I am desperately trying to reinstall El Capitan on an old IMAC and as a last resort trying a factory reset via bootable USB.
When looking at instructions I need to use specific coding.
However on my terminal app the code -bash.3.2#? already features.
Does anyone know what that relates too? Should it be there?
However on my terminal app the code -bash.3.2#? already features.
That ”bash.3.2#” is not really a code, that’s the default prompt string shown for the bash command shell; for the command line.
Here, that means the command line is waiting for command input.
You could enter the command “id”, or the command “whoami”, (don’t enter the quotes) press return, and see a few details about your login identity.
And as indicated above, the # means you are the root user, and with few restrictions on what you can do or can damage.
El Capitan is difficult to get to from a wiped system, and you will need to follow the installation instructions linked in HWTech’s reply above to get there.
However on my terminal app the code -bash.3.2#? already features.
That ”bash.3.2#” is not really a code, that’s the default prompt string shown for the bash command shell; for the command line.
Here, that means the command line is waiting for command input.
You could enter the command “id”, or the command “whoami”, (don’t enter the quotes) press return, and see a few details about your login identity.
And as indicated above, the # means you are the root user, and with few restrictions on what you can do or can damage.
El Capitan is difficult to get to from a wiped system, and you will need to follow the installation instructions linked in HWTech’s reply above to get there.
The "#" indicates you are logged into the Terminal as a root user. That is not really safe as you can do a lot of damage to macOS and your data issuing commands as root. You should never need to enable or default to a root user on the command line since using "sudo " will grant you temporary "root" privileges and will prompt you for a password so it makes you stop to think about what you are doing. Otherwise there are no safety nets when using a command line.
Here is an Apple article with the instructions for creating a bootable macOS USB installer. Use the command listed for creating the USB installer, but remove the "sudo " at the beginning of the command since you are already a root user with the "#" prompt.
How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
Make sure to carefully read the instructions in the article I provided as there are several important steps required to extract the macOS 10.11 El Capitan installer from the downloaded .dmg archive to the Applications folder.
Terminal code -bash.3.2#?
