. It works over both AirPort and Ethernet.
On the MacBook Air end, startup is easy hold the option key as it starts up, and it searches the network for Remote Install hosts. It even scans available AirPort networks, or lets you enter specific network name to join a hidden wireless network.Of course, it works with Apple's USB-Ethernet adapter too.
Once started over the network, the system software setup works like any other Mac OS X Leopard startup disc. You can access Disk Utility and Terminal, reset the Mac's password, set a firmware password, run System Profiler or Network Utility, and even restore from a Time Machine backup.
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Interesting…
You can build a netboot image with disk arb' turned off. However you need this running on OS X server. Now we are talking bucks. I don't know if then the MB Air can find the netboot volume. But this I'll have to wait for Apple's WWDC to ask a Leopard programmer. I don't have an Air.
E5Pro
The terminal commands you list are absolutley correct, these will work fine for Mac OS X up to and including 10.4 (Tiger), however I understand that 10.5 (Leopard), the disk arbitration file has to be completely removed and deleted from the system and not copied to root or anywhere else. I stand to be corrected but I believe that wherever you copy disk arbitration to on the system the 10.5 OS will 'find' it and use the file.
Leaving Fri for a week in the Carib', amazing how stuff crops up to do before. I did not get to the test. So perhaps a rename of the file? Also a buddy says the external Apple DVD/CD drive is a way to boot off. Sooo…. A custom OS X image would work. Might need a dual layer DVD though. These will netboot, so there is an exploration there.
We've now got a Macbook Air to process - anyone had any luck with acquisition?
Thx
Paul
Just thinking out loud really, why are we recommending using a modified OSX disc when the AIR (being Intel based) may be able to boot from a LinEN/HELIX CD, assuming you have a compatible DVD drive to boot from.
Am I correct or will the AIR only boot from an OSX disc?