2009 MacBook: macOS Recovery (internet) will not download Lion

Thanks for all your suggestions. In the end, using El Capitan from a USB bootable drive and resetting the computer clock using terminal proved to be the way forward.

However, once I went to set up a user it was apparent that the machine is still being associated with a prior owner's account. They left their phone number in the message screen and I have a call into them.

There is no SN on the outside and without setting up an account I can't see "about this mac" to look up the SN/Model.

Suggestions?

quoting apple here...

"macOS Recovery exceptions

The version of macOS offered by macOS Recovery might differ in certain circumstances:

• • • If macOS Sierra 10.12.4 or later has never been installed on this Mac, Option-Command-R installs the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. And Shift-Option-Command-R isn't available.
    • If you erased your entire disk instead of just the startup volume on that disk, macOS Recovery might offer only the macOS that came with your Mac, or the closest version still available. You can upgrade to a later version afterward.
    • If your Mac has the Apple T2 Security Chip and you never installed a macOS update, Option-Command-R installs the latest macOS that was installed on your Mac.
    • If you just had your Mac logic board replaced during a repair, macOS Recovery might offer only the latest macOS that is compatible with your Mac.

If you can't get macOS Recovery to offer the installer you want, you might be able to use one of the other ways to install macOS.

Other ways to install macOS

• • • You can also install macOS from the App Store or Software Update preferences. If you can't install macOS Catalina, you might be able to install an earlier macOS, such as macOS Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, El Capitan, or Yosemite.
    • Or create a bootable installer disk, then use that disk to install macOS on your Mac or another Mac.

Published Date: January 15, 2020

"

So this is current as of 2020, but not working. Neither using the create a bootable installer disk works nor does downloading Lion which is the OS that originally came with this computer.

Rather than purchase Lion... I have a disk of Snow Leopard. Can I use that on this mac? (tried once... ran into a hardware restart screen)

As for the reseller/original owner... the whole thing is shady and they took my friend for a ride... I'm trying to salvage his $200 investment. Reseller isn't returning calls.

No optical media came with this machine.

If the hard drive is reformatted... how could the machine still be associated with that former Apple Account? There is no App Store on this machine.

Based on the download issues I am seeing... my guess is Apple pulled the plug on Lion downloads?

I'm trying very circuitous method of putting Yosemite on a bootable installer drive via an older macmini i have. All my other macs are on Catalina and I can't get High Sierra (the OS i really want to put on this 2009 machine) to download as an installer in /Applications because it disappears once it downloads (because Catalina is apparently smarter than me).

Update:

I made an installer of Yosemite using command line instructions from Apple's own support website.

'09 Macbook started up using the bootable USB installer.

I start the installation process... get the error that "this copy of the Install OS X Yosemite application can't be verified... "

installer shuts down!

This is ridiculous.

Unfortunately, booting into recovery mode doesn't result in "About this Mac" being located in the Apple Menu.

The only things in the Apple Menu are 1. Startup Disk... 2. Restart and 3. Shutdown.

I can of course get to Terminal. Is there a command line way to reveal the SN?

on this early '09 Macbook... the first command (ioreg) returns a usage list ("where options are: -1 archive output, etc....) and not the expected data.

second command returns a large number of file not found dir paths.

im not very talented with linux so not sure what to try next.

update... had a play with the ioreg but all I can get is the same batch of system data to come up each time. At the top it says it's a MacBook7,1 but no serial number... just a lot of "id 0x1000000431" type of data.

• Root <class IORegistryEntry, id 0x1000001000, retain 12
  • MacBook7,1 <class IOPlatformExpertDevice, id 0x100000110, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (52521 ms, retain 26

Those are the top two lines.

I've tried all the modifiers listed (-a, -b..) -1 just returns the same list as -c.

The grep... IOPlatform... returns the same list as -c.

BINGO! That worked... and a good thing too because the SN on the case itself wasn't correct, I needed this one.

Apparently it's now unlocked so I've wiped the drive again and am set to reinstall El Cap. Fingers crossed I will not have to reset the data again, it installs and I can create a user with out the prior owner prompt.

It's a very good thing the prior owner had their contact information in the text that appears and that they were helpful.

Thanks for all your help Littles.