Running MDS on FileFault2 disk fails

I tried to run MDS with the automaton on a MacBook Pro with FileVault2 enabled, and now it’s “bricked”. Recovery does start, but I can’t even manually install the original os. I’ve erased the SSD, but some hidden partition seems to exist.

Also: diskutil cs list doesn’t show any output. And in DiskUtil the drive is unlocked (at least: I see the button deactivate).

I used MDS 1.8 beta for this.

Questions:

  • please some pointers to get my system working again;
  • and secondly: can MDS support such a system? All our computers are encrypted…

It should work fine with FileVault. Can you send me the output of “diskutil list” in recovery?

tim

Hmm, my collegue already solved this by installing the original macOS version. I’ll follow up when I’m ready to do another computer.

1 Like

OK. I’ve just installed three computers with MDS (thank you).

But the fourth was a FileVault machine, and it failed. I’ve included the asked output and also the output of the MDS run utility. OK, so only image uploads. So output of MDS run:

-bash-3.2# hdiutil mount http://10.20.86.175:8888/Archipunt-clean-install.dmg; /Volumes/mdsresources/run
/dev/disk22         	Apple_partition_scheme         	
/dev/disk22s1       	Apple_partition_map            	
/dev/disk22s2       	Apple_HFS                      	/Volumes/mdsresources
Connecting to wifi ArchipuntDraadloos on interfaces en0 and en1
trying en0:
en0 is not a Wi-Fi interface.
** Error: Error obtaining wireless information.
========failed setting up en0. Trying en1.=============
sleeping to give the network time to come up
Network is up
Starting up Imagr, please be patient...
2019-08-26 14:06:19.975 Imagr[619:37671] Download error -1004: Could not connect to the server.
2019-08-26 14:06:19.975 Imagr[619:37671] Headers: None
2019-08-26 14:06:37.022 Imagr[619:37590] TISFileInterrogator updateSystemInputSources false but old data invalid: currentCacheHeaderPtr nonNULL? 0, ->cacheFormatVersion 0, ->magicCookie 00000000, inputSourceTableCountSys 0
Keyboard Layouts: duplicate keyboard layout identifier -14934.
Keyboard Layouts: keyboard layout identifier -14934 has been replaced with -28673.
2019-08-26 14:07:03.673 Imagr[619:37590] Download error -1004: Could not connect to the server.
2019-08-26 14:07:03.673 Imagr[619:37590] Headers: None
2019-08-26 14:07:05.004 Imagr[619:38242] Download error -1004: Could not connect to the server.
2019-08-26 14:07:05.004 Imagr[619:38242] Headers: None
2019-08-26 14:07:06.035 Imagr[619:38242] Download error -1004: Could not connect to the server.
2019-08-26 14:07:06.035 Imagr[619:38242] Headers: None
2019-08-26 14:07:06.035 Imagr[619:38242] Format is: auto_hfs_or_apfs
2019-08-26 14:07:06.036 Imagr[619:38242] Detected APFS - erasing target
2019-08-26 14:07:06.036 Imagr[619:38242] erasing with identifier since we had filevault or APFS
2019-08-26 14:07:06.036 Imagr[619:38242] (
    "/usr/sbin/diskutil",
    eraseVolume,
    APFS,
    "Macintosh SSD",
    disk1s1
)
2019-08-26 14:07:17.724 Imagr[619:38242] Download error -1004: Could not connect to the server.
2019-08-26 14:07:17.724 Imagr[619:38242] Headers: None
2019-08-26 14:07:17.725 Imagr[619:38242] IORegistryEntryName of selected volume: Macintosh SSD
2019-08-26 14:07:18.124 Imagr[619:38242] Target is child of an APFS container: 1
2019-08-26 14:07:18.125 Imagr[619:38242] Target is an EFI partition: 0
2019-08-26 14:07:30.256 Imagr[619:38242] New target volume mountpoint is /Volumes/Macintosh SSD
2019-08-26 14:07:31.285 Imagr[619:38242] Download error -1004: Could not connect to the server.
2019-08-26 14:07:31.286 Imagr[619:38242] Headers: None
2019-08-26 14:07:31.301 Imagr[619:38242] Total Memory is 8589934592
2019-08-26 14:07:31.302 Imagr[619:38242] Available Memory for DMG is 7908360192
2019-08-26 14:07:31.302 Imagr[619:38242] Required Memory for DMG is False
2019-08-26 14:07:31.302 Imagr[619:38242] Padded Memory for DMG is 0.0
2019-08-26 14:07:31.302 Imagr[619:38242] Error when calculating source size. Using original method instead of gurl...
2019-08-26 14:07:31.332 Imagr[619:38242] app path is /Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/macOS/Install macOS Mojave.app and startosinstall_path is /Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/macOS/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall
2019-08-26 14:07:31.334 Imagr[619:38242] Caching pkg from file:///Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/Workflows/Archipunt-clean-install/Packages/000-com.twocanoes.mds.createuser.pkg
2019-08-26 14:07:31.334 Imagr[619:38242] Caching pkg from file:///Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/Workflows/Archipunt-clean-install/Packages/001-com.twocanoes.mds.pre-scripts.pkg
[...]
2019-08-26 14:07:31.336 Imagr[619:38242] Caching pkg from file:///Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/Workflows/Archipunt-clean-install/Packages/zz_com.twocanoes.mds.scripts.pkg
2019-08-26 14:07:31.336 Imagr[619:38242] additional packages complete
2019-08-26 14:07:31.337 Imagr[619:38242] startosinstall cmd: (
    "/Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/Applications/Imagr.app/Contents/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python",
    "/Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/Applications/Imagr.app/Contents/Resources/ptyexec",
    "/Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/macOS/Install macOS Mojave.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall",
    "--agreetolicense",
    "--rebootdelay",
    5,
    "--pidtosignal",
    619,
    "--volume",
    "/Volumes/Macintosh SSD",
    "--nointeraction",
    "--installpackage",
    "/Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/Workflows/Archipunt-clean-install/Packages/000-com.twocanoes.mds.createuser.pkg",
    "--installpackage",
    "/Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/Workflows/Archipunt-clean-install/Packages/001-com.twocanoes.mds.pre-scripts.pkg",
    "--installpackage",
    [...],
    "--installpackage",
    "/Volumes/mdsresources/Deploy/Workflows/Archipunt-clean-install/Packages/zz_com.twocanoes.mds.scripts.pkg"
)
2019-08-26 14:07:37.171 Imagr[619:38242] Preparing to run macOS Installer...
2019-08-26 14:07:47.516 Imagr[619:38242] Preparing: 0.1%
2019-08-26 14:07:49.534 Imagr[619:38242] Preparing: 0.7%
2019-08-26 14:07:50.552 Imagr[619:38242] Preparing: 1.3
[...]
2019-08-26 14:11:08.573 Imagr[619:38242] Preparing: 73.9%
2019-08-26 14:11:11.303 Imagr[619:38242] Could not create a preboot volume for APFS install.
-bash-3.2# 

And the output of disk_util list:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         499.9 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +499.9 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Preboot                 20.5 KB    disk1s2
   2:                APFS Volume Recovery                506.8 MB   disk1s3
   3:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4
   4:                APFS Volume Macintosh SSD           7.9 GB     disk1s1

/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +2.1 GB     disk2
   1:                  Apple_HFS macOS Base System       2.0 GB     disk2s1

/dev/disk3 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +5.2 MB     disk3

/dev/disk4 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk4

/dev/disk5 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk5

/dev/disk6 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk6

/dev/disk7 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +2.1 MB     disk7

/dev/disk8 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk8

/dev/disk9 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk9

/dev/disk10 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +12.6 MB    disk10

/dev/disk11 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +4.2 MB     disk11

/dev/disk12 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +1.0 MB     disk12

/dev/disk13 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +2.1 MB     disk13

/dev/disk14 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk14

/dev/disk15 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk15

/dev/disk16 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +1.0 MB     disk16

/dev/disk17 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk17

/dev/disk18 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +6.3 MB     disk18

/dev/disk19 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +6.3 MB     disk19

/dev/disk20 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +524.3 KB   disk20

/dev/disk21 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                            untitled               +2.1 MB     disk21

Two notes:

  • en0 is wired ethernet
  • I’ve mounted the diskimage over http.

I have seen this as well. For some reason, the recovery partition is holding on to it. Try opening Disk Utility, create a new volume, and run again.

End of day. I’ll check tomorrow.

Error message:

Could not create a preboot volume for APFS install

After preparing…

Edit: My collegue fixed the previous computer with Recovery (⌘+R).

I now fixed this computer with Internet Recovery (⌥⌘R, normal ⌘R doesn’t work).

One thing that occurred to me: since you normally (at least when you don’t have a T2 mac) want to keep a volume encrypted, unlocking the volume in DiskUtil before running the mds/run would might fix this issue?

Not sure about it. I will report back when I’ve got another computer to be re-installed.