Failed to install MacOS on MacBook Pro.

My MacBook Pro used by my son. I used this MacBook Pro as 2nd system administrator.

But I want to use this MacBook Pro as 1st system administrator, So I tried to install OS X on my MacBook Pro by "Erase and install OS X" but I failed to install OS X with the following.

"No packages were eligible for install, Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again."

I tried FirstAd by Disk Utility, Nothing problem on disk (INTEL SSD**** Media) and disk images (OS X base system, OS X Install ESD) but when I tried FirstAid on my disk volume name (169.18 SATA Internal Physical Volume OS X Extened), displayed "FirstAid process has failed. If possible back up the data on this volume, Click Done to continue." When I clicked Show Details, displayed "Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required. Unable to unmount volume for repair. Operation failed..."

System Version is OS X 10.11.6(15G31).

I tried to press the power button and hold after restart or shutdown.But the system displayed the upper message again after the system automatically tried to install again. After restart or pressed the power button, the system automatically tried to install again, the I could not use this MacBook Pro again.

After exit OS X installer, the system displayed Startup Disk window but not listed the startup disk. But when I checked the disk utility, displayed the disk volume name.

Please let me know how to figure out this problem as soon as possible.

Thanks

Posted on Mar 4, 2021 6:45 AM

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Posted on Mar 4, 2021 9:17 PM

What is the exact model of your laptop? You can get this information by clicking the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac" or by entering your serial number here or here.


See if you can boot into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R (Apple's documentation is unclear on how this works with older pre-macOS 10.12.6 systems). If you can do this then try erasing the whole physical SSD as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). The physical SSD should be identified as "Intel ...." on the left pane of Disk Utility. If you still get the "No packages are eligible for install" error message then temporarily change the system date to 2016 or 2017 since you are booting to an outdated version of the macOS 10.11 installer whose certificates have expired in late 2017. You will need to change the date by using the Terminal app located on the Utilities menu. Use the following command making sure to press the "Return" key at the end of the line to execute the command:

date  -u  0102123417


If you have access to another Mac that is compatible with macOS 10.11 El Capitan, then you can try creating a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer:

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


If you provide us with the exact model of this laptop, then we can tell you if it can run a later version of macOS (especially useful if you have access to another Mac). You can get the exact model by entering the serial number here or here. If those options don't work to identify the Mac, then provide us with the series code which begins with the letter "A" and has four digits after it although this code is less useful.

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13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 4, 2021 9:17 PM in response to KevinNk

What is the exact model of your laptop? You can get this information by clicking the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac" or by entering your serial number here or here.


See if you can boot into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R (Apple's documentation is unclear on how this works with older pre-macOS 10.12.6 systems). If you can do this then try erasing the whole physical SSD as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled). The physical SSD should be identified as "Intel ...." on the left pane of Disk Utility. If you still get the "No packages are eligible for install" error message then temporarily change the system date to 2016 or 2017 since you are booting to an outdated version of the macOS 10.11 installer whose certificates have expired in late 2017. You will need to change the date by using the Terminal app located on the Utilities menu. Use the following command making sure to press the "Return" key at the end of the line to execute the command:

date  -u  0102123417


If you have access to another Mac that is compatible with macOS 10.11 El Capitan, then you can try creating a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer:

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


If you provide us with the exact model of this laptop, then we can tell you if it can run a later version of macOS (especially useful if you have access to another Mac). You can get the exact model by entering the serial number here or here. If those options don't work to identify the Mac, then provide us with the series code which begins with the letter "A" and has four digits after it although this code is less useful.

Mar 6, 2021 6:36 PM in response to KevinNk

Thanks for confirming the details. When booting from the macOS 10.11 USB installer make sure to perform another clean install by first erasing the whole physical drive using Disk Utility before selecting the "Install macOS" option. Make sure to select the physical drive on the left pane of Disk Utility and erase the physical drive as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled).

Mar 7, 2021 12:05 PM in response to KevinNk

KevinNk wrote:

I create the macOS 10.11 USB installer from Apple today again. After boot from macOS 10.11 USB installer, erased the install macOS disk by Disk Utility and select "ReInstall macOS".

You need to erase the physical drive and not a volume on the physical drive. "Install macOS" is a volume or possibly a virtual volume and is not the correct item to erase. The physical drive should be the top most item on the left pane of Disk Utility which usually appears as the make & model of the drive. Here is an article with an example showing the physical drive "Apple SSD AP05...." being erased:

https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/16/how-to-wipe-a-mac/


Erasing just the volume on a physical drive such as "Install macOS" or "Macintosh HD" may not be enough to wipe the drive. I think you mentioned you have an Intel SSD installed so you want to click on the "Intel SSD....." item to erase.


You can also try using the retail version of OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD you have (or had) to install OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard so the laptop can boot into macOS. Make sure to install all the updates for OSX 10.6, then download the macOS 10.11 installer and run the macOS 10.11 installer from within Snow Leopard. To erase the physical drive using OSX 10.6 you need to actually partition and format the physical drive by using the instructions in this article:

https://www.owcdigital.com/assets/support/support-formatting-and-migration/Mac_Formatting_6-10.pdf


If the Apple Store is open in your region you can see if they can assist you with reinstalling macOS.

Mar 6, 2021 12:07 PM in response to KevinNk

KevinNk wrote:

Also I made a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer. After boot by USB Installer, I changed the date on terminal windows and reboot by USB installer but same trouble occurred.

If you downloaded the macOS 10.11 installer directly from Apple this week and did not use an older copy or from another source, then the date of the computer must be set to the current date. I cannot tell if you meant you set the date back to the current date or if you set the date to 2017 again.


Were you able to boot the macOS 10.11 USB installer?


Did you get the same error message or a different error?


The only reason a macOS USB installer should fail is if the USB stick used is bad. Macs can be very picky about the USB sticks used for booting plus the quality of USB sticks is extremely poor so you should try using another USB stick especially a different brand (SanDisk USB sticks seems to be a bit more reliable).

Mar 14, 2021 8:09 PM in response to KevinNk

There isn't enough information in the latest screenshots. We really need the output of:

diskutil  list  


My guess is you are running "fsck" on the macOS installer since the main physical internal boot drive is usually "disk0".


Assuming the internal drive is good you will need to erase the whole physical drive instead of just the volume such as "Macintosh HD" (this is the default macOS volume unless the name has been changed by a user). The boot drive you were using for the latest screenshots appears to be at least macOS 10.12+ since it has "mount_apfs". Look back at my earlier post which explains how to select the physical drive to erase.

Mar 7, 2021 5:18 PM in response to KevinNk

You can only erase the internal boot drive by booting to external media such as the macOS 10.11 USB stick.


There have a been a few times where Disk Utility produces an error when attempting to erase a drive. Whenever this happens I immediately try to erase the drive a second time which for some reason seems to work most times. Assuming you are booted from an external drive and you cannot erase the drive after two attempts, then perhaps it indicates some sort of hardware issue possibly with the Intel SSD. Without being able to see the laptop and exactly what is happening it is so hard to figure out. A lot of troubleshooting requires noticing the little things, but this just takes experience (and luck) to notice.


If an Apple Store is open in your region, then that is probably best to have them to assist you in erasing & reinstalling macOS.

Mar 6, 2021 8:19 AM in response to HWTech

Hi

My MacBook Pro's serial number is "W89271SP66E".

I changed to "date -u 0102123417" on terminal window by your advise. After reboot, same trouble message occurred as "No packages were eligible for install, Contact the software manufacturer for assistance. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.".

Also I made a bootable macOS 10.11 USB installer. After boot by USB Installer, I changed the date on terminal windows and reboot by USB installer but same trouble occurred.

After did FirstAid on my OS disk and changed to date on terminal window, tied to install several times and also tried to install several times by USB Installer but same trouble occurred. Please let me know how to fix this problem. Thanks

Mar 6, 2021 12:50 PM in response to HWTech

I create the macOS 10.11 USB installer from Apple this week. I checked the date is the current date. After boot the USB macOS 10.11. Then select the MacBook Pro's disk and It seems succeeded to install it. But after restart automatically, displayed OS Installer again and automatically installing on MacBook disk again and displayed "OS X could not be installed on your computer. No packages were eligible for install. Contact the software manufacture for assistance. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again."

Please let me know how to fix this problem as soon as possible. Thanks

Mar 7, 2021 8:53 AM in response to HWTech

I create the macOS 10.11 USB installer from Apple today again. After boot from macOS 10.11 USB installer, erased the install macOS disk by Disk Utility and select "ReInstall macOS". After installed macOS and automatically reboot. But displayed OS X Installer again, agreed the agreement again and select the install the disk of macOS again. When I select the install OS X disk, displayed "customized", "back" and "continue" buttons. When I clicked "Customized" button for check, displayed the list of "Essential System Software 9.18KB" and "OSinstallScripts Zero KB" with checked the buttons by default. I select "Accept" button and select "continue" button. displayed "Installing on macOS disk. But displayed the following message again "OS X could not be installed on your computer. No packages were eligible for install. Contact the software manufacture for assistance. Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again." "with Restart" button.

I think my MacBook Pro is nothing problem. This macOS 10.11 installer has something problems. Please let me know how to fix this problem as soon as possible. Thanks

Mar 7, 2021 10:09 AM in response to KevinNk

When boot from macOS 10.11 USB installer that created the macOS 10.11 USB installer from Apple, the system displayed "Recovery 10.11.6" on macOS 10.11 USB installer. After boot the macOS 10.11 USB installer, displayed "Restore From Time Machine Back up", "Reinstall OS X", "Get Help Online", "Disk Utility" buttons. This macOS 10.11 installer has something problems. Please let me know how to fix this problem as soon as possible. Thanks

Mar 7, 2021 1:49 PM in response to HWTech

I tried to erase the install disk by Disk Utility like your instruction but failed to erase the install disk with the following message "Unmounting desk. Couldn't unmount disk. Operation failed...". When I search Q&A in support of Apple, so many reported like these error message. I tried to search how to fix this problem but I couldn't find this answer. Please let me know how to fix this problem as soon as possible. Thanks

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Failed to install MacOS on MacBook Pro.

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