Fog Imaging on Macbook Pro 2019 model # : A2141 -- identifier Macbook 16,1 -- Can not find hard drive

[awren]

In trying to image macbook 16,1 I am able to disable the T2 chip and boot using iPxe boot media into fog server. It pulls the files needed, however when it loads hard drive and or partition maps it is unable to find it. I even formatted as ms-dos and mac journaled from apfs to be safe. unfortunately without success. please help!

[george1421]

I have a one-off kernel that seems to work for the MACs with the T2 chip.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10j8fZ3i3Y_uICxcMgX5lpiuQ2ci9bCJG/view?usp=sharing

Download this kernel as bzImageT2 (watch your case) and save it on the FOG server in /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe directory.

Manually register that computer on the fog server. Then in the host definitoin for this apple computer in the kernel field enter bzImageT2 and then pxe boot the target computer. That should address the issue with the T2 chip and allow FOG to see the disks below the T2 chip.

Now also understand that I know pxe booting the apples are a bit troubling at times. From your post it sounds like you have it worked out, but I know that some people find it easier to boot from a USB stick into FOG and skip the entire pxe booting process. We have a solution for that too.

MOD Note: This issue is not a FOG bug but a hardware limitation so I’m moving this thread to the mac problems forum.

[awren]

This post is deleted!

[awren]

Thank you! this worked perfectly!

[awren]

One last problem we encounter, WE are able to capute and deploy an image now, however the drive seems to be encrypted so we are unable to transfer to another machine or in the event the drive is wiped. What step am I missing in the image capture to ensure the image can be used elsewhere?

[george1421]

@awren said in Fog Imaging on Macbook Pro 2019 model # : A2141 -- identifier Macbook 16,1 -- Can not find hard drive:

however the drive seems to be encrypted so we are unable to transfer to another machine

This is something that FOG can not manage. FOG doesn’t know about apple disk encryption, it only copies disk blocks from there to there and back. The windows folks have the same issue when bitlocker is enabled on windows. BUT that is also the point of disk encryption to protect the data so that it can’t be cloned and stolen. You will need to decrypt the drive before you capture it with FOG.

[awren]

@george1421 It looks like the apple T2 chips encrypt the drives at rest, but only 2 or 3 of the 5 partitions for the apfs volume. not sure if anyone knew of a way to bypass this from happening. I am able to boot the mac after transferring but looks like it loses all user information and can not login.