rm /var/db/.applesetupdone no such file or directory

I’ve got a 2020 MacBook Air and it crashed when upgrading from Catalina to Big Sur.

I can’t boot in single-user mode

Cant boot from a USB drive

Can’t even change the settings to allow me to boot from external drive

and when I go to the terminal and try to run “rm /var/db/.applesetupdone” it tells me NO SUCH FILE OR DIRECTORY

MacBook Air (2020 or later)

Posted on Oct 11, 2021 4:19 PM

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4 replies

Oct 12, 2021 9:16 PM in response to ShouldersChestPantsShoes

Hi ShouldersChestPantsShoes,

As mentioned by a brody, T2-equipped Macs deny booting from external media by default.

Have you tried reinstalling macOS without erasing your data? To do so, hold down Option-Command-R at startup to summon the latest version of Recovery from the Internet. Once you're in macOS Recovery, select Reinstall macOS (or Install macOS) and follow the onscreen instructions.

a brody

Level 10

85,308 points

Oct 11, 2021 7:11 PM in response to ShouldersChestPantsShoes

You have enabled the T-2 Security chip. That's preventing you from running as an external startup disk:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208198

Oct 12, 2021 9:26 PM in response to a brody

The T2 Security Chip (which always runs) denies external boot by default. The user must consciously choose to permit external boot in advance in Startup Security Utility before they can boot from external drives.

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,138 points

Oct 11, 2021 8:31 PM in response to ShouldersChestPantsShoes

I wrote this for Catalina, but I imagine it is all still the same with Big Sur, but I never tested it

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-250002676

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rm /var/db/.applesetupdone no such file or directory