1.

Create a default install of Mac OS X

Using a current Apple system create a new install – if it’s a brand new (never used)
computer, feel free to use that – of Snow Leopard. When you get to the Welcome
screens set up an admin user (for the purposes of this article, I’ll call this user
sysprep).
Don’t skip out on setting a password for this user, it’s easier to make some of the later
steps work if this user has a password set. However, keep this password nice and
short, by the time you’re done, you’ll be deleting this user again anyway so good
security isn’t a necessity here.
2. System Updates
After the system is logged in, apply all available updates from Apple. Keep checking
until you’ve got all updates (sometimes this might require a restart then checking for
more updates). Also, remember that if you later install other software from a CD or
DVD that you may then need to download updates for this software as well. If you’re
doing this a lot you might prefer to manually download combo updates.
3. Installing additional Software
Install any additional software you want to be included in your standard Snow Leopard
install (e.g. Adium, Skype, VLC, Handbrake, etc). This is basically just any software
that you want to be available to a person using the computer. Don’t worry about
configuring any of this software yet, just get it all installed.
4. Creating a New User
Add a new user to the system (I’ll call this user default). Make sure they’re an
Administrator for the system. As with your other user account, set a simple password
for this user.
As with sysprep, you’re not particularly concerned with top security on this one. By
the time you’re done, this user also gets deleted.
5. Configuring the User Account
Restart and log in as default.
Go through System Preferences and set everything the way you want it.
Start each program, particularly if they’ve been downloaded from the Internet, and
make sure the start up normally and with no warnings. Unless you have specific
configurations that you want to be defaults for an application (e.g. web browser
download directory) don’t set configurations in applications.
DO NOT enter any usernames and passwords for programs – ultimately, they’ll
end up saved as a default user profile and be available to every user on every
computer you deploy this image to (i.e. this is a bad thingTM). If you have programs
that you want to load on startup/login, set them here also.
6. Clean Up
Clear caches on the default account – using Finder go to
/Users/default/Library/Caches and delete the contents. Make sure you empty the
Trash (this might require you to restart and log in again as default).
Run Keychain Access (Applications/Utilities), select “login” and delete (from File
menu). Clear histories (Apple symbol -> Recent Items -> Clear Menu).
7. Setting Up Default User Account
Restart the computer and log in as sysprep. Run Terminal (Applications/Utilities) and
type “sudo -s” and enter your password for sysprep.
when prompted.
NOTE: This is now a root shell, be very careful! You can do serious damage
at this level if you’re not sure what you’re doing.
Clear out the existing system-wide default account:
rm -rf /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/*
(I found this sometimes didn’t work as expected and I needed to remove each
individual sub-folder separately, check that English.lproj is empty after this step and
delete anything left as needed.)
Copy your new default account to the system default account:
cp -R /Users/default/* /System/Library/User Template/English.lproj
At this point, you’ve now got the start of a system-wide default user profile – this is
what gets used every time a new user is created on the system, including the first
user when you go through the Apple Welcome process on a new computer.
Type “exit” to get out of the root shell and then close Terminal and reboot the
computer. Log in again as sysprep.
8a. System Cleanup Preparations
Run Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities), select the hard drive and, under the First Aid
tab, run “Repair Disk Permissions“. If you got things right to this point you’ll see a
whole stack of information where this fixes permissions for the system-wide default
user profile you’ve just copied. If you miss this step, permissions issues may get in the
way when you create a new user later. Once you’re done, close Disk Utility.
At this point, you can now delete your default account. You won’t need it any further.

8b. System Cleanup in Single User Mode

Doing this needs you to spend some time using low-level tools in Snow
Leopard. This can have dire consequences if not done right!!!

Reboot the computer into single user mode by holding down COMMAND and S while
rebooting. If you’ve done it right, you’ll end up with a black screen that has white
writing on it. There’s no graphical user interface for this, it’s all typing.
Once you’ve got a command prompt, enter the following commands and to make
SURE you don’t get any errors – if you get errors, time to figure out what went
wrong and fix it before you go any further.
fsck -fy mount -uw / launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.DirectoryServices.plist &
dscl . -delete /Users/sysprep rm -rf /Users/sysprep rm -rf /var/db/.AppleSetupDone shutdown -h now
What does this do? Basically, it gets rid of your sysprep user account in an operating
system compliant way (no loose ends) and resets the computer to run the Welcome
process again. At the end of this, you tell the computer to shut down because this is
safer than letting it try and reboot and missing your chance to do the last step for
some reason.
10. Creating Master Image
At this point, you’ve got a computer that’s turned off and is ready to start as a new
computer with no existing users but all your configurations and software installs ready
to go.
From here, you need to create a disk image of the computer’s hard drive so you can
deploy this build to another computer. For that you’ll need an external hard drive
that’s been set up so you can boot from it (there are plenty of references for that out
there – I’ll write one myself some day).
Boot from your external hard drive.
Run Disk Utility (Applications/Utilities – although I have this in the dock on the install
on my external hard drive).
Select the internal hard drive on the computer and click the “New Image” button. Give
your disk image a name and select somewhere on your external hard drive to save
the disk image. When you’re done, hit the “Save” button and wait for the disk image
to create. This may take quite a bit of time if you’ve installed a lot of software.
When this is done, you’ve now got a disk image of your fresh-minted Snow Leopard
install. In order to make this disk image useable, you also need one final step. In Disk
Utility, go to the “Restore” tab and load your new disk image in the “Source” box.
Then go up to the “Image” menu and select “Scan Image for Restore“. Again, this
process can take a little time but once it’s done, you have a disk image that you can
use.
(Note: If you prefer to use Carbon Copy Cloner you can skip this step, I have done it
either way but found that Disk Utility gives me a faster overall restore from disk image
and, ultimately, in a commercial workshop, time is money so I’ve gone with the faster
method.)
11. Deploy your Master Image
Boot off your external hard drive (the same one you have your disk image saved on)
and run up Disk Utility. Select the internal hard drive on the computer you want to
build, select the “Restore” tab and then load your disk image in the “Source” box.
Drag and drop the internal hard drive to “Destination” and hit the “Restore” button –
away you go. Some time later you can restart the computer from the internal hard
drive and start a normal setup process including the Apple Welcome screens.