Imaging Recovery Partition, Command-R doesn't work...

RobertHammen
Valued Contributor II

I've done this both with System Image Utility (with a configured Mac) and also Casper Imaging.

Source is a fresh 10.8.3 install, same with the Recovery partition.

Imaging works successfully and both partitions are layed down, but if you restart the Mac and hold down Command R, it does not boot from the Recovery partition, but instead attempts Internet Recovery (assuming the Mac is capable of doing so).

If you hold down the secret keyboard shortcut Command Option Shift R, this forces OS X to start up from the local recovery partition. While this works, it's also inconvenient.

Anyone ever seen this? Have a different workaround?

The OS volume is at /dev/disk2 and the Recovery partition is at /dev/disk3 (/dev/disk1 is the EFI partition).

Taking a look, it may be that the Recovery partition type is Apple_HFS when it should be Apple_Boot. Again, I've seen this happen with System Image Utility-created NetRestore images, so I'm not sure this is a Casper Imaging problem...

3 REPLIES 3

RobertHammen
Valued Contributor II

in Terminal, type:

diskutil list

to get the correct identifier for the Recovery partition, then:

sudo asr adjust --target /dev/disk0s3 -settype "Apple_Boot"

(where /dev/disk0s3 is the disk identifier where your Recovery HD is stored)

After making this change, Command-R to start up works...

JPDyson
Valued Contributor

It is recommended (by JAMF, in their guide on imaging 10.7 and 10.8) that you create a script that does this and also that hides the volume (unmountrecovery.sh, if you will). The script should be set to run "At Reboot". Just add this to your Configuration and you're golden.

hkim
Contributor II

Even better is using the guidelines from

http://managingosx.wordpress.com/2012/08/15/creating-recovery-partitions/

No need to mess around with manually creating partitions, wasted (albeit small) space from Casper Imaging 1GB minimum, and easy to update when new InstallESD comes out.