Impossible to install Mac OS X

Question

Impossible to install Mac OS X

Dear all,

I’m trying to prepare a 2009 MacBook Pro (my first Mac) for a friend who would take it for himself since neither AppleStore nor Brightstar wanted to recycle it.

I followed all steps here https://support.apple.com/it-it/HT201065 even if it can only support El Capitan 10.11.6.

After erasing the disk, I selected reinstall Mac OS X. It duly downloaded it (~40mins), then rebooted once, white screen with grey Apple appeared, charging line as well, “20 minutes remaining” followed then… big X logo of Mac OS X appeared with the writing, paraphrased from Italian:

”impossible to install Mac OS X. No valid package found. Contact your vendor. Exit installation to restart and try again”

I tried again a few times, with no improvement.

Any idea what could have happened and what I may do to solve this?

The Mac worked beautifully until I started following those instructions and tried to reinstall the OS to make it usable for my friend… it would be a pity if, after all these years of service, it would have to end like this.

Any way to bring it back to factory or to make macOS install work?

Thank you

MacBook Pro 15″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Aug 6, 2021 2:30 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,554 points

Aug 6, 2021 11:54 PM in response to NotationMaster

If you have the Snow Leopard install DVD install Snow Leopard.

Update it to version 10.6.8, here,

https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

Open the App Store and install any relevant updates.

You can either choose to download the InstallMacOSX.dmg again

or transfer it from the Big Sur mac.

Go through the procedure to get the Install OS X El Capitan.app

in your Applications folder.

Double-clicking the Install OS X El Capitan.app will start the installation of El Capitan.

No need to make a bootable installer.

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Answer 2

Aug 6, 2021 3:58 PM in response to NotationMaster

Build the bootable media on a working Mac, transfer the built bootable media to the problem Mac, and boot. Boot instructions are in the linked article.

For recycling options and if you’re not already familiar, possibly see Altri modi di riciclare here: Apple Trade In - Apple (IT). Odd that there’s an oldest date for recycling. That’s not mentioned by Apple.

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Answer 3

Aug 6, 2021 4:24 PM in response to MrHoffman

I'm sorry but I downloaded El Capitan from here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372 as suggested but it gives a .dmg file.

I double click it to get a .pkg file.

If I double click it it tells me this Mac cannot run it (I'm on Big Sur on the working Mac).

How do I get from the downloaded .dmg to the .app which seems to be required?

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Answer 4

Aug 6, 2021 4:34 PM in response to NotationMaster

Build a bootable installer from the DMG, as described here ➡️ How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

Blue text shown here in ASC is a clickable or tap-able link, usually to related or more information.

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Answer 5

Aug 8, 2021 7:54 AM in response to NotationMaster

The Mac DVDs were available as retail disks (black) or grey (platform-specific).

Retail black disks will install on any Mac as old or older than the DVD disk, while the upgrade grey disks will only install on the specified Mac model they were provided for, again only for same vintage Mac or older than the DVD.

There was briefly a USB installer stick available around Lion, too.

And from Lion to ~2012 means another Mac and Target Disk Mode or a Bootable Installer, and the Bootable Installers were hand-made and not documented by Apple (search the ‘net) prior to El Capitan.

About macOS Recovery on Intel-based Mac computers - Apple Support

How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support

Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery - Apple Support

About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers - Apple Support

A Mac circa 2009 is just too old to use Internet Recovery, which is usual way out of this situation on newer Macs. And IIRC some of the Macs in the earliest of the Internet Recovery range booted from a hidden partition on local storage and not solely from firmware connecting directly to Apple’s servers, which means erasing the whole HDD or SSD (or a hardware failure) can prevent those models from booting into Internet Recovery.

Here, the hypervisor is probably going to be the path, unless you have black DVDs, or grey DVDs for this model, or the right mix of ports and cables for Target Disk Mode across two Macs.

Erasing first ends badly, for these old Macs.

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Answer 6

Aug 6, 2021 4:45 PM in response to MrHoffman

This is what that article says:

Download: OS X El Capitan
This downloads as a disk image named InstallMacOSX.dmg. On a Mac that is compatible with El Capitan, open the disk image and run the installer within, named InstallMacOSX.pkg. It installs an app named Install OS X El Capitan into your Applications folder. You will create the bootable installer from this app, not from the disk image or .pkg installer.

In bold are the parts that are blocking my progress.

The `createinstallmedia` command wants an app, it doesn't accept a .dmg or a .pkg.

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Answer 7

Aug 6, 2021 5:28 PM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks

I eventually managed to create a bootable installer.

Sadly, the error is the same.

Here's what I see ... now I really do not know what to do...

Is there something preventing El Capitan from being installed at all?

I would even accept a solution that brought said Mac back to factory, I should still have the DVDs in case...

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Answer 8

Aug 6, 2021 3:42 PM in response to MrHoffman

By “transfer over” do you mean connect the usb-stick, boot pressing Option & try from there?

Issue for recycling:

1) in Italy Apple Stores are forbidden to take any machine with a battery bigger than 29x29cm… this 15” is bigger

2) Brightstar is only accepting products up to 2011…

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Answer 9

Aug 6, 2021 4:08 PM in response to MrHoffman

Lol ... it suggests me to bring it to my town's recycling centre, very secure way of bringing a Mac in ...

It also states that if I don't buy something new they do not take anything back.

Then it says that they accept only objects with batteries that measure up to 25cm in each dimension.

But we're going off-topic here. In short, it seems impossible to recycle an old Mac at Apple in Italy.

Would be happy to be proven wrong (and I've been in touch with some people from Brightstar via email, not very helpful in the end).

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Answer 10

Aug 6, 2021 5:03 PM in response to NotationMaster

Okay, that wrinkle is new (to me). That script wants the DMG, but Apple has seemingly now decided to wrap (just) the El Capitan installer in an installer.

Here’s a workaround for the Apple re-wrapping: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/389830 — basically, unpack it in a guest on a newer version of macOS.

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Answer 11

Aug 6, 2021 5:51 PM in response to NotationMaster

Okay, so to confirm, you created the bootable media on the working Mac using a hypervisor guest, transferred the bootable media to the not-working Mac, booted it, and saw that message?

If so, back up to the Utilities menu, and try formatting the internal storage on the not-working Mac to the GUID GPT partitioning with HFS+ Mac OS X Extended Journaled file system.

Or… If you have the install media on DVD and the internal DVD still works, boot and install that if it’ll let you, then use removable media to transfer over the El Capitan installer and load that and use that to upgrade.

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Answer 12

Aug 6, 2021 11:26 PM in response to MrHoffman

Just to be sure I'm not missing a fundamental step: what exactly is a "hypervisor guest"?

I created the bootable media on my administrator's account on Big Sur on the Mac I've been using as main machine since 2016.

I plugged the media, pressed power button and held down Option. It all behaved as I thought it should have, showed the "Recovery 11.6" and "Install Mac OS X". Chose this second, followed procedure, everything seemed fine, until that appeared.

I will try the first step (even if it should already be formatted thus) and then see what I can install. I for sure have Snow Leopard, possibly Leopard (which is what it came with).

I recall the only time I had to wipe it up Apple Support told me the only way was the restore to factory and upgrade from there. It's so old now and things changed so much...

Please let me know if I am missing something.

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Answer 13

Aug 7, 2021 8:20 AM in response to NotationMaster

I linked to the hypervisor guest step. Hypervisors (VMs) are how newer Macs can run older apps and older macOS versions.

(Old Macs are a pain to work with when erased. Always have been. Newer erased Macs have gotten somewhat easier, particularly with Internet Recovery in the firmware. Creating the installer before erasing is my preference. And older Macs have hardware issues, not the least of which are storage failures. That can’t happen here, obviously.)

If you have the DVDs and if the DVD drive still works, try that. I’ve seen lots of failures on DVD drives even when they were new, but some do still work.

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Answer 14

Aug 8, 2021 2:36 AM in response to Eau Rouge

This was the thing!

At some point between Snow Leopard and now Apple must have introduced the ability to erase a disk and re-install any compatible macOS version without forcefully passing from the factory version.

I do have Snow Leopard DVD but it is called "Upgrade DVD" so I used the Leopard one and it was flawless.

I was moved by how snappy this machine still is and how fancy Leopard still looks.

It also suggested update from 10.5.7 to 10.5.8 and it took ... 5 minutes including reboot! Now with Big Sur we need almost one hour for 11.x.y to 11.x.(y+1) ...

I will now see whether I will upgrade it all the way up to El Capitan.

Once I upgrade to Snow Leopard what are the next steps? Directly El Cap or something in between?

Thanks!

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Answer 15

Eau Rouge

Level 8

42,554 points

Aug 8, 2021 2:54 AM in response to NotationMaster

Upgrade to Snow Leopard, the DVD will install either version 10.6.3 or 10.6.6 it will be printed somewhere

on the disk or the cover. Once installed update it to version 10.6.8 using the download link I provided earlier.

Having installed that open the App Store Updates page and see if there are other downloads, install them.

Now you are ready to install Mac OS X El Capitan, no need for any intermediary installs.

Follow the instructions I posted above.

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Impossible to install Mac OS X

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