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tavbut Author

Level 1

5 points

How to: Create bootable USB from a .dmg file, not a .app file.

I am running osx Catalina. All the tutorials I have found guide me step by step to use the "createinstallmedia" from terminal. The steps are basically these:

-Prepare your usb drive.

-Download the installer from apple.

-Use de sudo command in terminal (from apple).

The problem is (I am not a programer and understand very little about it) I get a command not found when I type this in terminal:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

I changed the usb volume name to Untitled, nothing happened, so, the only thing I can think of is that this command is searching for an .app instead of a .dmg file. Can anybody help?

Posted on Jan 25, 2020 4:17 AM

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Level 9

60,302 points

Posted on Jan 25, 2020 8:58 PM

When you download the El Capitan .dmg file you need to double-click it to mount it. Once the .dmg file is mounted you will find the "InstallMacOSX.pkg" file which you must double-click so it will launch an "installer" which basically just extracts the actually installer .app bundle to the Applications folder. Once you do this, then your command should work.

Look at the "OS X El Capitan" section under the "Download macOS" section:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

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How to: Create bootable USB from a .dmg file, not a .app file.

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