NetInstall - Grey screen after logging in for user created during install

Question

I am creating a NetInstall of 10.8 for mass deployment in my workplace. I am currently having difficulty with a user account that was created by a script that runs in place of the Setup Assistant.
I am trying to skip the Setup Assistant, and as such, the script touches the /var/db/.AppleSetupDone file (which doesn't exist at this point).
This works, with the installation progressing straight on to the login screen where the user 'administrator' has been created, and is available for login.
However, when the user logs in, they are presented with a grey screen & the mouse cursor. No dock, desktop, no finder menu bar.
I am at a loss as to what is going wrong as this had worked perfectly fine in the developer preview.
The script is as below: (certain sections have been removed for security purposes)
Any pointers would be much appreciated.
#!/bin/sh
############# SET VARIABLES ###################
. /etc/rc.common
#set primary network interface
interface=`netstat -r -f inet | awk '/default/{print $6}' | head -1`
#set server address for packages
pkgserver='macimaging.blah.qld.edu.au'
#Get default route's interface's ip address
ip=`ifconfig $interface | grep "inet 10." | sed -e 's/^.*inet 10/10/' -e 's/ netmask.*$//'`
#get version number of Mac OS X
macversion=`sw_vers | awk '/^ProductVersion/{split($2, MINOR, "."); print MINOR[2]}'`
############# CHECK ADMIN PASSWORD ###################
shadow=blah
i=0
# initialise variable
passwd=""
# if machine is set to automatically image
if [ `nvram -p | grep -c reimage-key` -eq 1 ]; then
  # remove verbose boot arguments from nvram
  nvram -d boot-args
  # collect admin password
  passwd=`nvram reimage-key | awk '{print $2}' | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -pass "pass:Aut0mat1cR31mag3" -a -d`
  # check it was successfully decrypted
  if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
  osascript -e beep
  echo "Automatic imaging key failed. Press enter to continue."
  read
  passwd=""
  fi
  # remove key from nvram
  nvram -d reimage-key
fi
# if the admin password wasn't successfully collected
if [ "$passwd" = "" ]; then
  #clear the screen
  clear
  say -v Victoria "Please enter the Administrator's password"
  while [ $i = 0 ]
  do
    echo "Please enter Administrator's password: (Note: Input is hidden)"
    #read password from stin but don't show
    stty_orig=`stty -g`
    stty -echo
    read passwd
    stty $stty_orig
    hash=`echo $passwd | shasum -a 512 | awk '{print $1}'`
    if [ $shadow = $hash ]; then
        #password is correct; continue with setup
        i=1
    else
        echo "Incorrect. Please try again"
    fi
  done
fi
#clear the screen
clear
echo "Log:"
############# SET EFI PASSWORD ###################
echo "Setting EFI password"
#to create a new EFI password, initially set it on a test machine with the GUI utility, then extract its value with: `nvram -p | awk '/security-password/{print $2}'`. Put that value in this command (also replacing our admin password) to generate hash for below: `echo "pass_from_nvram" | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -pass "pass:ourcurrentadminpassword" -a`
nvshadow=`echo "blah" | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -pass "pass:$passwd" -a -d`
nvram security-mode=command
nvram security-password=$nvshadow
#reset running variable for security
nvshadow=""
############# GENERATE RC SHADOW FILE ###################
#if you don't know how the following lines work, get a pillow ready for screaming into
#the admin key (which is decrypted below) is used to decrypt publicly distributed packages to change the admin account's password (without having the password in the package in clear text)
decypted_admin_private_key=`echo "blah" | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -pass "pass:$passwd" -a -d`
admin_private_key_hash=`echo "$decypted_admin_private_key" | shasum -a 512 | awk '{print $1}'`
echo "$admin_private_key_hash $decypted_admin_private_key" >> /var/root/RC_admin_private_key
chmod 600 /var/root/RC_admin_private_key
#this keeps a record of the administrator password set on imaging
RC_admin_pass_hash=`echo "$passwd" | shasum -a 512 | awk '{print $1}'`
RC_admin_pass_encrypted=`echo "$passwd" | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -pass "pass:$decypted_admin_private_key" -a`
echo "$RC_admin_pass_hash $RC_admin_pass_encrypted" >> /var/root/RC_admin_shadow
#a few security measures
chmod 600 /var/root/RC_admin_shadow
RC_admin_pass_encrypted=""
decypted_admin_private_key=""
############# SETUP PARTITIONS ###################
echo "Updating file system table to mount data partition on boot for user accounts"
#Find if Home or Data partition exists (N.B. If Bootcamp is used the following awk commands need to be modified to only look for [Hh]ome and not [Dd]ata)
partname=`diskutil list | awk '/([Hh]ome)|([Dd]ata)/{print $3}' | head -1`
partdev=`diskutil list | awk '/([Hh]ome)|([Dd]ata)/{print $6}' | head -1`
#If a Data partition exists
if [ "$partdev" ]; then
     #Mount it on boot to /Users
     echo "LABEL=$partname      /Users   hfs     rw" > /etc/fstab
     #mount Data drive to /Users
     diskutil umount /dev/$partdev
     mount -t hfs /dev/$partdev /Users
fi
############# CREATE ADMIN ACCOUNT ###################
echo "Creating Administrator account"
#create administrator account
dscl . create /Users/administrator
dscl . create /Users/administrator RealName "Administrator"
dscl . create /Users/administrator PrimaryGroupID 20
dscl . create /Users/administrator UniqueID 501
dscl . create /Users/administrator NFSHomeDirectory /Users/administrator
dscl . create /Users/administrator UserShell /bin/bash
dscl . passwd /Users/administrator $passwd
dscl . append /Groups/admin GroupMembership administrator
dscl . append /Groups/_lpadmin GroupMembership administrator
dscl . append /Groups/admin GroupMembership administrator
dscl . create /Users/administrator picture "/Library/User Pictures/Sports/8ball.tif"
dscl . delete /Users/administrator jpegphoto
#reset running variable for security
passwd=""
############# SET blah NETWORK LOCATION ###################
echo "Setting up blah network location"
networksetup -createlocation blah populate
networksetup -switchtolocation blah
echo ""
############# SET HOSTNAME ###################
sleep 10
dhcphostname=`host $ip | sed -e 's/^.* domain name pointer //' -e 's/\..*blah.*$//' -e 's/-wstudent$//' -e 's/-wstaff$//'`
#while [ $? -ne 0 ]
#do
# sleep 5
# dhcphostname=`host $ip | sed -e 's/^.* domain name pointer //' -e 's/\..*blah.*$//' -e 's/-wstudent$//' -e 's/-wstaff$//'`
#done
echo "Setting host name"
#set host name from dhcp
scutil --set HostName "$dhcphostname"
scutil --set LocalHostName "$dhcphostname"
systemsetup -setcomputername "$dhcphostname"
############# SET TIME ###################
echo "Setting time zone"
#set time zone
systemsetup -settimezone Australia/Brisbane
#set system's locale
echo "Setting system's locale"
defaults write "Apple Global Domain" AppleLocale "en_AU"
echo "Syncing with time server"
#sync time with local time server
ntpdate ntp.blah.qld.edu.au
############# INSTALL FTP CLIENT ###################
echo "Downloading and installing ftp client"
curl -O ftp://$pkgserver/install/ncftp.tar.gz
tar -xzf ncftp.tar.gz -C /usr/bin/
rm ncftp.tar.gz
############# INSTALL POLICY MANAGER AND UPDATE POLICY ###################
echo "Downloading and installing Policy Manager"
#download and install policy manager
echo 'get -R "pool/Policy Manager.pkg"' | ncftp $pkgserver; installer -verbose -target / -pkg "Policy Manager.pkg"
rm -R "Policy Manager.pkg"
echo "Downloading and installing Update Policy"
#download and install update policy
echo 'get -R "pool/Update Policy.pkg"' | ncftp $pkgserver; installer -verbose -target / -pkg "Update Policy.pkg"
rm -R "Update Policy.pkg"
############# INSTALL MAC UPDATE COMBO ###################
echo "Downloading and installing most recent Mac update combo package"
#download and install the most recent combo update
echo "get -R pool/MacOSXUpdCombo10.$macversion.Latest.pkg" | ncftp $pkgserver
chmod -R u+x MacOSXUpdCombo10.$macversion.Latest.pkg
installer -verbose -target / -pkg MacOSXUpdCombo10.$macversion.Latest.pkg
rm -R MacOSXUpdCombo10.$macversion.Latest.pkg
############# INSTALL ADDITIONAL PACKAGES ###################
echo "Downloading and installing additional post install packages"
mkdir postinstall
cd postinstall
echo "get -R postinstall/common/*" | ncftp $pkgserver
echo "get -R postinstall/10.$macversion/*" | ncftp $pkgserver
chmod -R u+x *
# save and change IFS
OLDIFS=$IFS
IFS=$'\n'
# read all file names into an array
fileArray=($(ls))
# restore it
IFS=$OLDIFS
# get length of the array
tLen=${#fileArray[@]}
#install each package
for (( i=0; i<${tLen}; i++ )); do
    installer -verbose -target / -pkg "${fileArray[$i]}"
done
cd ..
rm -R postinstall
############# FINISH SETUP ASSISTANT ###################
#load Policy Manager LaunchDaemon to run on boot
launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/au.edu.qld.blah.policymanager.plist
#give time for policy to load
sleep 2
#set flag so OS X knows not to run Setup Assistant on next boot
echo "<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>\n<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">\n<plist version="1.0">\n<dict>\n <key>Address</key>\n <dict>\n <key>CountryName</key>\n <string>Australia</string>\n </dict>\n</dict>\n</plist>" > /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
#set flag so blah Updater knows this machine's just been imaged
echo "setup done" > /var/root/blahSetupDone
#remove self
rm /var/root/setup.sh
echo "\nI will now reboot; please wait"
say -v Victoria "I will now reboot; please wait"
reboot

Answer 1

mattn wrote:
(1) You cannot run the installer program while booted into your primary partition; you must boot into the DVD. Restart the computer while holding down the C key until the DVD boots.
This isn't true. The retail Snow Leopard DVD is designed to start the install procedure while started up normally. When you do this, after performing some checks on the target partition it writes some pre-install files to it before restarting automatically from the DVD. This speeds up the install procedure.
(2) You cannot install Snow Leopard on this computer from a DVD that came with another computer; you must use, as it were, a free-standing commercial Snow Leopard installer DVD.
The exception is, as Xian Rinpoche correctly surmised, a Mac model released after the currently available retail Snow Leopard DVD became available. The newest Macs require a later version of the OS than what is included on the retail DVD, which is why it won't work with the new i5 & i7 models. (See Don't install a version of Mac OS X earlier than that which came with your Mac for more about this.)
As a general rule, use either the installer that came with the Mac on its grey system discs or a retail disc released after that Mac model was released. You can also refer to this handy chart of the OS version that ships with each Mac model.