I discover today that Catalina is not the operating system running on my Mac, but something called MacOS Liberty G18G103 is, instead. Anyone have any clues to who is behind this operating system?
MacBook Pro 15”, macOS 10.15
Never heard of it. I suggest you backup,and reinstall macOS.
Reinstall El Capitan or Later Without Erasing Drive
Please be sure you back up, if possible.
If this doesn't bring about a change, then:
Install El Capitan or Later from Scratch
If possible, back up your files.
Never heard of it. I suggest you backup,and reinstall macOS.
Reinstall El Capitan or Later Without Erasing Drive
Please be sure you back up, if possible.
If this doesn't bring about a change, then:
Install El Capitan or Later from Scratch
If possible, back up your files.
Liberty was an Apple internal code name for Mojave. In other words, you have alpha software on your Mac. Needless to say, it shouldn't even be there.
Follow Kappy's instructions to erase the drive and install a correct, general release version of macOS.
The G18G103 part of the name is very likely just a build number. Such as, the build number for 10.15.2 is 19C57.
Sounds like someone was using that Mac for a lot of OS testing. I would do as Kappy suggested under the "from Scratch" heading. That will clear all of the current volumes on the drive and reinstall a new, clean version of the OS.
Be aware you will lose any personal data when you do this. Make sure to backup emails, word documents, or other data before erasing the drive.
@Kurt Lang--I have done the "from scratch" more than once but the darn thing won't let me get a clean boot and the local Apple store guys said they "don't have a clean boot disk" in the store, which I hoped they would have to avoid downloading from an internet connection/router that could be polluted. That response from the store gurus made absolutely no sense--a local store has no clean Catalina boot disk. This Mac was purchased by me this summer and no one else has ever had any access to it, except Apple Support. It updated this week, supposedly, to Catalina 15.2--representing itself as having done that, which is NOT the truth. Malwarebytes does not boot from the get-go, so it does not even see this problem. Do I have a Zero Day issue? It's very sophisticated programing. Not your run of the mill.
I am looking for an Apple Forensic Expert to track down the origins.
@ Kappy, Thanks for the suggestion. I have uninstalled, reinstalled and reinstalled again. I have visited with Apple Support several times before today when I found the name of this "operating system" and at that time of the call several weeks ago the representative became heavy-handed and then a bit irrational. It seems to me that there is a possibility this program might have "g" related propensities; however, use of such a program on a former journalist and a current attorney would be harrowing, unless it is something placed by a rogue person. What do you think? Should I contact law enforcement?
To All:
Shortly after I post and get a few replies, my Mac starts revving up into extremely high CPU usage from a ROOT user (not me although I know how to sign on as ROOT, which is not presently enabled). I find in logs various references to draining items, commands and responses to authorize system changes (example: "do it") although I quickly disconnected from wireless router. The system goes crazy even while off line for two hours! Never seen anything like it before. So even though I can't seem to uninstall the operating system, perhaps an ultimate Kill and Leave No Fingerprints command was sent because of interest seen in our Community postings. Thanks for the high visibility and assistance from my Apple friends.
@Kurt Lang-How exactly does one do that when you cannot get rid of the now 25 plus "volumes" of disks this horror of a program has created and everything links to an "immutable kernel" in the boot? The signing server is at: http://gs.apple.com:80, which is a typical port reference. I have also gone to my local Apple Store and guys there are stumped, as well. By the way, at some point the embedded OS firmware refers to my boot drive as having "msdos" as its format--I have never formatted this Mac with Windows PC msdos to boot from. One would use the Boot Camp utility for that, correct? I have not used Boot Camp. Why would a Mac boot from a msdos-based program? I know I am asking more questions, but inquiring minds want to know and Apple does not want to deal with the problem. Thanks.
You're digging way too deep. Boot into Recovery Mode as Kappy said (restart and hold down the Command+R keys).
Once at the work screen, go to the top menu bar and launch Disk Utility. Choose the main internal drive (furthest left indented name) and choose to erase it. That's it. Anything on the drive will be gone. There's nothing that can stop you from doing that.
When the erase is done, close Disk Utility and click on the option to install the OS. You'll need a wired or wireless Internet connection.
Anyone dealt with MacOS Liberty G18103?
